PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 3- Research contexts and methodologies(Bernard 1994:310). Besides, observation was also employed as a means to achieve abasic understanding of my research site, YRD and to gain a general idea aboutTaiwanese expatriates‘ grounded lives and living environment.3.4. In-depth interviewsI employed in-depth interviews conduct this research on Taiwanese expatriates‘ livedpractices of belonging. This is because, as Cloke et al. (2004) argue, the interactions,interviews and discussions with people are a way for researchers to understand themeaningful personal knowledge, experiences, perspectives, understandings, practicesand interpretation that people have, as well as receive an explanation for their individualbehaviours. . In other words, an interview is a good means through which the researchparticipants are empowered to express their own lived experience and worlds, andenables researchers to understand the ways in which their informants ―view their ownworld and the meaning they ascribe to it‖ (Valentine 2001:44).I conducted 58 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Taiwanese skilled workersemployed as personnel of administration and engineering in Taiwanese IT firms‘Chinese subsidiaries as well as 7 spouses, through one-to-one and group interviews orinformal interviews during my participant observation (Appendix I). I recruited myinformants mainly through my own personal networks, from which a snow-ballingmethod was practical in including diverse research participants. My participation inTaiwanese gatherings, such as church activities, regular meetings of net friends from thevirtual community (i.e. Luntan 8 ), and activities organised by Taiwanese religious, socialand charity associations, also allowed me to approach potential informants. Since my8 This is a pseudonym given to the virtual community I took part in and did research with.75