LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Greater Houston Partnership presents The New Pro-Growth Agenda: Perspectives From the 30th Year of Houston Surveys, Kinder Houston Area Survey: Stephen L. Klineberg, Ph.D. (pictured),  Wednesday, April 20, Hyatt Regency Houston – 1200 Louisiana.

The Houston region recovered from the collapse of the oil boom in the 1980s to find itself in the midst of a restructured economy and a demographic revolution. The official release of the 2011 “Kinder Houston Area Survey” by Rice University Sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg, co-director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, presents the latest survey findings and reviews three decades of research tracking the changes in the region’s economy, population, experiences and attitudes.

It also considers the implications of these research findings for the public policies that will foster sustained economic growth in the years ahead.

A graduate of Haverford College near Philadelphia, Professor Klineberg received an M.A. in Psychopathology from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard. After teaching at Princeton, he joined Rice University's Sociology Department in 1972. The recipient of ten major teaching awards, including the George R. Brown Lifetime Award for Excellence in Teaching, he is a faculty associate and divisional advisor at Lovett College, where he twice served as Interim Master.

In March 1982, he and his students initiated the annual Houston Area Survey, now in its 30th year of tracking the changes in the demographic patterns, life experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of Harris County residents. The Houston region recovered from the collapse of the oil-boom in the 1980s to find itself squarely in the midst of a restructured economy and a demographic revolution. No other city in America has been the focus of a long-term longitudinal research program of this scope. None more clearly exemplifies the transformations that are refashioning the social and political landscape of urban America.

The project has attracted great interest and generous support from foundations, corporations, and individuals in the wider Houston community and beyond. That support has made it possible not only to fund these professional surveys, but also to expand the research each year with additional interviews in Houston's Anglo, African-American, and Latino communities. In 1995 and 2002, the surveys reached large representative samples from Houston’s Asian communities as well, with one-fourth of the interviews conducted in Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Korean.

Co-author of The Present of Things Future: Explorations of Time in Human Experience, Dr. Klineberg has written numerous journal articles and research reports, and appears frequently on radio and television. He is also the founding Co-director of Rice University’s “Institute for Urban Research.” Its mission is to provide a permanent home for the annual Houston Area Survey, stimulate other metropolitan research, sponsor educational programs, and engage in public outreach that advances understanding of pressing urban issues and fosters the development of more humane and sustainable cities.

Have Questions?: Contact Kristin Smith at ksmith@houston.org  or 713-844-3694.