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Title:
Transformed Landscape: Culture and Visual Imagery in a Town Built on Coal, 1997

Subject Categories:
General - Employment and labour
Unemployment - Employment and labour
Historical geography - History
Community and urban studies - Society and culture

Depositor(s):
Byrne,D.S., University of Durham. Department of Sociology and Social Policy

Principal Investigator(s):
Byrne,D.S., University of Durham. Department of Sociology and Social Policy

Sponsor(s):
Economic and Social Research Council

Grant Number:
R0002221969

Abstract:
This project’s objective was to test the value of images as stimuli for discussion in focus groups. Conventionally, the stimuli are verbal points put by the researcher - this means that the traditional focus group works somewhat like a semi-structured interview in which the researcher has a set of topics to work through in an interview with a single individual. Here, the researchers wanted to proceed more on the lines of an unstructured interview in which a topic is established and the development of the discussion is directed by the person being interviewed. A subsidiary objective was to explore the meaning of the decline of coal mining to the people of South Shields. There was a particular concern with what they felt about the remaining visible signs of the industry. It is in this sense that the researchers were interested in the cultural impact of the ‘transformed landscape’.


Main Topics:
Coal mining; coal miners; colliery closures; industrial closures; landscape; social change; interviews (research); qualitative analysis; social science research; research methods.

Coverage:
Time Period Covered: 1997
Dates of Fieldwork: 1997
Country: United Kingdom
Geography: South Shields; Tyne and Wear
Spatial Units: Non-Metropolitan Districts
Observation Units: Groups
Kind of Data: Textual data; Individual (micro) level; Focus group recordings; Focus group transcripts.

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Subnational
Population:Men and women living in South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: Purposive selection/case studies
Number of Units: 12
Method of Data Collection: Audio recording; Focus group
Weighting: Not applicable

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: Host archive conditions apply
Availability: These data are available from a service other than ESDS, UK Data Archive - Archives and Special Collections, University of Durham. Contact ESDS Qualidata, UK Data Archive, in the first instance.
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Please Note: Online documentation, prepared by ESDS Qualidata, is available via the link below.

Copyright:
Copyright University of Durham Library, Archives and Special Collections

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