RELLENO Y COMPACTADO DE ZANJA CON TIERRA CERNIDA UNIDAD: Metro Cubico (m3)

The data collected from interview recording was transcribed using a freely available software programme online called ExpressScribe. It was recommended by a fellow PhD student who had also used the software for her own transcriptions. Initially, I had concerns regarding security and the storing of data, however, looking further into the programme, it was used offline and the voice files were uploaded and erased as required. The software allows users to upload voice files, slow recordings down and create hot keys which can rewind and forward recordings in order to effectively beat previous methods of foot pedalling. After each recording had been transcribed in English, including all non- verbal nods and communications, the files were then erased from the software in order to further protect participants and manage data files. A database from the demographics forms were also completed and entered into SPSS for analysis into the relationships between age, ethnicity and location and these have been presented in section 4.6. I began a brief analysis of the transcripts, recordings and my personal reflections on the interviews and the experiences in the field to draw together a number of themes and patterns which could then be transformed into codes and a framework for deeper analysis. Bryman (2008) refers to this method as post-coding as it is a process of coding material after it is been collected. Similarly, Charmaz (2006) make a distinction between two types of coding processes, initial coding and selective coding (Charmaz, 2006: 57). I used this method to tease out primary codes which may be part of an overarching coding theme. Further exploration led to selective coding which would rule out some of the initial codes or even combine some of the initial codes to form a new analytical category. Primarily, I used the freehand method with a few transcripts to draw out themes from as this particular method would allow the data to speak for itself rather than having previously established theories or ideas around the data which had not yet been analysed. I was also cautious not to influence the directionality of my data analysis, therefore choosing codes based upon the transcripts and previous readings. I created a database of codes (See Appendix 7) which included seven super codes, which I describe as the overarching theme or idea for the sub-codes, alongside a number of sub-codes ranging from six to twenty three,

depending on the free hand analysis completed previously. The super codes would then become the basis for my five empirical chapters. The super codes and their related sub-

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codes were imported into a computer software program specifically designed for the analysis of transcriptions and data taken from qualitative fieldwork. Nvivo allowed me to manage, store and analyse the data by coding the transcripts into the relative coding themes. Colour-codes were attached to each theme and a simple ‘click and drag’ would allow a segment of an interview to fall into one or more different sub-codes depending on the theme being explored. After coding the data, each super code was exported into an MS Word document for deeper analysis. The program Nvivo was less used as an analytical tool but more as a way of storing and managing the data, I was able to import all transcripts and store them as Sources while the codes were converted into Nodes, specifically Tree Nodes, which allowed for sub-codes to be created within the super codes.

After exporting the relevant super codes from Nvivo, I began reading and re-reading the excerpts from the interviews and continued free-hand analysis of the data to draw out interpretations for use in the empirical chapters. It is important to note here that again the data was leading the focus of the empirical chapters as it had been organised according to a previous analysis of themes taken from transcripts. I felt a significant responsibility to allow the participants to gain their own voice from the research and make this about them, rather than a research process which ultimately would dehumanize them. I decided to use both computer software and axial coding to overcome the limitations of using one method only (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). A thematic approach to the data was taken which allowed me to construct a large database of indexed themes (Bryman, 2008). Computer programs are unable to seek out subtle interpretations without human influence and the storing and handling of data without the use of software may have overpowered my ability to manage it as there were various voice files, demographics forms and writings in research diaries which I use in my reflections of the fieldwork. I was watchful of not allowing my own judgements and existing knowledge to manipulate the data while it was being coded, managed and analysed as the urgency was to responsibly speak for the participants (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Colbin, 1990).

Using qualitative methods, the aim of the research is not to produce a universal or absolute truth about Muslim women in Scotland, yet to present a nuanced and contextualised understanding of the lives of those women involved in the study. Validated through meticulous coding, analysis and management of data, the thesis provides an account of the everyday lives of the participants, their desires, their anticipations and their understandings, rooted within a discourse of feminist and faith geographical methodology

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and literature. As the interviews and focus groups were conducted and transcribed in English, this removed the need for a translator, allowing me to focus my energy on interpreting the words of the participants and representing them in the most accurate ways possible. I attempted to ensure this accuracy at all stages by allowing a methodological approach which seeks to characterize the participants’ lives as opposed to fitting their words to a particular theory or hypothesis. Using existing literature, the empirical chapters have focused upon representing the participants’ outlook in particular social, political and cultural contexts. Using the interpretive geographical model set out by Schwartz and Jacobs (1979), the analysis of data is ‘attempting to develop representations and constructions to describe the representations and constructions that take place within the social world’ (Baxter and Eyles, (1997: 506). Furthermore, I feel that through a process of continuous reflexivity I have developed a rigorous approach to the research through thematic interview guides, understanding the power relations at work throughout the field study alongside critiquing my positionality at every stage of the research context (Baxter and Eyles, 1997).

In terms of addressing the generalisability of research, I have attempted to offer valid accounts of the women involved in the study, and does not mean it is generalisable to all of the Muslim women living in Scotland, however, it is a contextual narrative which opens up previous debates around the lives and contributions of Muslim women in Western societies, their ideas of belonging, identity, participation and anti-racism. Moreover, the nature of the research has been validated through the experience of the participants who argued that such a project was needed to understand the lives and experienced of Muslim women living in Scotland.