Ageing Public Housing Sociology

The aim of this project was to engage with senior residents living in ageing public housing and exploring whether their ageing public housing dwelling has any impact on their health and well-being. This was to be an exploratory study using semi-structured interviews conducted in the participant’s place of residence and the ensuing transcripts of the interviews data mined for contextual themes across all participants. The themes were to be compared with selected literature to compare findings between other Australian jurisdictions and other current themes in literature. A description of the type of research and methodology will be given, including the considerations and rationale used to make these choices. This will be followed by an explanation …show more content…
As little is known about the research subject, the project is exploratory in nature and does not aim to establish “frequencies, means or other parameters” (Jansen, 2010) which are traditionally associated with quantitative studies. The responses of the participants are analysed without an established terms of reference to work by in terms of study design, with a summary of the diversity being created justified by the data provided by the participants experiences (Jansen, 2010). Thomas (2006) provides a guideline to taking an inductive approach in creating meaningful information through the use of themes and categories from rich raw data collected from the participants using open semi-structured interviews. Methodology Qualitative research is generally undertaken using one of four philosophical assumptions identified by Creswell (2012) and is usually determined by the closeness that a researcher identifies with the subject matter, and reinforced by the academic community in which the researcher associates …show more content…
The constant refinement and adjustment of the methodological approach reflects the social constructivism framework through which the participants responses were interpreted (Creswell, 2012). This is not to be confused with quantitative research whereby a hypothesis may be tested and variables are manipulated and assessed as research progresses, or where participants behaviour is measured and analysed numerically (Beins, 2012; Kvale, 1994). Conversely, a participant within a social constructivist research framework is able to interpret the subject matter as they see fit, and provide responses based on their current context and experiences filtered through their historical and cultural lenses, and which the researcher must then interpret based upon his or her own background and related experiences. Upon the conclusion of data analysis a researcher may then develop theories grounded in the experiences of the participants (Beins, 2012; Creswell, 2012). Qualitative Approach As this project incorporated a methodological assumption