Big Climate Conversation: report of findings - technical annex

Analysis of Responses

The different strands of activity allowed participants to submit responses through a variety of channels. Whilst the central questions asked of participants in each strand of The Big Climate Conversation were similar, the format in which responses were submitted were quite different. Therefore, at the end of The Big Climate Conversation, the data to be analysed had been collected in the following formats:

• Entries via Slido (all facilitated workshops)
• Completed hand-written booklets (all facilitated workshops)
• Facilitator observation notes (targeted-audience workshops)
• Simple feedback forms (community-led conversations)
• Tweets (digital conversation)

Keep Scotland Beautiful were responsible for the analysis of the data collected through the facilitated conversations (including both the open and targeted workshops). The Slido form and the booklets had been designed to mirror each other exactly, therefore, these responses could be analysed together. Data from the booklets was transcribed and entered into a spreadsheet alongside the data downloaded from Slido. All data were then analysed together, question by question.

Descriptive statistics were used where relevant, for example, to analyse the demographics of those attending the workshops. However, most of the responses were qualitative in nature and were therefore analysed using a thematic coding process. This involved the responses to each question being grouped into themes, to help draw out areas of agreement or disagreement between participants. Facilitator notes from each of the five targeted-audience workshops were analysed and compared with the Slido and booklet data.

Whilst a similar form of thematic coding was used to analyse the feedback forms from the community-led conversations, the format of these forms did not mirror those used in the facilitated workshops. Therefore, it was not possible to combine these responses to analyse them together and the feedback forms were analysed separately, following the simplified set of questions used.

The Scottish Government is currently exploring further digital engagement opportunities to supplement our initial digital engagement event. These future online engagement opportunities will be organised in conjunction with the Scottish Government Digital Engagement Team to inform an online engagement strategy.

Across the various different strands of activity, The Big Climate Conversation has engaged a large number of individuals and communities all across Scotland. The findings therefore reflect only the perspectives of the individuals, communities and organisations that took part in The Big Climate Conversation. As participants were not selected to be representative of the Scottish population, the findings should not be considered as representative of national opinion.

Similarly, whilst it would be useful to explore whether there were differences of opinion between different subsections of the population, this type of analysis was not possible with the data collected. This is due to the non-random nature of the recruitment process and the small number of participants in each demographic category relative to the total population of Scotland.