A qualitative framework for data collection and analysis in participation processes

Participation processes (PPs) are more and more requested in different areas given their capability to promote constructive exchange and innovative ideas and to bring a great value to decision-making processes. PPs aim to generate new data that decision-makers can consider and transform into relevant knowledge to support their decision-making processes. In some cases, collecting data could be problematic since stakeholders might lack willingness, capacity and/or suitable means to participate. In other cases, PPs might generate a large amount of data to be analyzed and scrutinized. At the same time, PPs are subject to time-effectiveness pressures to provide timely reports. Based on a case study and using the grounded theory method, we propose in this paper a qualitative framework to guide data collection and analysis in PPs in order to better inform decision-makers.