Qualitative Research Approaches in the Study of the Built Environment

Dr Matthew W. Rofe

School of Natural and Built Environments

The University of South Australia

‘Intense arguments about methodology are often as much to do with researchers’ beliefs and feelings about the structure of the world as about their regard for a particular research method… In complex ways, ontology (beliefs about the world) and epistemology (ways of knowing the world) are linked to the methods we choose to use for research’

Winchester and Rofe (2010, pp.4-5).

Qualitative Research Design; A Primer:

What is Qualitative Research?

‘In a board sense, qualitative research is concerned with elucidating human environments and human experiences within a variety of conceptual frameworks’

(Winchester and Rofe 2010, p.5).

Elucidate… to explain… to illuminate

Human Environments… physical… imaginaryHuman Experiences… understanding, engagement, hopes, aspirations, fears, anxieties…

Qualitative Approaches (with specific reference to the built environment) Address 2 Fundamental Questions:

1. What is the shape of societal structures and how do they shape and constrain the built environment?

2. What are individuals’ experiences of places and events?

Qualitative – Quantitative Dualisms:

Quantitative methods

Quantitative data

Experimental settings

Identification of behavior

Adoption of natural science

Deductive approaches

Pursuance of scientific laws

Realist perspective

Source: Winchester and Rofe (2010, p.15).

Qualitative methods

Qualitative data

Natural settings

Search for meaning

Rejection of natural

science

Inductive approaches

Identification of cultural

patterns

Idealist perspective

The Backbone of Qualitative Research:

1. Oral techniques (interviewing, focus groups);

2. Textual analysis (deconstruction of landscape, documents and images);

3. Participatory techniques (various degrees of participant observation).

see Davies and Dyer (2007, p.257)

Interview Styles and Contexts:

1.Scripted survey interview;2.Semi-structured interview;3.Unstructured interview;4.Oral history (including archive data);5.Focus group.

The style of interview chosen will depend upon the context of the project.

Oral Techniques – Interviewing:

The strength of interviewing is that it is ‘…a social relationship’

(Neuman 2003, p.292).

BEWARE…

Power dynamics influence all interview interactions… gender, age, culture, class

etc…

(see Schoenberger 1991; Winchester 1996, 1999).

8 Keys to Ensuring the Quality of Data:

1. Retain control over the interview process;

2. Record interview in some manner;

3. Reduce potential bias;

4. Consider your own ‘position’;

5. Avoid assumed knowledge or shared meaning;

6. Probe appropriately and regularly;

7. Allow respondent’s adequate time to reflect and respond;

8. Follow up interviews (if possible);

9. Analyse data rigorously…

How do we Analyse Interview Data?

REMEMBER - Interview data is collected to provide ‘indepth’ qualitative information, rather than descriptive quantitative information.

1. Thematic analysis – the search for themes…

2. Content analysis – the search for information that is both implicit and explicit…

3. Computer assisted analysis – NUD*IST

Understanding Urban Change?

‘Every method of data collection… is only an approximation to knowledge. Each provides a different glimpse of reality, and all have limitations’

(Warick and Lininger 1975, p.5 cited in Neuman 2003, p.263).

Most Importantly:

Literature Cited:

•Schoenberger, E. (1991) The corporate interview as a research method in economic geography, Professional Geographer, 43, pp.180-189.•Winchester, H.P.M. (1996) Ethical issues in interviewing as a research method in human geography, Australian Geographer, 2, pp.117-131.•Winchester, H.P.M. (1999) Interviews and questionnaires as mixed methods in population geography: the case of Lone Fathers in Newcastle, Australia, Professional Geographer, 51/1, pp.60-67.•Winchester, H.P.M. and Rofe, M.W. (2010) Qualitative Research and its Place in Human Geography, in: Hay, (Ed.) Qualitative Research Techniques in Human Geography, 3rd Edition, pp.3-25. Oxford University Press: Ontario.•Neuman, W.L. (2003) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Pearson Education: Boston.