Doing Research in Urban and Regional Planning

Diana MacCallum teaches urban and regional planning at Curtin University, where she has coordinated the Honours program in planning since 2012. Her research interests focus on social aspects of urban planning and development, including practices and discourses of governance, social innovation, and eco-social justice in environmental policy. Courtney Babb lectures in urban and regional planning at Curtin University. His teaching responsibilities include research methods and dissertation preparation, as well as transport planning and participatory planning. He also conducts research in these areas, and has a particular interest in children’s interaction with the built environment and planning systems. Carey Curtis is Professor of City Planning and Transport at Curtin University, and the Director of the urban research network Urbanet. Her research experience spans four decades and has included over 50 projects in both academia and the planning industry. She has employed a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Carey has published extensively in the areas of travel behaviour, transport and land use planning, and institutional barriers to sustainable urban development.

Part I: Conceptualising Research Chapter 1 Introduction: why a special textbook for planning? Chapter 2 What are methods? What is methodology? Chapter 3 Theories in planning research: how they can help you Chapter 4 The big divide? Quantitative vs. qualitative approaches Chapter 5 The case study approach Part II: Methods 2.1: Understanding Places Chapter 6 Describing places from secondary data – and some cautionary tales Chapter 7 Evaluating places: auditing and site analysis techniquest Chapter 8 Understanding urban change: Land use surveys 2.2: Working with People Chapter 9 Gauging public opinion: Questionnaires Chapter 10 Interrogating stakeholder ideas: focus groups and iterative methods Chapter 11 Exploring information, opinions and attitudes: In-depth interviews 2.3 Interrogating Practice Chapter 12 People in place, people in practice: non-verbal methods Chapter 13 What can documents tell you about planning practice? Three types of text analysis Chapter 14 Planning research as practical action: Participatory methods Part III: Putting it Into Practice Chapter 15 Looking after yourself and others: ethical and personal issues in planning research Chapter 16 Pulling it all together