Geography 315
Explanation and Understanding in Geography
Autumn Quarter, 2009; SLN 14154
Professor Michael Brown
Smith Hall 416b
Office Hours: by appointment: michaelb@
Teaching Assistants: Elise Bowditch (INSERT EMAIL) & Cindy Gorn (EMAIL)
I. Introduction
The objectives of this course are fourfold:
1.) to design your own geographic research effectively,
2.) to evaluate critically the research designs of others,
3.) to develop your appreciation of how knowledge is acquired, and
4.) to prepare you for your future courses in geographic data analysis (326, 425 and 426 for example).
By the end of this course, you will come to appreciate the diversity of methods in geography, the appropriateness of different methods for different research questions, and the standards by which each method should be evaluated.
The course is scheduled to meet MWF 12:30-1:20 in Miller 301. Discussion Sections meet on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Consult MyUW for your section details. Please attend the section in which you are registered.
This course is divided into two parts. The first half introduces you to larger issues of methodology and geography generally. The second offers you a survey of different strategies geographers use to collect information in their research. Both sections will start with a conventional social-scientific perspective and move to a more qualitative, interpretive one.
Lecture Outline
You will be asked to formulate an original research problem and specify the appropriate methods to answer that question. YOU DO NOT ACTUALLY CARRY OUT THE RESEARCH. This project puts lecture material into practice. It involves library research and the creative assimilation of existing literature, in order to specify your own original research question. You will write and rewrite this project throughout the term in order to clarify your thinking and sharpen your research focus. Consequently you will receive a “W” credit for this course.
III. Assignment Schedule & Due Dates
Brief statement of topic: Tuesday of Week 3 (October 13th) in Section
Revised research topic & literature review: Tuesday of Week 6 (Nov. 3rd) in Section
Midterm: Monday October 26th.
Revised lit. rev. & Proposed methodology: Wednesday of Week 9 (Nov. 25 in class)
Final Research Proposal (including measurement instrument discussion) due: Week 11 Friday December 11th. No late papers accepted.
Final Exam: Thursday, December 17, 8:30-10:20 in our lecture hall
Participation: In Lectures and Section Both.
NOTE: failure to turn in any of the four iterations of your research proposal will result in a 0 grade for it, and will likely result in a failing participation grade. You must keep up with the class schedule to participate in peer review.
Required Text:
Earl Babbie (2004) The Basics of Social Research, 4thth Edition (Belmont: Wadsworth).
Note that this book is extremely expensive and previous editions do not differ that much from the current one, at least in terms of the content of this course. You may also use Babbie's The Practice of Social Research (7th edition or higher). If you can find recent previous editions, you may use those. There are copies on reserve at Odegaard.
In addition, you will be asked to read and discuss published, academic articles written by professors in the UW geography department. They are in PDF form, available through the course website. The aim here is twofold. First, as geography majors, you should be familiar with the range of research interests your faculty have. This will help you identify faculty who share your interests. Second, these publications will illustrate key themes, concepts, practices, and techniques.
Assessment:
20% for Midterm
15% for Project Components (See Above)
Brief statement of topic: 5%
Revised topic & literature review: 5%
Revised lit. rev. & Proposed methodology: 5%
30% for Final Version of Your Proposal (including measurement instrument)
20% for Final Exam:
15% for Class and Section Participation
No exams can be administered outside of the schedule listed above. Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade per day without proper documentation of illness, etc. Assignments are due hard copy, in class or section. We refuse to accept assignments by email. Pay careful attention to the due dates of your labs and assignments in order to receive credit. Failure to attend class or section regularly will likely lead to a failing participation grade, since if you're not there you can't participate. Participation means being active and engaged in discussion and lectures. It means being respectful and helpful to everyone else in the class. It means coming & talking to the professor & TAs if you're having difficulty. Just showing up is insufficient.
We follow the University rules on plagiarism. Don't do it. When in doubt, speak in person with your TA or Prof. Brown.
