Faculty Bio

David Brown

Professor of Development Sociology

338 Warren Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-7801
Email: dlb17@cornell.edu
Phone: (607) 255-3164

Training

Ph.D. 1974 University of Wisconsin-Madison (Sociology/Demography)
M.S 1969 University of Wisconsin-Madison (Sociology)
B.A. 1967 Miami University, Ohio (Sociology)

Areas of Interest

» migration and urbanization
» population and development in advanced industrial societies
» population policy
» community sociology
» applied sociology

Research

My scholarship is motivated by an interest in explaining the determinants of spatial inequality in more developed nations. In particular, I am interested in how processes of uneven national development shape opportunity structures and life chances of people living in various types of areas. Space and locality are organizing principles in my work, and I view them as contingentsocial structures which effect social behavior, modifying basic social relationships.

I am involved in a number of current studies, all of which contribute to my overall program of work on spatial inequality. First, I have a long term interest in analyzing the determinants and consequences of rural-urban migration in the United States. I have just received a grant to study social integration and wellbeing of older inmigrants to nonmetropolitan retirement counties. A second new grant uses the 2000 Census to examine how population change affects rural community organization. I am editing a book entitled "Challenges for Rural America in the 21st Century" (Penn State University Press, forthcoming 2002). My second line of research focuses on spatial inequality in post-socialist Central Europe. I am particularly interested in how vulnerable populations utilize both formal and informal social structures to buffer social and economic insecurity that has accompanied the transformation from state socialism in Hungary, Poland and throughout Central Europe.

Selected Publications

Kandel, W. and D.L. Brown (eds.). 2005 (forthcoming). Population Change and Rural Society. Springer.

Brown, D.L., L.J. Kulcsar, and O. Obadouks. 2005. "Post-Socialist Restructuring and Population Redistribution in Hungary." Rural Sociology, Vol. 70 (3): 336-359.

Brown, D.L., J. Cromartie and L.J. Kulcsar. 2004. "Micropolitan Areas and the Measurement of American Urbanization." Population Research and Policy Review. Vol. 23: 299-418.

Brown, D.L. and L.E. Swanson (eds.). 2003. Challenges for Rural America in the 21st Century. University Park: Penn State University Press.

Brown, D.L. and J. Cromartie. 2003. "The Nature of Rurality in Post-Industrial Society." Ch 14 in Tony Champion and Graeme Hugo (eds.) New Forms of Urbanization: Beyond the Urban-Rural Dichotomy. Adershot, England: Ashgate Publishers.

Schafft, K.A. and D.L. Brown. 2003. "Social Capital, Social Networks, and Social Power." Social Epistemology. Vol. 17, no. 4: 329-342.

Brown, D.L. and K.A. Schafft. 2003. "Social Exclusion in Rural Areas of East-Central Europe During Post-Socialism." Eastern European Countryside. Vol. 9: 27-45.

Brown, D.L. and K.A. Schafft. 2002. "Population Redistribution in Hungary During the Post-Socialist Transformation. " Journal of Rural Studies 18: 233-244.

Brown, D.L. 2002. "Migration and Community: Social Networks in a Multi-Level World." Rural Sociology 67(1): 1-23.

Rayer, S. and D.L. Brown. 2001. "Geographic Diversity of Inter-County Migration in the United States, 1980-95." Population Research and Policy Review 20: 229-252.

Brown, D.L. and L.J. Kulcsar. 2001. "Household Economic Behavior in Post-Socialist Rural Hungary." Rural Sociology 66(2): 157-180.

Schafft, K.A. and D.L. Brown. 2000. "Social Capital and Grass Roots Development: The Case of Roma Self-Governance in Hungary." Social Problems 47(2): 201-219.

Brown, D.L. and M. Lee. 1999. "Persisting Inequality Between Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan America: Implications for Theory and Policy." In Phyllis Moen et. al. (eds.) A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality and Community in American Society. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.