Urban Studies Scholar on Occupy Movement

Perhaps of interest: two blog posts by Peter Marcuse, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning in the
School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University:

What Space to Occupy in New York: A Two-Site Solution? suggests thinking through the possibility of (in New York, at least) having a "staging site" (where public events happen) and a "political incubator site" (where educational activities, discussions, the development and practice of alternative forms of political organization take place).

The Purpose of the Occupation Movement and the Danger of Fetishizing Space looks at the multiplicity of functions/purposes played by OWS in the struggle for a better world and then tries to discern the role played by space/territory in each as a way of assessing the importance of space. His conclusion:

The particular space being occupied should not be fetishized, should not become the prize, the conquest of which is the goal of the movement. It is only, for most aspects of the movement, symbolic; the rise and fall of the movement should not be linked to the extent of the physical occupation of a given space. The spaces sought for occupancy are not the prize for which the battle is being fought, but rather a terrain on which that battle takes place, and a more or less important source of support to facilitate the achievement of objectives more important than the command of a particular piece of ground.

Free Lecture by World Renowned Criminologist

If you are interested in cities, social control, criminology, or the like, you should check out this free lecture.

Why have crime rates dropped across the country over the last 20 years? Why did crime rates drop even more in New York City? What lessons can Oakland learn?

Franklin Zimring, nationally acclaimed crime policy expert  and Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, shares lessons learned from extensive crime and enforcement research detailed in his new book: "The City That Became Safe; New York's Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control."

When: Sunday October 23, 2011 - 3:00-5:00pm

Where: St. Lawrence O'Toole Church, 3725 High Street, Oakland  

Presented by the Offices of Council members Pat Kernighan, District 2 and Libby Schaaf, District 4 FREE admission and parking, RSVP not required Questions? Please contact: Bruce Stoffmacher, Community Liaison / Policy Analyst Office of Councilmember Libby Schaaf, City of Oakland - District 4

o: (510) 238-7041

f:  (510) 238-6910

CYBERSOCIETY SEMESTER: 2nd CALL FOR STUDENTS

The new study abroad (SA) program "CyberSociety" (http://cybersociety-semester.org), which was announced earlier, is approaching its first term. We are making steady progress about the program's details and the specifics of the affiliation with Eötvös University in Budapest. We have formed agreements with teaching staff and secured the elements of the infrastructure.

This is a 2nd call for students for the 2012 Spring Semester.

Application deadline is November 15. For application details, consult the homepage at http://cybersociety-semester.org

The CyberSociety semester deals with innovative approaches in the social sciences. Besides sociology and social science majors susceptible to learn and adopt computational methods, the program expects physics, computer science, mathematics and different science majors with an interest to apply modeling and quantitative tools to social phenomena.

Please help us by advertising the program, contacting colleagues, students and administrators.

We are looking forward to a successful program!
Thank you for your support,

Best regards,

George Kampis and Peter Erdi,
Directors, BSCS

Research Assistant Job Announcement

San Francisco Office


Who We Are: Harder+Company Community Research is a consulting firm whose mission is to strengthen the social sector by providing organizations with the information and tools they need to do their work effectively. Founded in 1986, our firm now has offices in San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, and San Diego, California. Our clients include nonprofits, foundations, and public agencies—and cover a wide range of topics including arts and culture, child welfare, education, health, human services, and philanthropy. For these diverse clients, we conduct needs assessments, evaluate programs and funding initiatives, and facilitate strategic planning and community engagement projects, among other services. For more information about our firm, visit our website: www.harderco.com.

Who We Need: Harder+Company seeks a Research Assistant in its San Francisco office to provide support on a diverse array of team-based research projects. The Research Assistant will be responsible for literature reviews; planning and assisting with focus groups; conducting interviews; entering, coding, and analyzing data; administering surveys; and assisting with the preparation and editing of reports. Some travel within California necessary. The ideal candidate would contribute to the diversity of Harder+Company and enjoy contributing to the effectiveness of organizations working for social change.

