Telling family stories: Collaborative storytelling, taking precedence and giving precedence in family group interviews with Americans in Singapore

摘要

This article is intended to encourage more migration researchers to make use of family group interviews by starting a conversation about their epistemological and methodological implications. To that end, I draw on vignettes from several family group interviews with American citizens living in Singapore, drawing out one significant aspect of working with family group interviews: the role of family dynamics in determining how stories are told in an interview setting. I develop a provisional typology of modes of family storytelling that includes collaborative storytelling, taking precedence and giving precedence, and argue that it is important to pay close attention to the possible range of family dynamics when planning, conducting and interpreting family group interviews.