About the Berkeley Housing Study

What is the Berkeley Housing Study?

Housing projects in Berkeley have to balance the interests of many different individuals and groups. Housing projects have a direct impact on people living around the new residences. And they are important to people who are looking for housing in Berkeley. Housing projects often cause strong feelings in communities.

The scientific aim of the study is to develop knowledge about how people feel about housing projects and how they get involved. The practical aim is to offer concrete recommendations about how to effectively involve residents and address their views.

In this study, we are interested in the following:

• how people feel about housing projects
  
• what motivates people to get involved
• how people are involved in these projects
• how people view the role of local government in these projects

This study will make an important scientific contribution to understanding feelings and community involvement with local projects that are important to communities. Ultimately, this kind of research helps shape public policy surrounding local development projects.

Funding and Independence
The study is funded through two sources: (1) Erasmus University Rotterdam, specifically primary researcher Eshuis’ own research budget + a contribution from a research program at Erasmus University called ‘Vital Cities and Citizens’; (2) The Erasmus Trustfund. This is the official support-fund for Erasmus University. Its aim is to promote the flourishing of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The researchers have no political or financial interest regarding the housing projects under study, and they are independent of any party involved in housing projects. This is an independent academic study, which means that no one outside the research team has had any influence on the study (neither on the research question, nor on the analysis or the research report).

Who are the researchers?

Dr. Jasper Eshuis

Jasper Eshuis is an associate professor in Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. He is an expert on urban governance, citizen participation, and emotions in interactions between governments and citizens. Jasper loves doing fundamental research, as well as applied research in which he aims to contribute to practice by advising public organizations, NGOs and communities. He has published widely in scientific journals such as Urban Studies, Public Administration Review, and Public Management Review.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (eur.nl)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaspereshuis
eshuis@essb.eur.nl
Note: formerly jaspereshuis@berkeley.edu

Dr. Iris Mauss

Iris Mauss is the director of the Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab at Berkeley (EERLAB) and  professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford University.

Her research focuses on emotions and emotion regulation, with an emphasis on their links to psychological health. In her research, she uses measures of emotion experience, behavior, and physiological responding.

Joseph Ocampo

Joseph Ocampo is a Doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of California Berkeley. His work focuses on emotion, measurement, and data analysis. He has a particular interest in feelings like compassion that motivate people to do good things for others and how these feelings also benefit oneself.

Snow Lin

Snow Lin is a post bachelor student in Psychology at the University of California Berkeley and research assistant in the lab.

Bingyue Tan

Bingyue Tan is a post bachelor student in Psychology at the University of California Berkeley and research assistant in the lab. Bing is interested and currently working on social cognition, decision making and languages.

Nicole Prislin

Nicole Prislin is an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Health & Wellness at the University of California Berkeley and a research assistant in the lab.

Allison Hersh

Allison Hersh is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is majoring in Psychology. She works as a research assistant in the lab.

Contact Us

We hope this webpage gives you a good idea of what is involved in participating in this research.
If you have any questions or concerns that you would like us to address, please don’t hesitate to contact us at:
housingstudy@berkeley.edu