Análisis de los tipos de entidad

E-mail and phone correspondence was a technique used to establish contacts and gain access to the field. Potential correspondents‟ contact details were identified on the websites of the relevant organisations. E-mail was used to contact the representatives of the governmental and national organisations responsible for HMR, who otherwise because of their position may be hardly accessible. It took several attempts to establish contact, for three reasons. First, because of the position of the initial list of the respondents, second because of research fatigue, and third, and most important, because of the heavy critique HMR was exposed to. Some of the e-mail correspondents who provided information that was crucial for research were included in overall list of respondents for this research (see Appendix 2). After an initial „ice breaker‟ period of three months, the technique enabled relatively free and frequent contact throughout the study. This was especially helpful as the respondents were located in different parts of the country.

Table 5-5: Techniques of data collection used in each method

Primary data collection Secondary Data collection Correspo

ndence

Interviews Observation

Sent by Respondents

Web Sources Methods of primary

data collection

E-mail Correspondence Phone Correspondence Phone Interview Face-to- Face Site/Project Visit Office Visit Residents‟ Home Visit Downloadable Data Online Data

One-to-One Group

Sampling v v - v - v - - - v v

Pilot Study v v - v v v v - v v v

Survey v v v - - * - - v v v

Case Study v v - v v v v v v v v

* Six out of ten Pathfinders were visited during the course of research. This was not an integral part of Pathfinder survey but it has provided valuable information about the nature of the redevelopment projects including residential relocation.

115 5.5.2 Interviews

Semi-structured interviews are the key source of information in this research. 44 interviews in total were conducted in the pilot studies, survey and case study, comprising in total approximately 40 hours of recorded interview material. Two main interview approaches are used in this research:

face-to-face (one-to-one and group interviews) and telephone interviews. Appendix 2 provides detailed information on type of interview (or other correspondence method) and length of each interview, date and place it took place, along with details of the roles and positions of each respondent in their organisation and sector. It also shows interviewees‟ codes used in the empirical part of the thesis.

A semi-structured interview design was deemed most appropriate because it gives the researcher flexibility to adapt the interview questions to themes emerging during the interview as well as to the respondent‟s background.

The interviews were designed to adapt from a semi-structured to an unstructured approach. For instance, in the initial stages of research (scoping and pilot studies) the questions were predominantly open ended to allow the respondents to speak their mind. The survey questions (qualitative survey) were structured. In the first stage of case-study research the interviews were less structured, while in the concluding stages it was deemed appropriate to allow for focus on specific themes, hence semi-structured interview design.

5.5.2.1 Face-to-face interviews

This type of interview was chosen as the most suitable for both the pilot studies and case study, because they have the capacity to provide answers to the interview questions and also allow in situ observation of the respondents in the place where their knowledge and experience is shaped. This also meant that, in order to conduct each interview, the researcher travelled to the office of each respondent (for the detail about the location of the interviews see Appendix 2).

Whilst initially one-to-one interviews were envisaged, at times the respondents preferred to give interviews in groups. This was especially true at the beginning of the research when rapport needed to be established with various organisations and their teams. Instead of cancelling the interviews or requiring the respondents to be interviewed separately, this behaviour was treated as information.

This also led to contact with more respondents. The group interviews normally lasted around two hours.

116 5.5.2.2 Telephone semi-structured interviews

Telephone interviews were chosen as the most appropriate approach for conducting the Pathfinder survey, to ensure a good response rate, and to be time/cost efficient in terms of the research framework.

5.5.2.3 Process of identification and selection of research respondents

The process of identification of key informants in this research (for the full list see Appendix 2) consisted of several stages (see Table 5-6 : Process of identification of respondents) and it was managed in a top-down manner. That is, the representatives of the national organisations were contacted first, followed by contact with management of individual Pathfinders, Local Authorities and then relocated residents.

