Geography 350 Project: Local Impact Assessment

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/350/project.html)

1. You will test your understanding by applying concepts, insights and skills covered in class or readings to local contexts and issues
2. You become actively involved in establishing your own learning environment
3. You help create a pool of example contexts which facilitate the presentation of conceptual and analytical materials
4. You learn how to proceed through structured stages of research activities
5. You learn how to access diverse resources, how to evaluate their relative merits, and how to utilize such resources for specific ends
6. You learn how to collaborate with peers in the delineation, coordination, execution and evaluation of individual research responsibilities as part of an overall class-project design for these projects including providing (mutual) support, sharing resources and constructive assessment of individual activities and findings.
7. You learn how to present -- not just your own "findings" -- but the results of all stages of this process through sequential submission of semi-independent, well formulated and professionally acceptable project components or segments.

In other words, the purpose of this project is to provide you with an opportunity to develop your deductive thinking abilities and your resource, library-, investigative, organizational, collaborative and presentation skills, in addition to applying class materials to a "real world" situation and exploring new content areas related to my personal academic interests.

The 350 Project consists of weekly two- page submissions of components of your resource and research progress following a relatively tightly structured path. The weekly steps will have to be followed ON TIME (due on Tuesdays) and ----IN SEQUENCE. Your project topic will be selected during the first two weeks of the quarter. Your individual project area will be connected to a collaborative overall project which will be explained in class. The weekly steps will ensure that you will stay close to the class objectives and content and that you will consult a wide range of academic, professional, business and governmental sources. The segments will consist of

• a summary and/or annotations of selected sources:
  • Sources which represent particularly good examples of analyses performed, contain good explanations for phenomena in your area of concentration and/or include recent bibliographies (bibliographic papers)
  • Annotations for bibliographic or other sources: approx. 3-5 lines (single-spaced) describing the content and its relation to your area; please add your initials to all annotations formulated by you.
  • References to (book or other) reviews of more primary sources (also with annotations)
  • Explanations (including limitations) of Data or Information Sources
  • Locations of Materials (unless obvious or trivial)
  • Process of Finding Sources (incl. Internet Search Paths) (unless obvious or trivial)
  • Methodological Specifics
• an assessment of the relevance of the materials
  1. to your original and ongoing project topic and, through your project, to
  2. the overall class project.
  3. explicit suggestions as to how your emerging "model" is changing in light of your new insights.

The diversity of information sources potentially useful and appropriate for consultation is reflected in this list of information categories for local economic analysis.

The theme for all projects will be: "Conceptualizing, Modeling and Resourcing the Local Economy and Some of its Components". This theme allows us to collaborate with each other to the largest extent possible and work towards establishing at least the outlines of a comprehensive overall model which encompasses our individual efforts as "component models".

• What can we, as economic geographers, contribute to the discussion, analysis and possible resolutions of this issue.
• Where do we find the concepts, tools and other information which will help us in these tasks?
• How are all of our (and other) issues interconnected and how can we analyze (trace, understand and potentially monitor and influence) this interconnectedness of the Local Economy.

We will adjust and then divide the process outlined in Research Guide into weekly segments:

1. Dissecting the selected media story:
   • What makes the story an interesting "issue" for Geog.350? (Preview of class materials in light of this issue)
   • Am I sufficiently interested in (and confident about) this issue to give it my full attention for the next 10 weeks? (Review of my own reasons for taking this class and my other time commitments; communicate with instructor, including by E-mail [econgeog@u])
   • Who are the prime "players" and "populations" associated with this issue? (Which segments of the economy and society am I dealing with? What do I know about these people, activities or facets already?)
   • Do I understand (in general terms) the connection to the class-project theme? (The prof wants us to understand the objectives and nature of the overall class project at least in rough terms as quickly as possible so that we can develop the focus for own project).
   • due: Tuesday of 2nd week (April 2, 1996)

2. "Where does my 'issue' fit in academically?"
   • Which branch of Economic Geography, Regional Science, Regional Economics, Local Economic Analysis, Urban or Rural Economic Geography, or Marketing Geography is involved?
   • Under what headings, with the help of which "key words" will I look for relevant academic / research articles in GeoBASE, Expanded Academic Index, CarlUncover, Journal of Economic Literature or the Social Science Citation Index?
   • Was I lucky enough to have found a recent general review article for my area which will help me move along...?
   • "What are the outlines of my emerging "field of reference" which will inform my project?"
     • Search for concepts needed to organize my ideas as they relate to the original "issue" and its relationships to Geog.350 and the class-project
     • Search for research tools
       1. in Geog.350 course materials
       2. elsewhere
   • due: Tuesday of 3rd week
   This step will be harder for students without 200-level economic geography background. Please communicate with instructor and ask for guidance.

3. DATA (GENERAL): As part of my general preparation for dealing with issues and research questions in my "field of reference", what general kinds of data sources should I be familiar with? Which data relate to my original topic and where are the data bases from which I might eventually draw the data as information for my model ....?
   • U.S.Census
   • Other Data Resources
   • due: Tuesday of 4th week

4. How unique is my "issue"? From which other contexts can I learn?
   • Let's compare notes!
   • Explore economic impact reports, professional journals, other empirical sources for conceptual, analytical and empirical ideas and innovations.
   • due: Tuesday of 5th week

5. This stage will be combined with the take-home component of the Midterm and with class preparations for the 6th week.

6. It is now time to model your components, links and relationships
   • How to you propose to conceptualize and operationalize your model components?
   • How do you propose to conceptualize and operationalize your links and relationships?
   • How does my model connect to the class model?
   • due: Tuesday of 7th week

7. SPECIFIC DATA: Let's try to find at least some data for my skeleton model
   • review your resources from weeks 3/4
   • published data
   • estimations, educated guesses, "borrowed" coefficients etc.
   • pilot surveys and/or suggestions (questionnaires?) for more general surveys
   • due: Tuesday of 8th week

8. What have I learned? What have WE learned? (Implications and Collaboration)
   • From the tree to the forest... putting the pieces together
   • Comparing research hazards and results
   • due: Tuesday of 9th week

9. Revising and consolidating my previous project segments for final re-submission. length (minimum): 12 pages (on paper) or 8 pages in concise, hypertextual electronic (Web) form with internal (document-specific), class- and external (WWW) links.

   Format requirements:

   • The sequential, week-by-week organization of the project can (but does not have to be) preserved.
   • Title;
   • outline;
   • subheadings (following the outline);
   • citations in text (with page numbers);
   • bibliography and resource list organized by type of resource; [consult the Annals of the Association of American Geographers or the American Economic Review or Environment and Planning A for proper formatting of your bibliography]
   • due: one week before date of finals

• Retail Location (Impact) Analysis
• Impacts of Shopping Center Developments
• Consumer Profiles and Surveys
• Large infrastructure facilities (Cost-Benefit)
• Environmental Impact Statements
• Economic Impact Statements
• Residential Location Analysis of Corporate Employees
• Transportation Impact Analysis
• Transportation Demand Analysis
• Impacts of and on Land Uses
• Industrial Location Analysis
• Input-Output Analysis
• Shift- and Share Analysis (and other compositional types of analyses)
• University Impact Analysis
• Educational Demand Analyses
• Health Care Delivery Systems: Analysis of Service Areas
• High-Tech Location Analysis
• High-Tech Impact Analysis
• Producer- and/or Export Services Analysis

• Undergraduate Geography Pages (incl. Projects from Geog.350, 450 & 498)
• Project Pages from Geog.207 (Winter 1996)

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Return to: Geog.350 || Econ + Bus Geography
1998 [econgeog@u.washington.edu]