ABSTRACT
THIS chapter describes the design of the research, and the main characteristics of the families who took part; it has five sections. The first makes a brief survey of previous sociological research on housing estates and slum clearance. It does not discuss the results obtained, but is simply a critique of the research methods used. The second section discusses the panel design which was used in this survey, and points out its main strengths and weaknesses. The third section describes Field Farm and Berinsfield, which formed the experimental group. The fourth section describes Slade Park, the hutted camp which served as the control group. The final section mentions the events in the slum clearance programme which we did not anticipate. In some respects, these weakened the conclusions which could be drawn; in others, they allowed us to explore new hypotheses.
