Exploring the Role of 'Visual Catalysts' on Influencing People's Attraction and Use of Place

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
The study <strong>of</strong> placemaking and use <strong>of</strong> place has been subject to both quantitative and
qualitative research. Quantitative data can be understood as <strong>the</strong> approach to research that
utilises numerical and statistical data to draw conclusions and resolve problems, something
which William Whyte (1980) first documented by observing people’s behaviours and
experience <strong>of</strong> different public spaces in New York (Creswell 2005). His approach <strong>of</strong> simply
observing, and numerically counting, <strong>the</strong> amount and behaviours <strong>of</strong> people in a given space
provided insight into what made that space exceptional, or unexceptional. It provided insight
into <strong>the</strong> relationship between place and people through <strong>the</strong> collation <strong>of</strong> quantitative data to
provide a narrative <strong>of</strong> people’s attraction and use <strong>of</strong> place.
The data Whyte ga<strong>the</strong>red is consistent to this day with much <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> quantitative data collated
for placemaking studies; including <strong>the</strong> numerical counting and tallying <strong>of</strong> what people do,
where <strong>the</strong>y are, how many <strong>the</strong>re are, how old and what gender, where <strong>the</strong>y go to and from,
and <strong>the</strong> particular behaviours which show a direct relationship to <strong>the</strong> experience <strong>of</strong> place.
Yet, <strong>the</strong>re has been little quantitative research into transient public places. In particular,
quantitative data can provide insight into <strong>the</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se transient interventions through
<strong>the</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> paradigm to test ideas and notions, such as those <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> proposed role <strong>of</strong>
creative placemaking.
In current research, qualitative research is <strong>of</strong>ten used to gain a general sense <strong>of</strong> a phenomena
and to form <strong>the</strong>ories, whereas quantitative research is <strong>of</strong>ten used to test those concepts – a
notion aligned with <strong>the</strong> methodological proposition <strong>of</strong> this study. This study seeks to discover
how <strong>the</strong> experience <strong>of</strong> place can be influenced through creative placemaking mechanisms, and
quantitative research has a strong disposition to be an exceptional paradigm when observing
and comparing people and place. In particular, it has been noted as a methodical means to
observe people in <strong>the</strong>ir natural setting when striving to understand social behaviours; such
as people’s experience <strong>of</strong> place (Treckson 2015). This is because, as mentioned, quantitative
research strives to find answers to <strong>the</strong> ‘if’ and ‘whe<strong>the</strong>r’, not <strong>the</strong> ‘how’ and ‘why’ as <strong>of</strong>ten
addressed through qualitative research. Additionally, as this project focuses on observing <strong>the</strong>
changes in behaviour over time in a fixed setting, it hence makes sense to take a quantitative
approach to allow for detailed and incremental comparative analysis.
Moreover, in terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> third proposed aim <strong>of</strong> this study <strong>the</strong>re is also great potential in
exploring <strong>the</strong> concept <strong>of</strong> place attachment through using a <strong>the</strong>oretical framework within a
quantitative research paradigm. Scannell and Gifford (2010) proposed a <strong>the</strong>oretical framework
to use for <strong>the</strong> study <strong>of</strong> place attachment. This framework, still relatively new, has yet to be
widely tested from a quantitative research paradigm. As such, for this research topic utilising
this framework can not only streng<strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> depth and applicability <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> findings, but can also
add depth <strong>of</strong> knowledge to <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> place attachment. Additionally, <strong>the</strong> answers obtained
from this quantitative research can lead to fur<strong>the</strong>r interrogation in <strong>the</strong> future into a qualitative
based study that interrogates place attachment more in-depth.
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