Between December 2007 and March 2008 (the sampling stage), national organisations and government departments, the DCLG (managing HMR at the governmental level), English Partnerships (providing part of the funding for key redevelopment projects, represented on the boards of Pathfinders), the Housing Corporation (providing part of the funding for key redevelopment projects, represented on the boards of Pathfinders), and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (setting the redevelopment standards for new buildings, an important aspect for replacement housing), were contacted. In addition, the respondents of the major agencies responsible for HMR design and research were contacted. This included Nevin Leather Associates (Nevin and Leather provided key research that was used to lobby for the launch of HMR, Leather led the research about national evaluation of HMR for the DCLG) and the National Audit Office (the NAO provided research and evaluation about HMR). These actors had significant knowledge about the operation of HMR, and were able to point out respondents who could be relevant for the present research. In addition, their reputation enabled the researcher to get easier access to the Pathfinders (see Research Challenges). Following the recommendations and contacts provided by the actors on the national level, Pathfinders‟ directors and management were contacted.

117 Table 5-6 : Process of identification of respondents

Respondents Level of informants Dates 10 Respondents (DCLG, CABE,

English Partnerships, Housing Corporation, NAO, Nevin and Leather Associates)

National Level December 2007 - March 2008

E-mail and phone

Pathfinders Survey January – March 2009

Identifying respondents most suitable to answer the research questions. This stage was conducted between March and April 2008. The process was not easy as the directors tended to forward the e-mail to departments of

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their choice, and these took some time to answer (clearly this did not guarantee that the right person was the one who answered the research call).

Clearly, this put the control in the Pathfinders‟ hands, but this was done intentionally: first, to get access by developing rapport with the Pathfinder management, who controlled the information and contacts in HMR sub-regions. As mentioned earlier, accessing the field top-down was a strategic move (see section about Sampling). At the end of the process 12 respondents volunteered to take part in the pilot studies, eight in BNG and four in RNS (see Appendix 2). Although the choice of respondents in the pilot studies was not entirely within my control, their interviews comprised valuable data to build on, and to identify the relevant respondents in the next two stages of research: Pathfinder survey and case study.

Between December 2008 and January 2009, the ten Pathfinders operating at the time of inquiry were contacted by e-mail and by phone. The process of identification of respondents suitable for this study consisted of contacting three to five people in each Pathfinder team or the relevant local authorities depending on the organisation of each individual Partnership assessing their suitability for the study and willingness to contribute to it. The correspondence took place by e-mail and phone. Around 40 people were contacted in the ten Pathfinders.

119

Table 5-7 : Respondents responsible for residential relocation HMR Pathfinders (Survey)

Pathfinder Name Pathfinder Team Local Authority

(BNG) Bridging

(TV) Tees Valley (Hartlepool Borough Council)

Housing Regeneration

Coordinator

TV Respondent S1-9

(UL) Urban Living Area Initiatives Manager;

Housing Strategy Division (CPO).

UL Respondent S1-10

At the end of the process, 23 respondents were identified as suitable to contribute this study because of their involvement in residential relocation. Out of the initial 23, six respondents agreed to give phone interviews; the respondents from TSY and NHL preferred to provide relevant information by e-mail. The list of the respondents in the Pathfinder survey is presented in the table below. The difference in the respondents‟ home organisation is representative of the difference in the distribution of roles and responsibilities in each Pathfinder over delivery processes in general and residential relocation in particular. This part of the research findings was discovered in the process of respondent identification.

The respondents for the case study were identified after survey data was analysed. A Pathfinder survey data analysis (coding) exercise revealed five distinct urban regeneration processes that shaped residential relocation across these various Pathfinder projects (see Chapter 6 for more details). Based on the results of analysis a conceptual model was built – the „Relocation Matrix‟.

This conceptual model systematises the chains of activity (or residential relocation processes)

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shaping relocation in HMR. These are: planning strategy, community involvement, financial assistance allocation, alternative property provision and resident support.

