hen a student moves abroad to pursue their studies, a transnational family begins to exist. Sociological literature emphasises the issue of transnational families. This remarkable phenomenon is not new in itself, however, the way these families communicate has developed extremely over time. Due to the radical development of mediating technologies family members might enjoy the virtual presence at each other’s lives (Baldassar et al., 2014). My research project is devoted to understanding the contacting habits of students who live abroad in the UK to study at the London School of Economics. In the beginning of my project, I formed the research question in the following way: How do LSE students – who are detached from their families by borders – keep contact with their families?

This topic is a sociological area of interest as shedding light on how tech-mediated communication may help the maintenance of ‘familyhood’ (Bryceson and Vuorela, 2002) in this particular form of transnational situation when parents stay at the home country and children temporarily leave (Baldassar et al., 2014). Using a qualitative research method, I would like to find out how, when, and in what ways students keep in touch with their families, and how it helps to sustain ‘familyhood’. I am interested in whether there are some similarities and differences in the contacting habits of families, and what can account for these. Furthermore, I am keen to understand the emotional dimension that lies behind these contacting habits.

This essay intends to give a methodological reflection on the research process and introduce some preliminary topics of interest that emerged from data coding. First, I argue that interviewing is the appropriate method for answering the research question. Second, I justify why sampling for range was an efficient way to choose the research participants. Next, I explain how my insider situation supported the recruitment process, and I briefly introduce my interviewees. Afterwards, I walk the reader through how I constructed the interview guide and reflect on how the interviews went, at which point, I also describe how I improved the quality of my interview questions and interviewing skills throughout the process. Then, I present the upcoming ethical issues in the research. Then I proceed to arg