The Research Process

Documentary Analysis

In order to examine the up-to-date state and wide range of perspectives of the project, official documents, newspapers and many researches were analysed for the period between June 2012 and February 2016 continuously. The documentary analysis was conducted through diverse sources including official papers from the central and Seoul Metropolitan governments, relevant websites and social media, newspapers and statistical data, and relevant research studies. The reports published by Seoul Institute were helpful because there was ample information about the single person household issues in the Seoul context, including relevant socio-demographic, housing and economic factors. Also, the materials by Seoul Institute were very reliable because they were policy reports for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, based on accurate statistical data derived from the National Statistics Office in South Korea and in-depth studies by experts and researchers. Thus, the materials gave an insight into the current situation of young and professional singletons in Seoul and their housing environmental issues. They were also helpful for designing the questionnaire and a framework of the semi-structured in-depth interviews.

Efforts were made to select and analyse as many relevant materials and websites as possible (mentioned above) in order to avoid ‘biased selectivity’ (Yin, 2003, p.86).

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Online Survey and Questionnaire

The research conducted a quantitative survey for the objective study of the single person households in Seoul. For effective research, the survey was conducted by the doctoral researcher and ‘Research Plus’, a research company in Korea. The questionnaire was fully drawn up by the researcher, and the company’s role was restricted to conducting an online survey of 160 targeted participants by using the questionnaire. One of the important reasons of collaboration with the research company was their high-quality sampling ability. The number of their online members who were potential participants in the survey is 154,415 (Research Plus, 2013). The company had been recruiting for the pool through more than 100 sources of alliances such as online (Facebook, E-bay, Naver, Daum, Overture, Kyobo, KCP, Maxxcard, and Hezoun), mobile (Starpl, Goldenax, and Hezoun) and offline channels (display screen advertisement at convenience stores and free leaflet advertisement) (see Figure 5-7). Therefore the samples elected by the company could represent the population well. The second reason was for their professionalism. They had successfully conducted a diverse range of surveys and researches with their clients such as Seoul Metropolitan Government, public institutions, the press, and major companies such as Samsung and Hyundai. Through this collaboration, the research efficiently collected data based on reliable sampling, and had a high-quality outcome.

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Figure 5-7 Sources of Sampling for the Online Survey by Research Plus

The company used the purposive quota sampling method. They randomly chose over 5,000 participants who fit the requirements – single person households, who live in Seoul, are aged in their 20s and 30s, and have a job - in their online members and requested to them to take part in the web-based survey system. The company finally obtained 160 of meaningful survey data, excluding inappropriate survey data with incomplete information or logic errors. The online survey was conducted during August 2014.

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Figure 5-8 Characteristics of the online survey conducted by Research Plus

A design of the questionnaire for the online survey, based on the documentary analysis, main research issues and essential questions, was prepared in July 2014. It consisted of four parts:

characteristics of the housing where the singletons currently live, satisfaction of the residential environments, life pattern, dwelling motivation and communication issues, and residential aspirations of the singletons. As seen in Figure 5-9 and Figure 5-10, each part was designed to provide appropriate data to answer the main and sub-questions. The first part probed the housing design issues in order to understand the targeted group’s residential conditions and reasons to choose the housing. The second part was designed to discern limitations in housing design aspects and economic considerations. The third part was on the relationship issues and the

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residential design aspects in order to gather data for better architectural space planning as well as to attain information about the socio-relationship state of the singletons. The final part was also designed to get both the human relationship and design issues for understanding their aspirations for improved housing environments. Appendix 1 shows the content of the questionnaire.

Figure 5-9 Questionnaire Design Based on the Main Research Questions

Figure 5-10 Research Sub Questions

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Interviews with Key Stakeholders

As a qualitative investigation, in-depth interviews were carried out in order to find answers of core issues that were revealed from the analysis of the quantitative survey and the main questions. A framework of the semi-structured in-depth interviews was designed, based on the analysis of relevant documents and literature reviews. Interviewees were categorized into the three main groups: the singletons who live alone in a house, the singletons who live in a share house or have experiences of living in the housing type, and relevant experts such as architects, urban designers, furniture designers, researchers, government officers, representatives and managers of housing companies, and investors and developers in the housing sector. The interviewees of singleton residents were chosen, through the snowball sampling method, and online communities, based on the demographic scope of the singletons. Interviewees among professional experts were selected with a view to reflecting diverse perspectives to the singleton issues, which included the private and public sectors, and architectural design and academic aspects. The number of the interviewees was 55 (consisting of 44 singletons and 11 experts) and the interviews were carried out face-to-face between September and November 2014. In Appendix 3, a list of all the interviewees including singletons and experts and other detail such as the time schedule of the field trip are provided.

