Data Collection

Having clarified the key concepts that underpin this research, the remainder of this chapter will provide a detailed description of how the data for this study were collected and analysed using qualitative methods as necessitated by the research questions that were formulated for this study. In the following section I will explain the ethnographic approach that was adopted to data collection in this study and provide a detailed description of those who participated in the research and the settings where the data were gathered.

3.5.1 Adopting an ethnographic approach

Since my personal research interest lies in investigating the construction of religious identity in family interaction in Saudi Arabia and the approach chosen to carry out this research was IS, the data collection procedures that were employed followed an ethnographic approach. Hobbs (2006) argues that ethnography requires a strong relationship between the researcher and the field, and in particular, between the researcher and the study participants and an awareness of the characteristics that are distinctive of the social group being investigated. By adopting an emic, i.e. insider, perspective, fieldworkers are able to explain the reasons why members of a particular socio-cultural group do what they do. However, they are still expected to maintain a “non-judgemental orientation” to ensure that their personal valuation does not interfere with the research (Fetterman, 2008, p.289).

to maximize understanding of the social phenomena in question. Therefore, I used convenience sampling (Ruane, 2005) which is based on finding available individuals. Despite the obvious shortcoming of this technique as it is not representative of non- accessible elements, it was the most suitable for this kind of research which seeks to investigate in detail interactions between specific individuals in specific places at various times in intimate settings such as the Saudi family setting. Thus, I initially approached and verbally briefed in person four families living in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia about the nature of the research to ask them if they were willing to work with me on my research. The reason for choosing an informal approach lies in my insider understanding of the fact that Saudis are more likely to respond to face-to-face interaction. I was fortunate enough to find two extended families who were both happy to participate in the study. This helped me to adopt the emic or insider perspective (Fetterman, 2008) that is necessary for doing ethnographic research. The following sub-sections will provide more detail about the participants, the setting for the study and the audio-recording process. 3.5.1.1 The participants

As mentioned above, the participants in the study come from two extended families, one of which (Family A) can be characterized as more religiously conservative than the other (Family B). Family A could be described as having been more influenced by the Sahwah movement than Family B. This is reflected in the fact that Family A places more importance on closely monitoring the performance of daily religious routines by members. In addition, its female members appear to dress more modestly, and veil their faces with the traditional niqab when they leave the home or when they share any setting with men other than their maharim (i.e. a father, a brother or a husband). Socially, both families can be described as well-educated with a good income. The adult males in both families work in jobs requiring graduate-level qualifications and all the adult female members of both families are also educated to at least graduate level and are employed outside the home.

In total, there are some 16 participants in this study. They can be divided into three age groups: three participants (AF, AM and BU) are from the older generation (all aged over 60), 10 participants (AW1, AS1, AS2, AS3, BF, BD1, BD2, BD3, BD4, and BN) are from the middle generation (aged 18 to 40) while the youngest generation is represented by three children (BG1, BG2 and BG3) (aged between three and 10 years of age).

The data extracts draw on the following interactions:

1. The father (AF), the mother (AM), the eldest son (AS1), the middle son (AS2) and the youngest son (AS3) of the more conservative family (hereafter Family A), along with their daughter-in-law (AW1) (married to AS1)

2. The father (BF), the daughter (BD1), BF’s married brother (BU), BF’s niece (BN) in the less conservative family (hereafter Family B)

3. A married daughter from Family B (BD2) and her two children (BD2G, BD2B) 4. Another married daughter from Family B (BD3) with her child (BD3B)

5. Daughters from Family B ranking third and fourth oldest of the sisters (BD3, BD4)

3.5.1.2 The settings

In this study, the data are taken from conversations that took place in three main domestic spaces: the living room, the dining room, and the bedroom. I did not want to limit my data collection to one spatial and temporal setting as was the case with other studies of family discourse which focused on dinner-table talk because one of my main research questions addressed the role that temporal and spatial settings play in the construction of religious identities. In total, the interactions took place in four distinct locations:

1. Setting 1: The living room in Family A’s holiday retreat (mornings and mid-day). 2. Setting 2: The living room in Family B’s house (mornings and mid-day)

3. Setting 3: The children’s (BD2G, BD2B) bedroom in BD2’s house (evening) 4. Setting 4: The dining room in BD3’s house (morning)

3.5.1.3 Audio-recording of conversations

The primary data for this study were collected from naturally occurring conversations that were recorded during my annual visits to Saudi Arabia when I made two fieldwork visits to the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. The conversations were recorded in different settings during several sessions over the course of August 2014 and January 2015, with each fieldwork visit lasting approximately two weeks. The selection of the times and places was based on my research questions. The exact duration of the recorded material featuring interaction between the participants is 23 hours and 27 minutes with each session lasting between 50 and 60 minutes. To ensure that participants were relaxed and that the material recorded was as natural as possible, I would start recording

conversations some 15 minutes into a session and I made sure that the recorder was placed on a side table near the participants.

The audio-recording of conversations was carried out using two strategies: participant and non-participant observation. Participant observation is “a qualitative method of social investigation, whereby the researcher participates in the everyday life of a social setting, and records their experiences and observations” (Coffey, 2006, p. 214). This strategy was used when I was able to be physically present in the settings of the recording sessions which was the case for settings 1 and 2. Non-participant observation, when the researcher is not present in the setting (Williams, 2008), was employed in the case of settings 3 and 4 since the recording took place at a time of day when, firstly, it was difficult for me to be present due to the time at which the interaction occurred (early in the morning or late at night) or, secondly, my presence in the setting could have had a direct impact on the data that I gathered.

Before each recording, I briefly voice recorded the time, setting and the participants and the sound quality was checked after each session. I used two devices to record conversations, one as the main recording device (a Sony ICDBX 140 digital voice recorder) and the other as a back-up (a password-protected iPhone 5S). Both were given to the people recording when I was not present with instruction of how they are to be operated. I ended up using the data from the iPhone 5S for two reasons: firstly, I discovered that the Sony device needed an extension to allow me to transfer the recorded conversations to my password-protected laptop and, secondly, I was very happy with the sound quality of the conversations recorded on the iPhone. These were also easy to transfer to my laptop where they were saved in an encrypted file and protected with a password that only I had access to.