Access to Information and Freedom of Information Requests: Neglected Means of Data Production in the Social Sciences

摘要: Access to information (ATI) and freedom of (FOI) mechanisms are now relevant features governments in many liberal democracies today. Citizens, organizations, permanent residents several countries across the globe can request unpublished from federal, provincial, state, county, municipal government agencies. However, most qualitative researchers appear be unfamiliar with ATI/FOI or write it off as an approach used by journalists rather than a way systematically produce longitudinal data about practices. In this article, authors discuss use requests means production. The show how intersects issues such reflexivity, Hawthorne effect, interviewing, discourse analysis. study objective is foster multidisciplinary discussion strengths weaknesses production tool.