This award continues the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site that has been operating at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 2001. For eight weeks each summer the REU Site will train 15 undergraduate students in ethnographic research methods and qualitative data analysis focused on ongoing research on public-place, entertainment and leisure activities in Los Angeles. Intellectual Merit-this research addresses both substantive and conceptual issues related to the meanings and uses of public spaces in contemporary Los Angeles. Substantively, the project looks at public space and interaction in a number of distinctive urban settings, including parks, dog parks, outdoor basketball courts, beaches, museums, open markets, malls, corner markets, bookstores, coffee houses, and a variety of other public venues. Conceptually, data collection and analysis address two central: 1. How are key public place spaces and recurring public occasions, encounters and interactions organized and experienced in contemporary Los Angeles? Topics here include the organization and meaning of public-place "outings", conflict and conflict avoidance in public encounters, and occasions of "natural theater" or dramaturgy in public places. 2. How does ethnic and class diversity affect the uses of public space and the experiences of different individuals and groups in public place interactions? One key topic here is the interrelations of segregation and integration in public place behavior. Broader Impacts-members of the UCLA Department of Sociology provide training with expertise in ethnographic methods and social processes of contemporary Los Angeles. Training is organized around a twice-weekly working research seminar taught to two faculty ethnographers. Students are closely supervised in developing their own research projects on some aspect of public behavior in Los Angeles. Seminar sessions center on discussing and analyzing student field notes, supplemented by readings on ethnographic methods and on public place interaction, and culminate in students writing analytic memos on their projects. These procedures provide students with an intensive, closely supervised introduction to ethnographic methods through participation in a broad research project focused on the social meanings of public spaces in contemporary Los Angeles.
