Research Design

The aim of this thesis is to theorise by proposing a contextualised interpretive explanation (Stake, 2005) of the relationship between ULAC and outcomes.

5.2.1 Introduction

As both the policy-outcome process and contextual factors relating to institutions were of interest, the research design was based on the ability to provide deep insight into a context-based case study, taking into account individuals narrative and interpretations of the process. The research design for analysing policy processes, in this case, the relationship between ULAC and economic

development policy outcomes by Scottish ULAs, is based on Stake’s (2005) interpretive case study approach for understanding the particularization of a situation, through contextual factors (relating to formal and informal institutions). Stake’s (2005: 449) belief is that cause–effect ontologies are too ‘simplistic’ and ‘fixed’, requiring understanding through recognition of the individual’s subjective experience and context. Using process narratives, the methodological approach to the research design is to describe the process of ULAC aimed at ‘causal explanation of its course and effects’ through the interpretive understanding of social action by embracing both ‘explanation and understanding’ through the interpretation of human actions (Bryman, 2008: 15).

Stake (1995) advocates the use of a single case study for providing insight into the complexity and particular nature of case analysis, through which meaning of the ULAC-policy outcome

relationship and policy process can be created by ‘figuring out what policy-relevant elements carry or convey meaning’ (Yanow, 2004: 111).

5.2.2 Interpretive Process Explanation from a Single Case Study

Any understanding of the institutional frameworks involving collaboration requires an appreciation of the expectations upon which they are based. In other words, it is necessary to understand what the collaborator expects to be achieved, if to understand fully how and why the collaboration arrangement takes on a specific form and relates to outcomes. Interpretive research can be particularly useful for understanding and describing policy mechanisms within complex settings involving governmental institutions.

The choice of a single rather than multiple case studies follow the persuasive arguments of Dyer and Wilkins (1991) and in particular, Burawoy (1998), who present a strong case for extended case method that recognizes the importance of both context specificity and the historical contingency of institutional development akin to an institutional approach in this thesis.

5.2.3 Single Case-study and Context-Dependent Logic:

Stake (1995) describes two types of case study – the intrinsic case study and the instrumental case study. The intrinsic case study is ‘not undertaken primarily because the case represents other cases or because it illustrates a particular trait or problem, but because in all its particularity and

ordinariness, [the] case itself, is of interest’ (p 237). Given the Scottish institutional context of ULAC, the purpose of using the single case study is therefore not to understand ‘some abstract concept or generic phenomena’ (p237), instead, to use the single case study situation to reveal its unique story. Concrete, context-dependent knowledge of in-depth case studies can help to provide a thorough understanding of the characteristics and peculiarities of situations under consideration.

Chapter two, three and four highlighted the multi-disciplinary nature of ULAC in that, its functional and institutional characteristics requires an appreciation of underpinning theoretical dimensions (i.e. economic, spatial, and governance network dimensions). Consitent with Stake (1995), the value of a qualitative single case study approach is the ability to appreciating the possibility of ‘multiple views’ (p65). The research approach taken here is recognising the

influence of context on the process of collaboration between urban local authorities, that requires a single case study approach in order to appreciate the nature and influence of a variety of complex contextual factors.

Recognsing the potential limitations of theorising through single case study research (Yanow, 2008), a cross-sectional comparative study approach could also have been used. However, the single-case study approach is thought most useful for describing and understanding the ‘specific’

network situation. Therefore, to ensure validation of the research findings and given its multi-disciplinary nature, the thesis ensures a clear consistent approach to theory triangulation to enable verification of the findings from multiple perspectives (see Yin, 1994).

5.2.4 Explanatory Value of Single Case-study Approach

The importance of a single case study design relates to its ability to provide insight into the ‘deep structure and social dynamics’ of a particular setting, that better appreciates the more ‘tacit and less obvious aspects ’ of the setting that is arguably ‘more accurate although appropriately tentative’

(Dyer and Wilkins, 1991: 615) investigation of the single study setting. Within-case research design is said to be important for ‘process tracing…a procedure for identifying steps in a causal process leading to the outcome of a dependant variable of a particular case in a particular historical context’ (George and Bennett, 2005: 176).

The value of process tracing in within case research is its ‘causal mechanism component of causal explanation’ (George and Bennett, 2005: 224), by describing and connecting the different stages of a policy process leading to policy outcomes, in context of dynamic events within that process.

The research approach in this thesis applies process tracing, by analysing the sequence of events within the SCA case study across three stages of the networks development, and analysed from an institutional perspective using the conceptual framework (see Figure 1) developed from the literature review. The conceptual framework is then used to help explain the PV of ULAC within its historical context, and through deep contextual understanding of processes underpinning the sequence of events according to a process tracing approach.

The interpretivist approach of the thesis means that ‘process tracing allows the researcher to look for the ways in which this link manifests itself and the context in which it happens. The focus is not only on what happened, but also on how it happened’ (Porter and Keating, 2008: 233). The value of process tracing in the context of this research, thus relates to the ability to analyse the research gap; to identify the role of both formal and informal institutions affecting the networks

development process, and understanding of what and how it developed relative to the ‘urban’ and

‘national’ context of government institutions within the network.

The thesis research is consistent with Stake, (2005), Hood (2012) and George and Bennett (2005) in terms of an interpretive approach to a causal explanation from a critical realist ontological perspective, using process tracing from a single case study to:

‘disprove claims that a single variable is needed to explain an outcome…by excluding all explanations but one, if that explanation makes a process-tracing prediction that all other theories predict would be unlikely…[within] a path dependant historical process.’

George and Bennett (2005: 224)

…based on the belief that:

‘cause and effect is transmitted through discretely structured but open systems; the interactions of one causal mechanism will influence the operation of others, so that the outcomes of any intervention are never predictable’

Hood (2012: 7)

The case study findings presented in later chapter use process tracing to summarise processes and factors that may explain the network process from one step to the next. The following section will explain the process of case selection how it was identified and selected.