Bay Area Research Initiative (BARI)

Background

The Bay Area Research Initiative is the collective effort of Dr. García-Castañon, with the support of the Department of Political Science and College of Liberal and Creative Arts, at San Francicso State University. Launched in 2014, the initiative focuses on three goals to enrich faculty-student research opportunities:

  • Opportunities for faculty collaborations in and across CSUs focused on the Bay Area.
  • Bridging the research/classroom divides into a concrete curriculum of research based Bay Area work.
  • Fielding the Bay Area Politics Survey, a yearly omnibus survey of Bay Area residents.

These efforts have yielded multiple research projects, MA theses, and community collaborations. 

 

 

Bay Area Politics Survey

Launched in 2014 as a telephone survey, the Bay Area Politics Survey sampled residents of the Bay Area's nine counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma). For 2014, 2015, and 2016, the survey was a phone based survey, samplign from a  list of residents in these 9 counties. 

For 2018 and 2019, the survey format was switched to an online sampling population of the same 9 counties. The 2018 survey was fielded March 2018 to April 2018 and yielded approximately 500 respondents across three sub-ballot surveys. Average time on the survey was 25 minutes. It was also coupled with a paired San Francisco State Univeristy student survey, sampling across disciplines and colleges, and yielded approximatley 200 additional surveys. 

The 2019 survey was fielded March 2018 through July 2019. It yielded approximately 650 responses from across the 9 Bay area counties across three sub-ballot surveys. Average time on the survey was 30 minutes. It was also coupled witha paired San Francsico State University student survey, sampling across discplines and colleges, and yielded approximtely 350 additional surveys. 

***2019 sample (partials and complete): 1374
***2018 sample (partials and complete): 796
***completed surveys (combined): 1547 

The Principal Investigator for the BAPS is Marcela Garcia-Castanon, PhD, Assistant Professor at SFSU. They can be reached by email at mgcs@sfsu.edu.