2 ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
3.4 Data collection and analysis
3.4.1 Types of evidence: mixed methods
The starting point for the collection and analysis of data was immersion in the subject.
Exposure to many sources of potentially valuable data can benefit abductive interpretation of
phenomena by permitting a situation to be viewed from multiple perspectives. Although the methods of classical grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss, 1990; Glaser and Strauss, 1967) were not stringently followed, the research process drew from grounded theory the notion that
‘all is data’ (Glaser, 2002) and simultaneous data collection and analysis (Charmaz, 2006: 23-24). The process had more in common with Charmaz's (2006) ‘constructivist grounded theory’
than what she calls ‘objectivist grounded theory’ (i.e., following the mould of Glaser, Corbin and Strauss), in its acceptance of the researcher as an involved agent within the research topic.
The researcher acted as participant-observer engaged in the topic of material reuse and upcycling through several roles, besides purely working towards the accomplishment of the academic thesis, both prior to and during the project: initially as an architecture student, then an amateur artist-maker, a practising architect, an architectural tutor, a director of Remakery Brixton Ltd (RBL; a reuse-focused workplace start-up), a supervisor of MSc and MRes research projects, a hands-on agent in reuse activity connected to the industrial sponsors, and a potential entrepreneur exploring an upcycling business model spinning out of the research.
A criticism of the involved qualitative researcher is that knowledge generation will be subject to the individual’s perceptual limitations and pre-conceived biases. Others argue that subjectivity cannot be ruled out in any research (Barton et al., 2009; Flyvbjerg, 2011: 309-311; McKeown, 1999). All research, however conceived, is the work of individuals, who decide what they will research, where they will and will not focus attention, and who cannot avoid drawing to some extent on their past experience and knowledge. Humans more readily recognise evidence that verifies their pre-existing interpretations: ‘It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than negatives’ (Bacon, 1873, quoted in Flyvbjerg, 2011: 309). Bias or subjectivity cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed, for instance through transparent acknowledgement of the researcher’s background and any normative aspects of the research; through attempts to recognise assumptions that may have been made; and through triangulation of different types of evidence gathered from a number of sources (Denzin, 2009; Yin, 2014).
Past experience that the researcher brought to this project is set out in the top rows of Table 10 and discussed in section 3.4.4. Greater neutrality was sought through co-production of knowledge with practitioners and other researchers (Green et al., 2010), and through the use of qualitative and quantitative data (Firestone, 1987; Saunders et al., 2009: 153) to provide triangulation. Bazeley (1999) borrows Denzin and Lincoln’s description of the researcher as a
‘bricoleur, piecing together emergent solutions to a puzzle’. In that spirit, the intention has been to triangulate between different methods to build confidence in findings and tackle different parts of the thesis topic. Physical places of production, practitioners, regulations, and materials themselves are all key facets of the topic, so the research incorporated, inter alia, visits to construction sites and factories, interviews with practitioners, assessment of waste reporting, and engagement with materials through prototypical manufacture and laboratory testing (Table 10). Many of these methods were carried out as part of case studies, used to develop
understanding of the present context, and to test responses to it. In Chapter 4 the cases involved observation of live building projects, and in Chapter 5, engagement with construction processes, both related to the operations of the industrial sponsors. In Chapter 6, several separate investigations contributed to the case of cross-laminated secondary timber (CLST).
