The aim of the following section is to illustrate the utility of building a combined methodological approach into the evaluation process. My approach to methodology heavily draws on the work of Saukko (2003) ‘Combining Methodologies in Cultural Studies’ and Haraway (1988) notion of ‘Strong Objectivity’. In this paper, the usage of
the term ‘methodology’ is derived from the social science field of cultural studies referring to ‘the wider package of both tools and a philosophical and political commitment that come with a particular research ‘approach’. In contra distinction method refers to the practical ‘tools’ to make sense of empirical reality (See Saukko, pg. 8, 2003).
Combined methodology secures a more inclusive egalitarian epistemic vantage point to assess the appropriateness of the programme justification. This is achieved by combining a hermeneutic approach for the study of residents lived experience and a contextualist critical analysis of the official positivistic discourse that legitimises the housing clearance project. Each approach has its own retrospective validity. A dialogic lens is used to test the validity of the hermeneutic approach to measure the extent to which the research has captured the residents’ situated activity and lived experience. The second approach applies a contextualist or realist lens and judges the extent to which the regeneration evidence base understands the social, economic and political context that offer an account of the historical emergence of such segregated areas including the contemporary connection to the immediate environment.
The combining of methodologies with different notions of validity clearly challenges the singular notion of truth arguably prevalent in evidence based practice in housing regeneration and the positivist quest for objective value free science ‘objectivism’, a position premised on the notion that researchers can have apolitical unmediated access to an external reality. The authors are equally skeptical about defeatist post- modern embrace of relativism, which completely gives up the quest to generate reliable scientific knowledge, refuting the real.
Studying the interplay between lived experiences and the contextualising discourses and texts previously described in the paper then clearly entails a re-think and a shift from an ontological position that views social reality as a fixed object knowable and stable and external to the researcher and the accompanied quest to mirror social reality. And secondly a shift in ontological position that denies there is a ‘real’ a resistance beyond the research and advocates a social constructionist epistemological position.
In contrast to these approaches a material semiotic perspective informs the researchers’ ontological and epistemological stance. In terms of ontology the relationship between reality and research is ‘interactive’ in nature. In taking up this position the researchers’ epistemological position is material semiotic construction of reality. A position that advocates that research knowledge both creates social reality and also constrained by social reality. There is an acknowledgement that
“Research is always facilitated and constrained by the existing social and material environment and it needs to understand, for example, structures of social equality or the basics of ecological reality, if it is going to change them’ (Saukko, pg.29, 2003).
In taking up this material – semiotic perspective the rationale underpinning the research methodological design ‘combining methodologies, each with their own respective validities helps to steer the research towards more egalitarian and inclusive and therefore a strong objective and more accurate inclusive social reality as opposed to weak objectivity. Strong objectivity has been achieved when the research has captured
and taken into account a range of standpoints including those of subjugated groups to create a more inclusive and accurate reality. Equally important, the researcher arrives at self-reflexivity and recognizes the social situatedness of the knowledge produced; in effect recognising that the cultural assumptions we bring to the research process is un- transcendable. Adopting a multiple methodological approach also facilitates a dialogue between different methodological approaches and in doing so builds self-reflectivity into the evaluation process, a situation in which the social scientist is aware of the social situatedness of her/his knowledge. Weak objectivity is when research lacks reflexivity, purporting to be objective, value free and impartial, thus rendering invisible to itself its own service to power, occluding difference and foreclosing critique. (Haraway, 1988). 'Hermeneutics' (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary) is the art or science of interpretation. Simply put, it means the process of interpretation. This is a particular useful approach to secure evaluative information because it is committed to interpreting the culture in the neighbourhood and thereby builds self-reflectivity into the research design because the aim is to be truthful to the lived experience of residents and understand the culture of the neighbourhood. This approach requires the choosing of an accompanying practical method tool to capture life in the neighbourhood in order to generate the empirical data to make a judgement about the appropriateness of programme justification and success criteria. The chosen method to accompany the ethnographic method is a descendant of the classical tradition of anthropology. The value of the method is that it secures a window into the culture of the subjects to investigate and interpret the significance of home, identity and the neighbourhood, and how policy practice intertwines with the cultural practices of the community, hence generating empirical data for the assessment exercise. The value of the method is in ‘discovery’ (Fielding et al., 2001).
