Climate Crisis

Strategies Among
Youth Activists in
Denmark
Qualitative Research Exam 2022

Jinga Mihai
Roskilde University
Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE.............................................................................................................................. 2

1. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM AREA.................................................................. 2

RESEARCH AIM................................................................................................................................. 2

2. PROBLEM FORMULATION ......................................................................................... 2

WHAT ARE THE DISTINCTIVE CONCERNS, MOTIVES, INSPIRATIONS, ACTIVITIES, METHODS, AND

DEMANDS OF THIS GENERATION OF YOUNG ACTIVISTS BETWEEN 13-30 IN DENMARK IN

HOVEDSTADEN AREA?? ................................................................................................................... 2

3. METHODOLOGY RESEARCH STRATEGY AND RESEARCH PARADIGMS....... 3

DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................................................... 3

DIGITAL DATA................................................................................................................................... 3

FOCUS GROUPS .................................................................................................................................. 4

SAMPLING STRATEGY ...................................................................................................................... 5

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION ......................................................................................... 6

CONTENT ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................... 6

4. APPENDICIES: .................................................................................................................... 7
Chapter one

1. Introduction and Problem Area

One of the most pressing issues of our day, climate warming has been called
one of the biggest dangers to mankind (Dimitrov 2010). When it comes to
the devastation caused by the climate catastrophe, children and young
people are at the front lines of suffering.

Our earth is experiencing a climate crisis that is causing significant

disruptions and threatens to change our living circumstances. Human
behavior produced the crisis, and human behavior may contribute to its
resolution or at least its mitigation. Political mechanisms to discover answers
are sluggish, and many residents, especially the young, are becoming
frustrated.

Research Aim
After introducing the reader in the research context and area, next will
set the research aim and objectives.

This research intends to evaluate the activities and methods used by

Danish youth to combat the climate catastrophe. It focuses on young people
aged 13-30 in the Nordic countries, and how they relate to Sustainable
Consumption and Production . Concerns, inspiration, activities, methods,
suggestions, and demands of young people in regard to sustainable
consumption and lifestyle will be investigated in the analysis.

2. Problem Formulation
To formulate a problem within the topic but delimited enough to make the
research feasible to investigate in this study, the following problem
statement has been formulated:

What are the distinctive concerns, motives, inspirations, activities,

methods, and demands of this generation of young activists between
13-30 in Denmark in Hovedstaden area??

Subquestions:

1. How do children and young people practice everyday climate crisis

activism in their life?
2. What has changed in young people’s everyday climate crisis activism in
the last two years?
 3. Methodology Research Strategy and Research paradigms

To begin with, a reasoning method and theory generation to answer above

proposed questions, abductive logical inference will be used as syllogism of
understanding daily youth practices and generate new knowledge by drawing
connections among already existing information about climate change
actions undertaken by young people.

In the same time, triangulation will be one measure used to enchance

research trustworthiness by using multiple strategies and data sources to
increase credibility. Focus groups, digital data and user generated content
will be used as forms of data, and the topic will be angled from different
perspectives examining with different questions in mind.

Triangulation refers to the use of multiple methods or data sources in

qualitative research to develop a comprehensive understanding of
phenomena (Patton, 1999)

Theory

To get a better understanding of the motives that underlines young activists

practices in Denmark and how these influence their overall behavior, the
research makes use of transcripts of recorded focus group interviews and
coding the conducted ITV for collecting and producing empirical data

Data Collection

Firstly, Two qualitative data generation methods will be used, Digital Data
and Visual Data are choosen to carry on the methodological aspect of the
research and aquire necessary data to be analysed and interpreted in the
next chapter.

