Desarrollo del plan de acción

Case Study and the Setting

The nature of the study, with its intense focus on Merthyr Tydfil as the research setting, lent itself to a case study design, as the objective of a case study is to understand the dynamics present in a single setting (Eisenhardt, 2002: 8). Following Yin (1984) this case study included elements of both a revelatory and a critical case. Both its critical and revelatory aspects derive from the relative lack of attention paid to small, isolated and static communities by those who have researched informal social control outside of the community studies tradition and within the field of Criminology. This approach is appropriate for this research, which aims to speak to other contexts and settings through the gathering of in-depth and richly detailed data which is subject to rigorous analysis via analytic induction. As noted in the previous section, the aim of critical realism is to use case study research in order to distinguish the necessary and contingent components of the objects of social research, thus uncovering the interaction of particular sets of causal

mechanisms which can then inform research in other contexts with different sets of causal mechanisms and interrelations.

In choosing a setting where one of the key drivers of social disorganisation, identified by Shaw and McKay (1947) as population churn, is absent, this research both accesses a new setting and builds on and updates existing theory. Drawing on the Chicago School over the community studies tradition connects this research to other places and contexts and links this research in to the modern tradition of environmental criminology which examines how the control capacities of communities are impacted by external structural factors (Bottoms, Sampson). In doing so, it also avoids the accusations of parochialism and theoretical weakness which have been levelled at community studies (Crow, 2002). The revelatory nature is augmented by the ongoing recession and its impacts on the setting, as this is obviously not a context that could previously be investigated. Having derived some tentative theoretical propositions from the literature about the nature of informal social control in such a setting, the Gurnos was chosen on the grounds that it would be very likely to add to the understanding of the circumstances in which these theoretical propositions would hold, as outlined in the theoretical justifications.

As already noted, Merthyr Tydfil is an exemplar of a post-industrial town suffering from multiple deprivations and experiencing high levels of dependency on the public and voluntary sectors even within the wider South Wales Valleys area, and so this gave further empirical justification to the case study design. Within Merthyr Tydfil, the Gurnos has suffered particularly high levels of deprivation as well as a hugely stigmatised identity, which is explored further in Chapter Five, and has a very strong voluntary sector presence which potentially makes this estate especially vulnerable to external socio-economic forces. It also means that there is likely to be a lot more interaction between the authorities and local people given the higher levels of dependency, and so this implies more people with valuable insight into these state-community interactions. In this study, Merthyr Tydfil itself provided the context for processes of informal social control, with the Gurnos itself being the case study, demonstrating elevated levels of socio-economic distress.

The units of analysis were the individuals and institutions who used and provided the services in the estate and delivered informal social control. They were chosen because the

individual is the most obvious unit of analysis in a piece of research designed to uncover people’s perceptions and interpretations of their social world, and it is as individuals that people interact with various civic institutions and others in their social world. While the research makes reference to various institutions, it was the perspectives of the individuals within them which were accessed and their experiences recounted as their own, as opposed to their being held up as representative of a particular service or institutional position. This also acknowledges the fact that people who reside within the same estate, or who have similar circumstances, are of a similar age or gender or are members of the same socio-economic group, may have vastly different interpretations of their social world despite their apparent similarities.

The study’s aims to update theory on the interactions between state and civil society and the impact of this on informal social control justifies a case study, as the work by Bottoms and Foster were also case studies that focused on the self-contained dynamics of particular housing estates. Negative case analysis was used to analyse and compare fragments of data from different individuals, as per the analytic induction method. Negative case analysis is sympathetic with the aims of adaptive theory, which is the pursuit of ‘ever more adequate knowledge’ about the complexities of the social world (Layder, 1997: 9).

Deliberately seeking out cases which seem to contradict emergent theory contributes to this aim, as this builds a more nuanced picture of social reality and strengthens our understanding of the interaction of various structural and agentic factors through this deeper analysis.

Case Study Methods

As well as being particularly suited to a study in this setting, a case study design held intrinsic benefits of its own. The rigorous analytic process for building theory is a key strength of the case study approach. Within-case analysis is one stage of this, involving detailed write-ups for each case, or in this study, each interview or participant. Alongside this is cross-case analysis, whereby data is compared for similarities and differences between cases or categories, or between data sources. Yin (1984) also notes the strength of

However the general principle of cross-comparing data generated from different sources is a rigorous analytic tool and generates theory which is strongly grounded in the empirical world. Case studies allow for the combination of data collection methods, and both qualitative and quantitative data as in this study.

