Research Rationale and Design

Mason (2007) challenges researchers to think through their ontological perspective, their epistemological position, their broad substantive area of research and the nature of their intellectual puzzle as a precursor to embarking on their project. The author’s responses to these challenges are summarised in Table 5 below. Hence the nature of

Table 5: Author's research approach context summary Ontology Epistemology Broad area of

research

Intellectual Puzzle Complex human

agendas determine urban public open space (UPOS) Including - Processes that create and maintain UPOS - Attitude, beliefs, views of Stakeholders involved in the process (individuals & institutions) - Governance In the context of a prevailing neo-liberal political paradigm Documented Evidence - Legislation - Strategies - Policies - Reports - Web-pages Personal accounts of actors involved in the process Visual evidence - Maps - Photos - Public Policy - Delivery of Public Goods - Planning and Governance of Public Goods Mechanical Puzzle UPOS - How is it planned - How is it maintained - How is it resourced - Acquisition - Maintenance Comparative Puzzle

- Public versus Private, role of tenure

Causal/Predictive

- Do current processes deliver quality UPOS?

- Can current planning processes & governance be improved? - How will recent strategies and policies impact UPOS planning and delivery?

Comparative

- Local Government in Southern Tasmania to other jurisdictions (Australian and International)

the research question (see page 10) can be summarised as one that seeks to “elucidate human environments, individual experiences and social processes” (Hay 2010, 3) which makes it a suitable candidate for a qualitative research approach.

The Case Study approach is a common one within the field of qualitative research, and was chosen for this research because it “involves the study of a single instance or small number of instances of a phenomenon in order to explore in-depth nuances of the phenomenon and the contextual influences on and explanations of that

phenomenon” (Hay 2010, 81). Stewart (2012, 68) endorses the case study approach when she states that is “has a long and honourable history in governance related research….the ‘case’ enables a rich and detailed study of a particular phenomenon, issue or problem”. Flyvbjerg (2011) refers to four aspect of the case study approach that make it appealing to researchers, these being the ability to demarcate the

boundaries of the study; that it is an intensive study; that it evolves over time and that it focuses on context. The next section provides more detail on these four elements of the research design for this study.

3.2.1 Case Study - Boundary demarcation

The instance that is the focus of this research is the UPOS planning process and its governance, rather than the plan for any one particular UPOS. The research was further bounded in three ways. Firstly by choosing a subset of local government authorities from the STCA, specifically; Kingborough City Council (KCC), Hobart City Council (HCC), Glenorchy City Council (GCC), Brighton City Council (BCC) and Clarence City Council (CCC). Secondly by focusing on primarily one of several possible stakeholder groups, namely council staff involved in the planning and maintenance of UPOS from these in scope councils. And thirdly by the time frame of the research which spans from March 2012 to September 2012.

3.2.2 Case Study – Intensive study

The in depth phase of the research involved a semi-structured one on one interview with each research participant. The semi-structured approach ensured that there was a degree of consistency to the topics covered so as to facilitate later comparison of responses based on the role of interview subjects and their council affiliation. The

semi-structured interview also enabled the author to elicit information on key contextual issues of the broader area of research, specifically the TOSPPF and interviewee definitions of UPOS. However at the same time the semi-structured approach allowed for interviewees to take the interview into areas that were

important to them, which provided the author with many opportunities for increased and novel learning. Hans Eysenck (1976 in Flyvbjerg 2006, 224) encapsulated the value of this particular aspect of case studies when he states “…look carefully at individual cases - not in the hope of proving anything, but rather in the hope of learning something!”.

3.2.3 Case Study – Evolving over time

The case study approach is generally considered deductive, in that it is a way of developing theory, as opposed to the traditional inductive scientific research

approach which starts with a theory and then seeks to validate it through the research (Bennett and Elman 2006; Hay 2010; Patton 2002). However, these authors also realise that it is usual for the research to re-iterate through these two modes.

To allow for this possibility the research questions were based on learnings from the literature review, however no particular theory was postulated at the start of the research. Rather the aim was to see what would emerge from the interviews and then to focus on these data to verify and refer back to the literature. Keeping this degree of flexibility enabled the author to pursue additional interviews with stakeholders, who had valuable insights to some of the themes that emerged, yet who were outside the core target group.

3.2.4 Case Study – Focus on context

Given that the research aim is to explore how policy and planning impacts on the delivery of quality UPOS the research approach also included a review of various Australian and Tasmanian Government Strategy and Policy documents, Industry Initiatives and publically available information and documents from the web sites of the in scope councils. The research also included a physical visit to a number of UPOSs that had been nominated by interviewees as examples of quality spaces. Follow up phases included an attempt to source quantitative data as to the amount of

UPOS within the Hobart area and this proved to be one of the most interesting sources of information revealing the importance of the definition of the term UPOS. Finally the author also attended relevant industry seminars and conferences, such as the August 2012 Inaugural State Planning Conference organised by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) – Tasmanian Chapter, which had the theme “The state of planning in the island state”.

Based on the above four design elements, the overall research design is therefore best described as a mixed methodology approach, including both qualitative and

quantitative methods. Patton (2002, 274) describes mixed research methods as “allowing creative research adaptations to particular settings and questions.”