The Exhibition Interview Walk (EIW) as a Method: Experimental Research With Objects to Discover How Commons Logics Are Perceived

Abstract

In this article we introduce the method of the exhibition interview walk (EIW) and contextualize it within qualitative social research. In the EIW, the focused interview and thinking aloud are combined through object elicitation in a walking conversation. In the commons research project presented here, the EIW method was applied in a specially designed exhibition. The aim was to provoke immediate reactions to commons principles—i.e., the use of goods and resources for the common good—from various positions of economic and social thinking. By contrasting materialized opinions in the form of artifacts, along with joint verbal and sensory analyses in the EIW, complex facts and case studies can be made accessible in a bundled form; all the while conflict-laden topics can be discussed in concrete terms. In this article we provide insight into the development, the concrete procedure, the special characteristics and the possible uses of this method, which can also be applied beyond specially designed exhibitions for research purposes.