The study began with some tentative hypotheses based on the review of existing literature and the pilot interviews in order to give structure to the initial entry to the field. In the field, the iteration between data collection and analysis threw up several new hypotheses and theories which were then tested through further theoretical sampling and data collection, following Layder’s (1998) adaptive approach. One of these was the idea that crime was simply one of several social problems faced by people living in the estate as opposed to an overriding concern. Further sampling amongst local people confirmed this and clarified the hypothesis that reputation was a key aspect of social control in this setting (see Chapter Six).

Eisenhardt details the process of hypothesis building and argues that greater construct validity can be ensured through using several sources of evidence to build construct measures (p20). This was achieved through interviewing different types of participant as well as a range of individuals, and also through utilising observational data gathered at the youth centre via ethnography. This gave the opportunity to observe informal social control in practice as well as gathering people’s accounts via interview, in order that they might be corroborated or cross-examined and discourses separated from action. Younger adults who volunteered at the youth centre as well as local women and community stalwarts were in general consensus that crime was not their primary concern, with the one exception being an individual who was currently being victimised. The replication logic employed by Yin (1984) also ensured a rigorous hypothesis-testing process, as this second stage of testing means that constructs fit the evidence in each case.

Therefore constructs are tested against each case, or in this study, each sub-unit of analysis, in order that the relationship can be confirmed or disproved by the evidence.

A positive feature of the case study design is the linking of emergent concepts, categories and theories back to the literature informing the study, which allowed for the cross-comparison with previous works which conflicted with the findings of this study as

well as supported it. The development of theory relating to the use of stigma as a tool of informal social control was one example of this (see Chapter Eight). While this aspect of theory was at odds with much of the Chicagoan literature, it has a strong foundation elsewhere (Braithwaite, 1989; Goffman, 1963) and as fieldwork progressed it became clear that this emergent theory was directly related to the character of the setting itself and its static population, in contrast to many inner-city areas.

This linking and cross-comparison was crucial in strengthening the development of theory and making it transferable to other settings by avoiding idiosyncrasies in conceptual development and through the interrogation of emergent theory against existing works.

Rigorous cross-comparison with conflicting findings in the literature is crucial, as ignoring conflicting literature weakens faith in the findings and raises challenges to the fit between data, setting and theory. Similarly, findings which are overly idiosyncratic to that particular research setting raise issues of generalizability. Categories and concepts, such as that of

‘tidy’ (see Chapter Six) which arise from the particularities of the setting have the potential to become idiosyncratic without these linkages back to existing literature. But by linking these back to broader themes such as collective memory and stigma, it becomes possible to identify how aspects might travel to other settings and how they fit with existing theory.

Sampling

Conducting this type of qualitative, subjective study potentially raises issues of representativeness and generalizability with regard to how respondents are sampled and why. This study employed theoretical sampling as per the analytic induction approach, which emphasises the collection of data until the point of theoretical saturation (Bryman, 2006: 305). Theoretical sampling was utilised in order to locate individuals and groups who it was thought would be best able to contribute to the understanding of the operation of informal social control in this setting. These were sampled on the basis of the theoretical propositions derived from the existing literature which highlighted the importance of interrelation between the state and civil society and its intermediary institutions, and the consequences of local authority decision-making on the operation of informal social control

It was decided to sample users of these types of services and intermediary institutions that would be affected by government decision-making and disinvestment, and who were also involved in enacting informal social control. Sampling took place amongst the providers of these services and ‘community stalwarts’, which again draws on the first objective relating to historical context. This was on the basis that they would have professional insight into the social and economic impacts of de-industrialisation as well as the issues currently faced by the community and the potential consequences of disinvestment now. It was hypothesized that they would have insight into the efforts of local authorities to redevelop the area following de-industrialisation and also into the nature of interactions between the state and civil society, given that they would be involved in the provision of these services.

