Some Uses and Potentials of Qualitative Methods in Planning

Abstract

Planners use methods borrowed from many disciplines. These are usually modified and adapted to meet planner's needs to acquire and sift through many diverse information sources helpful in dealing with complex problems. The quantitative methods which planners use are well known, well established in practice, and acknowledged by most as tools of the planners' trade. In contrast to this, most planners also use qualitative methods but these are rarely explicitly acknowledged.In this paper some of the qualitative methods used in planning are identified and categorized into three groups according to the special contribution that they make to the practice of planning. A few of these methods are elaborated to highlight their unique potential to address particular aspects of planning problems. Given this potential, the current debate about how best to teach quantitative methods in schools of planning should be expanded to include discussion of the teaching of qualitative methods. client is an individual, an institution, or a community. As a result, case studies, anecdotes, observations of the built form and of human interactions, despite their lack of statistical significance, are pressed into service as all that are available to inform the decision maker. Such information, whatever its shortcomings, can reveal some of the qualitative factorsvalues, biases, attitudes, historical precedents, political, cultural, and

Planning and 3D Spatial Media: Progress, Prospects, and the Knowledge and Experiences of Local Government Planners in Ireland

“…The most appropriate way to gain such insights is to use a qualitative approach. Such an approach is well established in planning as a means to generate data concerning values, opinions, beliefs, and judgments, as well as individual and institutional choice and decision making (Dandekar, 1986;Gaber, 2007).…”

Normative versus Actual Methodologies in Planning Research: A Hybrid Picture

“…Hemalata Dandekar early on also drew attention to qualitative methods, albeit in planning practice, in an article that appeared in JPER in 1986. Qualitative methods used in planning practice were identified and categorized into three categories to highlight their unique contribution to practice, including the study of (1) built form, (2) human interaction, and (3) planning processes and organizational structures (Dandekar 1986). Like Peattie, Dandekar also singled out the importance of qualitative methods to gauge planning processes.…”

Pedagogy for the new planner: Refining the qualitative toolbox

“…A while ago, Dandekar (1986: 42) suggested that “among planning educators, discussion about pedagogy centers on how best and at what levels of complexity to teach these [quantitative] methods. In contrast, qualitative methods remain to be fully recognized as important tools in planning.” More recent scholars have begun to discuss the strengths of QLRM.…”

“…Either way, these understandings should be integrated and guide the pedagogy of developing and teaching QLRM to planners. The following section identifies the challenges and potential of strategies and tools for qualitative approach pedagogy for planners; these initial suggestions should be further polished, adjusted, and added to through follow-up and additional research to fully recognize QLRM “as important tools in planning” (Dandekar, 1986: 42).…”