IV. Weekly Schedule
Readings should be done following the instructions given to you beforehand in lecture. Participation in lecture may depend on you having done the reading. Therefore, attending class will allow you to be much more efficient in doing the reading. Obviously, you should therefore keep pace with the lecture schedule. Reading material, of course, is examinable.
Part A: Basic Issues of Method
This week covers the introduction to the course, discussion section, as well as a brief introduction to Geography as an academic discipline. By the end of the week you should be able to situate your self and your research interests in the field. We also offer you an introduction to the department, and faculty’s research interest as a means of helping you with your research proposal.
Reading:
Read this syllabus over very, very carefully.
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Week 2. Science and the Scientific Method
Objectives: This week we want you to understand the specifics of social science research, versus simple human inquiry. I want you to acquire a firm grasp of the scientific method, and train yourself to appreciate the different relationships between theory and empirics.
Readings:
Babbie “Human inquiry and science,”
Babbie "Paradigms, theory, and social research"
Examples:
Brown 2003 “Hospice and the spatial paradoxes of terminal care”
Mayer 1979 “Paramedic response time and survival from cardiac arrest”.
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Objectives: To delineate and appreciate the different steps in a research project.
To specify the conditions of causality
To introduce key vocabulary terms that you will use through the remainder of your career.
To introduce you to how geographers approach research specifically.
Readings:
Babbie “Research design”
Examples:
Nyerges 2001“Social-behavioral research strategies…”
Mitchell 2003 “Educating the national citizen in neoliberal times”
Literature Review example:
Beyers 1998 “Using economic base models to explain new trends in rural income”
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Week 4. Moving from ideas to measures
Objectives: To work through the point that there are different ways to think about and measure social phenomenon, and that there are different criteria to assess their goodness.
Readings:
Babbie “Conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement”
Examples:
Sparke 2004 “Triangulating the borderless world.”;
Brown, 1999 “Reconceptualizing public and private in urban regime theory”
Morrill 1977 “Efficiency and equity aspects of optimum location”
Ellis & Wright 1999 “The industrial division of labor among immigrants…”
Morrill 1991 “On the measure of geographic segregation”
Withers 1997 “Methodological considerations in the analysis of residential
mobility”
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Objective: All empirical research involves some form of sampling. You need to know which strategy is appropriate for which type of question.
Readings
Babbie “The logic of sampling”
Examples:
Brown 2004: “Between neoliberalism and cultural conservatism”
Chan, Liu, and Yang 1999 “Hukou and non-hukou migrations in China: comparisons and contrasts”
Ellis & Wright, 1999 “The industrial division of labor among immigrants and internal migrants to the Los Angeles economy”
Withers 1997 “Methodological considerations in the analysis of residential mobility”
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Objectives: To begin to understand the relationship between epistemology, theory and method in social science research. We do this by considering the strengths and limitations of the scientific method.
M. Brown & T. Colton, 2001 “Dying epistemologies: an analysis of home death and its critique”.
S. Herbert, 2000 “For ethnography”
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Part B: Research Strategies
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Week 7. Modeling and Experiments
Objectives: This week we begin to explore a series of techniques to collect data. This week we gain an appreciation of the classic form of scientific data collection: the experiment. We also look at the common geographic technique of modeling reality.
Readings:
Babbie “Experiments”
Examples:
Nyerges 2001 “GIS-supported collaborative decisionmaking”
Beyers 1998 “Using economic base models to explain new trends in rural income”
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Objectives: This week we detail the work behind the classic form of social-science data collection: the survey. In order to appreciate the pros and cons of questionnaire construction, you must know the differences between indices, scales, and typologies. Here we build on your understanding from Week 4 of the logical relations between conceptualization and operationalization.
Readings:
Babbie “Survey research”
Babbie “Indices, scales, and typologies”
Examples:
England 2003 “Interviewing elites”
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Week 9. Field Research and Ethnography
Objectives: Geography has a longstanding tradition of field research. This week we turn to a popular example of that technique: ethnography.
