Title: Bridging qualitative and quantitative methods for classifying policy actors into policy discourse communities: thematic analysis and formal concept analysis approaches

Authors: Ahmet K. Suerdem

Addresses: Istanbul Bilgi University, Santral Istanbul, Kazim Karabekir Caddesi No. 1, Eyup – Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: Policy decision process is usually depicted as a neutral and technical process in which problem solving capacity of a policy decision determines the validity of its effectiveness. However, socio-political space is fragmented and policy making process reflects the conflicts between different socio-political actors. Empirical detection of policy networks is a problematic issue since world views reflecting policy beliefs can best be elicited in unstructured narrative forms which do not easily lend themselves to a systematic and objective classification of the narrating actors. Thus, the data for such research is usually collected through structured interviews which provide a solid basis for quantitative classification techniques such as cluster analysis. However, structured interviews are prone to imposing researcher|s perspective to the data rather than reflecting the world views of the policy actors. The aim of this paper is to offer a systematic way of classifying policy actors into policy communities according to the data collected through unstructured policy narratives. For this purpose the paper proposes a method that bridges qualitative thematic analysis with quantitative formal concept analysis.

Keywords: discourse analysis; formal concept analysis; policy networks; thematic analysis; policy decisions; decision making; classification; policy actors; policy communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDATS.2010.034056

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 2010 Vol.2 No.3, pp.199 - 216

Published online: 06 Jul 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article