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2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Research Design and Methods

Author : Arwen Colell

Published in: Alternating Current – Social Innovation in Community Energy

Publisher: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Abstract

This study is a qualitative analysis of five cases in three countries. It involved two rounds of field research. In the first round, interviews and document analysis provided data on the individual community energy projects, as well as on respective contexts embedding project activities including actors, institutions and political and technological structures.

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previous chapter Biographies of Social Innovation and Resource Mobilization
next chapter Energy Rebellion in the Black Forest
Appendix
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Footnotes
1
The scientific nature of qualitative methods has been at the core of longstanding debate on the ability of qualitative research to meet standards of validity, reliability and objectivity as developed for quantitative methods. One response lies in the adjustment of scientific standards to fit the paradigm of qualitative interpretation, rather than bending qualitative methods to quantitative requirements. This highlights replicability and transparency as core principles of the qualitative research process, as well as the appropriateness of methods in respect to research interest and question. On methodically controlled understanding as a strategy of qualitative research see Przyborski and Wohlrab-Sahr 2014, p. 21; Meyer and Meier zu Verl 2014.
 
2
EU regulation was considered when applied in national contexts, see section 1.​3.
 
3
Citizen management refers not to honorary management but rather to the control of assets and procedures through community structures, as opposed to utility management of projects that enable financial involvement or utility-controlled modes of participation in decision-making (Bonn and Dieperink 2014, p. 298).
 
4
The choice to treat Scotland as a country in this project was made based on the difference in opportunity structure of community energy projects through policy and regulation in Scotland vis-à-vis other parts of the United Kingdom. It is worth noting that renewable energy installations in Scotland are also influenced by UK planning for deployment, which favors Scotland in installations due to topography and wind energy potential (Vaughan 2015; Toke 2011).
 
5
The terms ‘paid’ and ‘non-paid’ were chosen to indicate that while all projects required professionalization as increased management and operations expertise, not all (can) pay their staff.
 
6
As a community energy professional whose personal experience was known to participants, the researcher held the role of a knowledgeable, friendly outsider (Minkler 2004, pp. 688–690). The invitation to participate in additional rounds of interview or workshops was phrased as an opportunity to share knowledge between projects, as well as between the researcher and participants, a common frame for interactions with research participants (Minkler 2004, p. 689). This was confirmed in how projects themselves framed their motivation to participate.
 
7
Interviews were conducted in German and English, transcription occurred in the respective languages. Transcription followed the interview word for word, with the exception of repetitions of the same word as well as “ehm” sounds, which were deleted. Breaks were marked as (…), non-spoken noises such as laughter, coughing etc. as ((…)). Normal font indicates normal spoken word, fat indicates words spoken with special emphasis.
 
8
For example the German expression “wie das Kaninchen vor der Schlange”, indicating a person frozen in fright, was translated to the English idiom “like a deer in the headlights”, rather than translating word for word as “like a rabbit in front of a snake”. This was done to maintain legibility while leaving the content of the quote unchanged.
 
9
Clarke refers to human and non-human actors and actants (2003, 561–563.).
 
Metadata
Title
Research Design and Methods
Author
Arwen Colell
Copyright Year
2021
Book
Alternating Current – Social Innovation in Community Energy

Print ISBN: 978-3-658-32306-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-658-32307-3

Copyright Year: 2021

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32307-3_4