The city is a special kind of space where people meet (to live, work, go shopping etc.). As part of the industrial revolution cities became centres of innovation and progress but also for social and spatial inequality as well as places where ethical and racial differences clash. The specific density of heterogeneous inhabitants and spaces make the urban structure an interesting field of research for social scientists. Over time many sociologists (e.g. Henri Lefebvre or fellows of the Chicago School) worked on exploring the structures of cities by using a wide range of data such as historical documents, interviews, maps, statistical data and observations. The session aims to discuss the empirical methods to research cities. Potential topics should therefore address one or more of the following questions: - Which are appropriate methods to analyse cities? - Which data are suitable for which kind of research questions and how can they be collected? How valid are results drawn from the different kind of data? - When and why is it useful to use a mixed-method or multi-method approach? And which data collection and analysing methods fit best? What are the challenges which researcher are faced with then? Papers debating general methodological questions and papers discussing specific problems using a concrete data type in a specific research project are both equally welcome.
Jalopnik, the blog covering car culture owned by Gawker, is running stories on New York City's subway system. Keeping the myth of the Big Apple's mobile underbelly alive, tonight they reveal "14 of the juiciest and gruesome things we didn't know about running a New York City subway train."
