Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: RE: Shadowlake Research Project

[Lisa Poley (lpoley]

David - thanks much for your comments. And thanks to all who have responded.

I did not anticipate that putting out information and an invitation to
participate in this study would cause such intense reactions. It is clear
that some have had negative experiences with cohousing researchers in the
past and that there is apparently quite a lot of burnout out there. 

I despair at becoming the stereotypical ham-fisted, take-the-data and run
researcher who feels no obligation to participants. My commitment is to be
responsive and to share results (as desired) with participants and the
larger national cohousing community.  As a long-time cohouser I am keenly
interested in serving the larger national discussion about cohousing. I
believe that academic studies are an important part of this.  As it stands,
my research has tuned up relatively few doctoral level studies of cohousing.
Most of the existing academic studies appear to be at the masters level and
focus rather heavily on design elements. I do think this study is venturing
into territory that begs for more formal inquiry and has potential to
benefit the larger cohousing movement.

I welcome discussion with those who have questions or criticism about any
aspect of this study. My guess is that the larger membership of the CL may
not be terribly interested in that discussion though - so I hope it can be
engaged one-on-one. Please feel free to contact me directly by phone or
email with your feedback.

Best regards, 

Lisa Poley
lpoley [at] vt.edu
540-951-7717