Reading:
Babbie “Qualitative field research”
Examples:
Lawson, 1999 “Tailoring is a profession, seamstressing is work!”
Jarosz, 1994 “Agents of power, landscapes of fear”
Jeffery 2004 “’A useless thing’ or ‘Nectar of the gods’”
Brown 1997 “The cultural saliency of radical democracy”
Herbert 1997 “Territoriality and the police”
Elwood, 2000 "Placing interviews"
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Week 10. Unobtrusive Modes of Observation
Objectives: Often the best way to collect data on people is not to talk to them! This week we consider basic unobtrusive methods. We close the course with a general discussion of the ways that moral and ethical issues play out in social science research.
Reading:
Babbie “Unobtrusive research”
Examples:
Mitchell 2003 “Educating the national citizen in neoliberal times”
Chan "The Hukou system and urban-rural migration in China"
Objectives: We save often the most difficult and thorniest topic for last: the question of ethics and politics in social research. Our goal is to introduce you to some typical issues that arise in the practice of social research, discuss various strategies of coping with these issues, and ask you to incorporate a discussion of ethics, politics, and positionality in your final draft of your research proposal.
Reading:
Babbie “The ethics and politics of social research”
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See: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Geography/dr/eljnl.html for online access through UW libraries.
There will likely be academic journals that you will find relevant to your particular research that are not on this list. Check the UW catalog under journals and serials.
V. Assignment Guidelines
Notes on Grammar and Style
The Reference system preferred in this course (Harvard style) uses within the text, the name of the author, the date of publication and, following quoted material, the page reference, as a key to the full bibliographic details set out in the list of references- e.g. Harvey (1997: 23-9); (Jackson 1988: 56); (Cook and Crang 1998; Dear et al. 1977; Smith 1983) - et al. to be used when there are three or more authors. Two or more works by one author in the same year should be distinguished by using 1980a, 1980b, etc. Entries in your reference list should be alphabetical, single-spaced, with a blank line separating each entry. Notes and References. Footnotes or endnotes (choose only one format) should be used to explicate tangents. Indicate them with superscript numbers, and provide the note text as a list at the end of the article before the references.
Other style points
Figures & Tables: Figures and tables must be large enough to be clearly readable. They can either be in black and white or color. They must be titled and numbered (separate numbering for tables and figures). They should be referred to explicitly in the text by their number. You cannot use copyrighted material without permission (i.e. no photocopying other people’s tables or maps). That is plagiarism. Quotations: Use double quotation marks for quoted material within the text; single quotation marks for quotes within quotes. Quotes longer than 3 lines should be single spaced. Direct quotes must have the page number in the citation eg: (Brown, 1997, p.32).
Numerals: In general spell out numbers under 100; but use numerals for measurements (e.g. 12km) and ages (e.g. 10 years old). Insert a comma for thousands and tens of thousands (e.g. 1,000 and 20,000). Use the percentage sign only in figures and tables; spell out ‘per cent’ in the text using a numeral for the number (e.g. 84 per cent). All pages of an assignment must be numbered. Specify the currency where appropriate ($100 USD).
V. Instructions for Each Assignment
Assignment 1: Brief Statement of Topic
To receive full credit for this assignment, you must write a one- page statement that explains to us what your research proposal will be on and how that fits into the discipline of geography and your own interest in geography.
You must situate your research in broader disciplinary history and themes (either theoretical or empirical) in geography with proper citations. It's helpful to use general geography textbooks to help you do this.
You must include a bibliography in correct and consistent format (note: keep a copy! You will build on it throughout this course, and I hope, through your undergraduate career. Now might be a good time to learn Endnote, if you have not already! Your paragraph should properly cite 5 scholarly references that include academic journal articles.
We are looking for evidence that you have put your lesson from the Geography Librarian and lectures into practice.
