Ideal-type analysis

An innovative tool for housing policy evaluation

Bibliographic Data

ID17759568
AuthorsAmie Thurber (0000-0003-0753-5895, Portland State University, corresponding author), Susan Halverson (Portland State University), Susan E Halverson (Portland State University)
Year2026
Publication date2026-02-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1473-3250 • E-ISSN: 1741-3117
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14733250261429184
OpenAlexW7130657257
LanguageEN
References cited13

This paper serves to introduce readers to the application of ideal-type analysis to social work policy evaluation. Ideal-type analysis considers participant data holistically and analyzes across cases to develop a typology of distinct categories of participant experience. By keeping participant experience intact, ideal-type analysis offers one way to align the interpretive phase of evaluation research with social work’s ethical commitment to human dignity, and is simultaneously well-suited to exploring the perennial evaluation question: what works, for whom? In this article, we describe how our research team came—somewhat by accident—to ideal-type analysis as a useful analytic method for completing an evaluation of an innovative housing policy. The paper first differentiates ideal-type analysis from thematic analysis, and overviews the analytic approach as outlined by Stapley et al. (2022). We then illustrate each step of the ideal-type analysis through the example of a housing policy evaluation. Throughout, we explore the contributions of the approach, and close with discussion of broader applications of idealtype analysis to social work policy evaluations

Data collection · Participant observation · Policy analysis · Social analysis · Thematic analysis · Typology · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Social Work Education and Practice

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