The City Unbound: Qualitative Approaches to the City

Mental Geographies of Home and Place: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…With the advent of cultural, social, linguistic and post-modern turns and the more frequent use of qualitative approaches across the social sciences (Jacobs 1993), the field of housing studies has in recent years witnessed something of a paradigm shift. Breaking away from positivistic grand theories and the master discourse of political economy, researchers increasingly show a growing awareness of the manifold ways in which the notion of housing is inscribed with meaning and discursively constructed through acts of discourse, imagery, identity politics and symbolic representation.…”

Protecting the Rights of Children of Same-Sex Parents in Indiana by Adopting a Version of the Uniform Parentage Act

“…289 This change in family roles from a largely economic one to a relationship-based role is reflected in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the "biology plus" cases. 290 These cases illustrate that biology is often not enough to establish a father-child relationship, but a father must also demonstrate a "full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood." 291 Despite this definition, the Court has not yet decided a case that expressly defines the rights of a same-sex parent, so the states are free to define that relationship.…”

The Quest for Heartful Environments: A Qualitative Researcher's Journey

“…It was not until developments in social theory started to unsettle this view that qualitative methods began to be taken seriously in urban-related research. Together with the shift in absolutist to relativist philosophical positions, qualitative approaches opened up new appreciations of the city from multiple perspectives (Jacobs, 1993).…”