New Methodologies

While mixed methods approaches to research have been accepted practice within the social sciences for several decades, the rising demand for cross-disciplinary analyses of coupled human and natural systems, sustainability, social-ecological systems, anthropogenic climate change, vulnerability, risk, and nature based solutions has necessitated a renewed examination of this approach within all areas of urban environmental studies. Specifically, strict quantitative methods common to the physical sciences are lacking in capacity to incorporate social processes into analyses of coupled human and natural systems. As well, sole reliance on qualitative methods ignores the rapidly increasing capacity of quantitative data and analytic tools to measure broad trends across social and ecological systems. Indeed, a number of large grant-funding entities acknowledge the shortcoming of a one-sided research agenda through requirements for cross-disciplinary designs and teams. All members of BCNUEJ are trained in qualitative and quantitative methods and are committed to a mixed methods approach to understanding complicated urban environmental processes.

• Mixed Methods Analysis of Urban Environmental Stewardship Networks, Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Environmental Studies (Edward Elgar: Northampton, MA., 2015)