5.4.1
topics
Coding was the next stage of the analysis. I began coding as I transcribed, and intensified this phase once the transcripts were completed. In line with grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), my initial approach was ‘open coding’. This process isolates relevant segments of the data, and assigns descriptive labels to each segment, allowing key ideas from across interviews to emerge from the data, rather than being prescribed in advance (Tracy, 2013). This is a typical approach in descriptive and theory-building research methodologies (Berg, 2009; Bogner, et al., 2009; Deming & Swaffield, 2011; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009).
In practice, this first stage involved open coding onto sticky-notes (i.e. post-its), where I noted interview content that was emphasised or repeated by one expert, or mentioned by multiple experts. I began with manually extracted ‘in vivo’52 codes (i.e. quoting expert’s phrases directly and noting who said what). Later I began to code more complex ideas, using condensed and simplified language of my own to summarise what was said (Kvale, 1996; Tracy, 2013). I listened to every interview recording at least four times during the analysis process and iteratively added to the body of codes as I proceeded. This involved constantly interpreting and comparing what the data was “telling me” with what I aimed to find out (i.e. my research aim and objectives), and reflecting on how the two interacted (Srivastava & Hopwood, 2009, p.78). About 150 distinct codes were created during this stage, each on a separate sticky-note (Figure 4). When two or more experts expressed very similar
ideas, I would note both names onto the sticky-note containing that code/idea. Appendix 10 presents one page of coded text as examples.
Figure 4: Photograph showing individual sticky-notes used in primary coding.
During and after this, I conducted axial coding. The purpose of this was to experiment with combinations of codes, creating novel assemblies until, iteratively, the complex relations between individual codes were ‘mapped out’. I describe this array as a ‘sticky-note network’ (Figure 5, below). This process was particularly pertinent to my research, because it enabled analogous terms and concepts from the different experts’ disciplines to be aligned. Cross-interview analyses of this type are what enable the recognition of broader themes that are scattered amongst interviews (Meuser & Nagel, 2009). In this case, many of these occurrences were not revealed during the initial process of open coding interview-by-interview.
To begin with, my axial coding involved spatially arranging and rearranging the sticky-notes intuitively, comparing and contrasting each contained code, and creating categories with conceptual commonalities that I clustered contiguously (Maxwell & Chmiel, 2014). As I proceeded, I routinely referred back to the interview data, returning to open and axial coding where necessary to incorporate additional insights and fill perceivable gaps. I continued this iterative visual arrangement, adding codes where needed, until I perceived a saturation of codes coming from the data (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). At this point, I considered that the network accurately reflected my understandings of the interview data.
In practice, this process was supported by the analytic memos that I had made throughout the research, particularly those recorded during analysis (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014; Tracy, 2013). These recorded my conceptual development process, including potential links that I saw between codes and existing literature as well as questions or hypotheses that arose. These memos, in turn, were informed by my personal academic (and practice-based) background and understandings, previous literature reviews, my experiences with the experts, and the visual and conceptual organising of the codes that I was undertaking. Later, as I moved my focus to developing upon ecological habitus theory (detailed in Chapter 6); this became a focus of further memos.
The completed sticky-note network represented another completed stage in the analysis process. It was made up of five broad categories of codes. These are shown in Figure 5 as vertical columns of sticky-notes, each topped with a category title. The network included 181 sticky-notes in total (consisting of 176 individual codes, and five category titles). The categories, in order from left to right, were informally, but descriptively titled: 1) ‘Greening’; 2) ‘Inclusivity & sharing’; 3) ‘Future/society’; 4) ‘Cities’ [as physical places]; and 5) ‘Perceptions & messages’.
Each code was within the category that I perceived it as most strongly contributing to, based on my understandings of the code’s inherent meanings and my definition of each category. However, because the codes were deconstructed to a relatively abstracted, topical level, and the categories were relatively broad, many of the codes held relevance to multiple categories. For example, one code was for ‘nearby-nature’53, which I placed into the ‘Greening’ category, as it was described to me in the interviews as something that revolves around having ‘green’ elements within cities. However, this code was also relevant to the ‘Cities’ [as places] category, as nature in cities was described variously by the experts as affecting the way that infrastructures and the physical construction of cities operate. For example, trees within cities reduce the reflected solar heat from hard surfaces, and absorb storm water that would otherwise enter storm water systems. This reinforces the value of my understanding of each code’s original context within the interviews.
