The landscape of urban development is shifting. Rather
than relying solely on top-down metrics, forward-thinking cities are
increasingly turning to human-centric, hyper-localized insights to
design better spaces. At the forefront of this movement is Davila
Applied Anthropological Research (DAAR). We are proud to highlight the
ongoing growth and success of our undergraduate research pipeline—an
initiative accelerated by our partnership with CitizensNYC through
their Neighborhood Business Grant.
To celebrate this collaboration, our team recently hosted
representatives from CitizensNYC for an immersive site visit at the
New York Botanical Garden. The afternoon served as a live
demonstration of how strategic community funding directly fuels
localized workforce development, academic mentorship, and actionable
urban social research.
The modern city is far more than an arrangement of concrete, steel,
and transit lines; it is a living, breathing tapestry of human
interactions, cultural nuances, and shared community spaces. For too
long, the critical ethnographic data required to truly understand
these spaces has been siloed within academic institutions. DAAR was
founded to bridge this gap, bringing rigorous social science
methodologies directly into the commercial, civic, and urban planning
sectors. By training the next generation of researchers to observe,
analyze, and advocate for their own neighborhoods, we are creating a
more equitable framework for how New York City evolves.
Rooted in Resilience and Community Impact
The overarching mission and cultural ethos of DAAR are deeply tied to
the personal journey of our founder, Miguel Davila. The company’s
origin story is a testament to academic perseverance, grit, and the
desire to pay structural support forward. While navigating the complex
realities of housing insecurity and residing within the New York City
emergency shelter system, Davila maintained an unwavering commitment
to his professional goals, ultimately earning his Bachelor’s degree in
Anthropology from The City College of New York (CCNY).
When the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted higher
education globally, critical remote-learning resources and support
systems provided by City College ensured that Davila could safely
complete his degree. Deeply impacted by the strength of the
institutional safety net that kept him afloat during a crisis, Davila
established DAAR’s structured internship program. The goal was
straightforward but impactful: to build an intentional, sustainable
pathway that provides fellow CUNY students with paid, meaningful field
research opportunities, professional network access, and practical
workforce training often missing from standard undergraduate
curricula.
Scaling the Research Cohort Through Strategic Capital
Securing non-dilutive, flexible capital remains one of the steepest
hurdles facing community-minded micro-enterprises today. The financial
runway provided by our CitizensNYC Neighborhood Business Grant gave
DAAR the operational capacity needed to expand our training
infrastructure.
Thanks to this ongoing partnership, DAAR successfully expanded our
active workforce pipeline, growing our research team from a single
student intern to a robust cohort of five undergraduate students. This
expansion allows our firm to simultaneously achieve two vital
objectives:
• Closing the Theory-Practice Gap: We actively translate classroom
ethnography into practical, commercial applications. Undergraduates
frequently graduate with a firm grasp of social theory but little
understanding of how to leverage those insights in a corporate, civic,
or design-oriented job market.
• Cultivating Career Fellows into Research Assistants: Our specialized
pipeline draws directly from the Colin Powell School for Civic and
Global Leadership at CCNY. While these brilliant individuals enter the
ecosystem as Career Fellows, they are integrated directly into our
operations as professional Research Assistants. This fully funded
model ensures that talent, not financial privilege, dictates who gets
to build a competitive, paid career in applied field research.
Applied Methodology: A Day of Observation at the Botanical Garden
The true proof of this program’s real-world impact was on display
during our recent collaborative site visit. While our overarching
program supports five Research Assistants across various urban
projects, this particular day highlighted our live field research
methodologies. Crucially, our Research Assistant does not work for the
New York Botanical Garden; rather, as an independent researcher
employed directly by DAAR, they strategically selected the Garden as a
field site to examine public programming and urban community
engagement.
During the site visit, a unique layer of nested ethnographic research
took place. Davila and the DAAR Research Assistant embedded themselves
directly into the environment as joint participant observers,
collaborating in real time to analyze the site’s programming, layout,
and movement flow.
A central highlight of the afternoon occurred when representatives
from CitizensNYC witnessed Davila officially hand over a new
professional field journal to the Research Assistant to begin
documenting observations live. Purchased directly through the
Neighborhood Business Grant funding alongside other vital research
equipment, this exchange represented a tangible transition from
theoretical coursework to active, field-based data collection.
Simultaneously, the team from CitizensNYC stood as observers of our
process—watching DAAR’s educational and practical model actively
mapping public NYC spaces.
The Garden served as an ideal living laboratory. By analyzing how
diverse groups of New Yorkers navigate the space, how signage and
language barriers impact spatial comfort, and how green infrastructure
serves as a sanctuary for mental well-being in an urban sprawl, our
team gathered vital primary data. This collaborative exercise directly
connects applied anthropological research with broader contemporary
conversations surrounding urban planning, park equity, and community
engagement initiatives.
The insights gleaned from this fieldwork reinforce our company’s core
operational belief: localized, qualitative, human-centric data must
play a central role in modern city planning and architectural
development. Quantitative metrics like foot traffic and revenue are
vital, but they are incomplete without the qualitative “why” that only
trained ethnographers can uncover.
Looking Ahead: Building Sustainable Bridges
By actively investing in local students, valuing community equity, and
leveraging authentic, lived experiences, DAAR continues to build
sustainable, permanent bridges for the next generation of New York
changemakers, urban planners, and qualitative researchers. We are
proving that a business can be both a competitive market entity and a
fierce engine for community empowerment. The success of our scaled
internship cohort is a living testament to what happens when local
businesses choose to pour resources back into the neighborhoods and
institutions that raised them.
We extend our deepest gratitude to CitizensNYC and the Colin Powell
School for recognizing our long-term vision, believing in the power of
applied anthropology, and partnering with us to strengthen our city’s
grassroots business ecosystem. This is only the beginning of what DAAR
will accomplish as we continue to expand our research footprint,
advocate for human-centered design, and champion the brilliant student
researchers coming out of the CUNY system.
References
CitizensNYC [@citizenscommittee]. (2026, October 27). We recently
joined our grantee partner, DAAR, LLC, at the New York Botanical
Garden, where research, mentorship, and hands-on learning came
together! [Photograph]. Instagram. instagram.com
Davila Applied Anthropological Research. (n.d.). Home. DAAR. daar.llc
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