Publication Type: Poster
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study determines whether distance decay functions calibrated for particular geographic regions result in more accurate geographic profiles compared to default functions. Decay functions were calibrated for burglary committed across three different geographic regions (Glendale, AZ; Baltimore, MD; Dorset, UK). The default functions used for comparison purposes came from CrimeStat, a computerized geographic profiling system. Overall, the hypothesis that calibrated functions would possess more predictive power than the default functions was not supported, with the majority of analyses finding non-significant differences across the various functions within each data file. Potential explanations for these findings are provided and implications are discussed.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: J. B. Owens proposes a poster focused on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the management and analysis of data about world commerce during the first global age, 1400-1800. Since the late 1990s, historians have increasingly been interested in the use of GIS for research and teaching. The proposed poster should interest those who are curious about GIS and those who already use this information technology. GIS was originally developed over thirty years ago to deal with complex environmental problems that required the simultaneous consideration of a number of different variables and types of data. Although somewhat oversimplified, GIS can be understood as a digital technique to stack on the computer screen the equivalent of overhead projector transparencies, where each transparency has a common geographical reference and represents a different type of information. The results can be presented as striking cartographic and other visualizations, which lend themselves well to poster presentations.

GIS offers a means to manage multiple stories and multiple perspectives, to aggregate and integrate data of different types on the basis of geographic location, to establish the connections between locations at different geographic scales, to compare developments in different locations, and to examine carefully the changing relationships between the different types of aggregated data and between locations over any period of time. For large projects, GIS serves as a platform for data sharing and research collaboration at a level that has not existed in historical studies until recently but is essential for fields such as world history. In order to take full advantage of the technology's possibilities, new forms of GIS software must be developed to permit analysis not only of the spatial form of the world (its current strength) but also of temporal processes.

In order to expose these possibilities in the poster, Owens will discuss a multi-national, multi-disciplinary research project (acronym: DynCoopNet) he created in response to a program of the EUROCORES (European Collaborative Research) Scheme of the European Science Foundation. The program is entitled "The Evolution of Cooperation and Trading" (TECT). With three years of funding, beginning in August 2007, Owens' DynCoopNet collaborative research community will examine the strikingly high levels of cooperation among merchants and others who created and sustained the dynamic, complex commercial networks of the first global age. To facilitate the work, the group will also design a true spatial-temporal GIS to analyze and visualize complex historical processes. For coherence, the project focuses on networks linking the Iberian Peninsula and the global domains of the crowns of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal. This DynCoopNet community involves scholars from fourteen countries on five continents and the disciplines of anthropology, computer science, economics, geography, geosciences, history (including the history of cartography), and mathematics. Beyond those interested in GIS, the poster should attract attention from those who study the economic, social, and cultural aspects of commerce in the first global age and the histories of Portugal and Spain and their former non-European territories around the world.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper uses Geographically Weighted Regression to analyze spatial variation in predictors of vote choice in the 2004 US Presidential election. Commonly available desktop software is used to create a matrix of distance-based weights for each pair of points in the sample, and then to compute an individual regression equation for each point in the sample. The outputs are used to create a map of parameter estimates. While computationally intensive, this allows examination of the spatiality of determinants of vote choice, as well as insights into the nature of local discourse.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper provides a discussion and assessment of applying contemporary
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to student self-awareness of political
issues in their own hometown. Based on four years of experimentation and the
accumulation of student research and reflective feedback in my Politics of Community
Change course, I report on the pedagogical advantages of using spatial analysis
(especially embedded in GIS maps) to foster student learning of the multi-disciplinary
foundations of local political conflicts as well as new developments in GIS tools that
greatly lower the investment to using GIS in the classroom.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I critically review the socio-spatial theories that have emerged out of the work of David Harvey. “Historical-geographical materialism” represents the most sophisticated, most dynamic approach to spatiality in the literature today. Focusing on the work of David Harvey, Neil Smith, Erik Swyngedouw, and Neil Brenner, I discuss the major theoretical advances within the historical-geographical materialist lineage. I then critically survey the field of historical-geographical materialism, identifying eight serious weaknesses, the ways that researchers have attempted to address these problems, and the holes that remain.