“So for me, why it was important to publish a book where women coffee farmers were the protagonists is because we haven't even heard their stories. We don't even know who they are. We don't even know what they want. We don't even know how they feel. So how can we as a coffee industry design women coffee projects and put all this pressure on women coffee farmers if we don't even know who they are?”
This is so true! One of my biggest frustrations is when well-meaning people attempt to solve problems they don’t understand, because they THINK they understand but haven’t bothered to ask the people most involved.
What a great discussion about interviewing - I would actually call it a kind of ‘ethnographic interviewing’ with a focus on life history --
‘...the first question was like, “We're not here about to talk about coffee. We're not here about to talk about how you grow coffee or if you like it—we're here to talk about your childhood.” I feel that is really what unlocked trust...’
And especially on the process/work of interviewing, not as a structured series of questions but as a (guided) conversation. As someone who has done a lot of this work, I thought this was one of the very best (revealing, informative) descriptions of this work.
So, a great interview, Ashley, with Lucia about interviewing!
“So for me, why it was important to publish a book where women coffee farmers were the protagonists is because we haven't even heard their stories. We don't even know who they are. We don't even know what they want. We don't even know how they feel. So how can we as a coffee industry design women coffee projects and put all this pressure on women coffee farmers if we don't even know who they are?”
This is so true! One of my biggest frustrations is when well-meaning people attempt to solve problems they don’t understand, because they THINK they understand but haven’t bothered to ask the people most involved.
What a great discussion about interviewing - I would actually call it a kind of ‘ethnographic interviewing’ with a focus on life history --
‘...the first question was like, “We're not here about to talk about coffee. We're not here about to talk about how you grow coffee or if you like it—we're here to talk about your childhood.” I feel that is really what unlocked trust...’
And especially on the process/work of interviewing, not as a structured series of questions but as a (guided) conversation. As someone who has done a lot of this work, I thought this was one of the very best (revealing, informative) descriptions of this work.
So, a great interview, Ashley, with Lucia about interviewing!