As Brewer writes, ethnography is the study of people in naturally occurring setting or ‘fields’ by means of methods which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the setting, if not also the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic manner….” (Brewer, pg.10, 2000). The data analysis of ethnographic work is demanding because of the large amount of data (Fielding et al., 2001). Like many other ethnographers, the researcher used a procedure called sequential analysis, a method of analysis suggested by Becker, 1971. In this method, the analysis of the research data is done sequentially and begins in the field. The idea is to constantly check interpretation against the data and to reflectively gain new insights that direct the data gathering process. This is done until the researcher is satisfied that they understand the culture of the community in relation to the key concepts of home identity and community that were derived from the initial data gathering exercise. Interview material and field notes were analyzed by using thematic analysis to identify themes in the data. Finally, in order to check the researcher's understanding, the residents were further interviewed and tape-recorded.
4
Findings and Discussion
A key concept relevant to the assessment of the appropriateness of programme justification and success criteria to test the rationale for intervention is the notion of
‘failure’. This is defined by the Government ‘3 Rs Guidance’ as being ‘the justification of a policy intervention in terms of the market failures it aims to correct’. The assessment reveals that a realist methodological approach accompanied by statistical analysis secures a robust case for HMR intervention to alleviate the economic and social deprivation in the public interest. The research justification highlights the need for social and housing regeneration to halt and reverse by restructuring the housing market. This point can be evidenced by the Department of Transport Indices for Social Deprivation as well as the growing research identifying the phenomena of low demand. The area was one of the most deprived in the country. The strength of the justification research is that it captures a breakdown in the capitalist system and it identifies the structures that pose a threat to sustainable development. These include the negative impact of economic restructuring relating to the decline of the manufacturing and mining industries, the related social migration out of these neighbourhoods and the changing housing aspirations of our communities that undermine sustainable development (Leather, 2002). A distinguishing feature of the HMR programme is its scientific knowledge based approach to regeneration in the sense that it responds to changing processes in the housing market manifested through three analytically distinct strands. These are as follows: Stock obsolesence, surplus housing stock and unpopular neighbourhoods. It therefore suggests a grand narrative about the social world.
The programme justification and success criteria in this case study are revealed to be inappropriate because they are identified as being one process in the complex cycle of disengagement which triggers the resistance. This is especially the case in relation to truth claims made about the changing tastes and aspirations of communities and the fact that this neighbourhood was given the label ‘low-demand housing area’. These are misconceptions which arose largely because no attempt was made by the Local Authority to increase the external validity of the type of generalizations made by carrying out investigation into the more localized dynamic of this neighbourhood. It may have been useful to complement the realist methodological approach with a hermeneutic methodological approach that explores the meaning of home, community and neighbourhood, thus endeavouring to secure a more inclusive and egalitarian social reality, i.e., what Harding describes as strong objectivity.
To demonstrate this point by example, the residents in this case study protested that the methodology underpinning the research characterized their area as a ‘low-demand area’ as part of the process of identifying it for clearance. Their opposition was based in part on the conviction that the forces identified as producing low-demand regionally had no bearing on the realities of their unique area. (The Government based its Pathfinder Policy on research conducted by Birmingham University and others into the phenomenon of low demand).
By way of example, residents complained that the methodology failed to consider that void properties in Asian areas could be explained away by the South Asian cultural practice of buying properties, with the intention of retaining them for another member of the family or future generations. The testimony of South Asian residents challenges the epistemology of how the government and other agencies constructed and constituted a housing problem.
The adoption of the hermeneutic methodological approach reveal the blind spots inherent in using this approach that wiping out swathes of social reality. The first complex theme identified is that the relationship to home, self and other is very complex and is in fact a cultural practice involving the reproduction of the identity of community members. The data shows that the identities of the residents living in the area are complex and diverse. However, one identity central to the resistance is the identity of communal member. In the narratives, residents living in this community described their lived reality of the urban space. This secures an example of the way in which community and family membership are enmeshed in a joint housing/cultural practice. To be more explicit, housing practice is about ‘a family can do discourse’, a discourse silenced in the theory of low demand, standing in direct contrast to the Neo-Liberal Housing policy discourse ‘housing as assets’. In making their counter-narratives, residents drew on more localized family and cultural discourses, security, friendship, happiness, shared understanding, common interests, family and community support mechanisms and pulling together in times of crisis.
