|
Advanced Workshop on Spatial Analysis in Social
Research
May 17-20 , 2001
Ann Arbor, MI
An Advanced Workshop on Spatial Analysis in Social
Research will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 17-20,
2001. The workshop is jointly sponsored by the Interuniversity
Consortium on Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
and the NSF-Funded Center
for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS).
The workshop is organized by Luc Anselin (CSISS and
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Hank Heitowit,
Director of the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative
Methods. The workshop will last slightly more than two
days, starting with a social event on Thursday evening
and ending with a wrap-up session on Sunday morning.
Meeting Goals
The objective of this workshop is to establish a dialogue
between leading methodologists in spatial analysis and
in the mainstream social sciences, in order to:
- facilitate the dissemination of state of the art
spatial analytical techniques to the methodology in
political and social research;
- assess the importance of spatial analysis in general,
and spatial data analysis in particular to social
science methodological questions;
- promote the application of state of the art spatial
analytical techniques to substantive research questions
in political science and sociology and/or to important
social science data sets.
In recent years, the attention paid to spatial aspects
of analysis in the social sciences has grown dramatically,
both from a theoretical as well as from an applied empirical
perspective. In the theoretical debates in political
science, sociology, demography, criminology and other
social science fields, notions such as "social
interaction", "social capital", "diffusion
and contagion", "spatial mismatch" and
similar concepts contain an explicit spatial imprint
and require an explicit modeling of two-way or multi-way
interaction over space. This suggests that interdependence
(or spatial autocorrelation) is the rule, rather than
the traditional paradigm of independence. Similarly,
the rapid advances in the technology of spatial data
handling, such as geographic information systems, global
positioning systems, and the like as well as the explosion
in available geo-coded data has created a great demand
for sophisticated methods to interpret and analyze these
data. Such methods, while common in geographical analysis
and the natural sciences, have yet to become part of
the standard technical toolbox of the social scientist.
In part to address this issue, the National Science
Foundation established the Center
for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
as one of its infrastructure projects under the 1999
round of funding.
The workshop will bring together a select group of
20-30 leading scholars from three main constituencies:
spatial methodologists (scholars dealing with GIS, geographic
data visualization, exploratory spatial data analysis,
geostatistical analysis, and spatial regression analysis),
social scientists who have begun to apply or are considering
the application of spatial analysis in their work (criminologists,
demographers, political scientists), and social science
methodologists (multivariate methods, survey design,
latent variable models, time series, etc.).
The workshop is envisaged as a two-day event, consisting
of intensive discussion in plenary sessions, with participation
by all, followed by a wrap up session on the morning
of the third day. Each day will be distinct in purpose
and format. During the first day, a series of 45-60
minute presentations by leading spatial analysis scholars
would provide a survey of the main concepts, methodological
issues and techniques. These lectures would be aimed
at jump-starting those social scientists who are less
familiar with spatial analysis and provide a common
vocabulary for the discussion in the second day. It
is envisaged that the following topics would be covered:
- GIS data models, spatial analysis from a GIS perspective;
- spatial data visualization and exploration;
- geostatistical analysis;
- classical spatial data analysis and spatial regression
analysis;
- Bayesian perspectives.
The lectures will be complemented with a series of
selected readings that would be made available to participants
ahead of time. Also, day 1 will conclude with a series
of software demonstrations.
The second part of the workshop would consist of a
discussion of the current state of the art of "spatial
analysis" in specific social science fields based
on brief presentations by the participants. The main
goal of this discussion is to outline an agenda for
high priority methodological issues that need to be
resolved. A second aspect of the discussion is to explore
the potential of applying spatial analytical techniques
to a number of demonstration projects, dealing with
substantive research questions or with applications
of a spatial perspective to the analysis of large social
science data sets (managed by ICPSR).
The final wrap up will consist of a summary and discussion
of future activities and will conclude by noon.
To the extent practically possible, all materials from
the workshop (lecture overheads, supporting materials,
demos, etc.) will be made available at this website.
It is the intention to follow up the workshop this
May with a second meeting about a year later at which
the results of the substantive analyses would be reported.
An edited volume is planned, to be targeted at a leading
university press, that would contain both the pedagogic
pieces on spatial analytical techniques as well as the
description of the implementation and results of the
substantive "demonstration" projects.
Travel and Accommodations
ICPSR will cover all participant costs associated with
travel, lodging and meals. A set of rooms has been set
aside from Thursday through Sunday nights, May 17-19
at the Bell
Tower Hotel in Ann Arbor.
Note: Participation in this Workshop is by invitation
only.
Organizers
|
