Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Chapter 1 • Silvia Salvatici
and their subjects, of memory’s role in altering the socio-political context,
and the ways in which this same socio-political context may influence the
process of recollection.
Interviews
The collection of interviews constituted the other main activity of the
Archives of Memory in Kosovo, and was carried out by a team of local
staff and so-called “internationals”. Given this varied group, we were
faced with the problem, at the very beginning of our research, of choosing
those who would act as interviewers. By then, working with the students
had shown us that having had similar experiences as the interviewees, and
belonging to the same social and cultural context as they did, were assets
of great potential. We also knew that the presence of one or more members
of an international community, which had and still does play an important
bulky role in the past and present experience of the Kosovars, could
strongly influence the interviewee’s form of narration and memory tracking.
On the other hand, we were also aware of the fact that we, as “internationals”
had been casting our presence on the outcome of the conversation
even in our absence, as the interviews, which were separated from the
offered counselling, were taken for the Archives of Memory: the creation
of an international organization. Our presence during the interviews might
simply serve to add transparency to a connection that was already implied,
and would probably stress the mechanisms of a collective self-representation
addressed to the international community. Between these two considerations,
we thus adopted a rather flexible solution: during most of the
encounter, international and local interviewers acted together, and at other
times (depending upon the context in which the interview was taken, the
relationship between interviewer and interviewees, etc.), the local or international
researcher(s) continued the interview alone with the subject.
Another concern closely related to the composition of the interviewing
group was, of course, that of language. One member of the local staff often
took on the additional role of interpreter. It is important to remember that
this position is not a purely technical one, as it implies a cultural mediation,
nor is it entirely neutral, as the interpreter must establish his/her own
relationship with the interviewee, which must be different from the interviewee’s
relationship with the international staff. The interpreter is thus
left with potentially extensive control over the course of conversation. For
this reason, interpreters were considered active members of their research
group, and included in all phases of interview planning. They brought
their own perspectives to these planning discussions, and the resulting
interview was considered, in part, the result of their specific suggestions
and contributions.
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