Financiación

Following the snowball approach, 17 interviewees selected were accessed for participation in the study (see Table 4.1). The final member o f interviewees differed somewhat from the originally intended total o f 18. No potential interviewee was found in the planning consultancy field using the snowball process possibly because o f the weakness o f the private planning sector resulting from the developmental state strategy adopted by the Taiwanese government (Sections 3.32 and 3.61) The names o f interviewees together with their position and date o f interview are presented below.

Interviewees gave their permission for their names to be used in this thesis.

Table4.1TheFinal Informant List

-t.ON

Interviewee Title Interview 1Interview Place Interview D Reason of Choice Post Scriptum

R .A 1 Ms. Li-Kong Chen

R .A 2 Mr. An-Chiang Wang Director of Comprehensive

Planning Department. CPA Face to Face

Face to Face Chen's office 19* Oct 2006 Introduced by Ms Shu-Hui Wu

Face to Face Conference room, CEPD 28* Sep 2006 Introduced by Mr Chung- Chang Hsu

R .B 3 Ms. Ming-Chu Tsai Specialist Commissioner

Ms. Tsai. Min-Chu Face to Face

Table 4.1 The Final Informant List (Cont’d) Source: A uthor’s data

R.A1 Ms. Li-Hong Chen, Ex-Member o f the Urban Planning Committee, telephone interview on 31st Jul 06- led to R.C1 Yuan-Jen, Hsueh interviewed on 11th Aug 06, Urban Development Bureau (UDB), Kaohsiung City Government and Hsueh led further to R.C2 Wen-Chin, Chang , interviewed on 11th Aug 06, Senior Planner in the UDB. Also led to R.D1 Professor Tong-Po Ho, Department o f Asset Science, Leader University, and also the Ex-Vice-Secretary o f Kaohsiung City Government, interviewed on 16th Sep 06- led to R.C3 Mr. Chung-Chang Hsu. R.C3 Mr Hsu introduced R.F1 Dr. Tsu-Lung Chou, Member o f the Urban Planning Committee, CPA, and R.B2 Mr. Hong-Kai Liao, Senior Specialist, Urban and Housing Development Department, CEPD, interviewed on 28th Sep 06- end o f process.

R.B1 Dr. John Chien-Yuan Lin, National Taiwan University, interviewed on 15 Aug 06- led to R.F2 Dr. Chen-Kang Su, Assistant Professor, Department o f Land Management and Development, Chang-Jung Christian University, interviewed on 5th Sep 06.

R.F2 Dr. Chen-Kang Su led to R.D2Ms Jui-Huan Chen, Specialist Chief, South Taiwan Science Park Administration, interviewed on 11th Sep 06 and R.C4 Mr.

Hsin-Hsou Wu, Director o f Department o f Urban and Rural Development, Tainan County Government, interviewed in 13th Sep 06- end o f process.

R.D2 led to R.A2 Mr. C.M. Chen, Deputy Director o f Comprehensive Planning Department, Construction and Planning Agency (CPA), Ministry o f the Interior (MOI), (replaced by C hen’s Director, Wang, An-Chiang due to unavailability), interviewed on 27th Sep 06- end o f process, also led to R.D3 Ms. Hsiu-Min Chang, Section Chief o f

Kaohsiung Science Park Division, STSP Administration, interviewed on 15th Sep 06 who led to R.C5 Ms Chien-Yun Hsu, Urban Planning Section Chief, Kaohsiung County Government, interviewed on 5th Oct 06.

R.D3 and R.C5 led to R.D4 Ms. Shu-Hui Wu, Industrial and Commercial Service Section Chief, Kaohsiung County Government, interviewed on 13th Oct 06 and R. C5 also led to R.A3 Dr. Yen-Jong Chen, Member o f Regional Planning Committee (RPC), MOI, interviewed on 19th Oct 06- end o f process.

R.D2 led to Ms. Ming-Chu Tsai, Member o f Integration Section, National Science Council, interviewed on 27th Sep 06.

The finding least expected was the very weak connection between the plan making process and private planning consultancies (Figure 4.5). As mentioned in Chapter Three (Sections 3.32 and 3.61), the planning process in Taiwan is supposedly used as an instrument for achieving economic development strategy and dominated by the public sector and the final potential informant lists as a result o f the snowball process confirmed this. Therefore, private sector seemed not to be referred to by informants during the snowball process.

The final informant list extracted by means o f the snowball process also illustrated the significance o f academic groups as well as public institutions in the planning process, since some academic respondents held positions in government, e.g. Dr. Tsu-Lung Chou, M ember o f Urban Planning Committee and Dr. Yen-Jong Chen, Member o f Regional Planning Committee. This suggested that academic groups might also have played an important role in policy coordination through their personal networks in

academ ia. F u rth er inform ation in relation to th is w as expected to be obtained from interview s.

Finally, the contribution o f the snow ball p ro cess approach w ill becom e clea r in the follow ing chapters. W ith regard to re sp o n d en ts' b ackgrounds, it w as noticeable that m any inform ants chosen by the snow ball approach w ere sen io r officers w ho had been involved in the p olicy-m aking process for long tim e. M any o f them seem ed to know each o th er and there appeared to be a strong n etw o rk behind the form al structure. I f the snow ball process approach had not been used, these re latio n sh ip s w ould not h av e been uncovered not w ould the people in ch arg e o f the p o licy -m ak in g process been indentified. The findings presented in C hap ter E ight provide fu rther ju stific atio n s for the selection o f the research m ethods used in th is study.

Figure 4.5 Final In form ant List Extracted by the Snowball Process

Central G overnm ent

P rivate S ector

Land U; E con om ic

R. A FamiT Plan nin g

R .B

L o c a l Gov< Elite Interview

to Respondents Land U se ^ '~ ~ "

P la n n in g ^ R C _.112 Other Groups

Source: A u th o r's data

150

4.8 Conclusion

This chapter has introduced the research methods and strategies employed in this research. In brief, the primary research methods used were the case study, elite semi-structured interview, and the analysis o f relevant documentation. These three methods provided strong triangulation, covered all necessary sources, and overcame the limitation o f a single method. The contribution o f the strong triangulation is seen in the rich research findings presented in the following chapters.