The Milwaukee Area Project aims are ambitious: to map public opinion within and about the region; to understand the conditions that underly those opinions; and to connect those two things in a way that not only helps us understand our collective state but also helps policymakers understand the best ways forward. As an academic institution, Marquette University Law School does not intend to prescribe those directions but rather to illuminate the information that can be used to make good decisions and help us understand past decisions' outcomes.
What will the researchers be studying as part of the Milwaukee Area Project?
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What we think: The polling of the Milwaukee area will allow us to report on the attitudes and judgments of residents about their homes, work, schools, communities, and connections with other parts of the region.
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How we live: We will consider the area residents' social, economic, and family lives. This includes the great range of circumstances, challenges, and opportunities that make up this area of about 1.8 million people. We will also look at housing, public safety, travel to work, and education, and how all of those play into, support, and constrain our lives. Using polling and census data, we will really dig into the conditions of our lives.
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Where we are headed: This is partly about current trends that we partially discern economic and demographic trends. We will emphasize those through the Milwaukee Area Project analysis of census and government data. Where we are headed is also about the decisions we make collectively through our political and civic institutions.