Urban Research Methods

Unorthodox Beyond the Box

Urban research methodologies

• Evolutionary/archeological approaches• Early urban sociology (dualism, urbanism)• Chicago school or urban ecology• Community study approach• Interactionism• Anthropology of urban poverty, urbanization, in and of cities• Network research• Social epidemiology• Cultural geography• Historiography

Quantitative Qualitative

Philosophical foundation Deductive, reductionalist Inductive, holistic

Aim To test pre-set hypothesis

To explore complex human issues

Study plan Step-wise, pre-determined

Iterative, flexible

Position of researcher Detached and objective Integral part of research process

Assessing quality of outcomes

Direct tests of validity and reliability using statistics

Indirect quality assurance methods of trustworthiness

Measures of utility of results

Generalizability Transferability

Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (Marshall, 1996)

Quantitative Methods

• Collecting data using numeric forms (e.g. survey questionnaires and sampling methods)

Probability vs. Non Probability Sampling

Probability Sampling- sampling procedure thatgives every element of a population a non-zerochance of being selected in the sample(personnel at PGH).

Non-probability sampling- This method of sampling is resorted to when it is difficult to estimate the population of the study because they are mobile or transitory in a given location. (Urban hilots; urban poor)

• This mode is also useful in exploratory studies or descriptive studies with a qualitative approach.

Non- Probability Sampling

1. Purposive sampling- sets out to make a sample agreeable with the profile of the population based on some pre-selected characteristics.

2. Quota Sampling- selects a specified number (quota) of sampling units possessing a certain characteristics.

3. Convenience Sampling- selects sampling units that come to hand or are convenient to get information from.

4. Snowball or Referral Sampling- having a respondent refer other people who are in position to answer some questions of the researcher.

Probability Sampling

1. Simple Random Sampling- all elements are given an equal chance of being included in the sample (i.e. lottery method, table of random numbers)

• A basic requirement for this method is a sampling frame for the total population.

• The size can be computed using the Lynch et al. formula (1974). The advantage of applying this formula is that the bigger the population, the smaller the sample size.

Simple Random Sampling

Lynch formula: n= NZ2 x p (1-p) Nd2 + Z2 x p (1-p)

Where Z= 1.96 (the value of the normal variable for a reliability level of 0.95. This means having a 95% reliability in obtaining the sample size)

p= .50 (the proportion of getting a good sample)1-p= .50 (the proportion of getting a poor sample)

D= .025 or .50 or .10 (your choice of sampling error)N= population sizeN= sample size

Sampling strategies appropriate to particular features of the population

Personal Attributes Geographic Spread Sampling strategies

Homogenous Concentrated Simple Urban poor

Dispersed Cluster,SimplePedestrain

Heterogenous Concentrated Stratified,SimplePGH Personnel

Dispersed Stratified,Cluster, SimpleUrban Hilots in the country

Qualitative Methods

• Collecting and analyzing data using non-numeric forms:• Observation • Video and audio• Interview• Documents review, etc.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Way of identifying any or all of :• Someone’s interpretation of the world• Why they have that point of view• How they came to that view• What they have been doing• How they conveyed their view of their situation• How they identify or classify themselves and others in what

they say

Traditional Qualitative Methods

1. Observation

• Systematic description of events, behaviors and artifacts in the social setting chosen for the study

• Participant observation is a special form of observation and demands firsthand involvement in the social world; researcher spends considerable amount of time in the setting, learning about daily life; this technique is basic to qualitative research

Advantages and disadvantages of observation

Advantages

Provide direct information about behavior of individuals and groups Permit evaluator to enter into and understand situation/context Provide good opportunities for identifying unanticipated outcomes Exist in natural, unstructured, and flexible setting

Disadvantages

Expensive and time consuming Need well-qualified, highly trained observers; may need to be content experts May affect behavior of participants Selective perception of observer may distort dataInvestigator has little control over situation Behavior or set of behaviors observed may be atypical

Traditional Qualitative Methods

5 dimensions of variations in observations

1. Role of the Researcher-Observer

Full PO – Partial Observation – Onlooker

2. Portrayal to OthersOvert – known by some/not by others-Covert

3. Portrayal of the Purpose

Full explanation – Partial – Covert – False Explanation

4. Duration of the Research

Single observation – Long term, multiple

5. Focus of Observation

Narrow focus – Broad focus

Traditional Qualitative Methods

2. In-Depth Interviewing• Is a data collection technique relied on quite extensively by

qualitative researchers• Often described as “a conversation with a purpose” (Kahn &

Cannel, 1957:149)• Vary depending on the degree the interview is structured

beforehand and on the amount of latitude the interviewee is granted in responding to the questions

• Much more like conversations than formal, structured interviews; researcher explores a few general topics to help uncover the pax meaning perspective, but otherwise respects how the participants frames and structures the responses

Traditional Qualitative Methods

2. In-Depth Interviewing

• Specific circumstances for which indepth interviews are particularly appropriate include

• complex subject matter;

• detailed information sought;

