This thesis concerns methodological matters existing in the situation of fieldwork. Here the qualitative survey realized in the frame of this research was to explore minor health issues. The survey conducted on bloating issue does notably shed light on the ‘interactional game’ between a female interviewee and a female interviewer revealing the key concepts of stigma and secrecy. Indeed, the analysis of social interactions between both actors incites to perceive the notion of fieldwork as a process where different phases decline and interact altogether. From the recruitment procedure to the closure of the survey, the effects of the investigation are observed and analyzed through a dual “eye”, the interviewee and interviewer. We qualify this methodological approach as “interactive observation”. This “interactive observation” feeds its very principle within the methodology relative to the ideas of participative-observation and the tradition of symbolic interactionism. A reflection is lead on the effects of reciprocity between the elaboration of the fieldwork’s strategies and the unfolding of the study submitted to the unpredictability of the fieldwork.
