Todd Shaw
Department of Political Science and
African American Studies
350 Gambrell Hall
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-6507
shawtc@mailbox.sc.edu
Final Report for
The Provost Social Science Grant
“The Changing Distances of Black Politics”
# 10150A421
$9,251.74
Summary
The following is a report on the activities, budget expenditures, and progress of Prof. Todd
Shaw’s “Changing Distances of Black Politics” project as supported by a 2011-2012 Provost
Social Science Grant. It reports activities that occurred between 2011 and 2013. Prof. Shaw
reached all of his major goals as projected in his grant proposal including the launching of a
survey and the collection of contextual data; the total of all expenditures came in under budget;
and from this project has emanated one publication (many others will follow) and the receipt of
another major grant (from the NSF Sociology Program) as will be explained.
Project Activities
The National Neighborhood Survey: In collaboration with Dr. Kirk Foster, Assistant Professor
of Social Work, and assisted by Mr. Kasim Ortiz, Graduate Research Assistant, I successfully
completed the major research objective supported by this research grant. Foster and I hired a
survey research firm to conduct an on-line survey of African American attitudes in the Atlanta
Metropolitan Area. Instead of naming it the “Atlanta Black Politics Study,” we named it “The
National Neighborhood Survey,” but its substantive content was the same as outlined in the grant
proposal. By June 27, 2013, as opposed to the spring of 2012, 501 (as opposed to the original
target of 640) African American respondents were collected through this on-line survey and all
of them reside in the Atlanta SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area). All total, our N =
704 and the ethnic/racial background is as follows:
Total
Black/African American
White
Latino/Latina
Asian
Biracial/Multiracial
Other
All
N=704
71%
501
25%
178
1%
6
1%
10
1%
5
1%
4
Once properly advertised through USC’s bid and purchasing process, Foster and I contracted
GMI (Global Market Insite) to conduct a 25-30 minutes survey with each respondent. (We of
course obtained human subjects approval through the IRB.) The total cost for the survey was
$11,700 or roughly $16 per completed survey. This was twice the amount I originally estimated
per completed survey. Of that total, this Provost research grant paid $4,000 and the remaining
amount was paid through another research grant under my charge. There is a gender skew in the
sample GMI collected (females comprise 77% of the total); but this skew notwithstanding this
data will permit us to produce several conference presentations (one is currently slated from the
August 2013 meeting of the American Political Science Association), several scholarly
publications, and to apply for additional research grants (whether internal or external.)
As outlined in my grant proposal, the survey I developed with Foster (with input from Ortiz)
included a number of items that will permits us to examine a respondent’s geographic context,
racial context, demographic context, political context, and social capital. After ensuring proper
safe guards, we asked respondents for a range of geographic specific information including their:
home addresses, church addresses (if it applies), work addresses, and estimated travel distances
to various civic activities. Once geocoded there is a wealth of spatial or geographic relationships
we can measure and analyze. There is also a host of contextual data that we will overlay on top
of our attitudinal variables including: demographic data like percent black and white in the same
census bloc; economic data like the percentage of black individuals below the poverty line; and
political data like the percent black turnout in the corresponding precinct(s.) The racial context
is measured in part through the linked or common fate variable (with several place-scale
modifications added. Among our political context variables we tap political party identification,
ideological identification, political interests and political participation (especially as related to
the 2012 presidential primaries and other elections), and a few policy questions (especially as
related to current national, state, and/or local issues.) Foster included several types of social
capital measures including those that that are both psychic and structural.1
Atlanta Public Housing Surveys: In the spring of 2012, James McCoy, undergraduate research
assistant, assisted me in beginning to collect a “2012 Atlanta Black Social Capital Dataset as
outlined in my grant proposal.” This is the major secondary objective of this project. We,
however, encountered several difficulties in verifying congregation and civic organizational data
using the Dun & Bradstreet business directory dataset. Therefore, we put this project on hold
and instead, in conjunction with Kasim Ortiz, worked on and completed a book chapter that was
published in 2013 and that is directly relevant to my Atlanta research (see the final section of this
report.) While conducting research in the spring of 2012 at Emory University’s Manuscript
Archives and Rare Books Library (MARBL), I ran across a dataset that would permit me to
make a historical argument about black social capital. It was a survey of public housing
residents the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) conducted in the 1973 and asked over 1,700
public housing residents their opinions about the quality of public housing and their community
connections. The week of June 10, 2013, James McCoy and I visited MARBL and took
photographs of a sample of roughly 300 surveys for further analysis. This data will permit us to
ask answer a range of questions about the social connectedness of public housing residents prior
to the 1980s and 1990s efforts at razing their complexes and dispersing their communities.
