Housing Studies Association Newsletter: Poll Comments - Are today's housing researchers too uncritical of the policies they research?

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Poll Comments - Are today's housing researchers too uncritical of the policies they research?

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...: with regard to many current policies in the housing and planning realm, academics
generally *are* very critical, I think. The academic literature is full of challenging stuff, especially related to HMR, growth, mixed communities,etc. Such challenge and reflexive criticism are good things. But not recognising the real constraints of policymakers is bad, and I sometimes fear we fall into the trap of picking easy targets. Researchers need to challenge
dominant policy discourses but remain attuned to the difficult
environments in which policies are made and delivered.; 8 April 2008 at 16:14
madhu satsangi said...: Doesn't the answer to this depend on where you look? If you read the relevant refereed journals and various well-known books, you see many examples of in depth policy critique, informed to varying degrees by different theoretical perspectives. If you limit yourself to (summaries of) research reports, you see more narrowly-focused evaluations and commentary with more modest suggestions for policy change.; 15 April 2008 at 14:00
Anonymous said...: I think there are a number of 'critical' housing scholars producing theoretically informed, empirically grounded work which challenges dominant policy discourses and explicitly engages with key concepts such as power, social justice, class conflict etc. Whilst the nature of research funding may constrain how we, as researchers, define and approach the research problem, it does not rule out critical thinking all together.; 15 April 2008 at 15:43

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