In recent years, spatial analysis has become an increasingly active field, as evidenced by the establishment of educational and research programs at many universities. Its popularity is due mainly to new technologies and the development of spatial data infrastructures. This book illustrates some recent developments in spatial analysis, behavioural modelling, and computational intelligence. World renown spatial analysts explain and demonstrate their new and insightful models and methods. The applications are in areas of societal interest such as the spread of infectious diseases, migration behaviour, and retail and agricultural location strategies. In addition, there is emphasis on the uses of new technologoies for the analysis of spatial data through the application of neural network concepts.

This book studies the sociology of health and medicine across three different countries, the USA, UK and Australia, examining the nature of disciplines and their specialties and posing sociological questions about the formation of intellectual fields and their social relations.

This is the first book in longitudinal categorical data analysis with parametric correlation models developed based on dynamic relationships among repeated categorical responses. This book is a natural generalization of the longitudinal binary data analysis to the multinomial data setup with more than two categories. Thus, unlike the existing books on cross-sectional categorical data analysis using log linear models, this book uses multinomial probability models both in cross-sectional and longitudinal setups. A theoretical foundation is provided for the analysis of univariate multinomial responses, by developing models systematically for the cases with no covariates as well as categorical covariates, both in cross-sectional and longitudinal setups. In the longitudinal setup, both stationary and non-stationary covariates are considered. These models have also been extended to the bivariate multinomial setup along with suitable covariates. For the inferences, the book uses the generalized quasi-likelihood as well as the exact likelihood approaches.The book is technically rigorous, and, it also presents illustrations of the statistical analysis of various real life data involving univariate multinomial responses both in cross-sectional and longitudinal setups. This book is written mainly for the graduate students and researchers in statistics and social sciences, among other applied statistics research areas. However, the rest of the book, specifically the chapters from 1 to 3, may also be used for a senior undergraduate course in statistics.

Research in religious studies has traditionally focused on adult subjects since working with children presents significantly more challenges to the researcher, such as getting the research protocol passed by the Internal Review Board, obtaining permission from parents and schools, and figuring out how to make sense of young worldviews. The Study of Children in Religions provides scholars with a comprehensive source to assist them in addressing many of the issues that often stop researchers from pursuing projects involving children. This handbook offers a broad range of methodological and conceptual models for scholars interested in conducting work with children. It not only illuminates some of the legal and ethical issues involved in working with youth and provides guidance in getting IRB approval, but also presents specific case studies from scholars who have engaged in child-centered research and here offer the fruits of their experience. Cases include those that use interviews and drawings to work with children in contemporary settings, as well as more historically focused endeavors to use material culture-such as Sunday school projects or religious board games-to study children's religious lives in past eras. The Study of Children in Religions offers concrete help to those who wish to conduct research on children and religion but are unsure of how to get started or how to frame their research.

The Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms of its conceptual and methodological rigor, and sets forth an agenda for future research intended to advance knowledge on the chosen topic.

Over the past five years the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has welcomed research projects by the very best qualitative, organizational researchers in the world. This conference has helped authors develop and hone theoretical ideas in an environment friendly to qualitative methods, and more importantly, has begun to build a community of qualitative researchers that work on organizational and management issues. The authors winning the ""Best Presentation Awards"" at the Davis Conference over the past five years have contributed chapters to this volume. The ideas in these chapters were ""born"" before the conference, but were nurtured through dialogue at the conference, and subsequently matured through later interactions among the community of qualitative scholars associated with the conference. As such, this volume represents the fruits of our collective labor as a qualitative research community. This collective and iterative process is a hallmark of qualitative methods, and often leads to a counter-intuitive, ""ah-hah"" experience for the researcher. This volume showcases some of the very best of those ah-hah experiences from the organizational, qualitative research community.

This edited collection shows how demographic analysis plays a pivotal role in planning, policy and funding decisions in Australia. Drawing on the latest demographic data and methods, these case studies in applied demography demonstrate that population dynamics underpin the full spectrum of contemporary social, economic and political issues. The contributors harness a range of demographic statistics and develop innovative techniques demonstrating how population dynamics influence issues such as electoral representation, the distribution of government funding, metropolitan and local planning, the provision of aged housing, rural depopulation, coastal growth, ethnic diversity and the well-being of Australia's Indigenous community. Moving beyond simple statistics, the case studies show that demographic methods and models offer crucial insights into contemporary problems and provide essential perspectives to aid efficiency, equity in public policy and private sector planning. Together the volume represents essential reading for students across the social sciences as for policy makers in government and private industry.

The purposes of this book are rooted in the move from invisibility to visibility and silence to voice. This work uses auto ethnography as an enterprise to break down traditional barriers that support the invisibility of diverse epistemologies (Altheide & Johnson,2011). The reality of invisibility and silence has plagued scholars of colour in their attempt to make known the cultural significance found in the planning and execution of research. As a result, this book purposes to support the visibility and voice of scholars of colour who conduct auto ethnographic research from a racial, gendered, and critical theoretical framework. This work further supports the research community as it examines and re-examines culturally indigenous epistemologies as a viable vehicle for rigorous and authentic inquiry (Dillard, 2000). The significance of this book can be grafted from its attention to new ways of thinking about doing research. While much of the previous scholarship on auto ethnography highlights the importance of personal narrative and voice, this book includes the latter but also examines the concept of race and culture as undisputable factors in the doing of research. Burdell & Swadener (1999) contends that auto ethnography should interrogate the subjective nature and question master narratives and empirical assumptions. Spry (2011) emphasizes auto ethnography as a moral discourse that foster intimate experiences grounded in historical processes. Authoethnographic research then, has the potential to provide a lens by which researchers can delve into research with a greater sense of personal experiences and critical understanding of the inquiry context.

