Conceived of by Angus Campbell and Ronald Freedman, and run by ISR and Michigan’s Sociology Department, the Detroit Area Study provided an unusual opportunity to do basic social science research, train graduate students, and produce social science data of use to the Detroit community. Under the guidance of faculty investigators, students in the three-semester course conceptualized a problem, designed and pre-tested survey questions, drew samples, and conducted door-to-door interviews in the Detroit area, then coded and analyzed the data. The course was discontinued in 2002 after more than 50 years, but the training laboratory lives on through its former students around the world.
