Class Five: Research Design; GIS scripting and automation in R; Lightning-talk presentations and wrap-up

Table of contents

1. Overview
2. Readings
3. Class Notes/Tutorial
4. Useful resources

Overview

In our final class session, we will briefly discuss some of the methodological promises and pitfalls of GIS work, from the standpoint of research design. The bulk of the class session will be devoted to your “lightning-talks”, in which you present your progress on your final project. Please note that I have suggested a few readings (under the label “GIS and Society”), that explore the consequences of geospatial technology, visualization, and analysis for society (from a social scientific perspective). I think this is going to be a really interesting research agenda in the next 5-10 years, and therefore wanted to suggest some work that might give you a sense of some of the work being done in this area; however, we won’t have time to discuss it.

Readings

Required Readings

• Kudamatsu, Masayuki. 2018. “GIS for Credible Identification Strategies in Economics Research.” CESifo Economic Studies: 327-338.
  doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifx026

• Branch, Jordan. 2016. “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in International Relations.” International Organization 70: 845-869.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818316000199

Option Reading (Causal Inference)

• Keele, Luke J. and Rocio Titiunik. 2015. “Geographic Boundaries as Regression Discontinuities”. Political Analysis 23(1): 127-155. doi: https:/doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpu014.

Optional Readings (GIS and Society)

• Branch, Jordan. 2011. “Mapping the sovereign state: Technology, Authority, and Systemic Change.” International Organization 65(1): 1-36.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818310000299

• Branch, Jordan. 2017. “Territorial Conflict in the Digital Age: Mapping Technologies and Negotiation.” International Studies Quarterly 61(3): 557-569.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqx046

• Nagaraj, Abhishek and Scott Stern. 2020. “The Economics of Maps.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34(1): 196-221.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.34.1.196

• Leszczynski, Agnieszka and Jeremy Crampton. 2016. “Introduction: Spatial Big Data and everyday life.” Big Data and Society: 1-6.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716661366

Class Notes/Tutorial

• Class 5 Presentation slides
• Tutorial on GIS scripting in R

Useful resources

• Causal Inference: The Mixtape by Scott Cunningham