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4.6.1 Documents

Documentary data acquisition is particularly important in an empirical study. To ensure data collection from as many sources as possible, four types o f documentation relating to the research topic were perused:

1. Legislative regulations and relevant laws 2. National Economic Development Plans 3. Relevant land use plans

4. Working paper for the policy making process

Though only state documents o f constitutional or diplomatic origin are recognised as documents by historians (Scott, 1990, p. 10), in this study, the term 'docum entation’

applied to any printed or written information related to the topic o f thesis. Thus non-official documents, such as meeting memo and notes, were perused in this research, since such documents are important for understanding policy operation. For example, the policy-making process for Tainan Science Park had finished by the late 1990s, and many events were not shown in government documents. To overcome this obstacle, newspapers and magazines were read to obtain information useful for understanding what had happened at that time. Therefore, data extracted from newspapers and magazines were viewed as documentary material.

In addition, interviewing was also identified as a significant approach o f gaining data and much valuable information was generated from the transcriptions o f interviews.

Although government working papers provided some official records, e.g. plan details,

planning schedules, there were untold operations, in particular those relating to personal relationships which were uncovered through interviews. Even though the information elicited during interviews was not available in a previous written form, they generated as much useful information as would have been obtained from documentation.

Both documentation collection and interviews were carried out as part o f the field work. In order to obtain the most relevant and valuable information, the investigation method in this study used the snowball process approach for achieving an understanding o f the policy-making process in each project. The elite interview technique was adopted to reveal and explore the relationship among the selected individual informants.

4.6.2 Snowball process approach

All three cases selected were significant government projects related to various sectors, and the policy-making process for each case had taken a long time. This made it difficult to access all the actors involved in the policy-making process because there had been a number o f people involved in the process and there are too many documents to read related to the process to identify them within the time constraints o f this study. Accordingly, to extract the most helpful information from a complex situation, it was essential to pick ‘key persons' to interview and collect the ‘right docum ents’ to review in order to produce quality research.

The snowball process approach seemed to offer an ideal solution to this challenge.

This approach starts from relevant persons in the relationship net and then moves on to others via information offered by interviewees and contacts. The technique adopted

in this study w as a modified form o f snowball sampling whereby interviewees were asked to identify individuals whom they thought would be interested in or helpful to this study. This process is based on the assumption that a ‘bond’ or ‘link’ exists between the initial sample and others in the network (Berg, 1988). However, the greatest advantage o f the technique is that it provides a means o f accessing a ‘hidden and hard-to-reach population’ which are 'few in number or where some degree o f trust is required to initiate contact’ (Atkinson and Flint, 2001). In interview research, the snowball technique can identify experts and people with strong and well articulated opinions. A good example o f the snowball approach in planning studies is Saunders’(1979) study o f urban politics where interviewees were asked who held power and this led to more respondents (Atkinson and Flint, 2001).

The snowball strategy has its difficulties, o f course. One o f the most noticeable problems, as Atkinson and Flint (2001) point out, is representativeness o f interviewees and sampling principle. Fortunately, this seemed not to be a serious difficulty in this research since the first interviewees offered a useful linkage to an insiders’ circle and this process is illustrated in Section 4.7. In general, with regard gaining access to an insiders’ circle, the snowball process approach is very useful for those studies focusing on social networks (Johnson and Weller, 2001, p.496).

With respect to the three cases, there were several relevant persons on the interviewee list as a result o f reviewing official documents, however, there were still some persons involved in the policy-making process who had not been named in official documents.

Moreover, working papers which might have been very important for illuminating the policy decision-making process had never been published. All data in such resources were necessary for policy-making analysis and were what the investigator in this

research sought. However, given that such data sources could not be accessed by the researcher, the snowball process provided valuable data which could be found and which would enable them to draw up the policy networks more clearly. The result o f the snowball approach is presented in Section 4.7.

4.6.3 Elite interview technique

Another technique for data production that was used in this study was the ‘elite interview'. Although the term ‘elite' seems to be ambiguous, it can be defined as 'specifiable groups o f persons' who possess power and privilege (Marcus, 1983).

