John Gaber

Simulating Planning SimCity as a Pedagogical Tool

Teaching with the computer simulation game “SimCity” is one way faculty can achieve some of their decision-based learning objectives. The research on attainable (and not attainable) teaching outcomes with computer simulations is now fairly clear. SimCity provides a dynamic decision-making environment in which students can learn such teaching objectives as (1) systems thinking, (2) problem-solving skills, and (3) “craft” in the planning profession. However, SimCity has inherent weaknesses that prevent it from being a one-size-fits-all teaching tool for all students. The article concludes with a discussion on which type of students do better with SimCity.

Utilizing Mixed-Method Research Designs in Planning: The Case of 14th Street, New York City

Planning researchers tend to use single quantitative and/or qualitative research methods in their investigations. Unfortunately, single method research strategies run the risk of missing significant data sets that can cripple a planning investigation. We argue that combining methods into a mixed-method research design provides planning investigators a more comprehensive understanding than would be possible under a single method. The goal of the paper is to cultivate interest in combining quantitative and qualitative investigations into mixed-method planning research strategies and to highlight how and why investigators use mixed-method research strategies.

Reasserting the importance of qualitative methods in planning

Abstract The goals of this paper are to suggest what is lost by ignoring field research and to reassert the significance of qualitative research methods to the field of urban and regional planning. I assume that methodological choices between quantitative and qualitative methods are a matter of determining which research method is best suited to capture a particular ‘data slice’. Research methods are techniques to retrieve data and carry no theoretical baggage to bias their data set. To illustrate the significance of field research I discuss three points. First, I illustrate some of the technical strengths and weaknesses associated with qualitative research approaches, and highlight three important issues that are lost without field research methods: a link between planning researchers and the people they plan for, quality of life issues, and informal/illegal activity. Second, I propose that by pursuing a mixed-method research methodology, some of the issues lost by ignoring field research methods can be recaptured. Finally, I give an example of how I researched informal street vendors as part of the urban landscape through a mixed-method approach. This paper argues that until planning research re-evaluate what is being lost by their pursuit of quantitative methods, critical problems in the social realm will continue to lack the attention they need from urban and regional planners. Why all that obsession with Method? Because it was through Method that you arrived at the solution... (Umberto Eco, Foucaults Pendulum, 1989, p. 384)

Meta-needs assessment

Abstract Social service administrators rarely have the resources to perform an in-depth needs assessment of their community. One way human service organizations can garner a large amount of research with little financial investment is through a ‘meta-needs assessment’. Meta-needs assessment is a comprehensive analysis of existing human service needs assessments using secondary data conducted by public, non-profit, and private organizations in a particular community. In this paper I discuss the significance of my research in carrying-out a meta-needs assessment in Nebraska. The paper is divided into four sections: (1) description of the problems facing social planning organizations in regards to needs assessment; (2) review of the relevant research literature that supports the meta-needs assessment approach; (3) overview of a meta-needs assessment carried-out in Nebraska; and (4) discussion of some of the methodological pitfalls that were encountered with the study and how these problems can be overcome in future meta-needs assessment projects.

Using Focus and NomiNal Group Techniques for a Better Understanding of the Transit Disadvantaged Needs

The research presented in this paper explores the context, method, and value of focus group research in transit needs assessments. Group participatory research can generate data that are not easily obtained by other methods. The paper focuses on lessons from three Nebraska communities whose transit disadvantaged rely on community-based paratransit services. Because of the size of the paratransit population and the inability to control who showed up to the focus group sessions, a modified group research protocol was adopted in order to garner information from whomever attended the session. The population parameters and the number of people at the meetings were anticipated by the researchers and mitigated by incorporating nominal group techniques. Research findings from the focus group sessions are discussed paying particular attention to the candid and policy-specific comments made by the focus group participants. The paper concludes with an application of focus group research in transit planning.

Nonprofit Organizations Serving Domestic Violence Survivors: Addressing Intersectional Needs of Asian Indians

Using interviews of 26 nonprofit domestic violence advocates, this article analyzes how South Asian–focused nonprofit organizations in the United States address the domestic violence–related intersectional needs of Asian Indian marriage migrants and the challenges they encounter in doing so. Our research indicates that these organizations offer services addressing a combination of structural and cultural needs that emerge from their clients’ social locations, but these organizations also encounter challenges in providing services targeting the specific subgroups of Asian Indian marriage migrants. To meet the intersectional needs of clients, there should be greater coalition-building within and between Asian Indian–focused and mainstream organizations.

Establishing mixed method research design guidelines in health impact assessment investigations

In the last decade local policymakers and community health officials have been using a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) strategy to assess the health impacts of their policy decisions. The HIA research design is founded on the mixed method research approach (integration of quantitative and qualitative data slices within a single investigation) to get as comprehensive assessment as possible of the expected impacts. The HIA literature has yet to provide any guidelines on how community health investigators should conduct a mixed-method HIA research. We conducted a content analysis of 100 HIAs executed around the world published between 1999 and 2011 and analysed their research methodologies. Observations generated from the analysed HIAs were used to establish an ‘HIA mixed method model’ by which a series of mixed-method design guidelines were used to help community health researchers improve the analytical capabilities in their future HIA investigations.

Introducing political considerations into technical plans: A case study of nicaragua's economic reorganization in a post sandinista administration

Planners and politicians do not always agree on the best way of distributing resources. Usually, planners take to a technical strategy while politicians take to a constituent building strategy. The differences in opinion between planners and politicians is most acute in Nicaraguas post Sandinista Administration. Nicaraguan planners are addressing enormous economic problems while simultaneously trying to obtain outside assistance form the Multinational Financial Institutions (World Bank, IMF, Inter-American Development Bank). Politicians, on the other hand, are trying to stabilize the countrys political system after a decade of the marxist Sandinistas control. The desperate political and economic situation in Nicaragua has made the already troubled marriage between planners and politicians more tenuous. In this paper we evaluate the inconsistencies between the technical and political modes of decision making. We draw on a case study of implementing a technical economic plan for the Nicaraguan government...