In this assignment, you will choose a Poughkeepsie neighborhood to replicate Harvey Zorbaugh's research on whether community exists in modern cities. You will ultimately claim that it does, that it doesn't, that it depends on the particular neighborhood or resident type, or some other hypothesis. You will conduct field and archival research in groups of 2-3 students but each turn in an individual 5 page report. The assignment is worth 20% of your grade.

Preliminary work

First, find one or two other students to conduct research with and begin by discussing the following questions:

1. How did Zorbaugh define community? Based on that definition, why did he claim that none of Chicago's Near North Side neighborhoods demonstrated community?

2. How did he operationalize this concept? That is, what methods and data did he employ to go out and observe community in the neighborhoods of Chicago's Near North Side? (These questions are especially important for conducting your own field research.)

3. Are Zorbaugh's (and more generally urban ecology's) theoretical and methodological assumptions about community valid? Or are there other ways that people join in urban communities and other ways that researchers can observe them?

Next, choose a Poughkeepsie neighborhood to study; the Digital Tour of Poughkeepsie can help you think about this if you're not already familiar with the city. Divide amongst your group the field and archival research to be done. Be sure to meet with your group while you are conducting research to share your data and discuss your running hypotheses.

Field research

Using field research, your group is to look for primary evidence that community does or doesn't exist. Look at the phenomena Zorbaugh looked at, like residents' behavior, their circuits of work and life, the attention they pay to the display of themselves, their local groups, their homes and workplaces, and so on. Document your evidence about community in the form of in-depth descriptions, conversational dialogue, perhaps photos, or some combination that you will incorporate directly into your final report. When conducting field research, always ask yourselves, "How do I know what I claim to know?" and look for evidence that controls for your personal biases and researcher effects in order to strengthen the objectivity of your observations.

Archival research

Look for secondary evidence that community does or doesn't exist in your Poughkeepsie neighborhood and for historical reasons why this may be the case. Refer to supporting works on particular residents, neighborhoods, or local institutions to support your observations and further test your arguments. Look for research and writings about the kinds of factors that Zorbaugh and other urban ecologists used to explain neighborhood formation and community feelings. Directly quote from archival works only where it is absolutely relevant, and then very minimally.

Individual reports

Reconvene your group one final time to share and discuss your data. Formulate a final hypothesis or set of hypotheses about community in your neighborhood. By hypothesis, I mean an explanation that is not necessarily certain but best supports your data and existing research on the subject (i.e., what you have learned in this and other classes). You do not have to reach the same hypotheses as your other group members, and in fact you may benefit from analyzing why you reject theirs (be sure to include some of that analysis in your report).

That concludes the group portion of this assignment. Next, write an approximately 5-page report using the following format:

1. Introduction. Here you introduce Zorbaugh's research problem and assumptions, along the lines of your group's preliminary discussion (see Preliminary work, above). Focus your discussion on the theoretical and methodological issues highlighted in your report; don't touch on anything that you won't return to later.

2. Hypotheses and observations. In a first paragraph, assert your hypothesis or set of hypotheses about community. Introduce the Poughkeepsie neighborhood where you derived these hypotheses. Report field and archival data that show how community did or did not exist, and for whom. Suggest historical reasons why that might be the case.

This section should comprise the bulk of your report. It should offer plenty of thick descriptions, refer to the methods you used, and explain the rationales by which your data demonstrate your hypotheses. Use Zorbaugh's writing as a model. If you have difficulty writing material here, you probably have not effectively supported your hypothesis.

3. Discussion. Relate your findings to Zorbaugh's. Address what the differences and similarities mean for urban ecologists' understanding of community.

4. Bibliography (not included in 5-page requirement). Cite Zorbaugh and all the other supporting works you used.