For small-n analysis, I have decided to focus on what explains the existence and growth of informal settlements. For my large-n analysis, I tracked development projects to better living conditions within them—a difficult and complicated processes given there was a lack of data on these Habitat results, made worse by the fact I was attempting to draw conclusions on an ongoing process. This week, I zoomed out, broadening the scope of my research inquiry past a time period or geographic region, and focused on the chain of causation that would explain the phenome that was the world’s slums. In this small-n analysis, I have no variation in the dependent variable—the existence of an informal settlement—operationalized as a simple Y/N. For my two cases, the favelas of Brazil and slums of South Africa. The independent variables listed will be strung together to understand the causation from point A to B.
Informal settlements in both Brazil and South Africa found their roots after the abolition of slavery and the “lack of official urban socioeconomic integration”[1]. Huchzermeyer argues that social exclusion on the basis of race blocked access to land and shelter[2]. Class domination was further reinforced through laws, causing certain groups to have high illiteracy rates, and have a lower income. I plan to operationalize these various independent values—income inequality, literacy, land tenure using interval ratio, interval ratio and ordinal respectively.
Furthermore, both countries’ history of colonialism and extraction has lent to dependence on certain industries (Brazil with coffee and South Africa with diamonds). The boom of these industries quickly created a thriving, economically successful metropolis (where power and money flows) and a poorer rural periphery. In the periphery of these cites, favelas and slums began to take hold as legally prohibited from occupying “white” cities, but still needed to live within a reasonable proximity to their jobs.[3] To operationalize these independent variables—democratization, government rule, and exports[4]— I will use ordinal, nominal and interval ration respectively.
Notes
[1] Marie Huchzermeyer, “Informal Settlements: Production and Intervention in Twentieth-Century Brazil and South Africa,” Latin American Perspectives 29, no. 1 (January 2002): 83–105, accessed October 29, 2018, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X0202900105., 86
[2] Ibid, 95
[3] Idid, 84
[4] Ibid, 84
Bibliography
Marie Huchzermeyer, “Informal Settlements: Production and Intervention in Twentieth-Century Brazil and South Africa,” Latin American Perspectives 29, no. 1 (January 2002): 83–105, accessed October 29, 2018, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X0202900105
Naila,
You seem to have a very good grasp where you plan to go with your small-n research design. Something you may want to look into is the role of international organizations in this phenomenon–are they helping or making it worse? Have their past actions contributed to the creation of these informal settlements?
Overall, I find your topic very interesting and I look forward to seeing how your research develops!
This is a good start to thinking about a small-n variant of your project, Naila. However, there are a number of things that you will need to think about as you continue to develop your project. First, I would urge you to go beyond a simple dichotomous operationalization of your DV. This methodology offers the chance to develop a rich, in-depth operationalization of the phenomenon/outcome that you want to explain, so take advantage of that! If you are proposing to explain the existence/growth of informal settlements, what are the various dimensions of this concept that you would capture (think about Howard’s article as a model?) Yes/no doesn’t tell us very much at all here!
Going forward, make sure to also focus on *primary* sources that provide you data for your DV and your potential IVs. Given that you’ve identified two potential cases here in Brazil and S. Africa, what primary source data would tell you about the value of the DV in those cases? Preliminarily, what is the value of the DV in those cases?