Table 10: Researcher’s past experience and forms of data gathering used during the project Role connected to
research topic Relevant data gathering activities Case studies or time period (key to abbreviations below) Architecture student Assessing discarded goods for reuse in design projects Prior to EngD
Amateur
maker/artist Collecting discarded things, remaking practical objects,
fine art objects and installations Prior to EngD Practising architect Managing reclamation and reuse of components in built
projects Prior to EngD
Architectural tutor Leading design studios focusing on reuse of buildings and
components and public engagement Prior to EngD
Director of RBL reuse
workplace Managing RBL materials storage space and workshops Prior to EngD – September 2015 Managing volunteers to help with storage of discarded
materials and their reuse in construction Prior to EngD – December 2014 Hands-on voluntary construction work to upgrade
premises using discarded materials Prior to EngD – December 2014 Project managing manufacture of café furniture and light
fittings from discarded materials July – October 2015 Industrial sponsor
engagement Participant observation – time spent in industrial
sponsors’ offices PH, THH; 1-2 days/week from
January 2014 – February 2018 Participant observation – meeting attendance AV, CSE, DH, KR, LE, FP, PH, PP Presentation to relevant teams within sponsors Every 6-12 months
Observation of C&D waste practices – visits to
construction sites AV, DH, KR, LE, RM, SPW
Observation of C&D waste practices – visits to waste
transfer stations WM1, WM2, WM3
Semi-structured interviews with members of client organisations, contractors and waste management companies
AV, DH, KR, LE, PH, RM, THH, WM1, WM2, WM3
Gathering and reviewing waste reports AV, DH, KR, RM Inventorying and surveying available materials AV, SPW, KH
Fostering exchange of materials to local projects CH, CSE, FP, MGC, PP & others Workshops and collaboration with architects to explore
practice in relation to real reuse opportunities CH, CSE, FP Engagement with local community groups, businesses
and projects CWS, Kafe 1788, Parklet, PP
Hands-on reclamation of materials and remaking CSE, PP, SPW Meeting local authority to influence area masterplan PRHZ Core doctoral
researcher role Gathering and reviewing existing and new literature See Appendix G
Presenting at academic conferences and workshops See Appendices C, D, E and F
Role connected to
research topic Relevant data gathering activities Case studies or time period (key to abbreviations below) Core doctoral
researcher role (continued)
Attending invited industry/policy workshops, seminar
discussion groups and public lectures and events See Appendix H Informal conversation and correspondence, involvement
in related discussions with academics and members of the public
Throughout
Observing news in engineered timber through CLT
LinkedIn group CLST; January 2015 –
September 2017 Co-supervisor of
Collaborative Environmental Systems Project
Engagement between five Master’s students and RBL to
design systems for reuse workplace logistics October 2013 – April 2014
Co-supervisor of MSc
projects Evi Unubreme: fabrication of CLST specimens and lab
testing; review of CLT LCAs CLST; May – September 2015;
see Appendix I-1 Tianyao Lyu: fabrication of CLST specimens and lab
testing; overcoming barriers to CLST production CLST; May – September 2015;
see Appendix I-2 Yushi Li: video explaining the extent of C&D waste and
intervention ideas; survey of the video’s effect on viewers May – September 2015; see Appendix I-3
Crystalbale Tiu: removing contaminants from secondary
timber and processing CLST CLST; May – September 2016
see Appendix I-4
Thibault Dufresne: FEM of CLST CLST; May – September 2017 see Appendix I-5
Xing Zou: LCA of CLT and CLST CLST; May – September 2017
see Appendix I-6 Co-supervisor of
MRes project Structured collaboration on existing stocks of secondary
timber – extensive survey and calculations CLST; November 2015 – May 2018
Observation of reverse logistics operations – visit to
timber reuse enterprise CLST; see Appendix J-1
Observation of timber waste practices – visit to timber
grading and recycling plant CLST; see Appendix J-2
Survey of buildings and components across housing zone PRHZ; see Appendix K Potential upcycling
entrepreneur Observation of CLT fabrication process – visit to Stora
Enso CLT factory, Austria CLST; Appendix J-3
Hands-on processing of secondary timber and fabrication
of CLST as pilot project CSE, CLST
Taking modules at UCL and London Business School on
new venture development CLST
Pitching business opportunity to potential funders CLST; see Appendix H Presenting innovation to public as part of Victoria &
Albert Museum Friday Late CLST; see Appendix L
Developing EPSRC research proposal to continue CLST
research CLST; ongoing
Abbreviations: AV = Aberfeldy Village; CH = Commonweal Housing; CLST = cross-laminated secondary timber; CLT = cross-laminated timber; CSE = Chrisp Street Exchange; CWS = City Wood Services; DH = Decent Homes; FP = Fashioning Poplar; KH = Keys House/Dorset House; KR = Knapp Road; LCA = life cycle assessment; LE = Leopold Estate; MGC = Mobile Garden City; PP = Poplar Pavilion; PRHZ = Poplar Riverside Housing Zone; RBL = Remakery Brixton Ltd; RM = responsive maintenance contractor; SPW = St Paul’s Way; WMx = waste management company number x
3.4.2 Case studies
Case studies are recognised as an effective method for exploring complex issues and bringing out rich and detailed understandings of events in their real-life setting (Dobson, 2001; Yin, 2014). Barrett and Sutrisna (2009) make this argument in the specific context of research into construction projects. Connecting case study research to the critical realist paradigm, Easton (2010) characterises case studies as ‘investigating one or a small number of social entities or situations about which data are collected using multiple sources of data and developing a holistic description through an iterative research process’.