Assignment 2: First Draft of Literature Review
This document should achieve the aims of a literature review, as we have discussed in class, and as are exemplified in the faculty articles online (through the syllabus). There should be a title to your review that succinctly captures your line of argument. You should have a clear outline to your essay, including section headings. You must have at least ten (10) references in your works-cited, and they must be referenced correctly in the text. They also must be academic journal articles from the past 15 years.
A good literature review:
1. synthesizes and evaluates the previous literature. It summarizes the existing state of knowledge on your topic.
2. delineates the known from the unknown. By doing so, it identifies a gap in the literature that your research will fill.
3. develops an intellectual line of argument about why your study needs to be done. What’s the problem if the gap isn’t filled?
4. lays the groundwork for the study or analysis to come. It should therefore end in a single, specific—and answerable—research question.
Begin a literature review by assembling all relevant articles, and notes. Organize the entries into thematic groups. Move from general state of x-geography to your specific point of focus. It is common that the more specific your discussion, the deeper the explication of a smaller number of sources. Use direct quotes sparingly for rhetorical effect. Use headings and summary sentences to guide your reader through the essay. Be sure there is an introduction and a conclusion. Be sure each item is properly referenced in your works-cited list. Use proper citation format.
Consider the following questions when organizing your literature review:
What kind of geographer are you? What are the classic questions in that sub-discipline?
To whom are you speaking: geographer or non-geographers?
Some ways of isolating a gap:
You must hand in your previous draft with this assignment.
In order for you to revise your literature review well you must achieve all the aims of the literature review outlined in lectures. Your line of argument should be clearer than before, and it must now point to a specific single-sentence research question. Please put the question in bold type. You now should have at least 20 scholarly references plus other non-academic sources cited explicitly and correctly through your document and listed alphabetically in your bibliography. You must attach a current reference list/bibliography using correct and consistent referencing style.
A typical problem with this assignment is that the research question remains too broadly focused, or is unanswerable. Work on narrowing or focusing your question. Beginning the methods section of your paper will help you here.
You must now also begin a Methods Section for your final project. This is a separate section from your Literature Review, but it should logically follow from it. In it you must have the following elements:
a. Experiments and Modeling (where you manipulate reality or existing statistics to test a hypothesis)
b. Survey Research (where you collect information from individuals)
c. Field Research (where you participate in the place you study)
d. Unobtrusive research (where you don’t actually talk with people)
e. Evaluation Research (where you assess a particular public policy- note this one will likely involve another mode of observation to meet its objective)
In this part of your methods section, you need to defend your choice of observational mode. You need to explicate why this is an appropriate way to collect data. Why will this mode be appropriate to your specific research question? You may cite Babbie (2004) to bolster your argument.
Final Version of Your Complete Research Proposal
For the final cumulative iteration of your paper, you must revise the literature review section, as well as the methodology section per the TA's instructions. At this stage you probably have more work to do on the methods section, though you might need to narrow and focus your research question still further. You may also need to include a map of your study site(s). Maps and pictures are called “Figures”. Like tables, they are numbered consecutively, titled, and discussed explicitly in the text. Note that tables and figures are numbered separately from each other.
Your variables table should now be full and complete.
The new piece to include is your data collection instrument. For most of you this will be the actual survey or interview script you will give your sample elements. It should look as realistic as possible (contingent and matrix questions should look realistic). Questions should be numbered, and discussed via the number in the Variables section of your Methods chapter.
If you are using qualitative interviewing strategy, you need to write the script you will use to interview people and note where the “probes” will be (and what they will be for).
If you are using a tool or device to collect your data (e.g. surveyor’s compass, etc) you must describe that device as your instrument.
If you are doing unobtrusive research, you need to show a flow chart of steps you will take to collect data in the field.
