I am in desperate need of advice. For over a year now I have been trying to get interviews for my Phd. I keep getting promised introductions to potential interviewees, make the journey (to another country) to interview them or organize interviews and then find myself let down by contacts who had assured all was in hand. I now have less than a year to submit and only have interviews with background informants rather than the core in- depth interviews I had planned.

Is there any way I can salvage this phd. Is it possible to turn in into a half decent phd by using documentary analysis, secondary sources such as readily available stats? I am just about ready to throw in the towel!

Can you conduct phone or skype interviews? Sounds like the time lag between you setting it up and it actually occurring is probably causing people to forget/drop out.

Thanks Sneaks. It's more the gatekeepers promising more than they are prepared to deliver so I end up wasting a lot of my time and money. I'm at the stage of thinking of trying to address my research area without in-depth interviews. But it is conceivable that I am clutching at straws here.

Can you change your participant group? What field are you in?

I think it depends on what analysis you use as to whether you can get away with using your background informants. I know PhDs that are made up of 5 interviews, but with extremely indepth analysis, whereas mine for example has 40 interviews, with a basic thematic analysis.

It may be possible to get 5 in-depth interviews with a bit of pressure from my side, but I can't see how I can get a decent size group like yours which is what I'd prefer (I was aiming for 15 absolutely minimum. I'm looking at the impact of precarious working conditions in the car industry. It's a case of a factory North of Paris. So far I have a number of interviews with union officials, the company refuses to speak to (which I expected) and the main gate keepers who I have met twice with a clear outline of what I needed have not delivered. It's taken me months to get to this stage. I was previously doing another factory, got 2 interviews and then my leads went cold. I get the impression this is happening again with this one.


It all seems to be going pear shaped.....

Is there any reason why you can't target UK car manufacturers?

Hmm. Access Uk manufacturer was worse. Study was orignially supposed to be comparative. I managed to get one interview with a union official then all the contacts I managed to seek out gave me the cold shoulder. Hence the shift to just France since I had firmer contacts and more interviews.