Planning Research Guide

The Chartered Institute of Housing, in collaboration with the Housing Studies Association, has published Looking into Housing – A practical guide to housing research.

Written by Douglas Robertson of the University of Stirling, the book promotes collaborative working between researchers and policy-makers and highlights the challenges and pitfalls of research in relation to highly political resources.

While aimed primarily at housing policy-makers, managers, housing officers and students, the book offers valuable transferable support for planners and regeneration professionals as well.

As Robertson points out, all development professionals engage to some degree or other with social research. They face the danger that if research is badly designed, or poorly executed, it distorts understanding and disempowers those being researched for a range of reasons, including the impact it has on decision-making.

His overall objective therefore is promote the development of research tools that involve and empower service users. The book aims to help development professionals assess and work creatively with such tools. 

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