Understanding Processes of Informal Housing: Appropriate Methodological Tools for a Sensitive Research Area

This paper is concerned with the methodological difficulties of collecting and validating research data in the field of low-income group housing. The problem is conceptualized by applying a methodology— sensitive research method— which is novel to this field. The paper explores the potentialities for developing appropriate field-work skills and methods for collecting interview data using this approach. Used for ethnographic field work on housing land tenure security among low-income groups in Recife Brazil, the sensitive nature of such research, and thus the wider applicability of the approach, is examined from two perspectives. First, the utility of the method is demonstrated, through the enhanced understanding it yielded of the extremely vulnerable and threatening conditions for households in informal housing settlements; its success in encouraging households to reveal the 'illegal' initiatives they use to house themselves, the nature of their poverty, their intimate feelings and family matters to an outsider, i.e. the researcher, is also demonstrated. Second, the sensitivity lies in reinforcing for the researcherthe recognition that data on the processes by which households gain access to housing resources, such as land, building materials and credit, must be gathered and understood from the respondents' perspectives.Means of ensuring the validity and reliability of data which is not value-free, are also discussed.