I demarcated these inter-category relevancies with string (dark lines in Figure 5), linking individual codes directly to the headings of any alternative categories that I perceived the codes as being relevant to. These strings were reminders of which codes I needed to consider from outside each category, when later interpreting the topics that I perceived to be emerging from each category. I also delineated some code-to-code links (within and across category boundaries; pink string triangles in Figure 5) that offered me similar reminders as I interpreted the data.
After this, I refined each category, summarising the ideas that constituted and defined each one. I used coloured felt-tip dots (marked onto the sticky-notes), to define the strongest code-to-code links within each category. Because the categories were constructed through the initial clustering of correlated codes, these strong code-to-code links occurred within individual categories. However, when considering each code, I was informed by the strings attached to it, affording it contextualisation, as described above.
Again, this process was non-linear, requiring iteration; repeated reflection and reconfiguration of the network; and continual reference to the original context of the codes, to pursue the grounded ambition of my analysis. This convoluted path was inevitable, given the complexity of the data54; the grounded approach that I was taking to coding and conceptual organisation (as opposed to applying a pre-existing, pre-selected analytical framework); and my developing understanding of both the data and the theory that I ultimately applied.
Nevertheless, spatially plotting and linking the sticky-notes in this way enabled me to visually depict the conceptual relations that I developed thus far through the coding processes (Maxwell & Chmiel, 2014). I found that having the ideas laid out in such a visual and palpable way was helpful to, and affirmative of, my developing understandings of the data.
The next step was ‘emergent coding’. In theory, emergent coding involves integrating the small, descriptive, fragmented data points defined during open coding back into meaningful topical categories, based on the understandings of the researcher (Tracy, 2013). Reflection back to the research aim underpins this process and such interpretation enables insight, topical connections, and later, themes to be systematically synthesised from the coded data (Srivastava & Hopwood, 2009).
54. The data was complex primarily in that it arose from interviews with 25 experts with distinct conceptualisations, disciplinary training, and professional and personal experiences, who perceived and responded to my interview questions and ambitions
Table 6: Interim outcomes of the analysis process. This shows five interim categories identified from the sticky-note network and interim topics that describe the data within each category.55
Interim categories Interim topics identified during initial data analysis
1.
SOCIETY & THE FUTURE
What people in Western cities value, and seek in their lifestyles.
Perpetuation of the unsustainable status quo.
Need and capacity for societal change.
Potential forms of change (e.g. intentional, gradual, radical, enforced,
demographic, generational, technological, or catastrophic). 2.
GREENING
The value of nature in cities:
o for individuals (i.e. for biopsychosocical benefits); and
o for local/global ecosystem function.
3.
CITIES AS PHYSICAL PLACES
Contextualisation of cities within local bioregions/ecologies.
Effects of cities’ physical design (e.g. form/layout) and function (e.g.
infrastructures) on:
o city dwellers; and
o global ecologies (i.e. ecological economics).
4.
INCLUSIVITY & SHARING
Engaging more city dwellers in sustainability solutions.
Sharing ideas and solutions:
o among city dwellers;
o across disciplines; and
o between experts and city dwellers.
Improving equality of resource distribution.
5.
PERCEPTIONS & MESSAGES
Rethinking perceptions of what is ‘normal’ including:
o city dwellers’ routine everyday practices; and
o institutional disciplinary silos.
Changing the publicised messages about socio-ecological issues and
ways of life to include more digestible, acceptable, practical/achievable, and positive alternatives.
Offering visions of sustainable futures.
During this stage, I summarised the entire network of codes into a few specific topics per category, and these are listed in Table 6. These individual topics were revealed through the interviews as being particularly important to sustainability in future Western cities. However, further formulation of these interim topics was required to construct them into themes that could be situated within topical literatures and framed theoretically.