• busy, high-status respondents; and

• highly sensitive subject matter

Traditional Qualitative Methods

3. Ethnography

• Ethnography is a cultural description; it tells how people describe and structure their world

• Traditional ethnography requires lengthy field work and “thick description” of cultures being studied (kinship, marriage systems, rituals, belief system, social organization, economic systems, etc.); mostly from 3rd person narration, dull and boring

Unorthodox methods

• Traditional ethnographic methods can roughly be divided into observing naturally occurring social settings and events, and interviewing informants

• In both cases, important aspects of lived experience remain either invisible, or, if they get noticed, unintelligible

Street Ethnography

1. Street-Ethnography• Street-ethnography is focused ethnography, centered on

particular site- a street, a park, a dorm, an alleyway, a mall.• Is one of the best ways to learn about certain cultures• Proponents of this method find it meaningful because it

provides descriptive information and richness in details, that cannot be obtained using other strategies

Street-ethnography• What sets this technique apart from traditional ethnographic

methods (such as participant observation or interviewing) is its unique potential to access some of the invisible, transcendent and reflexive aspects of lived experience in situ:

environmental perception, spatial practices, biographies, social architecture, and social realms.

• By emphasizing the spatial dimension and grounding of everyday experience, this method brings greater phenomenological sensitivity to ethnography.

• Phenomenology involves the dynamics of interpretation, intuition, dialectics (perceived meanings, feelings and tensions).

Street-ethnography

• Portrays the following: – Reconstruction of individual (informant’s) perception of

everyday life– Degrees and types of engagement in and with the

environment– Access to biographies/life histories (transcending current

situations in their mundane everyday life)– Social architecture of natural settings (neighborhood) or

social network– Prevalent patterns of interaction in various spheres of

everyday life

Community study• A community directory is a compiled list of resources, agencies and

services in a community. • A community profile is a full description of the community. • A community study goes beyond listing and describing, to include

critical analysis. Whereas a directory or profile is made for practical reasons, a community study includes theoretical discussion.

Community study• Most community studies seek to contribute to some theoretical

debate in the social science literature through a close case study of a community.

• Studies of aboriginality, race, ethnicity, migration, age, class, power, consumerism, gender, professional dominance, technology and other social science issues have been undertaken through studies of particular local communities or communities of interest.

Community study

• Critical theory provides useful approaches within community studies. • Critical theory is interested in the gap between what we (as social actors

and as social scientists) expect in society, and what we experience or observe.

• To be critical in social science is to make explicit the difference between people's experience in interaction, and the explanations which are offered.

• The ultimate test of theory, then, is whether it makes sense of people's subjective experience as actors in the world.

• Critical theory claims to have potential to emancipate people from oppressive social situations

Historiography

• Historiography studies the processes by which historical knowledge is obtained and transmitted

• Historiography is used in two senses: • to refer to written history in general or to the act of

writing history;• to designate the study of the history of historical writing,

methods, interpretation, and controversy .

Historiography

• Garraghan divides criticism into six inquiries:• When was the source, written or unwritten, produced (date)? • Where was it produced (localization)? • By whom was it produced (authorship)? • From what pre-existing material was it produced (analysis)? • In what original form was it produced (integrity)? • What is the evidential value of its contents (credibility)?

Historiography

• The first four are known as higher criticism• the fifth, lower criticism, and, together, external criticism. The

sixth and final inquiry about a source is called internal criticism.

Critical historiography

• History from below is a concept of historical narrative in social history, which focuses on the perspectives of ordinary people, rather than political and other leaders. The term was coined by French historian Georges Lefebvre (1874–1959) and was popularised by British Marxist Historians during the 1960s.

• This school of history was among the first to have a sympathetic approach to peasants and working class people.

Cultural geography• Geography is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and

phenomena;• As "the bridge between the human and physical sciences," geography is

divided into two main branches - human geography and physical geography

• Four historical traditions in geographical research are:• the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena (geography as a

study of distribution), • area studies (places and regions), • study of man-land relationship, and • research in earth sciences• Disciplinary focus of geography has been supportive of the ideological

subtext of colonization and exploitation that has typified Western expansion and globalization

Critical geography

• Topography- the science or practice of describing a particular place, city, town or tract of land;

• a practice which describes boundaries, property relations, and thereby objectifies than rationalizes them;

• a science of domination, confining boundaries, securing norms and treating questionable social circumstances as unquestionable facts

• Survey- the act of looking at something as a whole, or from a commanding position; reflects the power of observation, totalizing gaze, rational and universal which sees the whole and orders it.

Critical geography1. Traditional cultural geography:• Descriptive fieldwork; values the concrete and particular2. Positivist –driven to produce abstract, reductionist descriptions of

the world; construction of spatial theory3. Postmodern- represents a radical attack upon the mimetic theory of

representation and the search for truth; questions all metanarratives including those of the researcher; radically relativist

4. Interpretive and hermeneutics- acknowledge the role of the interpreter and therefore rules out mimesis in strict sense; recognizes that interpretation is a dialogue between ones data and the researcher in an interpersonal and intercultural context