Current Research Projects
HAS (Houston Area Survey): This important survey of Houstonian's attitudes on a variety of issues has been conducted every year since 1982. Although new questions are added each year, a core of questions remains the same, providing rich data to compare changes in attitudes and population composition over time. Due to the survey design, HAS allows for comparisons between racial and ethnic groups and immigrant status.
Religion and Immigrant's Civic Participation Project:
Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund is a co-investigator with Dr. Michael Emerson on a national study funded by a major grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, and with additional support from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies, East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership. This study would involve 260 in-depth interviews with a random sample of first and second-generation immigrants as well as a control group of native born (third generation or higher) Americans. Just focusing on the immigrant population, participant-observation will be conducted in ten organizations (5 immigrant religious organizations and 5 immigrant ethnic organizations that are not religious). Knowledge gained from such data will provide much-needed theoretical insights to the immigrant, religion and civic participation research literatures.
Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation for a project entitled "Religion and the Changing Face of American Civic Life." She was interviewed on this topic for Chicago Public Radio on June 26, 2007. To hear the interview, go to http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/848
PS-ARE (Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity): Currently funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., this national-level study follows 3450 adult Americans through their lives. Interviewing these respondents every three years, the PS-ARE allows researchers at CORRUL to study how changes in one area of life are related to changes in other areas. Like HAS, the design of PS-ARE allows for interracial and ethnic comparisons. An additional benefit of the study is that because it adds children of the respondents to the sample when the children turn 18, generational comparisons can be made.
Houston School of Urban Study: A focused methodology that emphasizes the triangulation of research methods and an emphasis on place, being in the communities of study, and producing mutually beneficial relationships and knowledge. For more detailed information see "HOUSTON SCHOOL FOR URBAN STUDY" section.
U.S.-China Coastal Cities Project - Challenges and Prospects for Sustainability:
May 2006
Recieved a $194,000 grant to study Coastal Cities and sustainability issues.
This project seeks to assess the dimensions of the challenges facing major, low-lying metropoles, particularly those whose economies are supported by a large petrochemical industrial base. Specifically, we focus on Houston, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou. CORRUL is working in partnership with the Shell Center for Sustainability and the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) and Horizon Survey Research of Beijing.
We have recently partnered with Amy Jaffe and Steve Lewis of the Baker Institute, the Shell Center for Sustainability, and Steve Klineberg of Sociology and CORRUL, to work closely with Chinese scholars involved in the SASS and Horizon Survey studies in Shanghai, to propose a comparative project studying subjective measures of sustainability in coastal cities.
http://shellcenter.rice.edu/index.cfm
For more information on the efforts of this project
please visit the COASTAL CITIES PROJECT Tab
Racial and SES Dynamics of Residential Search Strategies:
Working with Michael Aguilera of the University of Oregon on this project. Studying how residential search strategies and knowledge of housing and neighborhoods is shaped by race and socioeconomic status.