SÍNTESIS DE LOS PROCESOS ELECCIONARIOS Y CONTEXTO: DESDE EL PLEBISCITO DE 1988 A LAS ELECCIONES MUNICIPALES

Once the voice recordings were made, the social media posts saved into a Microsoft Office file, and all was safely uploaded onto a computer and backed up, the acts of transcribing and listening to the recordings were valuable as ways of becoming familiar with the data (May 2011). Transcription took a good deal of time, and could have taken longer if each of the interviews had been translated from Spanish to English. Due to the time implications of this, the interviews were transcribed in Spanish and then coded with English codes. Any significant excerpts and quotes were translated, remembering to stay truthful to the meaning, rather than simply the words.

As referred to above, appropriate codes emerged from the literature review. These ‘open codes’ were used to compare events, actions and interactions and to ‘give the analyst new insights by breaking through standard ways of thinking about or interpreting phenomena reflected in the data’ (Corbin and Strauss 1990, p. 12). These open codes initiated the development of further codes that related to the context and conditions that had given rise to the viewpoints,

termed by Corbin and Strauss as ‘axial codes’ (ibid). These additional codes emerged later during field work and initial analysis. Codes that are proposed from the literature review were;

Table 4.5. Initial ‘open codes’

Category: Social exclusion: Code: physical exclusion Code: organisational exclusion Code: operational exclusion Code: perception-based exclusion Code: demographic-based exclusion Category: Transport planning and operation

Code: Decision-making process

Code: Exclusion from decision-making process Code: Accountability

Code: Participation/engagement of community Category: Rights

Code: Mobility as a right

Code: Right to inclusion in planning/operating process Code: Right to the city

It should be recognised that these are ‘descriptive codes’, as the researcher is transforming what is said into words that relate to the literature. For example, it is unlikely that the interviewee will say ‘I suffer from physical exclusion’ but more likely, they will use words such as ‘the bus stop is too far away’. Another way of coding would be to code as ‘too far’ which keeps the words in the interviewee’s own language but adds an extra step in the analytical process (Saldana, 2008).

Once the transcripts were coded, it was straightforward to use NVivo 10, a CAQDAS system, to sort and organise the data (see appendices). Similar to the analysis employed by Lucas (2011), the frequency of certain words was used as a measure of significance to the interviewee (provided they are all stated in

the positive i.e. ‘cost is a problem for me’ as opposed to ‘cost is not a problem for me’). However, the role of CAQDAS software was limited to helping

understand the frequency and patterns of words used, as given the need to study the words in context, its use must not ‘override the need to be familiar with data produced’ (May 2011, p. 154).

Coding is the first stage of analysis, used to discover linkages through ordering the data (Saldana, 2008). Coding is iterative with multiple rounds of coding undertaken to discover more themes, grasp meaning and build theory, involving a ‘deep reflection on the emergent patterns and meanings’ (Saldana 2008, p. 10). This depth is directly related to the choice of method as interviews are used to ‘elicit respondent’s perceptions’ (Silverman 2010, p. 48). C.W.Mills (1940) talks of the vocabularies of motive and Bourdieu (1992, 1999) (both cited in May 2011, p. 154) writes of the need to look deeper than a linguistic analysis as is also the case in document analysis. The need to extend the analysis past the presence and frequency of certain words is based on the understanding that interviews can never present objective reality, but are replete with ‘justifications or excuses’, ‘motivations and reasons’ behind ‘acts and interpretations of events and relationships’ (May 2011, p. 155). This fact is very relevant for this research, as there was a chance that government interviewees would seek to justify a particular decision or action, and where community members may take the opportunity of a semi-official setting and a participatory activity to criticise government policy and activity. Therefore, there is a need to analyse the transcripts with these motivations and viewpoints in mind, which was done by re-reading and re-coding the transcripts and documents. In addition, it was important to remember that the reality described by one interviewee of a

situation may well be very different to another’s. It is the regularities or irregularities and features of the account given, that serve as justifications or accusations which can be compared within an interview, and to a lesser extent, at least for semi-structured interviews, between interviews. This activity of comparison, where similarities are identified and interconnections are discovered, relates to Dey’s third phase of ‘collection’ (2003).

Therefore, after initial organising and coding, the texts (documents and interview transcripts) were re-read and re-coded using increasingly deeper codes in order to discover patterns, similarities and differences that will help to address the research questions.

4.9 Conclusion

This chapter has described the epistemological stance of the researcher and how this has translated into the methods used to gather data as well as analyse the data. The research is inductive by design, in that the theory building comes out of data analysis rather than prior to it. A range of methods were included to aid triangulation of the data, including the use of the social network Twitter to locate groups and organisations who were interested in both participatory governance and transport issues. Links have been made between each

research question and the methods used, and a detailed description has been given with particular emphasis on the implications for this research.

Chapters 6, 7 and 8 present the analysis of the data in response to the research questions.

Inclusive urban mobility: participation, rights and

decision-making on transport infrastructure projects