Data Analysis, Representation and Writing

Previous discussions in this chapter have made clear that data analysis was an ongoing process, one which occurred throughout the research. As discussed in Section 3.4, this meant that whilst in Guatemala, the ongoing analysis of documents, interviews and observations was used to inform subsequent interviews, in terms of both who I spoke to and the topics explored during interviews. Despite the increasing popularity of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, such as NVivo, I found that, due to the quantity and variety of data generated during the research (e.g. transcripts, field notes, maps, photos, newspaper articles, (un)published documents and presentations), NVivo was not a useful tool for visualising and analysing the data. Rather, the coding process was performed manually. As with most qualitative research, the iterative process of analysis involved the rigorous and systematic reading of interview transcripts and other data generated during the field research. This involved the use of both deductive and inductive reasoning to enable an understanding of biofuels in Guatemala to emerge from the data. My familiarity with the biofuels field meant that some themes, namely that of the sustainability of the sector, were arrived at deductively, whilst others arose inductively from the data (e.g. the absence of the Guatemalan state in the biofuel sector). As the analysis progressed, the relationships between the different themes became more apparent, facilitating the subsequent process of data interpretation.

In qualitative research, the researcher relies on text rather than numerical data and analyses the data in their textual form rather than converting them to numbers for analysis (Carter and Little 2007). Thus, in this thesis I make use of quotations to illustrate the arguments

made in the main body of the text. Since the majority of the interviews were conducted in Spanish this raises ethical issues about representation in cross-cultural research, which warrants brief discussion here. While the official language of Guatemala is Spanish, the 2002 census lists 24 ‘living’ languages (INE 2003). Veeck (2001: 34) argues that the ability to speak the local language is ‘the centrepiece of successful field research’ and speaking good Spanish was an important factor in the choice of Guatemala as the case study country. Nonetheless, Spanish is not uniform and being in Guatemala required familiarisation with different accents, vernaculars and vocabularies, as well as with the more technical language of biofuels. Furthermore, in some cases I had to rely on an interpreter where research participants only spoke local indigenous languages; this raises additional issues about whose voice is represented in the research (Leck 2014). Whilst my Spanish improved further during the trajectory of my fieldwork, I am still a non-native speaker and some of the ‘multiplicity of meanings’ that are present in language are likely to have been lost in translation and with it the risk of misinterpreting the views of participants (Spivak 1993). Given the focus in qualitative research on representation, one dimension of which is the incorporation of participants’ voices into the written text, translation from Spanish was an important issue when writing the research. Smith (2003) suggests that one way to address this is to analyse interview transcriptions in their source language (in this instance Spanish) with only quotes translated into English, a strategy which I have adopted in writing this research. Further, given the untranslatability of some concepts, I have chosen to leave these in Spanish in the text (see Meyer and Maldonado-Alvarado 2010).

Finally, Richardson (1998) describes writing as a method of inquiry, a way of knowing the research and for the researcher to understand their relationship to the research. In writing this thesis, I also found that writing provided another way of analysing and ‘discovering’ meaning in the data (ibid). The process of writing frequently required me to relive my time in Guatemala and Brussels and to revisit the data as the inter-linkages and relationships between the research themes became apparent. However, the writing process has also involved making decisions about what would be written and how complex themes and issues would be represented in the text, therefore, it is necessarily my own interpretation of the research. Thus, throughout this thesis I make use of the first person in order to make my own role in the research process and interpretation more transparent.

3.6.

Conclusions

This chapter has set out the research methodology used during this study. It has shown that, even with careful planning, research is not a linear process; rather, it can be ‘messy’ and fraught with problems such as access, power and representation. Adopting a qualitative, interpretivist view of research acknowledges this messiness as part of the production of context-dependent knowledge (Denzin and Lincoln 1998). As asserted by England (1994), research is both a process and a product and it is therefore important to reflect upon and evaluate the praxis of research. Acknowledging the contingent nature of research is one way to do this, and involves the researcher acknowledging and examining their own impact on the research process and the final form of the thesis. As this chapter has shown, this might entail making choices about the positioning of the researcher and the research topic. Such decisions may also be reactive, enabling the researcher to maximise the research outcomes in light of unexpected events. As Flyvbjerg (2001) suggests, reflecting upon these choices can strengthen the ability of research to make sense of complex phenomena, such as biofuels.

Having described the research process, the following chapter picks up from Chapter Two to analyse the governance of biofuels. Drawing on the literature on governance for sustainability and expert interviews, the chapter focuses on the EU’s approach to governing biofuels as one of the few markets to explicitly address the sustainability of biofuels.