Part 4 Research Methodology
This study will
employ qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis.
Sampling will be purposive. I have done
extensive work with addicted users at a community level. I am a member of a 12-step fellowship
support group in my local area and play a role as a peer support person for
other addicts who are in recovery or who are aiming for recovery. Being a
recovering addicted user myself will help with locating subjects and with the
bonding required to gain their trust.
Many, like myself, attend 12-step fellowship groups. I will make use of my own membership with
these groups, and my active participation in them as a gateway to recruiting
participants in this study. However I will not limited my respondents to 12
step group members in my locality. I
am also eager to hear the stories of recovery as told by those who are not, and
have not been, members of 12 step fellowship groups. This will be facilitated
my colleagues at the Urban Futures Centre who are doing a large scale
research and intervention project entitled ‘Pathways into and out of street
level drug use’. Subjects will be chosen according to severity of their
addiction and all will have spent time on the streets, in institutions or
jail as a result of their addiction to heroin.
The number of
interviewees will be determined by data saturation, with a tentative figure of
15, bearing in mind that the interviews will be extensive, covering the life
story of the subject in detail. Trials interviews conducted in preparation
for this work have lasted between 90 and 150 minutes.
According to
Polkinghorne, quoted here in Holloway and Jefferson, narrative is the
“primary form by which human experience is made meaningful” (2000: 32). Through the
narrative the researcher can gain understanding of events and processes in
the life of the subject, and the meaning attached to them. Oral histories
allow the subject to construct the narrative of their life story in a
free-flowing way according to the themes that are important to them, and at
the same time make their experience accessible to the interviewer.
Oral history
originated in the humanities as a means of introducing the voice of ordinary
people into the study of history, as
well as giving voice to marginalized and oppressed groups. (Fontana and James 1994; Dahl
and Malin 2009 ). Thus
it is suited to the task of telling the stories of drug users, who fall
within this category.
It is also useful for locating individual experience within broader cultural
and historical contexts (Sangster
1994; Green 2004; Batty 2009), and for revealing processes and agency (Abrams 2010)). Thus it is an appropriate approach for
uncovering the causes and effects of addiction, and recovery, which may play
out in unsuspecting ways. Oral
histories have more recently been
widely used in the social and health sciences (Kerr 2003; Miller-Rosser et al. 2009) .
Part 4 Research Methodology |
This study will
employ qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis.
Sampling will be purposive. I have done
extensive work with addicted users at a community level. I am a member of a 12-step fellowship
support group in my local area and play a role as a peer support person for
other addicts who are in recovery or who are aiming for recovery. Being a
recovering addicted user myself will help with locating subjects and with the
bonding required to gain their trust.
Many, like myself, attend 12-step fellowship groups. I will make use of my own membership with
these groups, and my active participation in them as a gateway to recruiting
participants in this study. However I will not limited my respondents to 12
step group members in my locality. I
am also eager to hear the stories of recovery as told by those who are not, and
have not been, members of 12 step fellowship groups. This will be facilitated
my colleagues at the Urban Futures Centre who are doing a large scale
research and intervention project entitled ‘Pathways into and out of street
level drug use’. Subjects will be chosen according to severity of their
addiction and all will have spent time on the streets, in institutions or
jail as a result of their addiction to heroin.
The number of
interviewees will be determined by data saturation, with a tentative figure of
15, bearing in mind that the interviews will be extensive, covering the life
story of the subject in detail. Trials interviews conducted in preparation
for this work have lasted between 90 and 150 minutes.
According to
Polkinghorne, quoted here in Holloway and Jefferson, narrative is the
“primary form by which human experience is made meaningful” (2000: 32). Through the
narrative the researcher can gain understanding of events and processes in
the life of the subject, and the meaning attached to them. Oral histories
allow the subject to construct the narrative of their life story in a
free-flowing way according to the themes that are important to them, and at
the same time make their experience accessible to the interviewer.
Oral history
originated in the humanities as a means of introducing the voice of ordinary
people into the study of history, as
well as giving voice to marginalized and oppressed groups. (Fontana and James 1994; Dahl
and Malin 2009 ). Thus
it is suited to the task of telling the stories of drug users, who fall
within this category.
It is also useful for locating individual experience within broader cultural
and historical contexts (Sangster
1994; Green 2004; Batty 2009), and for revealing processes and agency (Abrams 2010)). Thus it is an appropriate approach for
uncovering the causes and effects of addiction, and recovery, which may play
out in unsuspecting ways. Oral
histories have more recently been
widely used in the social and health sciences (Kerr 2003; Miller-Rosser et al. 2009) .
Thematic analysis
will be conducted using the NVIVO program to reveal the common elements
within the subject’s histories. Focus will be on the subjects personal
understanding of life events in relation to their subsequent addiction and
recovery, and on relations with family and community. The emerging themes will
then be analysed in relation to the literature around existing treatment
models and theories of addiction with the aim of identifying the strengths
and addressing the limitations of these.
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