Learning how to Examine Neighbourhood Identity and Resident Mobility in the City of Amsterdam
Students participating in the Human Geography field course explored questions related to urban neighbourhood identity, the effectiveness of transit oriented design, and the experiences of immigrant communities in Amsterdam. Students divided into groups to apply a variety of social science methods, including semi-structured interviews, street surveys, commuting counts, and participant observation. (They also got to experience a lovely European city in early June!) Course coordinator Dr. Joseph Pierce said, “possibly the most important of a human geography field methods course is allowing students to experience how fieldwork is an adaptive, exploratory process. Students learn how to engage with participants respectfully in a real-world environment, how to adjust when data collection don’t go exactly as hoped, and what to do with real-world data when people’s responses don’t fit with initial expectations. These students did great work learning how to ask and answer rigorous research questions in a beautiful urban context.”