Online Video Biographical Interviewing in Transnational Research: A Condition-Oriented Methodological Perspective

Online video interviewing has become routine in transnational qualitative research. However, methodological debates often focus on its advantages and limitations while underexploring the conditions that support biographical narrative production. This article asks: under what conditions can transnational online video interviewing support coherent and detailed biographical narratives? It addresses this question through methodological reflection on 32 biographical interviews with transnational bloggers from 19 countries. The analysis identifies three interrelated sets of conditions: interaction conditions, researcher conditions, and participant conditions. These conditions are situated at the intersection of transnationality and video mediation. The findings show that interactional arrangements sustain conversational continuity; researcher positionality and resources shape access, rapport, and representation; and participants’ familiarity with screen-mediated interaction and situated environments influence self-presentation and narrative development. These conditions operate in combination, shaping not only narrative coherence and depth but also the linguistic, infrastructural, and ethical boundaries of the knowledge produced. The article advances a condition-oriented methodological perspective beyond a binary “pros and cons” debate. Rather than treating context as an undifferentiated background, this perspective connects identifiable fieldwork conditions to the processes and outcomes they shape. It enables comparison across transnational research settings by examining how different configurations of conditions produce variations in narrative possibilities and knowledge boundaries.