Overview
•Background to research
•Geo-tagging interview transcripts
•Geo-visualization and mapping
•Spatial metrics
•Some emerging issues
•Use of QGIS in localities research
•Conclusions
Mapping interview transcript records: theoretical, technical and cartographic challenges - Dr Scott Orford
1. Mapping interview transcript
records: theoretical, technical and
cartographic challenges
CCRI
Gloucester University
14.02.2013
Dr Scott Orford
WISERD, Cardiff University
2. Overview
• Background to research
• Geo-tagging interview transcripts
• Geo-visualization and mapping
• Spatial metrics
• Some emerging issues
• Use of QGIS in localities research
• Conclusions
3. WISERD
WISERD
• Major investment in research infrastructure in Economic and Social
Sciences across Wales
• Major innovations in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
• Establish flexible and integrated sets of data relating to Wales
• Strategy for generating research grant bids and sustainability
• Links with WAG, ONS and Local Authorities across Wales
• Links with Other Centres and Programmes in Cardiff
5. Emerging research
• Collaborative Qualitative GIS research project involving both
GI professionals and qualitative researchers from backgrounds
with little association with spatial literacy or mapping
• Attempt to understand the different geographies that policy
makers make use of in their day-to-day work
• Context of Welsh devolution where some policy areas
devolved to WG some still remit of Westminster
• Provide empirical support to theoretical concepts of relational
space (Jones, 2009)
• GIS augmented traditional qualitative analytical methods
6. Locating the research
Conventional Qual-GIS
GIS
Spatial
“Visual GISting”
Humanities
(Gregory & Hardie,
2011)
7. WISERD Localities
A55 Corridor (Bangor)
Central and West
Coast Region Heads of Valleys
(Aberystwyth) (Cardiff)
8. Interviews
• In-depth interview 120 stakeholders across 3
localities who have links to 8 policy areas
Crime, public space & policing Education and young people
Environment, tourism and
Language, citizenship & identity
leisure
Economic development and
Health, wellbeing and social care
regeneration
Housing and transport Employment and training
9. Transcipts
• Interviews recorded and transcribed by
professional company
Min Max Ave Std
Pages 11 235 34 25
Words 4828 48301 12306 5942
• Analysed in CAQDAS package (Atlas.ti)
• Parsed through qualitative meta-data
generator using Web Services to geo-tag
places and semantically tag words
12. Part of WISERD GeoPortal
Text User account
Full metadata
search management
GIS tools & Reporting for surveys
Spatial search
Map layers
Innovative metadata
Qualitative visualisation for
data mapping qualitative data (here
(place names showing word clouds
Status bar
in interview and place name
transcripts) charting)
13. • Place names geo-tagged with page, line
number and word number in transcript
• Also, all transcripts manually geo-tagged to
allow success of automated geo-tagging to be
evaluated
14. Geo-tagging
• Place names in the transcripts identified and
extracted with page and line number
• geo-tagged to a single point using the OS
1:50,000 scale gazetteer
Place names Min Max Ave Std
Counts 8 269 73 48
% words 0.60 0.27 0.60 0.27
Ave per page 0.42 8.00 2.43 1.46
15. Problems of geo-tagging
place names (Southall, et al. 2011)
• Identifying place names in transcripts
• Place name spelling mistakes in transcripts
(esp Welsh place names)
• Vernacular names with no official geography
• Confounding place names with different
geographical features
• Multiple places with the same name (geotag)
16. GeoVisualization
• Geo-visualization is an important aspect of
Qualitative GIS and a function that has been
used to justify and promote its use (Knigge &
Cope, 2009)
26. Spatial Metrics
• GIS allows the construction of basic spatial
metrics
• Can augment quantitative measures generated
through analysis of coding of interview
transcripts
• Provide support for discursive narratives of
geographical themes in transcripts
27. Percentage of places mentioned in each Local
Authority according to the local authority of the
stakeholder interviewee
Welsh Local Blaenau Merthyr Cynon
Authorities Gwent Ceredigion Gwynedd Tydfil Pembrokeshire Taff Wrexham
Blaenau Gwent 62.6 3.9 1.6
Ceredigion 0.5 66.3 1.2 1.5 8.7 3.2
Gwynedd 2.4 63.8 0.3 0.2 0.3 4.0
Merthyr Tydfil 2.7 0.6 71.2 7.9
Pembrokeshire 2.4 12.6 0.5 0.5 75.4 0.8
Rhondda Cynon
Taff 3.7 7.5 60.2
Wrexham 0.5 4.3 1.0 73.8
28. Average Euclidean distances from centre of Local
Authority to places mentioned in transcript
Mean Standard Count
Local Authority Locality (km) Deviation (places)
C
Merthyr Tydfill 11 24 584
Rhondda Cynon C
Taff 15 23 1044
B
Wrexham 16 35 321
C
Blaenau Gwent 17 36 751
A
Ceredigion 30 33 704
A
Pembrokeshire 34 39 423
B
Gwynedd 37 37 1002
29. Average Euclidean distances from centre of Local
Authority to places mentioned in transcript
Mean Standard
Policy Area (km) Deviation Count
Crime, public space and
policing 15 23 69
Language, citizenship and
identity 21 32 121
Health, wellbeing and social
care 23 27 68
Housing and transport 27 29 116
Employment and training 28 29 83
Education and young people 42 37 247
All Policy Areas 30 33 704
30. Discussions
• QGIS negotiate issues such as data sharing, confidentiality,
disclosure and what can and cannot be presented to people
outside of the team.
• Added value to conventional qualitative analysis
• Value of the spatial metrics that could not be created in the
CAQDAS
• Some spatial patterns uncovered in CAQDAS analysis but only
treated discursively
• Cannot analyse or interpret maps / spatial metrics in
isolation of transcripts or context of interview -
complimenting qualitative research (mixed methods)
• What is relevant in the geo-tagged data
31. Research Process
Interviewees
Geo-visualisation /
Transcripts GIS spatial metrics
Geo-tagging
32. Future Research
• Analysis of automated geo-tagging software
• Development of non-disclosive cartographic
techniques
• Further analysis of maps and spatial metrics
and how they can be interpreted meaningfully
in the context of interviews
• EQUALISA - transcript mapping and
exploratory tool
33. Acknowledgements
• This paper is based on research supported by the Wales
Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods
(WISERD), funded by the Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC) (Grant Reference: RES-576-25-0021) and the
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)