ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of research methods and a practical research design. It specifies the main methods of interviewing; observation, documentation and discourse analysis, details the research procedures and explains any issues arising from the data collection and analysis. A qualitative method is intended to 'explore people's subjective experiences and the meanings they attach to those experiences. Intensive interviewing allows people to talk freely and offer their interpretation of events. According to the general aims of the research, the data collection process focused on a comparison between different groups, officials and civil citizens. A pilot study was conducted, based on the literature review, in order to test the interview structure, respondents and questions, to assess the quality of elite interviewing, to reveal the meaningless or embarrassing questions, and to discover the new issues raised during the pilot study. Participant Observation is a research strategy used by researchers who participate in a social environment to understand people's behaviour.