In deductive research with a positivistic approach, proving or disproving a hypothesis is carried out on the basis of statistical probability, and so there is a need for a large enough sample size to merit confidence in the claim. Research with a critical realist perspective, by contrast, builds up a description from empirical evidence, then seeks to interpret the likely mechanisms at play that led to the observable evidence. The interpretation is of a particular context leading to particular phenomena; the critical realist appreciates that this context is not static, and therefore that their interpretation is limited to its time and place. Although the results of this approach may be enriched by investigating a number of cases, it relies on no more than one (Easton, 2010; Flyvbjerg, 2011: 304-305).
The period of case study data collection based on projects relating to the industrial sponsors ran from January 2014 to December 2017. During this time the researcher was formally affiliated with the sponsors and sought out suitable projects to analyse as case studies, for a) observation, description and explanation of existing context, between January 2014 and December 2016; and b) testing proposed means to bring about recirculation of building components, between October 2015 and December 2017. Figure 8 sets out the case study projects, their timeframes, and the periods of structured data collection. Description of the Chapter 4 case study projects are included in Appendix M and detailed accounts of the methods that were applied to the case studies are included in Appendix N and the relevant parts of the thesis.
A research project can adopt a cross-sectional (‘snapshot’) or a longitudinal time horizon.
Longitudinal case studies allow linkages and patterns of behaviour that might not appear in a snapshot to emerge over time (Dobson, 2001; Easton, 2010). For the study of construction activity, longitudinal data collection allows a more rounded view, as building projects take a long time to complete. Longitudinal case studies were possible in this project, up to a point.
Structured data collection by way of site visits and interviews required the input of resources from contractors (i.e., organisations outside of the research team), over whom the industrial sponsors had limited control. In practice, therefore, it was not possible to make regular site visits over the course of entire projects. The ‘burden’ of supporting the research was instead shared between various contractors on different sites, allowing the stages of building soft strip, refurbishment, demolition and construction to be witnessed and pieced together. Where
possible, a connection was maintained to case study projects even if the period of structured data collection had ended, for instance by continuing to receive waste reports, through occasional site visits, or through discussion with members of the industrial sponsors.
Figure 8: Timeline of case study projects indicating main periods of project related data collection
3.4.3 Data analysis
The analytical procedure common to the whole investigation was the iterative process of building understanding from gathered data and experience (reflection and planning) followed by and informing the next stages of action and observation. Within this overarching process, data generated by different methods were analysed using techniques related to ‘memoing’ in grounded theory. Memos are a means of condensing and restructuring data (Charmaz, 2006:
72-73; Corbin and Strauss, 1990); they provide the researcher with a key to recall earlier analyses and enable further reflection. ‘Diagramming’, as described by Charmaz (2006: 117-119), provides a similar tool in visual format. Describing situations, relationships or systems visually often suggests new linkages that may not emerge from prose, which, by nature, is linear. Sutrisna and Barrett (2007) establish the complementarity of visual descriptions of systems with grounded theory methods. They use ‘rich picture diagrams’ to analyse the richness and complexity of data collected from multiple construction project case studies (Barrett and Sutrisna, 2009).
In this project, data frequently were not textual; drawing diagrams was a critical activity throughout for re-presenting information to encourage new interpretations, and for exploring systemic links. The diagrams that remained most relevant as the research proceeded are reproduced in Appendix O. Notetaking and extensive rewriting of notes was also used throughout the project to process thoughts and condense important points. The application Evernote provided a simple way to collect notes into thematic groups or subjects, edit and search. Models and conceptual frameworks developing out of diagrams and notes were refined through continual re-expression in different formats (Saunders et al., 2009: 484). This helped to identify what the next step in the research should be as much as it helped to reflect on the significance of past steps.
