Applying Anthropology: Understanding Cities Qualitatively
Tags: City Planning, Urban Planning, Anthropology

My radical urban heroes, Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, were journalists enthralled by people’s relationships with their cities — how people navigated their concrete jungles. Using systematic observations, these New Yorkers figured out what made people want to use and share public space, what built community, and which planning mistakes could drive life from an area. Through careful observation, good urbanists figure out how to make a city work for its inhabitants.

The greatest American Urbanists of all time were essentially great people-watchers.

Source: Kevin Curtis, Unsplash

The private-sector is already on board. As the Atlantic reported, ethnographic work — studying a society from the viewpoint of the subject — is becoming a marketing standard. Anthropologists attend birthday parties to see how people consume alcohol in groups and visit foreign countries to shift the message of unsuccessful marketing campaigns. Microsoft is the world’s second largest employer of anthropologists. Today’s marketers are moving past knowing which demographics buy their products to exactly why people buy and how they consume.

Anthropology 101:

When I took a cultural anthropology class, the clearest takeaway was this: every behavior and practice is rational in its cultural context — for cities, many behaviors can be explained by someone’s environmental context.

An NYC Case-Study

In the 1980s William H. Whyte published The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and a film of his work with the StreetLife project, both of which are major influencers for architects and planners today.

Shot from StreetLife Project footage

New York City had been using tax incentives to encourage developers to include public plazas in their plans for skyscrapers . The problem was that these plazas were often empty — contributing nothing to the city. Whyte set out to study these more in depth. He by set up cameras, recorded the weather and time of day, and looked for patterns.

The design of plazas almost never provided places for people to sit and Whyte remarked that “the human backside is a dimension architects seem to have forgotten.” Parks and plazas are often remarkably inhospitable in order to discourage ‘undesirables’ and in turn, they discourage all foot traffic.

Ultimately, the most effective way to attract people, is with people. Dense areas get denser (and that is a great thing).

Three Tips for Your Own Research:

One. Forget What You Think You Know

Source: Gabriel Santiago, Unsplash

We all carry biases and assumptions in everything that we do. This can impact the way you study a city —for example, your volunteer work in a neighborhood may dictate what you think about its character based on a one time interaction. Even your politics can shape how you interact with the world around you.

Professional anthropologists struggle with this constantly. Walking into a situation assuming that the way you operate is more rational than what you see is called ethnocentrism (and we are all guilty of it from time to time).

At mySidewalk, we like the Nick Bowden Challenge: Before starting a project, make a list answering the following questions:

What are the things you assume and what are the things you are interested in finding out?

As you conduct your project, reference the list from time to time. Ask again and again if your biases are clouding your view of your city.

Two. Be Systematic

Source: Jay Wennington, Unsplash

Paying close attention to one neighborhood will help you understand how people interact in that neighborhood. However, those observations cannot be generalized for the whole city.

You might find that public spaces are packed during the business lunch hours, but that tells you very little about the neighborhood’s vitality at night.

Only systematic and well-sampled observations will help you understand your city. Think back to designing a science experiment in 3rd grade and you’ve pretty much got it. Make sure you are covering multiple areas that vary in socio-economic status and that you record your observations, along with any additional variables, with careful consistency.

Three. People are Experts of Their Own Experience (Just Ask)

Source: Mladen Milinovic, Unsplash

When anthropologists examine a new culture, they spend lots of time upfront working to gain people’s trust and establish credibility. Once they have built solid relationships, they begin to shadow and interview people central to that culture in order to understand it.

If you are working within your own culture, it will be much easier to establish credibility. Of course people will be willing to talk to leaders, activists, and journalists trying to make their cities a better place.

There is also a strong disadvantage to working within your own culture — you will take important details for granted. That goes back to recognizing your biases. If you have the luxury of working with someone with a different (non-American or rural) background, include them in your research to gain a fresh perspective.

Enter: The Data-Piece

Source: Gabriel Garcia Marengo, Unsplash

The only guarantee in social science is that no one can ever be 100% sure that their findings are correct. Qualitative work (also known as descriptive work) is very important to get an in-depth understanding of how a neighborhood functions. Quantitative work (think data) can help with understanding the bigger picture about what kind of people make up a city’s demographics.

Crunching the numbers will help you determine if you actually looked at a representative sample of your population. For example, if you know that 30% of your city is living in poverty, but 80% of the neighborhoods that you studied were affluent — it is time to create a more representative sample.

Your Turn

Source: Matthew Brodeur, Unsplash

Whether you are adding more crosswalks, designing a park, or adding new housing, a brief study of how people really behave will help you plan more effectively. For example, if you notice that people are more likely to use parks with sidewalks crossing diagonally through or that people avoid fenced-in areas (people do) then you can create a more popular and usable space.

Knowing who you are serving and how they interact with their environment will empower you to design places that remain relevant to your city for decades. We can’t wait to hear about how a little people watching transforms your next project!

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