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Research Design and Methods

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Abstract

In this chapter, I outline the research design and empirical methods applied for the work being presented here. The research design refers to how the research topic was empirically approached, whereas the methods are the procedures used for collecting and analysing my empirical data (Creswell and Plano Clark 2011, p. 53). The core research question that needs to be addressed is the following: How can we assess—in a systematic and holistic sense—the influence of energy cooperatives on Germany’s energy transition?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The actor network analysis was done in mid-2015, so all renewable energy production cooperatives registered through December 2015 could not yet be included. Hence, I decided to focus on all cooperatives registered until the end of 2014. Results from 2014 seem to be sufficient, since only 42 additional organisations were registered in 2015.

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Debor, S. (2018). Research Design and Methods. In: Multiplying Mighty Davids?. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77628-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77628-6_5

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