Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.1
Researcher playing with school children, Ulan-Bel' village, Kazakhstan.
Photo © Natasha Balinova.
local people about issues that concern them and helping with conservation
education programmes (for example, talking about your work at local schools,
Figure 3.1). There can be a fine line between good citizenship of this kind and
moving away from conservation research into action.
Although there are many approaches to data collection in the social sciences, they
all encounter similar issues. Just as in the biological sciences (Chapter 2), the three
main ones are sample size, representativeness and bias reduction.
3.2.3.1 Sample size
The answer to the question 'what is an adequate sample size for my study?' is not
straightforward, but it is vital to the success of the research. Firstly, the answer
depends on whether the approach is quantitative or qualitative. In qualitative
research, sample size per se is not a useful concept. Instead the researcher is aiming
to understand the system deeply, and so targets the most useful and relevant inform-
ants. Case studies are often used to illustrate the issues involved (Strauss and
Corbin 1998). Time constraints mean that it is impossible to work with everyone
to the same depth, and hence qualitative research may use a mixture of group and
individual work to ensure that all aspects of the problem have been considered.
Checks for consistency (such as comparing the responses from different groups)
can indicate whether there is a need for further work.