These conceptual categories describing the residential relocation processes were used in the BNG case study to identify the final set of respondents responsible for residential relocation within Bridging Newcastle Gateshead Pathfinder, its local authorities and on the level of individual development projects.

In Bridging Newcastle Gateshead (case study), interviews were conducted with key players delivering each of five relocation processes in the Scotswood and Walker neighbourhoods in Newcastle, and Bensham and Saltwell in Gateshead. The table below presents the list of respondents identified in BNG as playing an important role in residential relocation.

Table 5-8 : BNG respondents based on identified residential relocation processes Processes Pathfinder Newcastle Gateshead Planning

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Residents affected by relocation were identified in the last stage of the empirical study, the case study. The qualitative method and constraints on data availability did not permit for the selection of all residents affected by residential relocation in BNG and this had implications for the way that the research questions would be answered. In order to overcome this challenge the strategy was adopted to access the community activists, representatives and leaders who were (a) affected by demolition and relocation themselves, (b) played an active role in their community and thus had extensive knowledge about relocation of their neighbours and/or community members, (c) were involved in working with the local authority or their partners in shaping residential relocation in a certain way.

Nonetheless, access to the residents was a complex and difficult undertaking, first because of data protection legislation (see Research Challenges) which dictated that no personal data was to be released by the Pathfinders, and the second because the Pathfinders had received extensive criticism based on cases identified by researchers. The process of access to the residents required first building trust and rapport with other actors identified to be involved in residential relocation, especially the ALMO and Neighbourhood Management Team (in Newcastle) and Neighbourhood Management Team (in Gateshead) which dealt with the residents on a one-to-one level. This process took from the first visit to BNG in mid-2008 till late 2009, when the first interviews with residents were done.

At the end of the process, the Residential Relocation Team (part of the ALMO) in Newcastle provided information and contacts of one resident affected by relocation, an activist of the Cambrian Resident Association (involved in the community involvement process through Walker Residents Network). The Neighbourhood Management Team in Newcastle provided contact with Scotswood Neighbourhood Centre and organised a meeting with five activists and volunteers, affected by residential relocation (the representatives of the team were present at the meeting). The Neighbourhood Management Team in Gateshead ignored the requirement to provide contact with the residents on several occasions (secondary data available online from activists groups was used instead).

The available contacts were used to conduct interviews with the residents whose details were made available and to visit their homes after relocation. The interviews were also used to ask the resident representatives for contacts of their counterparts or neighbours who were affected by residential relocation.

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In Scotswood, contacts were made with the Scotswood Neighbourhood Centre, where five activists were interviewed. The women affected by relocation themselves volunteered their time helping their neighbours through the residential relocation process. In 2008, these Scotswood Neighbourhood Centre activists received national recognition – a Queen‟s Award for their voluntary services. During the group interview, an invitation to a Joint Working Group¹³ meeting was secured by the researcher.

Attending that meeting in January 2010, led to identification, contact and interviews with the chair¹⁴ of Scotswood Village Resident Association and two activists. These residents were relocated by the HMR intervention from Scotswood. The group played a key role in leading Scotswood community from the days of protests against the Newcastle‟s demolition plans in 1999 (prior to HMR), through securing engagement in the planning process, to establishing the Scotswood Village Resident Association as a player in the decision-making process in planning and residential relocation in Scotswood (through work in the Joint Working Group and Steering Group). Through the Joint Working Group and Steering Group they influenced the way residential relocation was shaped in Scotswood as well as in other parts of BNG Pathfinder.

For instance in Walker this resulted in devising a planned community engagement exercise by NCC and RSL. In the case of Walker, the approach to identification of residents resulted in visiting the new homes of the former Cambrian Estate Residents relocated into newly built bungalows, and interviews with an additional three residents who were also actively involved in the community engagement exercise in Walker.

