Abstract

When you think about the interview and the survey, you think of social research instruments, but with different characteristics and in some cases attached to incompatible paradigms. However, they share a fundamental common characteristic that makes them part of the same continuum: they are dialogic-conversational. Thus, here it is stated that they are a specific epistemological moment within the dialogue, and that, as such, their characteristics will be determined by the restriction and freedom to ask, and by the restriction and freedom to answer. Consequently, interviews and surveys are expressions of a conversational continuum that conditions the interaction between those who ask and those who answer. This could even disrupt the paradigmatic ascription of each instrument. Every social scientist should be aware of this.