62
5 Methodology
5.3.1 Transcribing the Interviews
I transcribed all but two of the interviews myself. Two interviews were transcribed by
a professional transcriber. Transcribing is a powerful act of representation (Oliver,
Serovich, & Mason, 2005), and by transcribing the interviews I had conducted, I
revived the interviews and was able to interpret the significance of pauses, silence
and laughter, as well as what was said. By the end of the interview transcription phase,
I had memorised big segments of interviews and the authorship of each segment. This
made the process of data analysis less complicated.
While transcribing, I attempted to reproduce the transcript as accurately as I
possibly could. Nonetheless, I was aware that even the most accurate transcript is far
from neutral and transparent (Lapadat, 2000; Lapadat & Lindsay, 1999; Scheurich,
1995). According to Oliver et al. (2005), some of the transcription conventions
recreate problems of representation in the transcript, such as the conventions representing interactions. For instance, despite various transcription convention, features
of people’s voice tone and body language are still missed and this may hinder readers’
deeper understanding of representation of interviews (Potter & Hepburn, 2005).
I opted to focus on the participants’ narratives as a whole, rather than transcribing
every second-to-second sequence of recorded data, thus pauses of five seconds or
longer and laughter were added to the transcript. Silence may represent an important
aspect of social practice, although it is repeatedly neglected and frequently linked
to interviewees’ non-participation (Zembylas & Vrasidas, 2007), as what is said
tends to be privileged, rather than what is not said (Nairn et al., 2005). Analysing
both dimensions of an interview (what is said and unsaid) may provide important
information about the power relations between the researcher and the participants,
and/or their levels of comfort in discussing different topics (Nairn et al., 2005).
Laughter is also often overlooked in qualitative research (Grønnerød, 2004).
Laughter may provide information about the relationship between interviewer and
interviewee and the subtle changes of subject positioning during an interview (Grønnerød, 2004). Among many factors, laughter may reveal resistance to a topic, and/or
accommodation of nervousness or stress (Grønnerød, 2004).
The transcribed interviews were offered to all participants, who were free to
change, delete or add information in their interview transcript. Some of the participants made changes to the transcripts. These were mostly deletions of classified or
repeated information and grammatical corrections.
5.3.2 Selecting the Guideline Documents
Two social investment guidelines documents were selected for analysis as they were
documents that participants drew on to guide their social investment practices. A
few participants named particular institutions—instead of guidelines documents—
as a source of guidance. For example, one participant named a particular country’s
5 Methodology
5.3.1 Transcribing the Interviews
I transcribed all but two of the interviews myself. Two interviews were transcribed by
a professional transcriber. Transcribing is a powerful act of representation (Oliver,
Serovich, & Mason, 2005), and by transcribing the interviews I had conducted, I
revived the interviews and was able to interpret the significance of pauses, silence
and laughter, as well as what was said. By the end of the interview transcription phase,
I had memorised big segments of interviews and the authorship of each segment. This
made the process of data analysis less complicated.
While transcribing, I attempted to reproduce the transcript as accurately as I
possibly could. Nonetheless, I was aware that even the most accurate transcript is far
from neutral and transparent (Lapadat, 2000; Lapadat & Lindsay, 1999; Scheurich,
1995). According to Oliver et al. (2005), some of the transcription conventions
recreate problems of representation in the transcript, such as the conventions representing interactions. For instance, despite various transcription convention, features
of people’s voice tone and body language are still missed and this may hinder readers’
deeper understanding of representation of interviews (Potter & Hepburn, 2005).
I opted to focus on the participants’ narratives as a whole, rather than transcribing
every second-to-second sequence of recorded data, thus pauses of five seconds or
longer and laughter were added to the transcript. Silence may represent an important
aspect of social practice, although it is repeatedly neglected and frequently linked
to interviewees’ non-participation (Zembylas & Vrasidas, 2007), as what is said
tends to be privileged, rather than what is not said (Nairn et al., 2005). Analysing
both dimensions of an interview (what is said and unsaid) may provide important
information about the power relations between the researcher and the participants,
and/or their levels of comfort in discussing different topics (Nairn et al., 2005).
Laughter is also often overlooked in qualitative research (Grønnerød, 2004).
Laughter may provide information about the relationship between interviewer and
interviewee and the subtle changes of subject positioning during an interview (Grønnerød, 2004). Among many factors, laughter may reveal resistance to a topic, and/or
accommodation of nervousness or stress (Grønnerød, 2004).
The transcribed interviews were offered to all participants, who were free to
change, delete or add information in their interview transcript. Some of the participants made changes to the transcripts. These were mostly deletions of classified or
repeated information and grammatical corrections.
5.3.2 Selecting the Guideline Documents
Two social investment guidelines documents were selected for analysis as they were
documents that participants drew on to guide their social investment practices. A
few participants named particular institutions—instead of guidelines documents—
as a source of guidance. For example, one participant named a particular country’s