Beginning at the youth centre, which was the primary research base for the study, the staff and volunteers were interviewed, as were older youth club members. Based on the referrals made by interviewees, others involved in service provision or in the voluntary and statutory sectors were identified and approached for interview. This pattern was continued until the interviewees began to refer the researcher back to individuals who had already been interviewed, indicating that saturation had been reached. Sampling across the groups of people who used and provided services was linked to this study’s conception of informal social control as a spectrum of behaviours ranging from everyday micro-interactions to more organised but still informal activities that are distinct, but linked and sometimes interdependent. This parallels the way that formal and informal controls, state and civil society and objective and subjective conceptions of the social world are also distinct but linked entities. This broadens the theoretical understanding of types of informal social control as well as the interactions between them and between the agentic and structural aspects of the social world as characterised by Layder (1998).

In the context of a post-industrial community where the state is heavily involved in supporting civil society, sampling women made theoretical sense for several reasons. Firstly, as the people more heavily involved in childcare, mothers would tend to have more connection with and investment in the statutory services and intermediary institutions such as schools, healthcare and youth groups. Traditionally, the gendered labour roles of men

and women meant that it was frequently the latter who were involved in the informal policing of the neighbourhood and keeping a collective watch over children in shared public spaces, the types of parochial controls identified by Carr (2003). While much of the focus on the consequences of de-industrialisation has been on its impacts on men and boys and their lack of socialisation through the workplace and key civic institutions, feminist writers such as Bea Campbell have highlighted the role of women as community stalwarts and heads of the household as the organisation of domestic and paid labour has shifted (Young and Willmott, 1957; Dempsey, 1990; Campbell, 1993).

Limitations

There are weaknesses associated with the case study design and Yin (1984) and Eisenhardt (2002) discuss some of these, which focus on a lack of rigour and on idiosyncratic concepts and findings. While it is important to ground the data firmly in the setting in order to more accurately reflect the experiences and perceptions of participants, Eisenhardt argues that there is the potential to employ concepts and categories and to generate theory which are overly idiosyncratic to the setting and therefore limit the capacity to generalise to any other setting or group outside the study. One way to avoid this is to continuously refer back to previous literature and the concepts and analytic structures employed there. Grounding emerging concepts and categories in the literature as well as the setting is therefore an important safeguard against overly an insular and parochial analysis. While the findings themselves are context-specific, the concepts and theories generated, if expounded in sufficient detail, can be used to enable comparisons with other settings.

Here, the critical realist approach was also useful in overcoming the potential for parochialism in the treatment of data, theory and setting, because it connects the data generated from this particular setting back out to the wider context and examines how the actions of state or corporate bodies, for example, impact on the internal dynamics of community. The case study design is a key component of this approach, as the intense focus on the setting and its relations allows for the differentiation of the necessary and contingent aspects of the phenomena under study which then facilitates the comparison with other

settings and the further exploration of how the dynamics of informal social control play out elsewhere.

A further limitation to the embedded case study design identified by Yin is the potential for the study to remain overly focused on the subunits of analysis, in this case the individual participants interviewed and observed, without returning to an analysis at the original level of the case, in this study, the Gurnos estate itself. This is an especial danger, given the period of ethnographic observation and the partial focus on micro-interactions between individuals. To avoid this, it is necessary for the researcher to periodically draw back from the observational work in order to regain a wider focus on the whole study. To an extent, this imbalance of focus is limited by the study’s concern with the interactions between structural and agentic factors, and so consideration of structural dynamics proved an important counter to a narrow focus on individuals.

Drawing on the critical realist perspective which cautions against naive empiricism or the idea that only what is seen can be known, structural dynamics were considered via their effects, both stated and observed, on the individuals and institutions in the field. As will be demonstrated in the empirical chapters, while many people were keenly aware of the impacts of forces such as stigma or the behaviour of local employers on their own personal circumstances, others, such as teenagers, did not appear to fully comprehend the extent to which these forces shaped their circumstances. These structural forces were identified as very obvious factors such as access to transport, as well as the role of external actors such as corporate and state bodies and also the media, whose actions towards the Gurnos were important in perpetuating its spoiled identity. The adaptive approach also ensures that the study remains connected to the literature informing it and the theoretical propositions, which also helps to retain a wider focus on the case as a whole.