FAMILY-CENTRED COMMUNITIES
The planning process

Methodology


The following process was used in order to ensure extensive coverage of the area:
  • Literature on family-centred communities and family-centred policy development was sourced initially through web searches on key words and phrases. Where literature could not be accessed online, it was primarily sourced through libraries and relevant organisations.[1]
  • Relevant local government documentation on policy-proofing was reviewed.
  • Other relevant literature on the impact local government can have on families was reviewed.
To prevent the literature review from becoming unmanageable, four basic criteria were applied to the inclusion or exclusion of texts:
  • Materials must be in English.
  • Literature must focus on New Zealand or other English-speaking countries, such as Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
  • Literature must have been produced in the last 10 years (that is, the review went back to 1997, with exceptions for key documents).
  • Materials must be published or publicly available either online, through accessible libraries, from the originating commissioning or other organisation or through booksellers.
It should be noted that there is a general dearth of materials available on family-centred communities and family-centred community development. Web and library searches revealed early on in the study that there is very little written on this subject. Furthermore, there is little material available on tools or processes that assess the impact of local government policies on families. The literature available tended to interpret ‘family’ as parents with children, with little recognition of other family forms. This reinforced the need for the Families Commission’s research.

There is a richer body of literature when one moves beyond the particular issue of family-centred communities to issues of community wellbeing. Similarly, when one moves beyond the particular issue of family wellbeing to the wellbeing of individuals and the population groups within families (for example, children, young people and older people), there is a richer body of literature. Web and library searches revealed thousands of documents on these subjects. There is also literature on how community and neighbourhood factors affect these population groups. However, this literature was considered to be beyond the scope of the research.





Footnotes

[1]

A large body of literature on neighbourhood factors that influence child health was provided by Anna Stevenson from Community and Public Health. [Return to reference]