Relevant methods of analysis were applied to individual parts of the study. For example, the textual information collected from the first set of case studies was grouped into a case study database; interviewees’ testimony was coded; later in the project, some quantitative analysis was used as part of the CLST case study, such as finite element modelling. Details of how these methods of analysis were used can be found in the relevant parts of the thesis.
3.4.4 Researcher positionality
Typically EngD projects are conceived by industrial sponsors with a view to their application in the organisation’s practices. In this case, the project was self-initiated by the researcher, and the housing sector sponsors came on board later. They brought a keen interest in the topic, but no specific intention for how the project’s findings might be applied across their London borough, or in their operations. The lack of a definitive agenda on the part of the sponsors, and the expectation that doctoral research will have applicability to a context beyond individual organisations, led the researcher to pursue aims that would contribute to the sustainability and
resilience of the construction industry at large. The goal of helping to shape systems from which new reuse, repurposing and upcycling ideas would emerge, beyond the timeframe of the project, is an indirect and long-term approach to the sponsors’ everyday generation of C&D waste and use of building components. It is not the unequivocal solution that could perhaps have been wished for. However, there grew a shared understanding that shifting the construction industry to more circular practices is a significant challenge that would require incremental transition.
Being affiliated with the two industrial sponsors provided access to the staff managing their housing projects, to other project participants such as contractors and architects, to project documentation, to other projects connected to the local community, and to work space and meeting rooms. Both offices had a hot desk arrangement, and sitting in different parts of the offices afforded the opportunity to overhear conversation relating to different parts of the organisations. The presence of the researcher allowed staff to raise ideas, flag up pertinent news, and discuss developments on projects relating to sustainability, waste or reuse and recycling, which might otherwise go unspoken. This type of observational data and happenstance conversation would be largely inaccessible had the research been undertaken exclusively in an academic institution.
As a former practising architect, it is likely that the researcher, almost without noticing, sifted out certain ideas, approaches and interpretations as impractical or unworthy of further attention.
This is both a strength and a source of potential oversights. Someone caught up in day-to-day practice is more likely to recognise and give weight to reasons why an alternative practice will not succeed. They may be correct in exercising their detailed knowledge of the boundaries, limitations and workings of the practice to see what is feasible; but on the other hand, they may be restricted by the weight of their own knowledge. A researcher with some knowledge of a practice, but without the burden of its daily implementation, may get carried away with lofty ideas of change, blissfully unaware of the impossibility of their realisation; or, divested of other responsibilities, they may have the clarity to see today’s achievable improvements – or even picture a route to a vastly altered future. These are caricatures; in reality, practitioners and researchers alike will sit within a range of practical and imaginative responses to a given challenge. What is the most effective degree of proximity to a problem? Problems that are not easily solved often require both mindsets: unburdened thinking and close attention to detail.
The relationship between the two modes of thinking is likely to be more fruitful when it is iterative, in the mould of action research – not just handed down from the blue-sky thinkers to the doers – and when different participants collaborate and learn from one another.
Prior to starting the doctoral project, and alongside architectural practice, the researcher ran participatory ‘co-design’ projects between architecture students and various ‘client’ groups.
These can have value in bringing to bear on students an appreciation of the responsibility of design: that it is not a paper exercise, but an embedded set of decisions with real social ramifications. Seeing students progress through projects also showed how important it is that
they can step back from the participatory activities and reappraise the work in a more detached way. With too much regard for the client group, they fail to elevate the design beyond arbitrary requests made in briefing sessions; they fail to synthesise briefing information with their own, unique view of how those needs might be elegantly met. With too little regard for the client group, their own unique view becomes detached, aloof, and sometimes opaque or even alienating to participants at the next workshop.
For the EngD, working in the pragmatic field of construction industry material management, the research position adopted begins with today’s reality, and then develops and tests responses to it. The understanding of existing context is co-produced, because the breadth of knowledge of people working in construction industry material management today is essential. The response to this understanding of context, however, in the form of engineering systemic change, is like the students stepping away from the participatory work: a synthesis that blends the findings from the different strands of investigation with imagination. This is sense-checked with practitioners and tested through further stages of action and observation, but not co-produced.
Practitioners are working in the present and are primarily focused on the present. The academic engineer has the luxury of not having to practice; it is their duty instead to be able to
Practitioners are working in the present and are primarily focused on the present. The academic engineer has the luxury of not having to practice; it is their duty instead to be able to