A researcher behaving in an ethical way helps to maintain public interest and prevents suspicion among informants (Clifford and Valentine, 2010). Diener and Crandall (1978, cited in Bryman, 2012: 135), argue that ethical issues usually centres around four basic areas including whether there is lack of informed consent, whether there is harm to participants, whether there is invasion of privacy and whether there is deception involved.
In relation to the issue of informed consent, everyone who participates in the study should have freely consented to participation, without being coerced or unfairly pressurised. This means they should be well-informed about what participation entails. The first thing I did was to seek consent from various groups of people before starting with the field work. I sought consent from the acting omanhene of the Shama District. I also sought the consent of the two chief fishermen at the two landing beaches in Shama. Their consent was needed because any issue involving fishing and its activities were brought before them. Without their consent, I would have been considered an intruder.
In addition to the community leaders’ consent, I sought the consent of all informants before I started with an interview or any informal conversation, introducing myself as a Ghanaian student studying in Norway and showing them the introductory letter from my supervisor. I also explained to them the purpose of my research and its relevance. Most of the informants then became quite interested in the topic of my study. I developed this strategy after I had an encounter with an informant who wanted to know the relevance of my study before agreeing to grant me an interview. I also informed the informants that the interviews were voluntary and not obligatory, and they could refuse or withdraw from any interview.
Since I used a digital audio recorder during the key informant interviews, I sought the consent of the informants before the digital audio recorder was used. I also played the recorded audio to them afterwards. The photographs presented in this study were all taken with the informants’ consent. I informed them about what the photographs would be used for, which they accepted.
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It is not always easy or even possible to measure the dangers of a certain context to a given population, let alone to individuals. It is therefore essential to protect the identity of the person from whom you gather information. In order to prevent the invasion of privacy, the identities and records of informants in this study have been maintained as confidential. This is to ensure that informants are not identifiable. I assured participants that I would do my utmost to uphold confidentiality and anonymity. I therefore altered some specific details in the transcripts that could make an informant identifiable.
Researchers are obliged to provide informants with a complete account about what a study is all about. In order to prevent deception, I explained as much as possible the research process to my informants before an interview. The research was explained and interviews were granted willingly. This therefore established some level of trust.
3.8.1 Validity and Reliability of Data
Ensuring a high degree of validity and reliability is a very important aspect of qualitative research since it establishes its authenticity. Validity according to Hammersley (1990: 57 in Silverman, 2005: 210) is the extent to which a research finding ‘represents the social phenomena’ studied. Establishing the validity or in Guba’s words “trustworthiness” of research depends on the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability (Guba, 1981 cited in Shenton 2004: 64).
Credibility or replicability involves ensuring that your research meets the expectations of your research questions or aims. It usually poses the question “How congruent are the findings with reality?” (Merriam, 1998 cited in Shenton, 2004: 64). Credibility can be enhanced through several factors including triangulation. Triangulation involves the use of different methods for producing data in the field (Oslen, 2004). In the social sciences it refers to the combination of two or more theories, data sources, or investigators in one study of a single phenomenon to converge on a single construct, and can be employed in both quantitative and qualitative studies. The use of data collection strategies including participant observation and simple observation, semi-structured interviews and group interviews helped in establishing credibility. According to Guba (1981, cited in Shenton, 2004: 65), using different methods in qualitative studies minimizes their individual shortcomings. The use of four different methods of data collection helps reduce the weakness and biases that may occur in single-method studies, single-observer and single-theory studies (Jakob, 2001). Comparing data from these methods therefore helped in making the study more credible. For instance, a crucial validity
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issue is whether I asked the relevant questions or not, and whether both my informants and I had the same interpretation of the questions asked. Understanding and interpreting questions correctly depends on whether or not I conveyed the questions correctly to elicit the appropriate responses. To ensure a higher degree of validity, I rephrased questions in situations where informants misunderstood questions asked. For example during the initial stages of my interviews, when informants were asked: How has the oil and gas industry affected your livelihoods? Most of them provided only information about the negative impacts of the oil and gas exploration on their livelihoods. In such situations, the question was therefore rephrased as: what has been the situation of fishing before the exploration and production of oil and gas and what has been the situation of your fishing activities after the exploration and production of oil and gas? Alternatively, I asked the question in Twi. In this way, the informants and I had a similar understanding of the question to a large extent which improved validity of the data. Also, my positionality influenced the kind of answers I received. For instance, during the early phase of the fieldwork when I was ascribed various statuses such as a government official, a worker from an oil and gas company, a worker of an NGO, informants portrayed themselves as people facing a lot of challenges, affecting the answers they provided. I therefore had to explain who I was (a student researcher) and the purpose of my research. This helped in the improvement of the validity of data.
Transferability refers to the degree to which one’s research findings can be applicable in similar situations (Shenton, 2004). Knowledge from a research or study can be transferred to other similar situations, “depending on the degree of temporal and contextual similarity” (Guba and Lincoln, 1982, cited in Gobo, 2008: 197). Schwandt stated that Lincoln and Guba “urge the investigator to provide sufficient details … so that readers can engage in reasonable but modest speculation about whether the findings are applicable to other cases” (1997: 58). A thick description of the research and the research process has been provided in this study. Confirmability questions how the research findings are supported by the data collected. This is a process to establish whether the researcher has been bias during the study. This is due to the assumption that qualitative research allows the research to bring a unique perspective to the study. Lincoln and Guba (1985, cited in Shenton, 2004: 72) argue that confirmability can be established through the use of triangulation and “detailed methodological description”. Triangulation and a vivid or detailed research process have been widely used in this study.
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CHAPTER FOUR
FISHING AND FISH TRADE: MAKING A LIVELIHOOD IN SHAMA 4.0 Introduction
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on artisanal fishing in Shama. It describes the types of gears used, the types of fish caught and fishermen’s coping strategies in times of difficulty. The second part explores the fish trade business in Shama with focus on sources of fish supply, how fish is processed and the market destinations, transportation and sale of fish at the market centres. Each part of the chapter concludes with the challenges faced by fishermen and fish traders.