We conclude the paper by sharing some ideas for future research in Section 5. In Section 4, we utilize our findings from this comparison to develop a recommended coding protocol which we think could be widely applicable and easily adaptable to others using a comparative or meta-analysis methodology for research on SESs and the commons. We explore ways of increasing methodological rigor in these areas by adopting certain techniques and strategies from other disciplines in the social sciences and compare the approaches used by the CBIE team to approaches, or “best practices”, recommended by a number of leading authorities within the methods literature.
In Section 3, we discuss our coding methodology in some detail and compare it to recommendations in the methods literature, including: preliminary decisions, codebook development, coding protocols, and intercoder reliability testing. We will discuss three primary challenges which we find can hamper meta-analysis efforts: 1) methodological transparency 2) coding reliability and 3) replicability of findings. In the next section (Section 2), we will briefly discuss the overall opportunities and challenges inherent in the coding of case studies for large-N meta-analyses and why this is a particularly important methodology in the field of environmental social science. In this paper, we will contribute to understanding the challenges of coding case studies in environmental social science by critically exploring the experience of a team of researchers at the Center for Behavior, Institutions and the Environment (CBIE) at Arizona State University (ASU) while coding the 69 cases that form the data for Baggio et al. As the essential activity of meta-analysis, coding involves the classification and quantification of texts or other media segments, preserved in a form which can be subjected to formal analysis ( Hruschka et al. Meta-analysis, in the field of environmental social science is a mixed methods approach involving data extraction from case studies, through the coding of texts, for use in statistical or other comparative data analysis techniques ( Hruschka et al.
If we are to understand CPR governance, we must be able to make comparisons across case studies but are challenged to develop reliable methods of making this often complex and messy data comparable. Long-term efforts to understand social-ecological systems (SES) involving the management of common pool resources (CPR 1) has led to the generation of a large body of data composed primarily of case studies ( Wade 1984 Berkes 1989 Ostrom 1990 McKean 1992 Baland and Platteau 1999 Bardhan and Mookherjee 20 Epstein et al. Keywords: Codebook development, coding, common pool resources, complexity, coupled infrastructure systems, content analysis, intercoder agreement, intercoder reliability testing, social-ecological systems DOI: This paper first outlines challenges experienced by researchers engaged in a large-scale coding project then highlights valuable lessons learned and finally discusses opportunities for further research on comparative case study analysis focusing on social-ecological systems and common pool resources. Research efforts are further hampered when case inclusion criteria, variable definitions, coding schema, and inter-coder reliability testing are not made explicit in the presentation of research and shared among the research community. However, the data at our disposal are often not easily comparable, have limited scope and scale, and are based on disparate underlying frameworks inhibiting synthesis, meta-analysis, and the validation of findings. This data has facilitated the identification of important factors and fundamental principles which increase our understanding of such complex systems.
On-going efforts to understand the dynamics of coupled social-ecological (or more broadly, coupled infrastructure) systems and common pool resources have led to the generation of numerous datasets based on a large number of case studies.
Challenges and opportunities in coding the commons: problems, procedures, and potential solutions in large-N comparative case studies Research articles Challenges and opportunities in coding the commons: problems procedures and potential solutions in largeN comparative case studies Authors: Abstract
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