Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
3 - The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
Summary
Abstract
Multi-Sited Research Designs raise the important issue of how we can design and implement a comparative research design framework in urban studies. Three multi-sited approaches (grounded, analytic, and comparative case) are discussed with each accompanied by an appropriate Asian case study as illustration. Having discussed these approaches, the chapter lays out a number of useful guidelines for qualitative researchers to consider: an inductive versus a deductive orientation; the role of local researchers in providing a deeper context for case selection; the link between sites and the wider country context; the trade-offs between studying single and multiple cases; and a note on the informant's role.
Keywords: Multi-Sited Research approaches, grounded theory, analytic ethnography, comparative case approach, field site-city links, Asian urban research
Introduction
I did not know it then, but this book started in 2003 with the decision to pay attention to a site in Bangkok. I had finished an interview with a planner from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority during my sabbatical at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. The focus of that interview was city competitiveness and liveability and I had asked for examples of local government intervention.
At the end of the interview, the planner suggested I visit Fort Sumen Park in the old Bangkok district, where the city has created a park in the midst of a congested inner city area, opening up a view of the Chao Praya River. The Sumen Park was indeed a precious intervention. With land acquired from an old government warehouse, the park was completed in time for the king's birthday. It is well used and visitors enjoy a nice break under the shade of the trees. Fort Sumen Park affords pedestrians along Phra Athit Road a tantalizing and unhindered glimpse of the river, a rare view since much of the Chao Phraya River on the old quarter side of Bangkok is blocked by buildings.
After visiting this park, it made sense to walk to Fort Mahakan, the only other remaining fort that was part of the old walled city of Rattanakosin, a short distance from Fort Sumen. When I got to Fort Mahakan, a different reception awaited me.
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- Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia , pp. 57 - 80Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019