The data-collection instrument (either a copy of the survey, interview, or picture/drawing of the device) should be placed in appendices at the very end of your document. So the order of things is as follows:
Title of Proposal
Your Name
Abstract (to be added in final draft)
List of Tables (Number, title, and page number in text)
List of Figures (Number, title, and page number in text)
Table of Contents
You should think of this paper as a formal research proposal than a completed research report. Remember that spelling, grammar, and format are extremely important. All figures and tables should be numbered and labeled. You must use page numbers. You must cite correctly. Your paper should be double spaced (except for direct quotes of >3 lines, and tables) with standard margins. Also, you must hand in the previous drafts of your work on this proposal.
Failure to correct previously-noted mistakes and deficiencies will be penalized.
Your final paper must include the following sections explicitly:
Your proposal must have an interesting title. “Final Paper for Geography 315” is not an interesting title. The title should capture the contribution of your research, rather than just the topic.
You should also include an abstract of not more than 250 words. The abstract should accurately summarize the document; rather than the research topic.
You should also include a Table of Contents, which should also include a list of Tables and a separate List of Figures (if appropriate). Remember that maps are figures! The lists should give the page numbers where these items can be found.
The purpose of the introduction is to introduce readers to the purpose of the document, and how you will achieve that aim. It should also briefly argue why the research needs to be done. It does not need to be long, but it does need to perform its functions. It should also give a roadmap to the reader, outlining the steps you will take to achieve the paper’s aim. The first sentence and paragraph of the introduction are extremely important. They should draw the reader in; rather than put the reader off reading the paper.
As we have covered already, the literature review shows how your proposed research fits into what’s been done before. It is an argument about the importance of your research. It is not an annotated bibliography. It should perform 3 tasks:
Delineate the known from the unknown in your field (identifies a gap in the literature).
Develops a line of argument that your research question is intellectually important and therefore needs—logically—to be answered.
Lays the groundwork for your methods section by asking a specific research question.
Your literature review should end with your research question in bold type, and a logical argument about why this question needs to be asked.
Your literature review should contain properly formatted and thorough references to work found in your bibliography. Direct quotes must be cited with page numbers.
We expect to see an explicit, one-dimensional research question in bold text towards the end of the review.
This section details and defends how you propose going about answering the specific research question you explicated in the previous section. It should clearly chronicle the steps you will take in collecting (and analyzing) your data. It must harmonize with the research question. A general rule of thumb here is the more detail and explication the better. It must contain the following elements:
The purpose of the research (what sort of research question are you asking, and why?)
The mode of observation. Why is it appropriate to your sort of question.
Population and sampling issues.
A thorough discussion of all the variables you need to measure.
How are you conceptualizing them?
How are you operationalizing them?
You must include a table that outlines these issues.
You should include a discussion of your data collection instrument in this section.
What type of instrument are you using and why?
Does it need to be calibrated, and how?
Include a copy (or picture) of your instrument as a figure in the text in the Appendix.
The simple rule for any conclusion is:
say what you said (reiterate your argument)
say how you said it (remind the reader of the steps you took to make your argument).
Say it again, but discuss its implications. Answer the question “So what, if you do this research?” Discuss what readers should conclude-- i.e. "take from" this proposed research. What future directions might research take?
You may also wish to include a discussion of the potential limitations or limits of your study (or note what it is you are not trying to, or cannot do, with this research). Positionality issues are appropriate to discuss here. Avoid the “Hollywood ending”.
You must have at least 20 relevant scholarly references in your literature-cited section. You should also include other sources of information, where contextually appropriate (statistics, newspaper stories, etc.). The majority should be references to work published in the last 10 years. List only the items you have cited explicitly in the text. You cannot cite a source that is not in your reference list. All sources in your reference list must be cited explicitly in the text at least once. Citations should be in a consistent and standard format. If you are unsure of what to include for any particular citation, more information is better than less. The rule of thumb is: ‘could the reader on her own go and find this item with the information you’ve given?’
Appendix (where appropriate) A copy or picture of the actual data collection instrument should be placed here.