Sequence Design of Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys for Increasing Efficiency in Forest Policy Research

Abstract

A sound empirical basis is of high importance for applied research in forest policy despite empirical methods increasing the resources needed for research. Especially in developing countries, the extensive needs of field research might exceed the available resources. A sequence consisting of a quantitative preliminary survey - qualitative study - quantitative follow up study is recommended in the literature as an efficient methodological strategy. This paper investigates how to diminish resources by means of the sequence design and discusses how to keep a high research quality using the example of comparative power analysis in community forestry. The sequence design is applied in seven countries studies from which are two are already successfully completed (Nepal, published by DEVKOTA, 2010 and Java-Indonesia, published by MARYUDI, 2011). The preliminary quantitative survey is used to identify the group of most powerful actors for each community forest. The measurement validity, meaning the degree of agreement of measurement and theory, is kept high by simplifying the hypothesis down to the claim that a group of powerful actors exists. The reliability of the survey is strengthened by using, for each actor, the external estimate of his power by the other actors in the network. Nevertheless, the reliability is relatively low due to the use of standardized questions only, but it is sufficient to indicate who the actors of the powerful actors group are. The follow-up qualitative power survey ascertains the power resources of the strong actors which have been identified as such. It applies a complex hypothesis about actor- centered power which involves the three power elements of coercion, incentives and trust. Reliability is high due to such multiple empirical resources as are observations, interviews and documents. The data of the qualitative survey is used to improve the quantitative data of the preliminary survey. Finally, a comparative quantitative analysis of the power of actors in community forestry for all researched countries is conducted using the improved data. This analysis tests complex hypotheses which involve the power of different actors. The actors are differentiated using theoretically meaningful terms from which we can derive hypotheses for the empirical tests. In particular, the theories about bureaucratic politics and interest groups can deliver hypotheses about the power relations of these actors, which are then particularly suitable for the quantitative test. The results show that the sequence survey can reduce the resources needed by about half. Nevertheless, the validity can be kept up by formulating hypotheses of different complexity and sufficient reliability can be ensured by improving the data step by step by means of the follow-up survey.