Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the problems, questions and issues faced by housing researchers and decision-makers as they seek to make progress in housing. It discusses two problems: the fragmentation of research and its failure to provide practical advice to decision-makers; and the limitations of the personal and communal horizons of researchers and decision-makers such that they promote interests that aggrandise themselves or their group. It also introduces Functional Collaboration locating its remote origins in the writings of Bernard Lonergan. It works through each of the eight functional specialties that constitute Functional Collaboration. It entails a complex series of paradigm shifts and a radical restructuring of the way in which housing research operates. It shows that Functional Collaboration is a scientific approach that relates and integrates disparate methods and types of housing research presenting decision-makers with practical advice on future directions.