Coding and analysis of the data

The first step of coding was taken already at the stage of transcription of interviews, which allowed for a first impression of the written form of the interviews. Notes were taken with sensitivity to discursive constructions, recurrent patterns and striking moments. These are elements typical to discourse analysis that at the initial stage aims at grasping variations in the text (Nikander 2008). The actual coding started as the transcriptions of the first round of interviews were finished. To facilitate the coding phase, a program called MAXQDA, a qualitative data analysis software specialized in grounded theory type of analysis, was used. The program enables the data to be organized by means of categorizing them into codes by using regular codes, colors, symbols, or emoticons. Creating memos is an additional tool for organizing and archiving thoughts arising during the analysis.

The second step consisted of going through the data line-by-line and identifying more in detail the discursive elements relevant to the research questions.

However, throughout the coding, I was open to elements independent of the research questions arising from the text and having a particular recurrent characteristic or otherwise relevant for taking into consideration the research interest. Indeed, coding in discourse analysis is described as a multifaceted process guided both by research questions and chosen theoretical frameworks as well as constructionist sensitivities to language and interaction (Nikander 2008: 418).

During the coding phase, emerging patterns were identified and organized in hierarchical categories, which were then completed by going through the interviews once more. Thus, the corpus of the data was created from the collections of the pieces of text, which were described as sharing certain components in common thereby justifying their examination together (Nikander 2008: 419). For instance, components related to the struggles, hardships and difficulties faced by the young people were combined in one single category of 'struggles'. Under this main category, smaller sub codes were derived, such as

'school struggles' or 'transitional struggles' relating to the different environments in which the experienced hardships took place. The emerging findings from the first round of interviews then worked as a base for the preparation for the second round of fieldwork. New relevant questions raised from the data were added to the new interview guideline and the old questions elaborated or dropped depending on the relevance validated by the data.

The specific contribution of the theoretical framework to the process of coding can be identified both cases of discourse analysis and the capability approach.

First of all, discourse analysis enabled the construction of categories that had a particular discursive interest leaning on the research questions and the theoretical relevance. As my research questions aiming at reaching the social constructionist and discursive reality of the interviews and texts largely dealt with clienthood and the institutional selves, the categories for coding were created accordingly. Hence, every text was read through and text extracts were put under two larger codes representing both of these themes and then sub codes were created under both. For instance, institutional selves were looked at from the participants' point-of-view and therefore, this category was created only for the interviews made with them. Instead, as the notion of clienthood gives an implication of a broader institutional perspective, not only from the perspective of the self, another category was created for the interviews with the professionals and in the text analysis for all those instances that indicated clienthood. After these categories were established, I started to look for specific discursive details that would indicate a sub category of each of these. As a result, the sub codes included mostly text pieces where the self was put under evaluation and depending on the extract, sub categories such as 'improving self', 'active self' or 'motivated self' were created. As a base for such categories, grammatical elements such as transitive verbs were often signaling the improving and active self and lexical features such as the repeated use of the words 'active' and 'motivated' signaling the motivated self.

The contribution of the capability approach to the process of coding was somewhat more simplistic. In both the text analysis and the interviews, a code named 'capability for voice' or 'space for voice' was created and all parts of the text indicating issues such as the legal rights for voice, the individuals' conception of their ability for voice in the institutional framework or the implicit meanings indicating reduced capability for voice were put under this code.

However, it is to be noted that during the analysis many of the codes created for discourse analysis turned out to be relevant also for the analysis of capabilities.

Also, many of the codes created for analysis from either theoretical perspective, in the phase of the actual analysis often proved to be important for the other one as well. Moreover, some codes, such as 'agency', were created with both theoretical frameworks in mind while sub codes were formulated from the perspective of either discourse analysis or the capability approach. The coding process was, therefore, a rather complicated process where both of the theoretical frameworks took a role in different stages of coding and later on in the analysis.

6.6.1 Text analysis

Along with observational methods, text analysis served as a supplementary tool for understanding the frame of activation in Switzerland and the depiction of unemployment and unemployed people in the legal and administrative frame in the federal and cantonal levels. The federal level was represented by a document outlining the law of Swiss unemployment insurance (LACI) and a related documentation of the labor market measures in Switzerland, while the cantonal and institutional logic of SeMo was examined by analysis of the provision agreement made between the cantonal authority of employment and the SeMo service providers. Thus, the text analysis aimed at completing the analysis on the normative underpinnings on unemployed people at the local level of the organization.

With text analysis I refer to the analysis of written documents that work as a guideline to the work at the implementation level of labor market measures.

Documents can be seen as 'social facts' rather than representing the reality of organizational processes and thus are 'produced, shared and used in socially organized ways' (Atkinson and Coffey 2004: 58). At the same time, documents are used as tools; they can be objects of manipulation and thus have certain effects on people and the state of affairs. The task of the researcher is then to explore what realities the documents bring into existence in different contexts (Prior 2004) and what they are used to accomplish in different organizational settings representing different cultural values (Atkinson and Coffey 2004). The interest in analyzing texts from the constructionist perspective is in processes through which the texts describe reality rather than the factual base of the statements outlined in the text (Silverman and Marvasti 2008).

Accordingly, the main purpose of the text analysis of this research is to discover the general dominant discourses on unemployment and of the individuals, particularly young people in search of a job. The assumption is that the legal and administrative texts are the base of the overall discourses in Switzerland and have an impact on how the phenomenon is seen by the general public. Another, however more marginal, aim of the text analysis has an informative purpose since the legal frame influences the analysis of young unemployed people a great deal. The analysis on the unemployment insurance, for this purpose, brought information on the actual limitations of and opportunities available to the unemployed young people. The provision agreement, in turn, offered information at the level of organization outlining, for instance, the rules, restrictions and the base for the sanctioning system.

The first exploration on the legal level had already taken place before entering the field for the purpose of preparation while the more in-depth analysis was done after the second round of interviews. Also for this stage, MAXQDA was used to create codes and to reflect these codes in the light of those created from interview transcripts from both of the fieldwork sequences. This type of analysis allowed a triangulation of the data and support for the data collected in the implementation level.