1st Edition

GIS and Spatial Analysis for the Social Sciences Coding, Mapping, and Modeling

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is the first book to provide sociologists, criminologists, political scientists, and other social scientists with the methodological logic and techniques for doing spatial analysis in their chosen fields of inquiry. 

    The book contains a wealth of examples as to why these techniques are worth doing, over and above conventional statistical techniques using SPSS or other statistical packages. 

    GIS is a methodological and conceptual approach that allows for the linking together of spatial data, or data that is based on a physical space, with non-spatial data, which can be thought of as any data that contains no direct reference to physical locations.

    Title Page

    Table of Contents

    Preface

    Overview

    Section I Introduction to Geocoding and Mapping

    How to Make a Pin Map

    Why Geocode?

    The Basics of Geocoding

    Ex: The Process of Geocoding

    Ex: The Science and Art of

    Interactive Geocoding

    Ex: Exporting a Geocoded Map

    Thematic Maps

    Ex: Creating a Thematic Map from Sample Data

    Ex: Racial Profiling Thematic Map

    Ex: Juvenile Crime Thematic Map

    Summary of Section I

    Section II Mapping for Analysis, Policy, and Decision Making

    Basic Multivariate Displays

    Mapping Rates

    Ex: Classification or World Armed Rivalries

    Ex: Subsets of Youth Violence

    Ex: Maps for School Planning

    Ex: Tessellations and Youth Violence

    Ex: Rates of Poverty Over Time in New Orleans

    Ex: Patterns of Residency by Ethnicity

    Ex: Diffusion of Innovation in the United States

    (3D map)

    Ex: Socioeconomic Conditions in 3D

    Ex: Homicide Patterns

    Ex: Alcohol Availability and Youth Violence

    Ex: Hurricane Katrina’s Impact on Children and Schools

    Ex: HIV and Armed National Rivalries

    Ex: Immigration and Unemployment in the U.S.

    Ex: California Education System

    Summary of Section II

    Section III Geospatial Modeling and G.I.S.

    Why spatial modeling in this book?

    Why spatial modeling at all?

    The Meaning of Space in Causal Modeling

    Measuring the Impact of Space and

    Spatial Relationships

    Statistical Issues in Spatial Modeling

    The Impact of Spatial Autocorrelations and

    Error Structures in Spatial Modeling

    Statistical Modeling of Spatial Data

    Types of Data Used in Spatial Models

    Choosing Software to Estimate Spatial Models

    Ex: A Cross Sectional Spatial Model: Gang Crime

    And Alcohol Availability

    Ex: Multi-Site Studies in Spatial Modeling

    Ex: Pooled Cross Sectional and Time Series

    Spatial Models

    Ex: Spatial Models: Limitations, Issues,

    And Emerging Developments

    Conclusion

    References

    Appendix 1: GIS Data Sources

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Biography

    Robert Nash Parker (Ph.D., Duke University) is Co-Director of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at University of California, Riverside.  He has long been interested in the useful application of methods originally pioneered outside of the social sciences (i.e. Structural Equation Modeling (psychology), HLM (education), logistic regression (Economics), ridge regression (chemistry) to the social sciences. 

    Emily Asencio (Ph.D., University of California, Riverside) is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Academic Center for Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention at the University of California, Riverside.

     

    "This is a first-rate book on GIS and spatial analysis.  The authors adopt a "learn-by-doing" approach and make it work by combining lucid explanations of concepts and procedures with rich examples.  The book will be a valuable resource to students, teachers, and researchers interested in understanding the spatial dimension of social life." –Steven F. Messner, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology, University at Albany, SUNY

    "This book is an excellent introduction to the latest tools and techniques for using spatial analyses to study behavior. It is written in a clear and step-by-step fashion with ample illustrations and enables the reader to quickly engage the complex tools of GIS including details concerning appropriate statistical analyses which go well beyond plotting data on maps." –Harold D. Holder, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Prevention Research