A sub-theme of difference emerges from the data. Housing needs for this community stretch beyond dwelling quality to other more pressing needs, such as the fear of isolation from one’s community support. In short, this minority community has different housing needs from what is considered the case for the indigenous population. Community life is about family and neighbourly values. Examples of this in the case study data include the practice of community support systems, i.e., looking after children by the extended family while parents are at work, looking after sick members of the family and pooling resources together to look after the housing needs of members of the community.
Analysis of the data reveals that the collision of community and regeneration dynamics instigates a process of disengagement, which leads to a breakdown in the relationship between the community and the Local Authority. In this case study, for many community members the regeneration project was perceived to be a threat to the sustainability of the community because it entailed the destruction of the infrastructure on which their communal identity is reproduced. In contradiction of the housing low- demand discourse, housing holds high social capital in terms of providing low cost affordable flexible accommodation, because it is affordable to all members of the community including its poorest members, who can rent properties from the richer members of the community.
The data indicates that regeneration success criteria instigated a conflict in the community. This is evidenced by the ethnographic transcripts of community activists, some of whom had previously supported a smaller demolition programme. The process of disengagement gives rise to fuelling suspicion that there was a conspiracy in the neighbourhood about the Local Authority’s intentions, fostering a deep mistrust in the community, and closing down regeneration solutions. This subsequently further undermines sustainability of the neighbourhood by undermining the social cohesion, triggering a conflict between the modern and more traditional members over the right to exercise their self-styled housing practice.
5
Conclusion and Further Research
In summary, the paper puts forward the argument that the dynamics are complex. Programme justification and success criteria derived from a realist methodological approach accompanied by statistical analysis does capture the general societal processes accounting for the re-structuring of the housing market. However, it becomes de- sensitized to the complex working of communities.
Furthermore, the argument put forward is that there is a need for evidence-based approaches to regeneration, to adopt a multiple methodological approach to firstly create a more inclusive ‘accurate’ social reality and to secondly promote dialogue that builds self-reflectivity into the research design. The evaluation revealed that the programme justification and success criteria were inappropriate because they were not congruent to the dynamics operating in this community and fuelled one process in the complex cycle of disengagement which heightened programme failure.
There is an urgent need for researchers working in the field of regeneration to sharpen their theoretical tools. This is a pressing issue in a policy context in which increasing importance is placed by the government on the quality of the stakeholder process in HMR neighbourhoods. This is evidenced by the Audit Commission’s announcement in 2007 of the key principles that should underpin community engagement. Key Principle 1 requires the assurance that proposals and plans for intervention are based on a detailed assessment; the ‘vibrancy ‘of the community, for example, by a systematic measurement of its social capital. The emphasis is placed on the social, cultural and contextual considerations in the analysis for the development of the proposals for the area. This is a challenging request, and will require the development and application of sophisticated methodologies and research methods by research teams that have undergone the appropriate research training to develop ways of theorising and measuring it.
To quote another example, Key Principle 2 requires that the community itself fully understands what the proposals are and why they have been drawn up, by ensuring that a resident’s representative is chosen from each street in the zone, with a clear remit to change proposals if necessary: 'Urban Regeneration Proposals’ (Audit Commission, 2007). While this principle is to be commended, housing clearance projects as evidenced by the literature review and the findings in this research are controversial. There is a need for understanding the cultural dynamics of the neighbourhood, because failure to do so can contribute to programme failure. Arguably, prior to the formal engagement process, there is a need for skilled ethnographers and other suitably qualified social scientists to undertake research to understand the cultures of our communities because, as Maginn (who incidentally recommends the potential of collaborative planning and applied ethnography to realise more effective community participation) points out, “conflict and mistrust are, of course, inevitable facts of life within all kinds of decision making structures" (Maginn, pg. 26, 2007). This further supports the case for suitably qualified researchers to enter the field in advance of the formal engagement process.
The paper concludes that dedicated funding streams are desperately needed to permit the development of more sophisticated forms of qualitative analysis methods to
complement contemporary quantitative methods to further the achievement of sustainable development.
6
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