Phoenix Area Social Survey I, Sites

The dataset contains a subset of the 200-point survey created for PASS (Phoenix
Area Social Survey) project. The main objective of PASS is to examine the reciprocal
relationships, or the interplay, between the social and natural environments in an
urban ecosystem. In order to understand this complex process, social scientists
affiliated with the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project conducted a
longitudinal social survey of Phoenix residents in 2001. The survey measured the
social ties of individuals to their communities, values and sentiments regarding
communities, behaviors that affect the natural environment, and satisfaction with
the quality of life in the area. The community that people experience most
intimately is the neighborhood. Our central research questions ask how neighborhood
social ties, values, and behaviors are connected with one another in ways that
reflect willingness to act socially and politically with respect to the environment,
and how changing environmental conditions, in turn, affect the quality of human
life. PASS II is being designed and will be administered in 2006.