Digital Data
Digital data will serve thorugh social media research. It is twitter, facebook
and alike social media platforms held active climate change activists where
discussions are held and plenty of sensitizing data can be gathered. A few
things to consider are the most relevant social media platform, and how to
select data from it and who is writing the postDigital Data are selected as
primary data collection method as “It provides more accurate information..”
(How can digital data collection lead you and your project to success?, no
date)
Moreover, as strengths, digital data are most accessible and most of the
debates and communications in connection with climate crisis that take
place online nowadays. As of Medium.com, cost, speed and efficiency, data
quality and tracking are 4 benefits of this approach (The 4 Key Advantages of
Digital Data Collection | by Progressly | Medium, no date). In addition, they
are “always on” and can be continuously collected, they capture social
relationships

.. An weakness is that some data are often inaccessible, for example

private climate activists, researchers or related organisations facebook
groups where vast majority of data are generated e.g. Copernicus (Strengths
& Weaknesses of Digital Trace Data, no date).

Another aspect to consider is that they are unstructured and can often be
messy and sensitive, so a well organized manner and repect of privacy and
GDPR must comply. “most internet content – while public in the way
billboards are – is much closer to informal discussions, or thinking aloud;
than to stable opinions that have been published with intent.” (Donald
Treadwell 2014, cited in Tiidenberg, 2018)

In this study, interviews will be excluded as a data generation method as

they do not fit our project due to the small sample size that can be covered.
Manual entry data increase the cost of the project and time consuming,
being one by one, which is a major disadvantage in such face-to face
interviews as they require a staff of people to conduct interviews.
(Advantages and Disadvantages of Face-to-Face Data Collection, 2014)

Finally, the second method, focus groups are, in fact, the finest means for
customers to express their views and resolve their differences. A face-to-face
interview, for example, will not be able to capture this dynamic. In addition,
focus groups may be less costly than interviews if the analytical treatment is
kept to a bare minimum.

Focus groups
A focus group is a method of research involving a small group of people
(usually six to eight participants) who are guided through a discussion
by a moderator. Focus groups can be used to explore a variety of different
issues, to test solutions, to explore the group's perspective of a problem and
to generate ideas. (‘How to run focus groups guide.pdf’, no date)

To name strengths, in under two hours, a Focus Group provides more data
about their habits and motives or latest changes than they could in a longer
study. Focus groups may provide light on complex issues, such as those
involving conditional beliefs or attitudes, or those involving several aspects
of a person's personality or motivation which is why it was chosen as
appropriate for answering our research questions.

Another advantage is that they easly measure customer reaction when for
example asking about recycling or using paper bags, providing immediate
ideas about improving data crisis habits among youngsters. Also, they are
time-saving being able to interview multiple participants at once.

As disadvantages, expenses must be taken into consideration, be it for

interviewers or organising the day neceesities: food, location, recording
equipment etc. Another obvious disadvantage is the moderator bias, as
research can greatly impact the outcome of the focus group discussion,
unintentionally injecting their personal biases into the participants
exchanging ideas. (Advantages & Disadvantages of a Focus Group, no date)

For assuring reliable data collection, an efficient ongoing process during the
focus groups sessions, a checklist of strategy has been written down as
reference or so called focus group agenda:

1. Welcome the participants and introduction to create rapport, connect

and establish communication
2. Establish some ground rules as to clarify any questions as to data
privacy, ethics, conducts and boundaries.
3. Start asking questions methodically, using subtopics of e.g where they
learned about climate crisis, what expectations they have, reasons and
key actions etc. in such a way the conversation have flow and makes
sense.

Sampling Strategy
For sampling strategy, strattified sampling will be used to select participants
for our study. Stratified random sampling is a method of sampling that
involves dividing a population into smaller groups–called strata. The
groups or strata are organized based on the shared characteristics or
attributes of the members in the group. The process of classifying the
population into groups is called stratification (How Stratified Random
Sampling Works, no date)

The reason for using this is as “It allows researchers to quickly obtain a
sample population that best represents the entire population being
studied.”(Stratified Random Sampling and How to Use It, no date)
This is as participants has to be climate change activists and have an affinity
and pragmatic experience in the subject to be able to offer best data during
the focus groups, namely they already implemented practices in their lives.