According to such a definition, the designation o f whom or what is elite may be various and depends on the subject o f the study. Individuals or groups may be elite, on the other hand, associations and sectors can be identified as elites, too. Whatever the designation is, it is dependent on broader understandings o f power and society (Odendahl and Shaw, 2001, p.301) as described in Chapter Two o f this thesis, and that is what this thesis address in the Chapter Two and Three.

In this study, the term meant those actors involved with economic development projects in the planning process. Having decided upon the meaning o f ‘elite', it became necessary to find the 'right' respondents, those in the ‘insider’s circle' o f policy coordination in order to achieve an understanding o f how relationships were built up. The potential interviewee list comprised the participants in policy coordination in relation to economic planning and land use planning sectors at both central and local levels and in the private sector. There were at least two criteria for the choice o f informants: first, they were thought o f as policy-makers within organisations; and, second, they had participated in the economic project selected or they had most knowledge about the project in the sector.

Yet som e m ay question the accessibility to anticipated interview ees. In o rd er to conduct elite interview s, the m ost significant concern is accessibility to respondents and this is the very reason w hy in this study the snow ball process w as adopted in

Figure 4.3 The Design of the D ata Acquisition Process

Snowball ProcHs

4.6.4 Semi-structured interview

Interviewing is a significant mode o f data collection in policy research and takes several forms- structured, unstructured and semi-structure interview. In this research, there was a clear focus on exploring the relationship between economic and land use planning sectors, and the investigator elicited information relating to the planning decision process via interviews (Bryman, 2001, p .3 15). The employment o f semi-structured interview is because o f its strength in eliciting informants’ view, opinions and experiences and eliciting rich and in-depth information to obtain a full understanding o f the informants’ perspective on the topic under investigation (Arksey, 2004, p.268). In order to understand policy coordination as a whole, informants’

experience was viewed as valuable data for analysing policy coordination, though the focus was not the individual respondent him/her self.

Most elite interviews were undertaken in person and were processed in informants’

offices. An in-person interview has advantages such as eliciting more accurate and thoughtful responses and greater effectiveness in illustrating complex issues, though, compared to telephone interviewing, it takes time and costs more (Shuy, 2001, pp.

537-555). Interviews were conducted in informants' office to provide a quiet environment and avoid interruptions. Where permission was granted, interviews were taped recorded and notes made o f interviewees’ comments.

4.6.5 Elicitation techniques for interviewing

Apart from the technical concerns, the most significant element in deciding the quality o f an interview is still the questions formulated. An interview guide, referred to by Bryman (2001, p .3 19) was adopted in this research as it offered the interviewer a clear route to follow as the interview proceeded (see Figure 4.4). This interview

guide was used in conjunction with Kvale’s (1996)26 nine questions suggested for interviews.

The individual interview is expected to start with some introductory questions and then to elicit the informant’s opinion through conversation. Subsequent questions are determined by previous questions and may also be varied according to the respondent’s background. Spradley’s (1979, pp.85-89) grand-tour and mini-tour question strategies are in an exploratory-explanatory sequence. Grand-tour questions can be informative and are asked to elicit background information, whereas mini-tour also gather information but focuses on a specific event connected with the research topic.

For instance, an introductory question might be: (a) ‘could you please tell me about how you became involved with this project’ (grand-tour)? Once the respondent has answered this, the follow-up question might be: what is your role in the organisation and in the project? And (b) ‘how have you co-worked with other sectors in this project?’ If the informant offers many details about the interaction with other sectors, the follow-up question might ask about specific events or activities and their details (mini-tour). Such questioning will provide a broader understanding o f the context and lead to a narrower focus on the topic studied. However, it is worth noting that the development o f an interview is heavily dependent on the individual characteristics o f informants, and good preparatory background work by investigators can improve the quality o f interviewing process.

'(> k v a le , S. (1 9 9 6 ) has suggested nine different kinds o f question that most interview s should contain:, introducing, follow -up, probing, specifying, direct, indirect, structuring, interpreting questions and silence (give the interview ee the opportunity to answer)..

Figure 4.4 An Interview Guide

Source: Adapted from Bryman (2001, p .319)

Formulate specific Research questions

D ecide General

research area

questions topics

R eview /revise

questions

Finalise

Identify novel R evise interview

interview

question issues

process