ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the focus is on decision making about the residential environment. The financial and institutional aspects of the development process reported in chapters three and four form the input for this chapter. The reconstruction of decision making in the development process shows how this is shaped by financial and institutional considerations together. Before engaging in this reconstruction, it is worthwhile to consider in more detail the notion of ‘decision’. To this aim, we investigate first the theory of decision making in policy processes. This theory states that decisions cannot be ascribed to a single actor, but are made in interaction between the actors. We argue that the core of this observation, which is made in complex decision making processes, applies in general, but must be adapted for the study of decision making in operational decision making processes. Then the ideas on decision making are applied to the case studies.
