Making Progress in Housing

Sean McNelis has over 30 years’ experience in housing management, housing policy and housing research. He is a research fellow at The Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

• Introduction PART I: CONTEXT 1. Making Progress in Housing: Problems, Questions and Issues 2. Functional Collaboration: Origins, Initial Description and Searchings 3. Towards a scientific approach to housing research PART II: THE FUNCTIONAL SPECIALTIES 4. Research as the Functional Specialty answering the empirical question 5. Interpretation as the Functional Specialty answering the theoretical question 6. History as the Functional Specialty answering the historical question 7. Dialectic as the Functional Specialty answering the evaluative/critical question 8. The Implementation Functional Specialties PART III: FUNCTION COLLABORATION: A FRAMEWORK FOR COLLABORATIVE HOUSING RESEARCH 9. From Functional Specialties to Functional Collaboration Conclusion

"Given that it is very rare to set out comprehensive methodological critiques in housing studies, the book will interest all housing researchers who take methodology seriously. It will be of value to researchers engaged in national, and particularly international, comparative housing research projects, where research questions demand that new forms of collaboration are an essential prerequisite to meaningful policy analysis and prescription." – Housing Studies, Michael Oxley, University of Cambridge, UK