Collaborative Research: A Multi-City Study of Contextual Influences on Group Relations and Voting Behavior in Urban Mayoral Elections

这个合作项目关注的是城市环境对群体间关系和政治行为的影响。一项多城市调查（附有城市一级的综合数据）将评估政治、社会和经济背景对个人一级态度形成和政治行为的相对重要性。关注的中心领域涉及以群体为基础的态度的发展及其对地方投票行为的相对显著性。这是第一个同类数据集，将促进对群体间敌意来源的科学认识，引起群体间竞争的条件，以及群体间冲突的政治后果。对种族和民族多样性政治感兴趣的学者通常将城市视为研究人口变化背景下个人层面态度和政治选择的最具活力的地方。不同城市之间不同寻常的制度、社会和经济差异，使我们能够对有关群体间态度、公众舆论和群体投票行为的煽动者的发展等问题进行背景研究。迄今为止，关于这一主题的集体知识来自于少数案例研究或国家概率样本，这些样本不允许上下文分析所需的多层次建模。例如，如果没有包含城市层面种族构成的实质性差异的数据集，就无法得出关于地方层面种族多样性如何影响基于群体的态度和行为的有力结论。对种族间冲突的政治影响的研究将导致比先前研究的智力进步，因为该项目将分析拉丁裔，盎格鲁人和非洲裔美国人在不同层次和类型的群体多样性下的当地政治行为。此外，该项目将研究个人对群体竞争的看法与实际投票行为之间的联系。最后，地方选举是迄今为止美国最常见的选举政治形式，然而，具有讽刺意味的是，它们是政治学家最不了解的选举论坛。这项研究将使我们对地方民主的质量以及各种结构、经济和社会环境对选民的作用得到比现在可能得到的更确凿的答案。该项目包括几个更广泛的影响。这个项目产生的数据将对城市政治、群体政治、群体仇恨的起源和美国政治行为的研究产生深远的影响。此外，该项目将促进对研究生和本科生的实质性和方法培训，特别是来自代表性不足群体的学生和对群体关系和以群体为基础的政治感兴趣的学生。在一个层面上，这项研究试图解释在各种多样性条件下产生的基于群体的紧张关系。然而，在另一个层面上，这项研究将确定可能最大限度地减少群体仇恨和种族间冲突的体制、政治和背景因素。

This collaborative project is concerned with contextual influences on intergroup relations and political behavior in urban settings. A multi-city survey (accompanied by aggregate city-level data) will assess the relative importance of political, social and economic contexts on individual-level attitude formation and political behavior. The central area of concern pertains to the development of group-based attitudes and their relative salience for local voting behavior. This first of its kind data set will advance scientific knowledge of the sources of intergroup animus, the conditions that give rise to perceived intergroup rivalries, and the political ramifications of intergroup conflict. Scholars interested in the politics of racial and ethnic diversity typically look to cities as the most dynamic places to study individual-level attitudes and political choices in the context of demographic change. The extraordinary institutional, social and economic variance across cities enables contextual research on questions pertaining to the development of intergroup attitudes, public opinion and the instigators of group-based voting behavior. To date, collective knowledge on this subject has been derived from a small number of case studies or national probability samples that do not allow for the multi-level modeling that contextual analyses require. For example, one cannot draw robust conclusions about how local levels of racial diversity affect group-based attitudes and behaviors without a data set that includes substantial variance in city-level racial composition. The research on the political implications of interracial conflict will result in an intellectual advancement over prior research, as the project will analyze the local political behavior of Latinos, Anglos and African Americans under varying levels and types of group-based diversity. Additionally, the project will study the link between individual perceptions of group-based competition with actual voting behavior. Finally, local elections are by far the most frequently occurring form of electoral politics in the U.S., and yet, ironically, they are the electoral forum about which political scientists know the least. This study will allow for more conclusive answers than are now possible about the quality of local democracy and the role that various structural, economic and social contexts have on voters. This project includes several broader impacts. The data produced from this project will have a profound impact on the study of urban politics, group-based politics, the genesis of group-based animosities, and American political behavior generally. Additionally, this project will facilitate substantive and methodological training for graduate and undergraduate students involved, especially students from underrepresented groups and those interested in group relations and group-based politics. On one level this study looks to explain the kinds of group-based tensions that arise under various conditions of diversity. On another level, however, this research will identify institutional, political and contextual factors that can potentially minimize group-based animosities and interracial conflict.