Priming Questions (warm-up)
Memory Lane
1. What is your earliest memory of politics?
Follow-up cues: Where were you? Who else was involved? How did you feel about it at the time?
Tell us about the first time you remember getting in touch with politics. How, when and where did that happen? What was it about and how did you feel about it?
**2. Besides voting, what else comes to mind when you hear the word “politics”? What are the most important political issues or topics for you? **
Follow-up cues: Can you give examples from your own life? Are there things you think are political that other people might not see that way? (Note for interviewer: if the person has a hard time answering, feel free to turn into a word completion exercise – so, what 3 words come to mind when you hear the word politics?)
3. How would you describe your own involvement in politics over the course of your life?
Follow-up cues: Has it been steady or has it gone through phases? What shaped those changes?
Political Engagement Over Time
4. What kinds of political or civic actions have you taken in your life that were not about voting?
Follow-up cues: Think about both public actions (like protests) and quieter actions (like conversations, helping neighbors, donating).
5. Can you think of a time when you became more active or outspoken politically?
Follow-up cues: What was going on at the time? Who or what influenced you?
6. Have there been moments when your political involvement slowed down or changed direction?
Follow-up cues: Was it because of life circumstances, burnout, disillusionment, or something else?
7. Were there moments when you felt excluded from political (public) processes? And which ones where you felt particularly included?
Follow-up cues: Did that experience affect your willingness or ability to participate in politics afterward? If so, in what way?
Covid and Other Turning Points
8. Did the Covid-19 pandemic change how you thought about what counts as political, or how you participate?
Follow-up cues: Did it make you more connected or more isolated? Did you see politics in new places—like health care, work, or schools?
9. Were there other events—local, national, or global—that also shifted your political focus or involvement?
Follow-up cues: Did these events feel similar to or different from the pandemic in terms of impact?
Interfaces and Infrastructures
10. What kinds of platforms, technologies, or tools have you used to engage politically?
Follow-up cues: How did you first hear about them? How do they shape who you connect with?
11. Are there in-person spaces or informal networks that have been especially important for your political activity?
Follow-up cues: Can you describe one of those spaces or gatherings? What made it effective or meaningful?
12. Have you been involved in forms of activism that blend online and in-person elements?
Follow-up cues: How do those hybrid forms compare to purely online or purely in-person engagement?
13. How do these different “interfaces” (digital, face-to-face, institutional) shape your sense of what it means to be politically active?
Follow-up cues: Do they make participation feel easier, riskier, more personal, more distant? Do any other words or feelings come to mind?
Political Subjectivity, Emotions, and Meaning
14. Has participating in political action affected your understanding of yourself? If so, how?
Follow-up cues: Do you identify with a movement, a community, a political identity now that you didn’t before?
15. What feelings come up when you think about how you engage, or have engaged in the past with political issues during that time?
Follow-up cues: Can you recall a moment when you felt particularly connected to or disconnected from your community?
16. What kinds of relationships or communities have grown out of your political involvement?
Follow-up cues: Are these ongoing relationships? Have they influenced your daily life or decisions?
17. Can you describe a moment when your political engagement felt especially meaningful—or especially frustrating?
Follow-up cues: What made that moment stand out?
18. How have your priorities or sense of political responsibility shifted over time?
Follow-up cues: Are there things you care more about now, or ways you approach action differently?
AI and Algorithms
19. In your activist work, have you or people in your network started using AI tools (for example for communication, organizing, research, or outreach)? If so, which tools? How are they actually being used in practice? Has it made difference for how people engage politically?
20. Do you think AI tools have the potential to change how ordinary citizens (i.e. non-activists) participate in political processes outside of voting? If so, in what ways? (If they are not sure, you can ask follow up prompts with examples of the ways, for ex. by helping them analyze policies, communicate with institutions/politicians, etc)
21. Do you have concerns that AI might actually concentrate power in the hands of the people who control the technology. Do you think AI could make participation more democratic, or more centralized?
Looking Ahead / Snowball Sampling
22. Do you see yourself continuing with non-voting forms of political engagement in the future?
Follow-up cues: What do you imagine might help you stay involved, or what might hold you back?
23. Is there anything we haven’t covered that feels important to understanding your political life?
Follow-up cues: Any stories you thought about sharing but didn’t yet?
24 (Bonus question). Who else do you think we should talk to who could offer valuable perspectives on political engagement?
Follow-up cues: Are there people in your networks who’ve been active in ways others might overlook? Who might be interesting for us to talk to?