As shown in this section, the identification of the respondents was a complex operation. It is illustrative of the complexity of the phenomena researched. The strategy and process of informant selection was overall successful both in terms of access to the field, identification of actors involved in HMR residential relocation delivery and answering research questions (based on their interviews). In this research the process of respondent identification also forms a part of the research findings of this research. It shows that actors from public as well as private and community sectors played a significant role in HMR delivery.

13 The Group was a co-operation between residents, local councillors and council officers that has been meeting monthly to discuss redevelopment of Scotswood.

14 Scotswood Village Resident Association chair was chosen by her community members. She had a well-known history of community activism not only in Scotswood as a neighbourhood but earlier as part of a trades union in the shipping industry in Newcastle for which she received an MBE from the Queen.

123 5.5.2.4 Interview design and schedule

Three interview questionnaires were designed for this research (see Appendix 4). These were the pilot study interview questions, survey questionnaires, and case study interview questions. The questions were attuned to each interviewee by thorough exploration of their background.

It was considered imperative that a flexible, yet rigorous, approach should be adopted towards the interview design schedule, both because of the differences in the respondents‟ backgrounds, likely contingencies, and the requirement within the qualitative approach to follow up new avenues of enquiry that were not previously envisaged.

For this reason, the interview design was developed to factor in these differences and allow for the cross-comparison of the findings, as well as to allow adjustments to the questionnaires in advance of, or during, the interview.

Flexibility in conducting and managing the interview was established through an interview schedule that was designed to contain few layers of organisation:

1) First, the main structure of the interview comprising the opening section (0), the interview context setting (1), interview questions (2), and interview closing (3), with possible questions stated in each section.

2) Second, the main interview question (section 2), contained three additional layers of organisation:

- The interview goals (silent reminder only): their function was to help the interviewer navigate the interview while being focused on research objectives.

- The interviewee background adjusted interview questions: aimed to elicit the context-situated knowledge relevant to the research questions.

- The background texts: the purpose of these texts was a reminder about the specific interviewee background details, to help establish the researcher's credibility and develop a rapport between the two.

The specific feature of the interview schedules is the level of detail, which could easily lead it to be mistaken for a more structured interview. The large number of questions had a specific purpose: to assist the researcher to swiftly rephrase the interview questions in real time depending on the themes raised by the interviewee (the intention was not to read each separate question).

This layered interview design gave me the flexibility to move in a 'continuum between semi-structured and unsemi-structured interview' (Denscombe, 2003:167) depending on the specific interview dynamics, while staying focused on interview objectives.

124 5.5.3 Observation

The milieu where respondents shape their opinions about phenomena and construct their 'reality' in interaction with their counterparts is considered an integral part of their narrative (Mason, 2002).

Visits to redevelopment sites were deemed an important source of information about the nature of neighbourhoods HMR operated in: to draw conclusions about the condition of the properties earmarked for demolition and the alternative properties provided for relocation, as well as the general condition of the redevelopment process.

During the course of this research five out of ten Pathfinders were visited: BNG, RNS, MSP and NH. Whenever possible interviews were conducted in the respondents‟ offices. This included the following locations: London, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and Stoke on Trent (see Appendix 2, List of Respondents). In the case of the affected residents, more precisely community group representatives, interviews were conducted in Newcastle, in their homes (Walker) and their Neighbourhood Centre (Scotswood). The visits were recorded by taking textual (paper) and visual notes (photographs and videos when possible). The data was collected by note taking, and visual note taking which involved photography and video. The table below summarises the types of observation.

Table 5-9 : Observation type and contribution to specific research methods

Observation Type Type of visit Sampling

& Survey

Cole and Nevin (2004) point out that HMR contrasted with many other regeneration programmes in the UK, that have been replete with guidance notes, templates and regulatory advice from the outset. This meant that identification of the secondary data was a research exercise in itself. In order to collect the information about the background and strategy for HMR, the secondary data in the form of the Pathfinder reports, annual reports, business plans, and HMR initiative evaluation reports from the Audit Commission, the National Audit Office, and Parliament were key. (For the background to HMR see table below).