Social and Cultural Environments
Immigration patterns and technological penetration of the suburbs are changing patterns of minority groups – defined by educational and experiential skill sets as well as by racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds - are creating new socio-economic and political challenges for suburbs.
In some cases, the suburban system is reflecting urban, racial and income segregation; in other cases, a remarkable amount of integration is occurring. Very little beyond demographic, descriptive work has been done on the dynamics of how minority cultures and modern technologies are affecting the way groups identify themselves and locate themselves in traditional geospatial (physical) settings and the new sociospatial (virtual) settings.
The Center is adopting this dual spatial focus to understand how best to harness technology effectively to create more socially satisfying and sustainable lifestyles.
Central Projects:
“ICT and Sustainability” TBA, Principal Investigators: Juliann Emmons Allison, Gillian Youngs.
