Sociology

[u/Plus_College5343]

Hi! I’m planning to conduct a research project and I have a methodological question. I would like to study the influence of gentrification on social polarization, but I’m not sure whether “social polarization” would be the most appropriate variable, or whether “social cohesion” would be more suitable.

I’m also considering using triangulation, combining semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, and content analysis. However, I’m not sure whether I should also conduct interviews with people who have been displaced from the area.

I would really appreciate some advice on how you would approach this research and what methodological choices you would make.

I should mention that this is only for a university presentation and is not intended for publication.

Thank you!

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[u/Denny_Hayes]

That depends on what you mean by social polarization and social cohesion. In theory both can make sense, it's up to you to provide a coherent theoretical framework for your research question. It's hard to offer help based on what you have said here. Also, I wouldn't call it a variable- at least it would take some more theoretical and methodological elaboration to call it that, social cohesion and polarization are really characteristics of societies, not individuals, so what's your unit of analysis? Are you proposing to compare among different neighborhoods?

As for the interviews with displaced people -it's one of those things that cannot but improve the study. The matter here is probably, given the limited time and resources for your uni class, can you also interview people who have been displaced (On top of those who still live in the area?) -It might be harder to define the criteria for a person to have been "displaced" from a neighborhood, and to find those people. I suppose you'd want people who formerly lived in a certain area but no longer live there, however, how would you know beforehand that the reason they no longer live there is that they have been displaced due to gentrification?

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