Research:

• research query and its contextual relevance (proposal); documentation of the research method (process); and some form of public/semi-public peer review of the research output (product)
• the development of a discipline from an understanding of relevant knowledge and its production, dissemination and transfer (including ‘storage’ over time), and an assessment of how such a body of knowledge impacts on action in practice, as well as how it is integrated into practice-oriented teaching and learning. This can be seen as the professional knowledge base.

Institutional Perspective

An institutional perspective is understood to include institutions as ways of thinking; here we are interested in what we consider to be ‘research’ and how this is influenced by ‘conceptual traditions’, with reference to architecture. An institutional perspective is also understood to include institutions as organisational structures through which we operate – universities, professional associations, government departments and so on. Here we are interested in how these affect, and interrelate with, conceptual traditions. This analytical approach is within the traditions of ‘new institutionalism’, where a key contribution is the conceptualisation of institutions as both mental models and as organisational forms.

References

Jenkins, P., Forsyth, L., Smith, H., 2005,’ Research in UK architecture schools – an institutional perspective’, arq, Vol. 9, No. 1