Urbanisation in the Caribbean Basin during the Years of the Crisis The survey data contained in this archive was gathered as part of the second phase of the project Urbanisation in the Caribbean Basin during the Years of the Crisis. The project was undertaken between 1991 and 1994 and the survey data was collected in 1993. The goal of this comparative project was twofold: first to examine general propositions about Third World urbanisation in the context of the smaller nations of the Caribbean Basin; second, to gain greater insight into specific developments in each country. The countries selected included Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti and Jamaica. Design of the Study In each of the selected countries, a research team was assembled and placed under the direction of a senior scholar (Alejandro Portes, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, now in the Department of Sociology and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University). This person had the rank of co- investigator and the five individuals designated together with the principal investigator developed all phases of the study. In Costa Rica the local investigator was Mario Lungo of FLACSO-Costa Rica now located at fundes@ni.apc.org; in the Dominican Republic the investigator was Wilfredo Lozano of FLACSO-Santo Domingo at flacso!carlos@redid.org.do; in Guatemala the investigator was Juan Pablo Perez-Sainz of FLACSO- Guatemala now at FLACSO-Costa Rica at jhuaylup@cariari.ucr.ac.cr; in Haiti the investigator was Sabine Manigat of National University of Haiti at 20, rue Chavannes, Perron-ville, Haiti; and in Jamaica the late Derek Gordon, Patricia Anderson of the University of the West Indies-Mona, Dept. of Sociology, Kingston 7, Jamaica (tel. 809-927 0315) and Don Robotham of the University of the West Indies-Mona at drobot@uwimona.edu.jm. The project evolved as a sequence of two interrelated phases. The first phase was a macro-social analysis of common features of urbanisation in each country. The second phase was a micro-social study of the condition and outlooks of urban popular sectors and the character of the urban informal sector. The second phase of the study lasted 18 months and involved surveys of at least two popular neighborhoods in each capital city, followed by an observational study of selected micro- entrepreneurial sectors. It is the survey data from the popular neighborhoods in each capital city that is presented in this archive. Methodological Issues Concerning sampling design, the relevant universe for each capital city's survey was defined as neighborhoods housing urban popular sectors. The latter were defined as sectors receiving lower-than-average family incomes in the respective city. Neighborhoods ranged from subsidized government projects for public employees to stable working-class industrial districts to peripheral shantytowns. The research teams in each country sought to create internal diversity by including a variety of socio-economic levels both within and between selected areas. At least two lower-income neighborhoods were selected in each city, and in each, a self-weighted probability sample of households was taken. Several techniques were used to achieve conceptual equivalence of questionnaire items across languages and cultures. They included back-translation of questions, evaluations by expert informants, and field pre-tests whose results were used to modify the final version of the questionnaire. The result is that the questionnaire differs slightly for each country. In Costa Rica items about political party affiliation were deleted because the survey coincided with a hotly contested electoral campaign and the question could suggest that the interview was conducted on behalf of one of the parties involved. In Jamaica items about party preferences and affiliations were moved to the end of the questionnaire because of local sensitivities about these issues. As well, each local investigator was at liberty to ask more detailed questions about a given topic as she or he saw fit to do so. The questionnaire for the Dominican Republic was expanded along these lines. In each case, household heads were interviewed concerning both their own situations and experiences and those of other family members. As well as basic demographic data, the questionnaire asked informants their views about changes in the city during the last decade, their knowledge of urban authorities, their participation in political parties and community organisations, their knowledge of the spatial distribution of social classes in the city, and their assignment of blame for poverty. Organisation of Data Files For each country there are three files. The first is an ascii (text) codebook containing information about the variable formats and values. There is also an SPSS system file with an .sav suffix for each country (e.g. haiti.sav). These files are in binary format and must be retrieved accordingly. They can be called up and used by the SPSS statistical program. There is also an analogous data file in ascii (text) format with an .lst suffix (e.g. haiti.lst). These can be read in to any statistical analysis program using an appropriate formatting statement. The English and the Spanish version of the basic questionnaire are provided in two separate ascii (text) files. This is the original standard questionnaire. It does not show the changes that were made in each country. The instructions given to interviewers are also provided. Finally, the instructions for coding the questionnaire data are also provided. Seminars, Studies and Publications During each phase of the study seminars were held to discuss research findings. At the end of the macro-social phase of the study each co-investigator presented a summary report of her/his country to a project seminar held at Florida International University in Miami. The final results of this comparative project were presented at a series of seminars open to both academics and policy-makers. Initial results of the second-phase surveys were presented and discussed at a conference on Caribbean Basin cities held in Santo Domingo in the summer of 1992. Two regional seminars were then held to highlight the national studies and their respective policy implications. The first took place in San Jose in July, 1994 (Guatemala and Costa Rica) and the second in Santo Domingo in October, 1994 (Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic). The research findings have also been published in several books and articles. List of publications includes: Portes, A. and C. Dore-Cabral. 1995(forthcoming). Caribbean Cities: In the Threshold of a New Century. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Portes, A. and J. Itzigsohn. 1994. "The Party of the Grassroots: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Political Participation in the Caribbean Basin," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 18(3):491-508. Portes, A., J. Itzigsohn, and C. Dore-Cabral. 1994. "Urbanisation in the Caribbean Basin: Social Change during the Years of the Crisis," Latin American Research Review 29(2):3-37. Portes, A., and M. Lungo, eds.. 1992. Urbanizacion en Centroamerica: Costa Rica y Guatemala, San Jose, Costa Rica: FLACSO, Editorial. Portes, A., and M. Lungo, eds.. 1992. Urbanizacion en Centroamerica: Haiti, Jamaica y la Republica Dominicana, San Jose, Costa Rica: FLACSO, Editorial. Return to the Data Archive