Page - 221 - in Über Bücher reden - Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften

© 2021 V&R unipress, Brill Deutschland GmbH ISBN Print: 9783847113232 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737013239 askedandhowtoworkinpairs.Butthelogisticsoforganizingfocusgroupswere challenging.Asmanysocialscientistshavenoted,researcher-drivenrecruitment canbedifficult,andyouneedmoneytopayforasuitableroom,forincentivesor athankyougift,andforthoseever-importantupscalesnacks.Weoftenstruggled to fill the groupswith a demographically diverse group of adult readers. Even thoughwe employed a locally-based research assistant in each of our ten field siteswhohadsocialandprofessionalnetworksofcontacts that theycoulduseto snowballsample,andwepaidforadvertsinlocalnewspapers,andputupposters inpublic spaces like libraries andcommunity centres, itwasa struggle to reach our targetof sixparticipantspergroup. Aswediscussinourmonograph,ReadingBeyondtheBook, thereadersinour groupswere quite homogeneous, althoughwemademany attempts to recruit frommarginalized communities, including hiring research assistants who be- longedtosuchgroups,andadvertising inavarietyof languages.Of theover200 readerswemetacross62 focusgroups,nearlyhalf (40percent)of those readers who reported their ages were between the ages of 40 and 59, and most (48 percent)werewelleducatedtoat least firstuniversitydegree level.Theresultsof ourefforts and failures at recruitment illustrate that reading, and talkingabout reading,remainsaprivilegedleisureactivitydeterminedbyhowmuchfreetimea personhas,hisorher income, andhisorher levelof education.Access to these assetsisskewedintheUK,CanadaandtheUSAbysocialinequalities,thelegacies of colonialism, andongoing racism.10 We tried to offset this challenge in several ways.We adjusted our screening process tomake recruitmentmore flexible as the project progressed. If three people turned up, we accepted the opportunity this presented for amore sus- taineddiscussionof their reading livesor their responses to the readingevents. We also supplemented the focus groupswith recorded discussionswith larger groups of school children, teen book clubs, and even an adult education class. This lastgroupusuallymetfortheirclassontheRedstoneArsenal inHuntsville, Alabama, but on this occasion theyhad to squeeze themselves (all 25 of them) into a small branch library instead. All because, as a British citizen, I was not permittedtoset footonaUSmilitarybase!Managinglargergroupslikethatwas trickybut, asPeekandFothergill pointout, youcansetgroundrulesaboutone person speaking at a time and directly encourage quieter people to speak.11 Group interviewswithpeoplewhoknowone another– as this adult education class did – can provide insights into the social relations between participants, suchasfriendshipsorpowerdifferentials,andtheycanalsofostersupportwithin 10 For furtherdiscussionaboutour focusgrouprecruitmentseeFuller/RehbergSedo2013, p. 291ff. 11 Peek/Fothergill2009,p. 38. “It’snotonmymap!”: A JourneyThroughMethods in theCompanyofReaders 221 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0