Neighborhood Hierarchy of Needs

Abstract

Neighborhood and homeowners associations represent two forms of neighborhood governance in the United States, and these residential community associations (RCAs) aid in neighborhood development. In this article, I make the case that RCAs address a hierarchy of needs in the development of the neighborhood. I use a mixed methods approach with surveys and elite interviews of neighborhood and homeowners association presidents in Tallahassee, Florida, to understand what issues and activities are important for their neighborhoods and organizations. With this information, I create a neighborhood hierarchy of needs of issues and organizational needs neighborhoods address in their existence and development. Lower order needs of neighborhoods and neighborhood organizations include addressing crime, engaging in community-building activities, improving aesthetics, and becoming more formally organized. Higher order needs include providing public goods and commons goods, working with local government on planning projects, hiring a professional staff, and enforcing neighborhood rules and regulations. Pursuing these needs leads to the highest order need in the hierarchy-improving property values. I find that homeowners associations operate at higher levels in the hierarchy of needs due to their legally defined structures and responsibilities established at their inception.

The use of triangulation in qualitative studies employing elite interviews

“…A researcher may also use both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study (Denzin, 2009;Merriam and Tisdell, 2016;Thurmond, 2001). Combining survey methods with qualitative interviews (for example, Scheller, 2015) is an example of this form of triangulation. Denzin (2009: 307-308) refers to these different types of multiple methodologies as 'within-method triangulation' (where, for example, multiple qualitative methods are used) and 'between or across-method triangulation' (where both qualitative and quantitative methods are used) (see also Thurmond, 2001: 254).…”

“…Thirty-four articles combined both quantitative and qualitative methods in their studies. Together with qualitative elite interviews, it was not uncommon to see analyses of surveys, electoral data, economic data, public opinion polls, and other quantitative data (Scheller, 2015;Tan, 2014). The purpose of using both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study, as well as the types of respondents targeted by each type of methodology, varied considerably.…”