Qualitative Research Methods – Spring, 2014 URBDP 519 A/Arch 598E
3 credits
Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20
SLN: 20229 OR 10410
Restricted to grad students in the College of Built Environments through period 1 registration.
SSW grad students should be able to register beginning March 3rd.
Instructor: Bob Mugerauer
Educational Objectives
The course will examine traditional and innovative research methodologies appropriate for both archival research and field work.
(The approaches to be covered are appropriate for theses and dissertations.) The goal is to cover the theoretical foundations and the applications of the most important methodological strategies for a variety of disciplines—responding to their differences as well as shared features: planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, forest resources, geography, anthropology, public health, public policy, social work, environmental-cultural studies.
Format
The course will be limited to a small enough size to be conducted as a
seminar, that is, through active discussion and interaction among all
members. The professor will present the most difficult material and
gently keep the discussion focused; the students will need to be
prepared (e.g. carefully read the assignments), contribute to the
discussions, and make presentations concerning their research projects.
The intention is to gather a variety of students from multiple
disciplines and with differing interests to ensure richness in seminar
discussion. The emphasis is on exploration, discovery, and
interpretation, not on “proof.”
Major Dimensions to be Covered
I. The Current Situation
– A Middle Way between Relativism and Absolutism?
– The Problem of History As/Versus Science
– The Hermeneutic Circle/Spiral of Understanding
II. Issues involved in using Case Study Approach
III. Traditional Behavior-Perceptual Field and Archival Methods
1. Close Observation and Description
— post-occupancy evaluation
— behavioral-environmental science
— ethnographic
— phenomenological
2. Interviews:
— open-ended interviews
— actor network theory
— Paulo Freire’s critical consciousness: dialogue as naming the world
3. Cognitive & Mental Mapping
— standard scientific mental mapping
— mental mapping as grass-roots empowerment
— qualitative GIS
IV. Newly Promising Empirical-Social Research
— readings by and about Actor Network Theory (ANT)
V. Scenario Building
– narratives/storylines
– visualization
– relationship to digital models
VI. Major Theoretical and Critical Approaches
1. History: Henri Lefebvre on Critical Theory
2. Human Sciences: de Certeau on Urban Anthropology (using an accessible
secondary source)
3. Self-Organization: de Landa on the science of reading historical
assemblages
VII. Particular Readings on Reserve for Architecture Thesis Work
Course Work and Grading
Each member of the class will decide on her/his choice of subject matter
to investigate, perhaps in a variety of formats. Then, students will be
expected to do the reading in their area of specialization, briefly try
out (at least) one approach to their chosen subject matter, report to
the class on the successes and failures of the projects as they go
along, and then undertake one substantial research project (reported,
with a clear statement and “justification” of method used, in a 15-20
page paper, due the last class day of the quarter). Note, the intention
is to emphasizing and practice our skills of explorations, discovery,
and interpretation. We will consider how “wicked problems”—those where
the real problem only emerges in the course of trying to solve what
appears as an initial problem—and the dynamic complexity of phenomena
require non-reductive approaches that yield multiple fruitful strategies
and perspectives rather than “the” solution. Failures and problems are
perfectly normal and, while not always cheerful, often generate deeper
understanding—this class is a “low risk” zone to encourage exploration.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Class Participation and short project report — 25%
Substantial research project — 75%
Required Texts:
• Course Reader: from AVE Copy on University, see separate handout for
contents
• Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
• Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History
• Ben Highmore, Michel DeCerteau: Analyzing Culture (an excellent
secondary source)
• Specialized readings for Architecture Thesis
Qualitative Methods Reader TENTATIVE Spring, 2014
1. Case Study Method & Observation/Interviews
• Mark Frances, “Community Design (Re)Examined
• Robert Yin, selections from Case Study Research: Design and Methods
• Bent Flyvbjerg, selection from Making Social Science Matter
• Richard Werner, “Advances in Evaluation of the Built Environment”
2. On the Way to Questionnaires
• Cooper-Marcus, from Easter Hill Village
3. Interviews
• Robert Weiss, selections from Learning from Strangers: The Art and
Method of
Qualitative Interview Studies
4. Actor Network Theory
• Bruno Latour, selection from Reassembling the Social
• M. Callon, “Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication
of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay.”
5. Phenomenological
• Jean-Paul Sartre, on “the gaze” from Being and Nothingness
• Miles Richardson, “Being-in-the-Market versus Being-in-the-Plaza”
• David Seamon, “Marketplace as Place Ballet”
• Robert Mugerauer, “Midwestern Yards”
• Dennis Skocz, “Homeless at Home: A Phenomenology of Migration &
Displacement
6. Mental Mapping & Photography
• Gould & White: “Perception of the Environment”
• Chenowith, “Visitor Employed Photography”
• Aberley, “Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment”
• National Geographic, ‘CartoGraphic: ‘Mappers’ Rights’ ”
7. Sense of Place, selections from the following:
• Violich, “What Our Search for the Meaning of Place has Revealed”
• Goodey, “Values in Place”
• Christian Norberg-Schulz, from Genius Loci
8. Dialogue for Critical Consciousness
• Paulo Freire: from Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Paulo Freire: from Education for Critical Consciousness
9. Scenarios: Numbers, Stories, Images & Visualizing What Is Not There
• Peter Schwartz, “The Scenario-Building Animal”