Position Responsibilities:

• Assist with quantitative and qualitative primary data collection including interviews, focus groups, case studies, and surveys. May include assisting with the facilitation of focus groups.
• Manage logistics for focus groups, case studies, surveys, and external meetings.
• Enter data, prepare and label SPSS data files for analysis and reporting. Analyze survey data, including frequencies, cross-tabulations, means tables, and tests of statistical significance.
• Conduct literature reviews and internet research.
• Maintain communication with project team through emails and team meetings as needed.
• Manage resources and time effectively and adjust to changing demands and priorities.
• Assist with preparation of reports and presentations, including write-ups, editing, tables, charts, and formatting.
• Maintain positive and professional interactions with clients and their stakeholders.
• Skills, Qualifications & Experience:
• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences or related field
• At least 1 year of research experience, preferably outside the classroom
• Demonstrated understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Excellent critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Excellent writing and oral communications skills
• Detail oriented with effective time management skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Experience working with diverse populations
• Ability to be an effective team player and to work independently
• Bilingual preferred, but not required

This position is full time with an annual starting salary of $35,000 to $45,000 commensurate with experience.
Harder+Company offers a generous benefits package.

To apply: Send resume and cover letter to: jobs@harderco.com

Social Networks PhD Positions in Dublin

The Dynamics Lab (http://geary.ucd.ie/dynamicslab) at UCD CASL and the Geary Institute in University College Dublin, in collaboration with the newly established IBM Dublin Research Lab (http://www-05.ibm.com/ie/ibm/overview2.html) , is seeking PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows to work in the area of "Extreme Scale Social Network Simulations".

Sucessful candidate(s) are likely to have prior training in the computer and/or mathematical sciences or the business/social sciences combined with excellent computational skills.

The successful applicants will be funded by the IRCSET Enterprise Partnership Scheme.  Interested candidates should send their CV by 20^th September 2011 to Dr Diane Payne at the Dynamics Lab, CASL and Geary Institute, UCD (Diane.Payne@ucd.ie) and  Dr Georgios Theodoropoulos at IBM Dublin Research Lab (geortheo@ie.ibm.com).

For further information and enquiries please contact Dr Diane Payne (Diane.Payne@ucd.ie) and Dr Georgios Theodoropoulos (geortheo@ie.ibm.com)

General Overview

Social systems that need to be analyzed and modelled are becoming increasingly more complex in their structure and interdependencies. This coupled with the increasing capacity of scientific computation, as well as the various modelling techniques, challenges researchers to move towards extremely large scale social systems. Data are being collected and organized into databases at finer levels of granularity and these micro-data can now support individual-based simulations. Likewise computational power is advancing rapidly, so that researchers can now run large-scale micro-simulation models that would not have been computationally executable just a couple of years ago.

The Dynamics Lab at UCD, in collaboration with IBM, is particularly interested in exploring various ICT applications for research on governance and policy modelling within extremely large social networks.  This collaboration links to IBM’s Exascale programme which has the aim to create and evaluate novel ideas to advance the design of extreme scale systems and applications.

Some potential areas for research focus include:

1.      Social Networks and Distributed Collective Decision Making

2.      Self-Organisation through Social Networks for Effective Emergency Response

3.      Social Media, Civil Unrest and Collective Political Mobilisation

4.      Political Blog Communication, Opinion Formation and Leadership

MIT Researchers Create New Urban Network Analysis Toolbox

MIT Researchers Create New Urban Network Analysis Toolbox 
MIT News (09/06/11) Caroline McCall

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers associated with CityForm Research Group have developed an Urban Network Analysis (UNA) toolbox that can help urban designers and planners describe the spatial patterns of cities using mathematical network analysis techniques. "Network centrality measures are useful predictors for a number of interesting urban phenomena," says MIT's Andres Sevtsuk. The new toolbox, which is an open source plug-in for ArcGIS, enables urban designers to compute five types of graph analysis measures on spatial networks, including reach, gravity, betweenness, closeness, and straightness. The tools utilize several features that make network analysis especially suited for urban street networks. The tools account for geometry and distances in the input networks, as well as incorporating buildings, which are used as the spatial units of analysis for all measures. The tools also allow buildings to be weighted based on their particular characteristics, such as volume, population, and general importance. In addition, the toolbox offers a set of analysis options to quantify how centrally each building is positioned in an urban environment and how easily a user can access different amenities from each location.
http://web.mit.edu/press/2011/urban-network-analysis.html

From ACM news via SOCNET via Barry Wellman

Sociology on Twitter

You can use Twitter to follow the latest in the discipline of sociology. There's a consolidator called "This Week in Sociology" (@ThisWeekInSoc) or you can just track the hash tag #sociology. Tweets by the social theory class at Mills are marked #soc116.