Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

Theory
Hypothesis
Operationalization of concepts
Selection of respondents
Design of appropriate research instruments
Collect data
Analyse data
Report findings and substantiate theoretical position.
Figure 1.7: The survey process. Source: BURTON (2000: 293)
The ongoing development of further proceeding has been driven in a way as the so-called
Grounded Theory works partly (see in particular GLASER 1996, 2011; GTI 2013). The
first step is data collection through a variety of methods and based on those collected
information the next steps are derived. In this respect is an inductive way I proceeded.
However, the final objective of this thesis is not the development of a (new) theory as it
should be following the concept of the Grounded Theory, because that would have been a
too big jump. If based on the results of this thesis further concepts might be initiated and
derived it would be a nice outcome.
In particular the very complex subject of this thesis which touches several scientific
disciplines and is in practice in the responsibility of also totally different acting (and
thinking) public bodies, requires the application of a methodological triangulation which
comprises several techniques of data collection and analysis. Triangulation is stated by
DENZIN (2006) that, a method used in social studies, designed to provide a higher quality
of research and reduce measurement error. It involves data collection using two or more
methods and then to compare and combine the results. It may also mean combining
qualitative and quantitative methods: data triangulation – comparing studies conducted in
different populations, in different periods of time and in different places. Triangulation of
methods is a linkage to measure the number of test methods.
Basically there are two sources of obtaining information (see Figure 1.8): You can use
existing sources which is the way of so-called secondary analysis and you can gather the
needed information yourself that is the primary analysis.
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