It is generally considered that interviews should be transcribed verbatim (Dunn, 2010).
However, during any conversation, people rarely speak in fully formed sentences: they often repeat themselves or are hesitant (Bryman, 2008).
For the benefits of the reader some of the hesitancies are removed in the quoted evidence and words are inserted to bring clarity, especially in the case of interviews where the participants’
first language is not English. Any hesitancy or text removed (so as to reduce the size of the quotation) is indicated by ellipsis, whilst inserted text is indicated by square brackets.
3.7.1 Coding qualitative data
Coding is the starting point for most methods of qualitative data analysis (Bryman, 2008). The purpose of coding is to select, separate and sort data in order to begin the challenge of determining what they mean (Charmaz, 2006; Bazeley, 2007). Charmaz (2006) states that coding forms the analytic frame upon which the analysis is built and, as such, should begin in a very open manner – breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualising and categorizing the data (see Strauss and Corbin, 1998). In general, most coding strategies employ a structure that begins with the numerous codes that emerge, which are assimilated into categories and sometimes concepts and theories (Bazeley, 2007).
123 Grounded theory embraces a process of coding that builds initial concepts through constant comparison with the data, building categories (a concept regarded as representing real-world phenomena) and hypotheses (initial hunches about relationships between concepts) and theorising (Bryman, 2008). The process beings with open coding (often of individual words), followed by focused coding, which is more directive, selective and conceptual (Charmaz, 2006). Coding in this manner is, however, criticised by some writers for being too fragmentary, resulting in a loss of sense of context (e.g. Coffey and Aitkinson, 1996).
Furthermore, Bryman (2008) states that many claims to a grounded theory approach result in the identification of concepts rather than theories. Indeed, the research focuses upon the identification of themes rather than theory and therefore relates more to a thematic (content) analysis approach, which is increasingly regarded as an alternative, but closely linked, means of coding and analysing qualitative data (Bryman, 2008; Creswell, 2014).
Burnard et al. (2008) states that in thematic content analysis, open coding involves reading each transcript and making notes or short phrases that summarise what is said within the text.
Cope (2010) suggests that coding includes ‘descriptive codes’ (category labels) that express themes or arrangements that are more obvious or directly voiced by the respondent and
‘analytic codes’ that highlight issues and themes that intrigue the researcher or have emerged as significant. Bazeley (2007) goes one step further to suggest that codes can be descriptive, topical or analytical. Without being overly concerned with the labelling of the technique employed here, arguably the researcher follows a thematic content analysis with elements of a grounded theory approach, adopting procedures outlined by Bazeley (2007), Bryman (2008), Creswell (2014) and, to some extent, Charmaz (2006) for coding and interpreting data.
124 3.7.2 Coding scheme and strategy
Both descriptive and analytical codes were adopted in order to analyse the qualitative data, the former relating specific areas of enquiry (e.g. ‘toolkit development’) and the latter to the themes that emerged (e.g. ‘scale’). Owing to the volume of interview data, qualitative data management software was utilised (NVivo), as it facilitated the management and retrieval of coded data. The pitfalls of electronic coding were acknowledged, including the danger of ending up with more codes than are manageable (Bazeley, 2007). The software supported the complimentary analysis of the interview data in terms of memo-writing, annotating text and auditing (within NVivo, a journal was kept of significant decisions and reflections upon the coding process; see Bazeley, 2007).
Owing to the identification of themes within the literature, some of the codes were a priori (see Bazeley, 2007), whilst others emerged during the analysis process. The researcher opted to code entire phrases, sentences and – at times – paragraphs to avoid overly fragmenting the data and losing too much of the contextual meaning (cf. Coffey and Aitkinson, 1996). The codes were revised as each transcript was analysed and the coding scheme was refined through the re-coding of the same interviews until the researcher was convinced the meanings were well represented by the codes. All three studies employed qualitative coding, categorising and theme building and an example of the codes that were adopted for the analysis of the Study A (and largely Study B) is given in Figure 3.6. The descriptive codes are shaded blue; analytical codes are shaded brown, with sub-codes being indicated by the use of ellipse shapes. The attribution of each of these sub-codes to the primary code is indicated by a line. Ultimately, all the codes are linked since the analytical codes emerged from the responses to the descriptive codes.
125 Figure 3.6 Diagram of descriptive and analytic codes assimilated into categories and themes respectively identified during the analysis of Study A. The diagram was created using NVivo.
3.8 Summary
Qualitative research is challenging to define and implement but incredibly rewarding; it provides researchers with the means to explore topics that have largely received little attention to date. The research is driven by pragmatic concerns and practical needs and this reflects the choices of methodology and methods adopted for this research (see Table 3.11).
Semi-structured interviews, informal meetings, secondary data and information and
126 observations were selected as a suitable means of exploring to what extent NGOs are assessing multi-hazards and a case study of the reality of multi-hazards and what their assessments entail. These methods are a means of triangulating the research and the description of their implementation ensures a rigorous and transparent approach to research was adopted. The research emphasises the importance of an ethical and reflexive approach.
The decision to address the research question in two complementary parts reflects the nature of interdisciplinary research, which necessitates a problem to be addressed from more than one angle.
Table 3.11 Summary of the research approach.
Research design Part one Part two
Study A Study B Study C
Approach Qualitative Qualitative Mixed
Methodology Grounded Grounded Case study
Methods
Location of study UK Manila, Albay and
Mindanao (Philippines)
Manila and Albay (Philippines)
The following two chapters present the findings from the first part of the research and chapters 6 to 8 introduce and discuss the findings of the case study. The approach to presenting the qualitative information is a combination of findings with some initial discussion (see Burnard et al., 2008) before synthesising parts one and two in a final discussion in Chapter 9.
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