How to access elites when textbook methods fail: Challenges of purposive sampling and advantages of using interviewees as "fixers"

Abstract

Social science methods literature identifies gaining access as one of the main challenges of conducting elite interview research. However, the existing literature mostly fails to provide access strategies other than the "textbook" methods of sending email, letters, faxes, or making phone calls. Many researchers, especially the ones who conduct purposive sampling-based in elite interview research encounter various obstacles when they try to gain access to the potential interviewees. Especially in challenging research environments, textbook methods either fail the researchers using purposive sampling or considerably increase the time and energy spent to gain access to elite respondents. Drawing on the author's own purposive sampling-based research in the Middle East, this article proposes an alternative access strategy adapted from journalism, using interviewees as "fixers." This free-of-charge strategy not only shortens access time and decreases non-commitment of the potential elite interviewees, but also lends the researcher a partial insider status in the studied elite circle, and thus potentially enhances the quality of interviews.