Take 1 (re-)searching 'types'

Sharpen Research Focus

Building on the experience gained in Take 0 of describing our own living situations, we now turn our attention to the potential houses and their inhabitants to be studied. Your search will determine the selection and thus form the basis for the house and housing biographies that you will explore and document together with the inhabitants. It is important to know that according to an action research approach, we don’t study the participants, but rather research with them (Kromrey 1998; Chatterton et al. 2007; Altrichter et al. 2010). You will jointly negotiate and agree on the methodology as well as the use and publication of the documented content.

Reflect once more how you have produced your own housing biography. Which aspects did you find particularly interesting? What questions have you raised? In what (social, architectural, political, ecological, economic) ways of living do these questions matter? What kinds of cases could be of interest to you? Think about how you arrive at the respective cases using your interest and your questions. Do you approach the field via the ‘type’ of housing or via the ‘type’ of inhabitant? We use an extended understanding of living. Living comprises activities in the flat, in the house, but also in the city / village / neighbourhood (Häußermann and Siebel 2000; Hannemann 2014; Dell and Kniess 2009). Identify an interesting case and go into the field (Lindner 1981; Wolff 2013). Pay particular attention to the accessibility of the case, especially given the current situation: can you visit the person(s) and/or conduct research using digital methods?

Entering the field and communicating

Make contact with the respective owners and/ or tenants or with your future research participant and plan a first date. In a first rough sketch, explain your

• (1) research interest (How can house and housing biographies demonstrate current ways of living and how can this potentially lead to approaches for future ways of living?),
• (2) the nature of the procedure and the methods used (in particular: house tour, conversation, interview),
• (3) kinds of media used (film and photography during and after the house tour; audio for the conversation and interview; also: drawings of the floor plans and the building, the block and the location within the urban plan, as well as archival and document research about the flat, the house and themes that result from the biography),
• (4) scope of your research (at least two to three visits and possible further visits) and
• (5) the nature and use of the documented material.

Discuss a two-stage approval process with your research participant:

Stage 1: Creation for study purposes means: the research participant agrees to participate in the research and thus in the creation of a house and resident biography and to go through the process steps together with you.
In this case, all collected materials will be used exclusively for internal university purposes within the context of teaching and will not be published.

Stage 2: Creation for research purposes and (online) publication means: After completion of the house and resident by the researcher to the research participant for review and may be released by them, as deemed appropriate at that time, for publication and documentation (including via the urban-types.de archive) under a license to be determined (CC-BY-SA or CC-BY-ND).

In this initial brief conversation, ensure that your contact person is interested in the research and obtain a verbal commitment.

Draw on various sources and methods (research, conduct informal conversations, observe) at various scales, depending on the interests and questions you have formulated. The goal at this stage is to gain an overview of the housing situation, potential focal themes, and available sources in order to define the scope of your research interest and begin to identify initial connections.
Materials from archival or web research, (historical) plans and photographs, observations in the urban environment, as well as personal information from residents and owners can already be brought together here to provide the impetus for research aimed at revealing how residents use the built environment.

Create an initial open collection of materials for your case. Consider all scales (room/house; house/block; block/city); everything may be important.

Presentation and documentation

Based on your conversations and the additional data you have collected, create a brief exposé of your case. The exposé should include a brief descriptive text of 300–500 words, a profile with the most important facts about the house and its residents, an image representative of the case, and an overview of the sources and the formats that may be used.

Please use the Chicago Manual for citations and bibliographic references. Organize, archive, and use your research material in accordance with currently applicable ethical, legal, and data protection guidelines (EU GDPR; §27 HmbDGS).