Reflections on the research methods

A qualitative approach proved very suitable for this topic. In particular, the research set out to discover a diverse set of ideas about not only what strategies organisations used, but also why they used the strategies they did. The density and diversity of concepts that emerged through both interviews and documentary analysis indicated that this was a good approach to take, and one which would not have been possible in a quantitative study.

6.1. Reflections on interviews:

The project explored quite a specific field of campaigning, and as a result the potential sample size (the number of organisations campaigning on child poverty in the UK) was limited; as a result interview numbers were more limited than they might have been had a broader area of study been chosen. However, enough responses were obtained to give a good breadth of different organisations within the field. In addition, interviewees were very generous with their time, and the interviews both covered a large area of conceptual ground (with a large number of different theoretical ideas emerging), and achieved great conceptual depth (illustrated by the density of clustering of codes around broader categories.)

Interviews were conducted by telephone for several reasons which have been overviewed earlier in this chapter. It was clear that the flexibility and simplicity that telephone interviewing offered respondents was helpful. In particular, on several occasions interviewees took the opportunity to postpone the interview to another

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occasion, which was made considerably simpler by utilising telephone interviews. Use of telephone call recording equipment, meant that full transcripts could be taken of

interviews despite them not being held face to face. Some initial analysis of the early interviews was completed during the course of the interview process; this helped to give focus for the later interviews.

There are, however, downsides to using telephone interviews. For instance, as noted previously, it has been suggested that telephone interviews are less suitable than face-to-face interviews in asking complex questions, and that it prohibits the opportunity for respondents to consult others in answering questions (Bryman, 2004). With regard to asking complex questions, although many of the questions were complex, the responses given appeared detailed and cogent. This may be because the interviewees were

professionals and experts within the field, well used to answering complex questions within the topic area, and of answering questions over the phone. Experience of the interviews suggested the second point is more salient, and it could have been useful to give opportunities for respondents to consult others about answers to questions (and indeed potentially to ask questions in person to other members of staff in the office.) However, on the whole, the administrative benefits of telephone interviewing in this case outweighed the costs.

The use of computer aided qualitative data analysis software (Atlas ti) in the analysis process was extremely useful to ensuring that the analysis process was as systematic as possible, and that all key concepts were identified. Each interview was read several times in the course of the process; this in itself helped to get to know the data, and made it easier to ensure no key ideas were missed during the analysis or the write up.

Mind mapping was an extremely useful tool, which helped to make very clear how concepts interrelated, and which were the most important core ideas. Mind mapping for each individual interview was relatively simple, however, cross-interview comparison was more complicated. This was for several reasons:

Firstly, since it would be extremely confusing to attempt cross interview analysis all on one ‘map’, decisions needed to be made during the course of the initial analysis stages as

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to the key concepts by which to group later analysis stages. In general, this was relatively simple, with ‘policymaker oriented campaigning’, ‘public oriented campaigning’ and so forth, clearly emerging as core categories, around which to organise ‘mind maps’, however there were (inevitably) some codes which did not fit entirely satisfactorily into any of the main categories. As a result, and in order not to lose the data, a map of ‘other strategies’ was created, into which these fitted. In some cases they were then attributed to other core categories (as further connections emerged in the course of further analysis and writing up), however in some cases, these codes were lost from the analysis,

revealing themselves as peripheral to the area of study by their failure to connect with more central analytical categories.

Secondly, even within the maps created around core analytical categories, the density of inter-linking concepts made the mind maps quite hard to draw, and even harder to write up. In some cases, peripheral concepts (those not clearly linked in to the wider

conceptual network, and which were typically only mentioned by one respondent), were removed from the analysis, to give analytical clarity.

6.2. Reflections on the documentary analysis:

The process of utilising Select Committee submissions to understand Third Sector campaign communications, was a very productive part of the research, and it is notable that submissions to Select Committee hearings have not been widely utilised as primary data for qualitative research. However, all submissions to Select Committee hearings (both written and oral,) are stored on the Parliament website, and are freely available to download. It seems that the potential for this superb store of data is underused by researchers as primary documentation. There are a wide range of circumstances, where analysis of this material for both language and content could contribute a great deal to understanding not only specific policy issues, but also the policy process itself.

In the writing up stage, the documentary analysis was integrated into the interview results. This was to some extent, problematic. My initial preference was to closely integrate the documentary analysis directly with the interview analysis, and to some extent this was achieved. However, inevitably the documentary analysis and interview

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results did not directly, or completely, overlap. This was mainly because interviewees tended to take a broad perspective on campaign strategies– giving an overview of the key campaign decisions and how they were implemented in the work of the organisations.

Documentary analysis, on the other hand, was analysing submissions to give a particularly detailed account of communication strategies. This meant that whilst documentary analysis was an excellent means for finding out about a particular area of the campaigns process in a detail which could not be achieved in interview, it was better at revealing a new area of analysis than it was at triangulating findings from interviews (as I had hoped that it might). However, the iterative interview process, and a rigorous structured analysis process, meant that interviews were particularly effective at triangulating key findings in each other.

In the final write up, the Select Committee analysis was integrated into chapter 8 on policymaker oriented campaigning. In terms of the structure of the thesis, it followed on clearly from issues of accessing policymakers and building relationships with them, to show how access opportunities are utilised in terms of how campaign communications are structured in order to convince policymakers of their campaign goals.

This chapter has outlined the research methods used in the fieldwork for this project.

The following four chapters draw on the analysis of the data to explore the strategies used by campaigning Third Sector Organisations in their work for the reform of child poverty policy.

Analysis chapters are ordered so as to move from a narrow focus on factors endogenous to the individual organisation (organisational structures), broadening out to factors endogenous to the sector as a whole (inter-organisational working), then zooming out still further to the interaction of campaign organisations with their environment, looking at campaign groups approaches to ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ campaigning respectively.

The first analysis chapter, therefore, addresses the significance of Third Sector

Organisational structures and functions to their campaigning. The chapter considers

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factors such as organisational size, location, membership, profile, core organisational mandate, and organisational involvement in service provision, and assesses their impact upon campaign strategies.

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Chapter 6: The significance of