Start here · Essential guide
How Everyday Habits at Home and in Cities Are Studied
A guide to the main methods researchers use to study daily routines, from diaries and surveys to sensors and census records, and what each can miss.
Culture and Everyday Life
The ordinary routines and places behind many trend stories.
Start here · Essential guide
A guide to the main methods researchers use to study daily routines, from diaries and surveys to sensors and census records, and what each can miss.
How shifts toward cards and phone payments are tracked, why adoption often differs by place and age, and what payment data can and cannot show about habits.
How cafe habits get cast as signs of social change, what evidence is typically offered for it, and why sales, visits and anecdotes each tell only part of the story.
How travel to work is recorded in censuses and surveys, why a single reported mode hides mixed journeys, and what commuting figures can and cannot show.
Why what people say they want in a home differs from what they can afford, and how to read trend stories about smaller homes, with their data and limits.
How the story of a changing district is typically built from shops, prices and anecdotes, and how researchers test whether gentrification and displacement occur.
Why counts of pets depend on registrations, surveys and sales, how each source leaves gaps, and how to read headlines about rising or falling pet ownership.
Why trends reported from cities often fail to describe rural life, how samples, platforms and definitions cause the gap, and how to read urban-biased claims.
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