ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses how methods were adapted as field conditions changed, and various methods were triangulated against each other. It shows how the documents, notes and transcripts collected in the field were organised, and how informant review techniques were used to authenticate findings. Alain Touraine devised a specific methodology for his quest to find the pre-eminent social movement for programmed society, which he called 'Sociological Intervention'. Touraine takes the group through a series of sessions on a guided journey of what he calls the 'self-analysis' of the social movement through a staged interaction between participants, the researcher and critics of the movement. Alberto Melucci builds on Touraine's method, which he regards as the basic building block for the construction of a method for studying social movements. The sampling process indicated that a focus on the conurbation of Greater Manchester would enable research into three systems: Manchester Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), LETSGo, and Hattersley LETS.