This analysis of community sociology examines African community issues and patterns of development. Topics covered include: community problems and collective action; community economic development; small communities in transition; ghetto formation and community dynamics; and, heritage and symbolism.

This book draws upon data collected over an 18 year period with over 1000 boys and young men across Northern Ireland. Providing critical reflections on violence, masculinity and education, it uses the voices and experiences of young men to inform and influence research, practice and policy.

This work on networks in and around organizations is part of a series that considers the theoretical, methodological and research issues relevant to organizational sociology. Both micro and macro sociological approaches are emphasized.

As the population continues to age, gerontological research will become increasingly important and library holdings in gerontology and geriatrics will be in great demand. This valuable reference discusses the history of gerontology and geriatrics libraries in the United States and Canada and profiles their holdings. The study is based on a questionnaire distributed to public and private gerontology and geriatrics libraries. Data from the questionnaire are presented in brief but informative profiles. Each profile lists the type of library, its chief administrator, the date of its founding, the hours during which it is open, and its holdings, services, and facilities. The result is an illuminating overview of information centers available for the study of geriatrics and gerontology.

Joyce A. Post begins with an extensive discussion that traces the history of library collections in gerontology and geriatrics, including the impact and importance of federal assistance and the creation of geriatric education centers. The next section discusses the author's research methodology and offers an analytical summary of her findings. The directory that follows is arranged alphabetically by state and then by towns within each state. The appendixes present the questionnaire used to obtain the data and a listing of the library holdings of 18 major gerontology and geriatrics periodicals. The useful and varied indexes make this work an indispensable and easy to use reference for gerontologists, librarians, and all those interested in research on the elderly.

Over the past decade there has been growing national and international concern about the impact of systems for the management of research ethics in the social sciences. In particular these 'procedural bureaucracies' are seen as inappropriate to the ethical governance of social scientific research as they were designed around the challenges presented by biomedical research.This volume addresses and debates these concerns and identifies areas of 'common ground', core ethics principles and areas of particular concern in research ethics across the social sciences. This volume draws on proceedings and papers delivered at a Symposia series under the auspices of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS). This project aimed to advance the understanding and application of core ethics values to all aspects of social science research from inception and review through research design, data acquisition, analysis and management to dissemination and application, in collaboration with social science learned societies, research funders, higher education establishments, researchers and participants in research.

In this single volume, a team of international experts sets out a range of analytic tools available to social scientists from social science methodology. The volume presents social scientists with some experience with a guide through the maze of advanced techniques applicable across the range of the social sciences. The first chapters outline ways in which the revolution in computing power is transforming the working environment for social scientists, extending their analytic reach, and opening up new research horizons. The empirical chapters each present a particular approach to data analysis, discussing the underlying logic and demonstrating its application by working through a substantive example - with mathematical reasoning kept to a minimum. The theoretical chapters provide an introduction to recently developing approaches to social science research. Each chapter includes references to other works in the field, and to appropriate software programs, for those who are keen to pursue a particular approach in greater detail.

Cultural pluralisation - reinforced by immigration - has had major consequences for the political agenda in recent years in liberal democratic states. New types of tension have arisen - new forms of social and cultural differentiation, and new patterns of inequality. The diversity also reshapes the frame of reference for traditional policy instruments employed by modern welfare states: new issues arise that are linked to rights, legitimacy and policy measures of a general and targeted nature. This volume in the "Comparative Social Research" series addresses a number of issues related to this new diversity. Common themes are multiculturalism, power and integration, and these themes are analysed through a comparative lens.

The chapters in this volume illustrate the ways in which U.S. sociologists of education continue to plumb the depths of fundamental questions about how schools are organized and consequences of school organization for students and teachers. These studies present new ideas and/or findings in an engaging way, and they attempt to enlarge the audience for sociological research on education. Perhaps even more importantly, however, they generate a host of questions that warrant sustained inquiry by our community. If these authors lead us to think in new ways or to ask new questions, their efforts will have been well-rewarded.

Published annually since 1985, the Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews. These cover a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities.

Interest in researching experience continues to grow in sociology, cultural studies, feminist theory and psychology. However there is a crisis over the representation of experience--evident in epistemological debates, in everyday life and in global politics. Could researching experience contribute to creating socio-political change or does it simply open new avenues for post-Fordist self-regulation? "Analysing Everyday Experience" illustrates the emergence of plural historical actors who disrupt unitary subjectivities, resist univocal integration and refigure the political by remaking everyday experience.

Hardbound. This book brings together for the first time the most current research about the academic effects and policy implications of the school reform known as parental choice. The topic of choice in education is discussed in terms of why, when, where and how, if at all, it should be implemented. The contents are fourteen original papers written by scholars from Israel, UK, the United States and Canada and brings together the empirical studies of school choice examined in an international context.

Ethnic minority groups in the United States suffer and die from disease at rates much higher than the general population. Such groups include African-Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Pacific Asian Americans. To understand the nature of the deplorable rates, the health history of the ethnic groups must be understood. This book describes the contents of libraries nationwide which house health and medically related materials on ethnic minority populations. The book covers information about catalogs, books, articles, biographies, and autobiographies, primary source materials, cassette tapes of speeches, video tapes and films, and medical artifacts.

The repositories covered are in various stages of cataloguing these materials but indicate an interest in having researchers use the collections. This book is the most comprehensive guide to ethnic medical health materials, their location, state of completion, and the contents of collections.

Micro social theory covers a rich tradition in sociological thinking and research that focuses on the self and social interaction. It includes the work of the Chicago School, Mead, Garfinkel and Goffman amongst others. This book traces the development of the tradition and assesses its contemporary importance. Throughout, the emphasis is on making theory intelligible to an undergraduate audience and demonstrating how it can shed light on substantive issues and contexts.