Studying Cities and City Life

A textbook designed to serve as an introduction to research methods, applied to the study of cities, and social life in cities. For students majoring in urban sociology, urban studies, urban planning, and related areas, there is no other text that describes best practices of each major social science research method - field studies, surveys, experiments, and so on - as each is employed in studying cities.

Studying Cities and City Life is a textbook designed to provide an introduction to the major methods of obtaining data for use when analysing cities and social life in cities. Major chapters focus upon best practices in:

• field studies (participant observation)

• natural experiments and quasi-experiments

• surveys employing probability and non-probability samples

• secondary analyses of previously published documents.

A separate chapter examines a full range of questionnaires and interviews. Each chapter includes discussion of several case studies, and recently published research employing the method being discussed. This discussion highlights the issues and choices made by investigators in actual studies conducted in cities throughout the world.

This unique book is designed for use in research methods courses that primarily enroll students majoring in Urban Sociology, Urban Studies, Urban Geography, Urban Planning, and related areas.

Autorentext

Mark Abrahamson is Professor of Sociology (Emeritus) at the University of Connecticut.

Zusammenfassung

Studying Cities and City Life is a textbook designed to provide an introduction to the major methods of obtaining data for use when analysing cities and social life in cities. Major chapters focus upon best practices in:

• field studies (participant observation)

• natural experiments and quasi-experiments

• surveys employing probability and non-probability samples

• secondary analyses of previously published documents.
  A separate chapter examines a full range of questionnaires and interviews. Each chapter includes discussion of several case studies, and recently published research employing the method being discussed. This discussion highlights the issues and choices made by investigators in actual studies conducted in cities throughout the world.

This unique book is designed for use in research methods courses that primarily enroll students majoring in Urban Sociology, Urban Studies, Urban Geography, Urban Planning, and related areas.

Inhalt

1. Introduction

Part One: Initial Considerations

1.1. The Limitations Of Personal Experience

1.2. Scientific Research Methods

1.3. Theory and Research

1.4. Research Designs: An Overview And Preview

Part Two: Research Ethics

1.5. Ethical Constraints

1.6. Subject Protections

1.7. Neutrality

18. Giving Back to the Community

19. Ethnographic Field Studies

Part One: Historical and Theoretical Background

2.1. Historical Field Studies

2.2. The Place of Theory

2.3. Part Two: Conducting Field Studies

2.4. The Participant-Observer Continuum

2.5. Gaining Access

2.6. Sampling

2.7. Writing Field Notes

2.8. Terminating A Field Study

2.9. Assessing Data Quality

Analyzing Ethnographic Data

3. Experimental Design

3.1. Experiments Introduced

3.2. Contrasting Experiments and Ethnographic Studies

3.3. Experimentation In Social Science

3.4. Causal Inference

3.5. Experimental Designs

3.6. Assigning Subjects To Experimental Conditions

3.7. Internal And External Validity

4. Sample Surveys

4.1. History of Urban Sampling Studies

4.2. Sampling: Basic Terms

4.3. Sample Accuracy

4.4. Types Of Samples

4.5. Reaching Respondents

4.6. Nonresponse Bias

5. Obtaining Data, Part One

5.1. Interviews

5.2. Questionnaires

5.3. Observation

6. Obtaining Data, Part Two

6.1. Multi-Methods

6.2. Mixed Methods

6.3. Secondary Sources

6.4. Special Analyses

7. Measurement, Reliability And Validity

7.1. Concepts And Indicators

7.2. Reliability

7.3. Validity

8. The Research Report

8.1. Section Headings

8.2. Writing Style