86 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION reached and the topics of the topic list were addressed, or when the agreed time was over (for example, because it was time for the next prayer service), the interview was concluded by the interviewer. In most cases, we agreed on making an appointment for an additional interview session. The interview guide used is provided in Appendix 1, which also lists the symbols used in the transcriptions (ellipses, asterisks, etcetera). The interview as a research method, especially a semi-structured and open-ended one as used in this study, enables the researcher to respond to what the interviewee says. This requires skill and sensitivity on the part of the researcher: he needs to listen carefully to what the interviewee says (or does not say), keep control over the conversation without limiting the interviewee while also securing data collection in the scope of the research, and discern the right moment for a question, to name just a few. Obviously, in retrospect, the researcher at times wishes that he had acted differently during the interviews. For me, one such moment was when I asked Brother BE of Bose whether he felt in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. He responded: “…What does it mean?”221 and laughed. In retrospect, I see a perfect opportunity to discover how he would interpret the term communion (a key term in contemporary Catholic ecclesiology). Yet, instead of waiting for him to continue or to repeat the exact same question as an open invitation for him to respond to his own rhetorical question, I chose to explicate my own view on communion that underpinned my question in the first place. Luckily, Brother BE engaged in a reflection on communion regardless, but the example shows that my research, too, may have its flaws. All sessions were recorded using a recording device. Afterwards, I transcribed all of the recordings verbatim. By doing this myself, I became intimately familiar with each of the interviews, reliving them time and again. On some occasions, I struggled with understanding clearly what was being said. In some cases, I have consulted the interviewees (by email) about specific words or names. If the exact formulation was still unclear, I have marked this in the transcriptions, with or without suggesting a possible interpretation. Bracketed ellipses indicate that a word, phrase, or section has been omitted. Sequences of ellipses without brackets indicate silences with each ellipse representing one second. See Appendix 1 for the meaning of other symbols. I have included them because I have interpreted several of these silences as moments of hesitation or contemplation. On some occasions, respondents clearly struggled to express their intended meaning properly, or to formulate 221 BE-2,38.
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