WSU Urban Studies Blog

Students in Dr. Conroy's  Worcester: A City & Its People class ( UR 312)  took to the city for a second time this semester to do some fieldwork. The first trip was to North Main Street --  this one was to Coes Pond and Webster Square. Here they are on the eastern edge of the pond along the boardwalk.  The student field packets contained old maps and images of city buildings and spaces at various historical points. For example, the packets contained plates from the 1896 and 1911 Worcester Real Estate Atlases as well as pictures of the "old" Webster Square Cinema when it was in operation, the "old" Stop'n Shop that's not the Asian Market, the Coes Wrench Factory, and the Roller Skating Arena that is now called Arena Plaza (where a Little Caesars is located). Students located the sites along the way and compared the old images and maps to what remains of them today. Then they were encouraged to speculate about the changes before they dug into source mat...

During his sabbatical last spring, Urban Studies Associate Professor Dr. Timothy Murphy, built a user-friendly website to help students develop their qualitative research skills. The site is called "Wonderful Ethnography" , because it emphasizes the importance of wondering when conducting ethnographic research. The site's three main sections - Wondering, Observing, and Asking - teach students how to stay open and curious about whatever arises during the research process and being slow to jump to conclusions, how to conduct observations, and how to engage people in interviews. The site's two additional sections - Examples and Resources - provide images, videos, field notes, and links to give students some real examples of what ethnographic research can look like as well as additional resources for students who want to learn more. Check it out!

CityLab has published a new Infographic  that presents a precinct by precinct breakdown of the political races in the 2023 preliminary municipal election.   There were five races. Four of the City Council district seats (Districts 1, 2, 4, and 5) and one in a new School Committee district (District E).  Each area had more than 2 candidates running, which triggered the preliminary runoffs.  Voter turnout for the election was typically low at 9.1% overall. At the district level, though, there was some variation:      District 1 -- 10.7%     District 2 -- 8.1%     District 4 -- 4.9%     District 5 -- 12.2%     District E --   9.1% Such an imbalance raises questions about the At-Large seats in the general election. In this election, the precinct with the highest vote total, which was in District 5, had as many voters as 10 of the lowest vote total precincts. Seven of the 10 lowest voting precincts were...