Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
analysis. During the literature review phase of the research, four scoping
questions were used to guide the analysis. hey include:
1. What social forces appear to have inluenced wind power development
policy in this nation?
2. What technological forces appear to have inluenced wind power devel-
opment policy in this nation?
3. What economic forces appear to have inluenced wind power develop-
ment policy in this nation?
4. What political forces appear to have inluenced wind power develop-
ment policy in this nation?
Once the inluences were identiied in each of the four STEP categories,
further analysis was undertaken in order to try to prioritize which of these
forces tended to most inluence wind power development. his task was
accomplished by aggregating primary and secondary sources of informa-
tion and then identifying any factors that tended to stand out in terms of
centrality of analysis (i.e., how central the factor was in regard to the theme
of the case study). Variables which displayed higher frequency of occurrence
in the research literature were also highlighted for further analysis to deter-
mine the extent to which these variables contributed to inluencing wind
power development.
Admittedly, this type of meta-analysis is subject to experimenter selec-
tion bias in that the source of primary research data is dependent on the
author's contact with expert sources—in this case, engendering a bias
toward experts from the policy ield. Furthermore, although the secondary
research data was extracted from leading academic databases (Science Direct,
Scopus, and ABI Inform), it is acknowledged that the bulk of the literature
selected for analysis tended to feature political or policy-related discourse.
It is possible that a sociologist undertaking the same type of research study
might place more emphasis on social inluences afecting wind power devel-
opment. Similarly, an engineer undertaking the same type of research study
might place higher weighting on technological inluences and an economist
undertaking the same type of research might focus more on exploring eco-
nomic inluences to a greater depth. With that said, although this study is
decidedly biased toward politics and policy, this bias is deemed justiiable
given the policy-centered theme of this topic. It should be further noted
that much of the research presented in the case studies has been published
in other forms in peer-reviewed academic journals. herefore, there has
been a degree of academic scrutiny applied to the insights presented in each
of the case study chapters.
