Approaches to and Issues in Research on Multi-Cultural Family Homes

Abstract

As cultural diversity has gained a great deal of attention and the social fabric of Korean society is redefined, the number of studies on multi-cultural family homes has been growing in the area of human ecology, but relevant research is rarely found on the subject of housing. While the emphasis of housing research is on multidisciplinary approaches and empirical research is highly valued, a theoretical and methodological platform for discussing the new rising agenda of multi-cultural family homes is lacking. The purpose of this study was to explore approaches to and to discuss the issues in research for multi-cultural family homes in terms of housing theories and multidisciplinary approaches. To understand the housing related needs of multi-cultural families, this study highlights social constructionism, the ecological perspective, and feminist epistemology. These three multidisciplinary approaches were useful for generating an ontological analysis of multi-cultural family homes. Further, this study highlights two housing related theories, the microsociological and housing pathways approaches, for dealing with multi-cultural family homes. In conclusion, the five approaches were useful for exploring issues in housing research on multi-cultural family homes with appropriate research methods like hermeneutics, quantitative, and qualitative methods, and field research. Insights into using perspectives and holistic approaches might be useful for solving the problems of multi-cultural family homes in Korea.