Expenditure Justification
The total amount granted this project was $9,251.74. However, due to $100 adding error, the
actual total of the requested line items was $9,151.74. As of July 22, 2013, the total amount
expended was $8,567.42, which leaves an estimated balance of 684.32. The schedule below
indicates the original amount requested versus the amount actually expended (after Shaw
requested that some categories be reallocated):
1
I am happy to share the instrument upon request.
From the Summary Proposal Budget Form
B. Other Personnel
1. Kasim Ortiz (Graduate Research
Assistant – from 6/15/11 to 7/31/11)
2. James McCoy (Undergraduate
Employment – 1/31/12 to 4/30/12)
3. James McCoy (Temporary Employee –
6/30/13)
4. Total Fringe
D. Equipment
1. Travel
F. Other Direct Costs (On-Line Study)
Amount of this Request
Original Amount
Requested
Amount Expended
$2,340.00
$2,2340.00
$0.00
$899.00
$0.00
$650.00*
$25.74
$222.70
$1,324.00
$5,462.00
$9,151.74**
$1,193.00*
$4,000.00*
$8,567.42
** This is the actual total of the request. The original amount total that was in error by $100 was
$9,251.74.
* I received permission to make the following reallocations.
Under Other Personnel, I expended $2,340 to employ Kasim Ortiz as a graduate research
assistant in the fall of 2012 to help prepare the on-line survey and to help submit the human
subjects application. In the spring of 2012 and the summer of 2013, I employed James McCoy
as an undergraduate research assistant and then as a temporary employee to respectively work on
the social capital datasets. The $899.00 to employ McCoy in the spring of 2012 is the only
reallocation for which I did not receive prior permission. I extend my apologies about this
oversight. Under Equipment, I spent a little less in travel ($1,193.00) than initially estimated
($1,324.00). Under the Other Direct Costs, I relied more on another research fund and thus spent
less than estimated in my grant proposal.
Scholarly Products: Conference Papers, Publications, and Grants
There are several products that are a result of this research grant. Based on the neighborhood
dataset, I am presenting a paper at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science
Association entitled, “The Space Race: Black Neighborhood Changes and the Geographic
Inequalities of Black Politics.” There will be several other conference presentations. As a result
of this research grant, the following book chapter has been published -- Shaw, Todd, Kasim
Ortiz, James McCoy, and Athena King. "The Last Black Mayor of Atlanta?: Kasim Reed and
the Increasing Complexities of Black Politics." In 21st Century Urban Race Politics:
Representing Minorities as Universal Interests, edited by Ravi Perry, 201-30. United Kingdom:
Emerald, 2013. Kirk Foster and a fellow collaborator -- Dr. Barbara Combs of the University of
Mississippi – will join me to analyze the data from neighborhood study and submit at least two
peer-review articles for publication in the Urban Affair Review and the Journal of the Society for
Social Work and Research. Lastly, the collection of the neighborhood dataset helped bolster the
case that Shaw, Foster, and Combs made to the National Science Foundation Sociology Program
to conduct a more extensive quantitative and qualitative study gathering in-person interviews.
The authors received word that with one minor revision the NSF will fund their pilot study to the
tune of about $151,000.