LISTSERV 16.5 - ARLIS-L Archives

Houston is unlike any other place-fascinating and complex, but we may be sheltered from its reality during the ARLIS/NA Conference bubble:

For the past 23 years, these countywide, random-digit-dialed, computer-assisted telephone surveys have

monitored systematically the continuities and changes in demographic patterns, life experiences, attitudes, and

beliefs among successive representative samples of Harris County residents. Using identical items across the

years, with new questions added periodically, the annual Houston Area Survey has tracked America's fourth

largest city in the midst of fundamental redefinition.

No other metropolitan area in America has been the focus of a long-term study of this sort, and none more

clearly exemplifies the remarkable trends that are radically reconstructing the social and political landscape of

urban America. During most of the twentieth century, Houston was essentially an Anglo-dominated, biracial

Southern city, riding the most important resource of the Industrial Age to continual prosperity. In May 1982, two

months after the first survey, the oil boom collapsed.

Houston recovered from the 1980s' recession into a restructured economy and a demographic revolution. New

economic, educational, and environmental challenges have redefined the "pro-growth" strategies that will be

required for cities to prosper in the twenty-first century. At the same time, major immigration flows have

transformed this city into one of the nation's most culturally diverse metropolitan areas, at the forefront of the new

ethnic diversity that is refashioning the social and political landscape of urban America. The overall purpose of this

continuing project is to measure systematically the way area residents are responding to these remarkable

transformations, and to make the findings of this research widely available to the general public and to research

scholars.

In order to ensure that every Harris County adult living in a household with a telephone will have an equal

probability of being interviewed, survey respondents are selected through a two-stage random-digit-dialing

procedure. In each household reached by randomly generated telephone numbers, the designated respondent is

selected randomly from all household members aged 18 or older. Using "back translation" and the reconciliation

of discrepancies, each year's questionnaire is translated into Spanish, and bilingual interviewers are assigned to

the project at all times.

Conducted annually during February and March, the interviews assess a rich array of attitudes and beliefs, of life

circumstances and demographic characteristics, among successive representative samples of Harris County

residents. In the early years, the sample size ranged from 412 to 679; since 1992, it has been set at 650.

Response rates - the ratio of completed interviews to all eligible phone numbers - averaged nearly 75 percent

in the 1980s and around 60 percent more recently. Cooperation rates - the ratio of completions to interviews

plus refusals - have remained steady at approximately 75 percent. These are high figures for survey research,

justifying continued confidence in the reliability of the data.

As indicated on this site (All Survey Questions), the annual surveys have measured the respondents' changing

outlooks on the local and national economy, poverty programs, and interethnic relationships; their beliefs about

discrimination and affirmative action; their perspectives on immigration, education, crime, healthcare, taxation, and

community service; their assessments of downtown development, mobility and transit, land-use controls, and

environmental concerns; their attitudes toward abortion rights, homosexuality, and other aspects of the "social

agenda"; their religious and political orientations, and their family structures.

Miguel Juarez, Assistant Librarian

(Art, Art Education, Art History & Photography)

Fine Arts Library

Center for Creative Photography Library

University of Arizona Library

Office: Music 231B

P.O. Box 210103, Tucson, AZ 85721-0103

VOICE: (520) 626-9434/FAX: (520) 626-1630