Data Everywhere: Qualitative Research Meets Cellphones

Qualitative research strategies give planners a clearer view of community issues that are virtually invisible with quantitative research strategies.

Why? Most quantitative research depends on statistical data gathered and processed over time. By contrast, most qualitative research — such as field research, photographic investigations, and focus group meetings — comes from planners going out into the community. By taking their research to the street, planners can learn what is happening at the moment and make more informed decisions.

We see this idea at work in photographic investigations. Thanks to advances in cellphone cameras, planners have used photographic research much more widely in the last 10 years. Today's cellphone cameras have twice the megapixel capacity of the highest-end digital cameras on the market when Qualitative Analysis for Planning & Policy was published in 2007.

As a bonus, cellphone cameras can send images directly from the field to the planning office in seconds.

Documenting the Impact of Urban Food Trucks

I am using photographic research to document the impact of food trucks on the Dickson Street corridor in my community of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Food trucks, especially groups of food trucks, create unique urban spaces as local culinary entrepreneurs sell to people walking in the area.

By nature, food trucks are mobile. They operate curbside or on undeveloped lots. So their operations do not show up in any quantitative database. But using my cellphone, I can track their effects in real-time.

My first image shows half a dozen food trucks organized into an open-air bazaar on an abandoned piece of land along the street.

Food trucks line up in an open-air bazaar. Photo by John Gaber, AICP.

In the second image, notice how the food trucks are wedged between two buildings. One of those buildings is a restaurant.

Food trucks line up in an alley alongside businesses. Photo by John Gaber, AICP.

Qualitative Lens on Urban Food Trucks

What will the trucks mean for the vitality of the neighborhood? How will they serve the needs of the community? What impact will they have on brick-and-mortar enterprises?

It will take a long time for quantitative research to bring the data into focus. But with a cellphone, qualitative research can capture the changes taking place in the blink of an eye.

Top image: A cell phone user photographs a city. Thinkstock photo.