Konut kavramının çok boyutlu olması, çeşitli disiplinlerden birçok bilim insanının farklı bakış açıları ve farklı yöntemlerle konut konusuna yaklaşmalarına neden olmuştur. Konut çalışmaları, sosyal, ekonomik, politik, demografik bağlamda birbirleri ile etkileşim içinde olan farklı konu alanlarını içermektedir. Bununla birlikte mevcut çalışmalar daha bütünleşik ve disiplinler arası bir yaklaşıma ihtiyaç duyulduğunu göstermektedir. Bu nedenle çalışmada hanehalkı ve konut pazarı dinamiklerinin bütünleşik modelini geliştirmek, bir konut kariyeri modeli oluşturmak hedeflenmiştir. Bu amaçla kapsamlı bir literatür araştırması ve İstanbul ili çerçevesinde bir alan çalışması yapılmıştır. Çalışmanın zenginleşmesi ve modelin geliştirilmesi amacıyla alan araştırmasında, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden derinlemesine görüşme tekniği ve görüşme formu yaklaşımı kullanılmıştır. Görüşme tekniği özellikle araştırmacı çalışmalar ve ‘nasıl’, ‘neden’ sorularını yanıtlamada tercih edilmektedir. Yöntem, çalışmada yaşamlarının farklı dönemlerindeki farklı yapıda ve özellikteki hane halklarının konut kariyerlerini, deneyimlerini, konut seçim ve kararlarını açıklamak, yerleşim birimi, konut, kişilerin yaşam biçimi gibi faktörlerin neden ve nasıl hane halklarının kararlarını, tercihlerini etkilediğinin cevabını bulmak amaçlı kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucu oluşturulan genel temalar ve önermeler yardımı ile model geliştirilmiştir. Bu makalede çalışmanın yöntemi üzerinde durulacaktır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Konut kariyeri, araştırma yöntemleri, nitel araştırma yöntemi.Housing has been studied from many different perspectives in which diversity could be seen in approaches. Housing studies include different areas which are integrated each other in social, politic, economic and demographic contexts. While explaining housing demand, the term of 'housing career' is used preferentially since it is a multi-dimensional concept. Housing career is used in order to explain the changes in housing consumption in connection with the residential mobility. The concept which includes topics such as resources, access to resources, organizations, housing tenure, physical situation of the dwellings, location and cost enables to build up a connection between mobility and life-cycle of households. It helps to understand and analyse housing demands of different households at different life-cycle stages. Studying housing careers of households is also affective in displaying how housing demand is directed and changed. There are various models consisting of various approaches in the literature, which explain housing demand and housing career. However, existing studies reveal that, a more integrative and interdisciplinary approach is required in which socio-cultural, geographical, physical, economic and psychological dimensions are interrelated. Hence, in this study, the objective is to find how housing demand is changed and directed by developing an integrated and interdisciplinary model of households and housing market dynamics. As the concept of housing career enables to look at residential mobility and housing choice from a broader and integrated perspective, this term is particularly chosen to establish the model. The model aims to deal with household dynamics in an urban area by taking into consideration economic, political and social developments, housing demand behaviours simultaneously. To this end, a comprehensive literature review was carried out, and a field study was performed within Istanbul. The field study was built on qualitative research approach, and a semi-structured interview method was chosen. Content analyse method was used in analysing the text created upon transcribing the interviews of the households. The model was developed with the help of general themes and hypothesises formed according to the research. In housing literature, qualitative research methods didn't attract as much attention as the quantitative research methods due to the general approach adopted by the researches for a long time. Many studies were carried out on similar research topics with a range of methodological approaches such as analysis of large-scale data-sets, survey work and case studies. The dominant approach in the housing literature has been to prioritize quantitative methods. However, qualitative research methods provide more detailed understanding of behaviour attitudes and experiences of individuals and help answering the questions such as "how" and "why". Qualitative research is an inquire process of understanding on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. As the PhD study aims to answer the question how housing demand is directed and changed; and also aims to describe the factors and processes that have impacts on households, to explain households' experiences, housing choices and housing careers and to determine how households perceive their resources, constraints, contexts and how these perceptions, personal behaviours and life styles are effective in forming housing careers, qualitative research method is found to be the best appropriate method to use. During the field study, in-depth interview technique was used. In-depth interview is a qualitative research technique which enables the highest efficiency in gathering information about personal subjects, learning about the perceptions and emotions and understanding personal opinions by reducing the impact of group. The interviews were designed to describe a sample of households, to explore the behavioural and psychological aspects of the households and the way the households are affected from local and global developments. A semi-structured interview method was adopted since this kind of format with open-ended questions is most suitable when the emphasis is on the exploration rather than hypothesis testing. Content analyse method was used in analysing the text which was created after transcribing the interviews of the households. The model was developed with the help of the general themes and hypothesises which were formed according to the research. Keywords: Housing career, research methods, qualitative research method.