In terms of the questions of interviews, different questions were designed for different kinds of interviewee groups: the solo dwellers, the singletons living in share house, one-room focused housing companies, share house companies, and relevant experts. The interview questions were

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meticulously examined many times through pilot interviews, supervision and discussion, in order to avoid ‘poorly constructed questions’ (Yin, 2003, p.86). The pilot interviews were carried out in December 2013, with 10 young single person households who lived in Seoul.

Based on the experiences of pilot interviews, supervisions, and ensuing modifications, the preparation of the interview question design was completed. Appendix 4 shows the list of semi-structured interview questions for all the types of interviewee groups.

In terms of the recruitment of the interviewees, the researcher used the snowballing method, the street intercept method, and the online contacting method through web-based communities.

For obtaining the sample of the targeted group, the author first used the chain sampling method in a human network, asked them whether they knew anyone else who fitted the scope of research for participation on the interview, and requested for the contacts of the additional potential interviewees. This way of recruiting was also used for attaining samples of professional experts, and sometimes the researcher’s experiences of working for Seoul Institute and architecture firms in Seoul was very helpful for contacting the interviewees of professional expertise.

Online-based approaches to contact the interviewees were also taken through social media and online communities. For example, as a member of the online communities such as ‘Community for Single person households in Seoul’, the researcher established contact with the community members who fitted in the scope of research, and sent an online message to ask for participation.

A great deal of time and efforts was put into the recruitment, which took over four months from August to November 2014.

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Based on the preparations, 55 interviews were conducted during the fieldwork in Seoul from September to November in 2014. The interviews took place at different places depending on the location of the interviewee’s workplace. They were usually conducted after 7 pm because the majority of interviewees were office workers and lasted approximately from 40 minutes to one hours, the shortest being 25 minutes and the longest 4 hours. All the interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees, and data from the interviews were kept as digital audio files supported by notes.

Site visits

Some interviews were conducted accompanied by site visits. The main purposes of site visits were to investigate the current residential environments for the targeted single person households and to find out how effective share houses could be for the singletons’ life in comparison with one-room housing. The research initially intended to make two site visits, in WOOZOO and MAI BAUM (see Figure 5-11 and Figure 5-12). WOOZOO is a brand promoting share house as a new concept, trying to solve problems of the current housing type for one person households and setting the new housing trend (WOOZOO, 2011). MAI BAUM is a housing brand for one or two person households conducted by architecture firm Soomok Design Group; it is a kind of Urban Lifestyle Housing and a quite practical multi-household housing type mainly composed of one-room.

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Figure 5-11 WOOZOO Share House Website Main Page and WOOZOO Share House 3 (Living Room Scene) (Source: www.woozoo.kr)

Figure 5-12 MAI BAUM Website Main Page and MAI BAUM BANGBAE (Source: www.soomok.com)

However, the requests for visiting both of these sites were rejected by the companies, because of protecting the dwellers in the housings and their privacy. In particular, as WOOZOO had attracted significant attention from the mass media and press, requests for housing visits and interviews had increased too much, resulting in infringing the residents’ privacy. Instead of WOOZOO and MAI BAUM housings, site visits were carried out at RICHEVER and D-WELL

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housing with introductions from the manager of WOOZOO and an interviewee respectively (see Figure 5-13 and Figure 5-14). First, the housing project ‘D-well’, conducted by the social enterprise Root Impact and located in seoungdong-gu, Seoul, aims to create a synergic effect by living together in a community-focused house that is mainly focused on communication among dwellers. The site visit at D-well housing was conducted in October 2014, and the in-depth interview with a manager of the housing and residents also were carried out on the same day. Second, RICHEVER is a brand of a residential building for single person households, consisting of 110 one-room units and located in yeungdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The site visit at RICHEVER was also conducted in the same month, accompanied by interviews with the chairman of the housing and five residents. Through the site visits, photos and documentary materials were collected, and all the data were digitised.

Figure 5-13 D-well Website Main Page, Building Section and Location of the house (Source: www.d-well.in)

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Figure 5-14 RICHEVER House, a Residential Unit and Location of the Housing

With respect to the storage of the collected data during the time spent in Seoul for the field research, all the data from both qualitative and quantitative researches were encrypted on a secure laptop, and paper data was kept in a locked and secure location. After returning to the UK, paper data have been stored in a locked filing cabinet, and electronic data on a password-protected personal computer, kept in a secure location.