Article ID: CBB000651396

City as Truth-Spot: Laboratories and Field-Sites in Urban Studies (2006)

unapi

How does `place' contribute to the credibility of scientific claims? The Chicago School of urban studies (1918-32) had close ties to the city for which it was named: its social scientists lived in Chicago, were affiliated with the University of Chicago, and made Chicago the object of almost all of their empirical research. In order for this city to become a legitimate source of claims about urban form and process, Chicago is textually made to oscillate between two available authorizing spaces. As a field-site, the city of Chicago becomes a found and uncorrupted reality, the singularly ideal place to do urban research, and requiring the analyst to get up-close and personal. As a laboratory, Chicago becomes a controlled environment where artificial specimens yield generalities true anywhere, requiring of the analyst distance and objectivity. The distinctive epistemic virtues of both field and laboratory are preserved as complementary sources of credibility, and Chicago becomes the right place for the job.

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Authors & Contributors
Kurtulmus, A Faik
Irzik, Gürol
Lacroix, Robert
Martin, Joseph D.
Vetter, Jeremy
Spurlock, James William
Concepts
Research institutes; research stations
Laboratories
Universities and colleges
Government sponsored science
Science and politics
Democracy
Time Periods
20th century, early
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
20th century
Modern
Places
United States
France
Portugal
Japan
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
California (U.S.)
Institutions
University of Chicago
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Bell Telephone Laboratories
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