Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4)

Projects

Many faculty, postdocs, and graduate students at Brown University are pursuing research that involves spatial thinking and spatial tools of analysis.

Several projects make use of web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps, developed by S4 staff using ESRI technology, that allow users to visualize and interrogate mapped data directly on their browser. These map systems include a capability to zoom in close to see details from the contemporary street grid or satellite images, to download data for particular areas, and to save the map for use in presentations.

The American Communities Project is a program of research coordinated by John Logan. It focuses especially on social and spatial inequalities experienced by racial minorities and immigrant ethnic groups as they moved into urban areas in the U.S.
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The Brazilian agro-industrial frontier in Mato Grosso rapidly expanded in total area of mechanized production and in total value of production in the last decade.
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Toxins and other health threats can cause health problems, whether they are present in the child’s own home, other neighborhood homes where the child spends time, or common areas such as playgrounds.
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Undernutrition is responsible for nearly half of all global deaths in children under 5 years old. The prevalence of chronic child undernutrition (stunting) at the global level stands at approximately 22%, with the highest prevalence regions being in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
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The Tools for Land Degradation Neutrality (TOOLS4LDN) project improves methods for assessing land degradation globally, integrating free platforms to support United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) reporting.
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The Rio/São Paulo Project is one component of research on Brazil being conducted by Brown social scientists. It is a study of spatial inequalities in two major Brazilian cities in 2000 and 2010, led by sociologist John Logan in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil and Paris.
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Measurements of economic growth often fall short for developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and are rarely calculated at all for cities throughout the world.
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The Proyecto Arqueológico Zaña Colonial (PAZC) is a collaborative research project that has documented the late prehispanic and early colonial heritage in Peru’s Zaña valley, located in Peru’s Lambayeque region.
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The Rio/São Paulo Project is one component of research on Brazil being conducted by Brown social scientists. It is a study of spatial inequalities in two major Brazilian cities in 2000 and 2010, led by sociologist John Logan in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil and Paris.
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This study examines and addresses social science and public health concerns connected to chronic health conditions and their treatment, livelihood changes that accompany migration, and connections between the origin community and the migrants.
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The Landscape of Loss is a set of projects, supported by the NSF and NIH, that directs attention to the spatial scale and configuration of depopulation across U.S. neighborhoods, cities, and counties and the demographic sources and impacts of these various manifestations of loss.
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The Urban China Research Network is an international collaboration of researchers from multiple disciplines that is engaged in supporting research by new generations of China scholars.
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A map system based on data developed by Patrick Heller and collaborators provides unique information on population distribution and public infrastructure in South African cities in the years before and after the end of apartheid.
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