Using Planning Theory in a PhD in Planning: Plugging into Paradigms
Date
1999
Authors
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
It is not easy to do PhD research in spatial planning! And one of the main reasons is that there is not one, not even several competing, paradigms which can be used as a framework for the PhD research. The result is either that the researcher has to spend a lot of time searching for a theoretical framework for his/her research, or that the researcher carries out the work without being able to put it into such a framework, whereby the relevance of that PhD research (what it contributes to knowledge) cannot easily be assessed.
More experienced researchers have fewer problems: and the reason is illuminating. It is that they / we have built up over the years our own theoretical framework that we use as a basis for our research, refining it, testing it critically, only very rarely rejecting it and starting out on another one. We have that great advantage. But we tend to keep it for ourselves, for we seldom make it explicit (not even to ourselves) whereby other people (and in particular those with less experience) cannot benefit from it.
My message it that we - the senior researchers - have a responsibility to make explicit the theoretical framework that we use for research into spatial planning, so that others can use it, improve it, tell us why it should be rejected. That will help PhD researchers. And it will help also to build up cumulatively a body of knowledge, for it will help all researchers to relate their research to the research of others.
Description
Book of abstracts : AESOP PhD workshop 1999, Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway
Keywords
License
CC-BY