To explore the intricacies of GS we relied on research interviews and field research as our primary sources of data. Semi-structured research interviews enabled us to ask participants a set of standard inquiries but then allowed the conversation to build and deviate to explore new directions and areas. We depended on such a qualitative method because many of the variables of interest to us, such as the ongoing energy poverty challenges facing Bangladesh, or the factors that explain the relative success of GS programs, are difficult to measure, and to describe them with quantitative methods would amount to “conceptual stretching” [6]. Additionally, semi-structured interviews enabled us to use face-to-face interaction, or words and images, rather than text to solicit information. Our case studies involved site visits and discussions with farmers, rural community leaders, and end-users. Some of these participants were illiterate, making a textual collection of data impossible. Moreover, the visual element of the interviews enabled us to look for nonverbal cues to decide whether a respondent understood a question.
We conducted 48 of these research interviews and meetings with 19 institutions and communities in five locations over the course of June 2009 to October 2010. In each case we had simultaneous real-time translation into Bengali and local variations and dialects. We relied on a purposive sampling strategy, meaning experts with extensive knowledge of GS were chosen, and also a critical stakeholder analysis framework that required us to include respondents from government, civil society, business, academia, and local communities. We made sure to include participants from: Government agencies including the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rural Electrification Board (REB), and Infrastructure Development Company Limited; Nongovernmental organizations and members of civil society, including GS but also competitors such as the Bright Green Energy Foundation and Hilful Fuzul; Manufacturers, industry groups, and commercial retailers for SHS, biogas, or ICS and their components, including Phocos Bangladesh, Bangladesh Solar Energy Society, and Grameen Technology Centers (GTCs); Financiers and development donors including Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations Development Program Bangladesh (UNDP); Universities and research institutes including the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, and the University of Dhaka.
We asked participants to (a) identify the most serious energy development-related concerns facing Bangladesh, (b) summarize what they saw as the most successful elements of GS programs, (c) explicate the benefits of those efforts as well as remaining challenges, and (d) discuss which elements of GS programs were replicable in other countries. Due to Institutional Review Board guidelines at the National University of Singapore, as well as the request of some participants, we present such data in our article as anonymous, though information from the interviews was often recorded and always carefully coded. We supplemented these interviews with a review peer-reviewed articles relating to energy development in Bangladesh, as well as site visits to speak with more than fifty community members and households including employees and customers at two GTCs and communities in Dhaka, Singair, Manikgunj, and Mawna.
We present the data from these interviews below in an inductive, case study, narrative format. By inductive case studies, we sought to create “detailed examination of an aspect of a historical episode to develop or test historical explanations that may be generalizable to other events”. Put another way, the case study method is an investigation of a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context to explore causation in order to find underlying principles. The intention is to bring a more accurate understanding to a complex issue and provide detailed, contextual insight for students, scholars, and even policymakers. Inductive case study methodologies allow researchers to delve deeper into a given phenomenon and develop a richer, more descriptive understanding of the subject under study. We rely primarily on a narrative presentation of data because narratives, or storylines, are an elemental part of understanding human behavior. Narratives, or in our case “narrative analysis,” documents the “raw” world as it is experienced by its subjects, and it is most appropriate for capturing what actual energy users or consumers believe. Such an inductive, narrative, case study approach has been used widely in the fields of public policy and energy policy to gain insight into the dynamics of energy programs and consumer acceptance (or rejection) of specific energy technologies.
We also present in this study a number of photographs and images related to energy use and GS in Bangladesh, collected during our fieldwork. This is because we believe that such images act as important “physical evidence”. Methodological scholar Pink has argued that photographs can uncover a sort of “visual ethnography” that reveals the meaning behind events in ways that words cannot. Birdsell and Groarke also tell us that because we experience our world through both words and images, the exclusion of “visual elements” from communication artificially narrows the research process.