Interviews: Group Affiliation

Another interview protocol. This is a long one. I obviously won't ask all of the questions here in a single interview. I usually won't even ask about all of the following groups in a single interview. It just gives me options, depending on where the conversation leads. Also, you'll notice a section on ethnicity and one on nationality. In the former Soviet Union, these two things are generally considered to be synonymous. The Russian word нацоинальнось (natzional'nost') refers to where you come from--who your people are. In short, your ethnicity. Your belonging to a state is considered your гражданственность (grazhdanstvennost'), which comes from the word for "government." I think Americans tend to think of their nationality in terms of their state. That's not the way they use that term here.

Groups and Relationships

I want to understand how you think about some types of social relationships. People have many types of associations, but many people think that certain large-scale assocations—things like their religion, their ethnicity, their class, their nationality, their gender—are an especially important part of who they are. I would like to ask you some questions about those types of relationships.

1. Tell me about your ethnicity.
-What ethnicity are you?
-What does that mean to you?
-How important is your ethnicity to you?
-Do you get any benefits because of your ethnicity?
-Are their and detriments to being your ethnicity?
-In general, how are people of your ethnicity treated here?
-Would you be willing to give up something you wanted for the sake of your ethnicity?
-Does your ethnicity affect the way you life your everyday life?
-Is there anything specific that you do in your life because you are the ethnicity that you are, that you would not do if you were a different ethnicity?
-How many people do you know who are your ethnicity?
-Do all of your family members consider themselves the same ethnicity as you?
-Have any of them ever married someone of a different ethnicity?
-How many of your close friends belong to it?
-Of the people with whom you interact each day—at the bazaar, on the street, at work or school—how many of them do you think are the same ethnicity as you?
-Are you involved in, or do you interact with, any organizations associated with your ethnicity?
-Do you know of any such organizations?
-Do you know people who are a different ethnicity than you do?
-How well do you know them?
-How often do you interact with them?
-How do you feel about these people?
-How do you think they feel about you?
-Do you ever feel they treat you a certain way because of your ethnicity?

2. Tell me about your religious opinions.
-What religion do you belong to?
-Have you belonged to your religion your whole life?
-What does it mean to you, personally, to belong to your religion?
-How important is your religion to you?
-Do you get any benefits from belonging to your religion?
-Are their any detriments or costs associated with belonging to your religion?
-In general, how are people of your religion treated here?
-Would you be willing to give up something you wanted for the sake of your religion?
-Does your religion affect any of the things you do in your everyday life?
-Is there anything specific that you do in your life because you belong to your religion, that you would not do if you did not belong to your religion?
-How many people do you know who belong to your religion?
-How many of your family members belong to the same religion as you?
-Have any of them ever converted to a different religion, or married someone who was of a different religion?
-How many of your close friends belong to it?
-Of the people with whom you interact each day—at the bazaar, on the street, at work or school—how many of them do you think belong to your religion?
-Are you involved in, or do you interact with, any organizations associated with your religion?
-Do you know of any such organizations?
-Do you know people who belong to a different religion than you do?
-How well do you know them?
-How often do you interact with them?
-How do you feel about these people?
-How do you think they feel about you?
-Do you ever feel they treat you a certain way because of your religion?

3. Tell me a little about nationality.
-Do you feel that nationality and ethnicity are two different things?
-In what ways is nationality important?
-Do you get any benefits from belonging to your country?
-Are there any benefits you think your should receive because you are a citizen of this country?
-Are there any detriments to belonging to your country?
-Is your nationality an important part of your identity?
-Is that at all related to other parts of your identity, like your ethnicity or your religion?
-Do you think people should be willing to sacrifice for their country?
-Do you know people who are different nationalities?
-Do you know people who live in this country who are citizens of different countries?
-Are they different from citizens of this country?
-Do you know citizens of this country who live in different countries?
-How are they treated there?
-Are they better or worse off where they are?
-Are you involved in, or do you interact with, any organizations associated with your nationality or country?
-Do you know of any such organizations?

4. Let’s talk about economics.
-If you had to guess how wealthy you are in comparison to the rest of the people in this country, what would you guess?
-What about the rest of the people in this province?
-In this city?
-In your neighborhood?
-When you look at people who are about as wealthy as you are, do you think you are similar to those people in any other ways?
-What does it mean to be wealthy?
-Is it just money, or are there other things involved?
-When you look at people around you who are wealthy, how do you think they became wealthy?
-When you look at people around you who are not wealthy, why do you think they are not wealthy?
-What should people do about differences in wealth?
-Should people with more money be willing to give some of that money to people who don’t have it?
-Should the government be involved in helping the poor?
-What is the minimum standard of living a person should be able to expect to have?
-Are you involved in, or do you interact with, any organizations that try to deal with poverty or economic inequalities?
-Do you know of any such organizations?
-Was it always like this?
-Was there ever a time when you, personally, were more or less wealthy?
-Was there ever a time when people here, in general, were more or less wealthy?

5. What about gender?
-If your experience, how are men and women different?
-Do they act differently?
-Do they have different rights or privileges?
-Do they have different responsibilities?
-Do you think those differences are fair?
-What would you change?
-Why do you think those differences exist?
-Is gender an important part of your identity?
-Do you think about it much?
-Do you think other people think about it much?
-Are you involved in, or do you associate with, any organizations that address issues related to gender?
-Do you know of any?

6. Age differences?
-Do you think about things differently than your parents?
-Your grandparents?
-Do people of different ages get involved in their communities in different ways?
-If someone was to try to change something about how this country runs, what age would that person probably be?

7. Are there any other kinds of groups, relationships, or associations besides the ones we’ve mentioned that you think are important?
-Of the associations we’ve mentioned, which one do you think is most important to you, personally?
-Which one is least important to you?
-How important do you think each of these associations are to people in general?