Conducting Qualitative Research on Desertification in Western Lesvos, Greece

Authors

Theodoros Iosifides, University of the AegeanFollow
Theodoros Politidis, University of the AegeanFollow

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to present some critical methodological strategies employed in a qualitative research study on local socioeconomic development and desertification in western Lesvos, Greece. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with local producers in western Lesvos, Greece, an effort was made to identify and analyze the links between the local socioeconomic trajectory and environmental marginality. The article concerns the justification of the choice of qualitative investigation on the matter, the main methodological strategies employed in the field, and the basic data analysis processes. In particular, we discuss the gradual development of a coding framework and a conceptual model for understanding and explaining the interrelations between local socioeconomic development, and characteristics and problems of land degradation and desertification.

Keywords

Desertification, Local Development, Socioeconomic Factors, In-depth Interviews, and Qualitative Data Analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two reviewer s of this paper for their constructive comments and recommendations. We owe many thanks to Professor Helen Briassoulis (Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece) and Module 4 Leader of MEDACTION for her valuable guidance and overall help. We are also grateful to Dr. Sotirios Koukoulas (GIS specialist and Lecturer at the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece) for producing the research settings map of the paper, and to Dr. Aikaterini Nikolarea for language editing.

Publication Date

3-1-2005

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2005.1862

Recommended APA Citation

Iosifides, T., & Politidis, T. (2005). Conducting Qualitative Research on Desertification in Western Lesvos, Greece. The Qualitative Report, 10(1), 143-162. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2005.1862