Dr. Stephen A. Matthews

Professor of Sociology, Anthropology & Demography (Courtesy Geography, and School of International Affairs) Director, Graduate Program in Demography

Research on the salience of place occurs at the intersections of many disciplines. Each discipline can offer relevant frameworks but the integration of conceptual and theoretical developments has tended to lag behind the impressive advances in data collection, analytical tools and methods. My own work has long been motivated by a quote by Abler, Adams and Gould (1971, p. 566 ) “some areal definitions of place have become almost sacred even though their use may be an obstacle to our understanding of contemporary problems.” I have used this quote to jump into conceptual, methodological and empirical studies examining the question of how place “gets in to people.” In my presentation I will draw on both qualitative and quantitative studies in an attempt to stimulate more thinking about place and time in place and reflect on the challenge of finding Goldilock's “just right” definition of place.

Brought to you by the Keck School of Medicine, the Department of Sociology, and the Spatial Sciences Institute.