For this purpose, 20 focus groups will be selected using internet, climate
change groups and climate change university students

To start with, the population sampling, youth climate change activists in

Denmark will be targeted, with preponderance of Hovedstaden area and
Copenhagen to assure a sufficient population size and data variety.As for
sampling strategy, we start by having a general idea of where and with which
population to begin as stated above and by soliciting a few focus interviews
to begin with

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Content analysis
This refers to the process of categorizing verbal or behavioural data to
classify, summarize and tabulate the data by building categories derived
from theory and reducing complexity in a systematic, rigourous and
coherent way. The researcher’s view is inspired by concepts/pre-
conceptions Bauer 2000 iquotedby Flick(2018: 482).

Grounded theory

This qualitative data analysis approach begins with the investigation of a

single example in order to develop a hypothesis. Then, further instances are
evaluated to determine in what measure they reveal natural behaviour of
youth climate activists.

Additionally, Grounded theory aims to uncover or create theory using

evidence that has been collected and analyzed utilizing comparative analysis
in a systematic manner.

(‘Qualitative Data Analysis’, no date)

Proceeding above data analysis frameworks, we will identify themes, patterns

and relationships between findings. More specifically, a closer look will be on
word and phrase repetitions, primary and secondary data comparasions of
focus groups and literature review. On this while drawing connections, the
need of searching for missing information will appear as well. In the end a
summary of the data will link research findings to our main problem
formulation.

Validity

Trustworthiness criteria (Lincoln and Guba

In order to asses the validity of the data collected, credibility,

transferability, dependability, and confirmatbility will be used as truth value
measurement. As the sources were gathered using peer reviewed articles and
publications written by scholars, cited and acceptated as valid by other
authors and topic related researchers which offers both credibility and
confirmability attributes. As for transferability and dependability, climate
change

Conclusion

To sum up, in order to answer our main and sub research qustions, focus
interviews and digital data will be used to collect necessary information from
a stratified sample and analysed through grounded theory and content
analysis.

4. Appendicies:
Advantages & Disadvantages of a Focus Group (no date) Small Business -
Chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-
disadvantages-focus-group-784.html (Accessed: 8 June 2022).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Face-to-Face Data Collection (2014) Snap

Surveys Blog. Available at: https://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-
disadvantages-facetoface-data-collection/ (Accessed: 7 June 2022).

Bailey, J., Mann, S., Wayal, S., Hunter, R., Free, C., Abraham, C. and Murray, E.
(2015) Digital research methods and optimum research methodology to
evaluate digital interventions, Sexual health promotion for young people
delivered via digital media: a scoping review. NIHR Journals Library. Available
at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK326976/ (Accessed: 8 June
2022).

How can digital data collection lead you and your project to success? (no
date). Available at: https://www.stantec.com/en/ideas/topic/cities/how-can-
digital-data-collection-lead-you-and-your-project-to-success (Accessed: 7 June
2022).

How Stratified Random Sampling Works (no date) Investopedia. Available at:
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032615/what-are-some-
examples-stratified-random-sampling.asp (Accessed: 8 June 2022).
‘How to run focus groups guide.pdf’ (no date). Available at:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Equalities/How%20
to%20run%20focus%20groups%20guide.pdf (Accessed: 8 June 2022).

‘Qualitative Data Analysis’ (no date) Research-Methodology. Available at:

https://research-methodology.net/research-methods/data-
analysis/qualitative-data-analysis/ (Accessed: 7 June 2022).

Stratified Random Sampling and How to Use It (no date) Qualtrics. Available
at: https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-
management/research/stratified-random-sampling/ (Accessed: 8 June 2022).

Strengths & Weaknesses of Digital Trace Data (no date). Available at:
https://sicss.io/2020/materials/day2-digital-trace-data/strengths-
weaknesses/rmarkdown/Strengths_and_Weaknesses.html (Accessed: 8 June
2022).

The 4 Key Advantages of Digital Data Collection | by Progressly | Medium (no

date). Available at: https://medium.com/@Progressly/the-4-key-advantages-
of-digital-data-collection-c839a89f168d (Accessed: 7 June 2022).