Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences: Investigating Space and Place is the first book to take a cutting-edge approach to integrating spatial concepts into the social sciences. In this text, authors Steven J. Steinberg and Sheila L. Steinberg simplify GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for practitioners and students in the social sciences through the use of examples and actual program exercises so that they can become comfortable incorporating this research tool into their repertoire and scope of interest. The authors provide learning objectives for each chapter, chapter summaries, links to relevant Web sites, as well as suggestions for student research projects.
Steven J. Steinberg, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. He completed his B.S. at Kent State University, Ohio, M.S. at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Ph.D. at The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has been involved extensively in the development and teaching of GIS and remote sensing courses in both the university and professional development arenas. Since coming to Humboldt State University, Dr. Steinberg has taught and developed a variety of courses in the area of GIS, remote sensing and spatial data analysis with an emphasis on human interactions with their social and environmental surroundings. His recent research interests include the development of simple, web-based spatial analysis tools. He also has interests in the interactions between people their surroundings through the use of spatial analysis techniques. As co-founder and Director of Humboldt State University′s Advanced Spatial Analysis Facility, Dr. Steinberg has overseen a variety of GIS and spatial analysis projects and research with organizations and government agencies in Northern California and elsewhere. Dr. Steinberg was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for 2004-2005 serving as Distinguished Chair in Airborne Remote Sensing with the Centre for Scientific Computing at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby British Columbia, Canada. In 2005-2007 he is participating as part of an interdisciplinary team of scientists at Humboldt State University on a National Science Foundation project extending research experience to undergraduate students in a cross-disciplinary computing modeling and applications environment.
Sheila L. Steinberg, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. She completed her B.A. at the University of California Santa Barbara, M.S. at the University of California Berkeley and Ph.D. at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include sociospatial research, applied sociology, community development and environmental sociology. She has conducted field research in Nepal, Guatemala, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Northern California. The theme throughout this research has been the examination of people and their relationship to space and place. Her current research examines social and human capital for rural communities that have experienced an altered physical and social environment. She joined Humboldt State University in 2000 where she now teaches courses on human interactions with the physical environment at the local, national and global level.
