Thesis Title: Subtitle

Analytical Approach: Producing Theory From a Critical Realist Perspective

Critical realist ontology assumes that there are generative mechanisms that are often beyond the scope of our immediate perception. This structured my analytical approach to the data as critical realism allows for the creation of theories and concepts that go beyond what is possible from strict inductive or deductive methods and emphasises creativity and reinterpretation in the process of analysis. Critical realism in practice emphasises the connections between the patterns observed and the deeper generative arrangements underneath. To take a critical realist approach to analysing data is to move from surface to depth. This approach is not necessarily unique to critical realism, but unlike other modes of inference, critical realism emphasises the use of abductive and retroductive methods of reasoning to introduce new ideas about the relationship between what was observed and its generative mechanisms. Before discussing the influence of this approach on my analysis I will outline the more practical components of my approach to the data.

Coding and Analysis: Abduction and Retroduction

All voice interviews were either transcribed by me or a professional transcription service. As the interviews conducted by IM were already text-based they did not require transcription and consequently were not further edited or modified. This means that the presentation of the data for interviews conducted by IM appears differently in text to those conducted face-to-face or over the phone. I have not edited the data in any way as I believe the capitalisation, punctuation and other stylistic choices made by the participants when they are typing gives them a unique ‘tone’ (as one’s speech patterns do) that would be lost if I imposed my own logic onto their text. These transcripts were uploaded to the qualitative data management program Nvivo to assist with the process and management of analysis. While Nvivo has its own analytic functions these were not used in the process of this research, but rather Nvivo was used to help manage and organise the data generated from this research.
This research took an abductive interpretative approach to interpreting the data gathered in the research process. An abductive approach seeks to articulate the connections between concrete events, objects and behaviours and link them to broader structures (Danermark et al. 2002). Abduction differs from induction in that it is not a purely empirical generalisation. Unlike deduction the conclusion is not logically given in the premise (Danermark et al. 2002). Thus abduction is neither an empirical generalisation, nor a logically rigorous deduction (Collins 1985). At its core, abduction is the move from a concept of something, to a different, possibly more developed concept of it. Other theorists such as Jensen (1995) frame this process as being one of redescription or recontextualisation. The aim of recontextualisation is to give an already known phenomenon new meaning. Danermark et al. (2002) argue that discoveries in social science are largely owed to the process of recontextualisation. Social scientists, they argue, are unable to discover new events. Rather, what are discovered are new connections and relationships, “by which we can understand and explain already known occurrences in a novel way” (Danermark et al. 2002: 91). However, abductive conclusions in social science cannot be ultimately categorised as true or false, as new interpretations or recontextualisations of the object of study are always possible. The process of abductive reasoning reads phenomena as manifestations of other structures. Danermark et al. (2002) argue that abductive reasoning produces knowledge that is not available through inductive or deductive approaches. Likewise, Habermas (1972) argues that abduction is central to broadening knowledge and stimulating the research process on a broad disciplinary level.
In practical terms, this mean the analysis of data occurred in two broad stages. As my recruitment process was staggered, analysis began before all the interviews were complete. The first stage of analysis involved a literal reading of the interview transcripts from which I developed codes based on the participants’ accounts such as ‘reasons for joining Facebook’, ‘uses of Facebook’ and ‘important of friendship’. These codes were also informed and shaped by the questions from the interview schedule. During this process I was also open to the emergence of new codes such as participants’ emphasis on the ‘practical use’ of Facebook. These preliminary categories were not abstracted from their initial form, but rather served as a basis for understanding the ‘lay of the land’ as it appeared to participants. These codes form the basis for the more abstract and theoretical arguments posed in the later chapters of this thesis. This initial stage of coding ended when the interviews were complete. As new interviews were completed and transcribed they were also coded in the same way as the earlier interviews.
As abductive reasoning involves reinterpreting or recontextualising something as something new this was the central task of the second stage of the coding process. While analysing the data and sorting the statements participants made about what kind of space Facebook is, I came to the initial conclusion that Facebook could be understood as a type of ‘banal public’ where interactions on it were public, but not remarkable enough to be understood as an encounter with the ‘Other’ (Simmel 1921). There was little about Facebook that forced participants to confront and account for differences. Thus, a new frame of interpretation was needed, one that could help me understand and more precisely describe what the differences were. Thus, as detailed in the following chapters, I sought to recontextualise Facebook as something else in order to achieve more analytic clarity and depth. What other frames of meaning could be applied? In further exploring the concept of ‘public’, I discovered de Certeau’s (1984) and Lofland’s (1998) ideas about the relationship between architecture and agency in the creation of social space. From this I was able to recontextualise Facebook using these theories to argue more precisely, that Facebook has particular characteristics as a ‘space’ and to illuminate the mechanisms that produce this ‘space’. The use of theorists of urban space and the built environment, such as de Certeau, are characteristic of a critical realist approach that emphasises analysing phenomena through new frames of meaning in order to make connections between generative mechanisms and their observed effects. Using theory from urban sociology and applying it to Facebook illuminates the generative mechanisms that shape Facebook and users’ experience on Facebook.
Once I identified these themes as important to the thesis’ structure and argument I used retroductive reasoning to re-approach my initial coding of the data. Retroductive reasoning is concerned with determining what is constitutive of the structure identified in the process of abductive reasoning; in this instance the concept of ‘space’. To think retroductively I must ask the question of myself and the data, “How is any phenomenon, like an action or social organisation possible?” (Danermark et al. 2002: 97), or alternatively, “What are the conditions, or circumstances, that must exist to make this phenomenon possible?” These questions are aimed at illuminating what properties must exist in order for a phenomenon to exist and to be what it is. Retroductive reasoning in this thesis happened once each analytical theme was consolidated and reasoned in an abductive way. In order to understand what conditions made the production of Facebook as a social space possible, I re-examined my data asking, “What makes Facebook as a social space possible?” While I had already coded data related participants’ understandings of friendship and the production of the self on Facebook; retroductively rereading the data meant considering how these concepts might be linked to the production of space. In order to present the abductive conclusions drawn from my analysis, I first needed to discuss the conditions that made these conclusions possible. The results from this process informed the overall structure of my thesis, and the presentation of my analysis.