Studying Cities and City Life : An Introduction to Methods of Research

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.