The dominant approach to adolescent health is organized around specific problems such as pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections, or violence, lacking an integrative development lens and sufficient attention to how contexts—families, schools, neighborhoods, and beyond—shape health and behavior. In response to the need for integrative approaches, developmentally-informed scientists across disciplines are now seeking to identify innovative approaches […]
Research Team
Rethinking Identity and Linguistic Diversity in an Age of Immigration
In what ways does the process of immigration enable or constrain the transformation and preservation of language and identity? This question is at the heart of an interdisciplinary Matrix Research Team focused on investigating the dynamic interaction between language, identity, and immigration. "Today we’re witnessing an increased movement of people, their languages, values, ideas and […]
Research Team
Political Economy and Society Curriculum Working Group
With approximately 450 students per year, the field of Political Economy (POLECON) is the largest of the interdisciplinary majors within UC Berkeley’s International and Area Studies Teaching Program (IASTP). This major has served several generations of Cal students exceptionally well, and has grown accordingly, while helping fill in some of the campus’s unsatisfied student (and […]
Research Team
Coordinated Learning Opportunities around Geospatial Information, Analysis, and Technologies
The rise of geospatial technologies has transformed the idea of "place" in social science research. At UC Berkeley, multiple units and programs provide instruction in methods and technologies for working with geospatial data. Yet until now, there has been little alignment and collaboration among these different divisions. To address this challenge, Social Science Matrix is […]
Research Team
Questioning the Evidence on the Integration of Immigrants in Europe
A wide array of data types are employed to support different narratives about the integration or non-integration of European populations, including data related to educational and professional outcomes, marriage and domestic life, participation in civil society, religious observance, criminal or terrorist behavior, and national allegiance. This Matrix theme team, led by Led by Jeroen Dewulf, […]
Research Team
Migration, Racialization, and Gender: Comparing Filipino Migration in France and the United States
The Philippines is a major player in international migration. In 2013, almost 10 percent of the Philippine population lived abroad and approximately half of them were contract workers. Although the Philippines is not unique in supplying labor overseas, its highly institutionalized labor-export process and the occupational diversity of its overseas labor force distinguish it from […]
Research Team
Climate Economics: From Numerical Models to Data-Driven Estimates
Policy-makers who make decisions related to the economics of climate change have traditionally relied upon numerical integrated assessment models. These model-driven estimates have been around for over two decades and currently are the only source of information used in official U.S. regulatory analysis. Such models are, for example, routinely used by EPA to inform climate […]
Research Team
Examining the Global Reach of Algorithms
A foundational concept in computer science, algorithms—loosely defined as a set of rules to direct the behavior of machines or humans—have shaped infrastructures, practices, and daily lives. As a result, the need to understand the implications of the development and deployment of algorithms has become ever more pressing, both in academia and public discourse. To […]
Research Team
Health and Governance Collaborative
In Spring 2015, Social Science Matrix sponsored a prospecting seminar that brought together faculty and graduate students from diverse fields—including biostatistics, business, economics, medicine, and political science—to study governance and global health delivery issues in developing countries. In Fall 2015, Matrix will continue supporting this important initiative, as the Health and Governance Collaborative research seminar […]
Research Team
Race, Data, and Inequality
The relationship between social science and race has always been complicated. At the turn of the 20th century, social science was used to support the eugenics movement and justify racial inequalities. Yet social-science data was also instrumental in advancing desegregation, for example by supporting the argument in favor of school desegregation in Brown v. Board […]
Research Team
Climate Change Economics Roundtable
The field of economics plays a crucial role in the debate about appropriate policies intended to mitigate climate change. For example, the tools of economics can be used to measure and/or estimate impacts such as the costs of mitigation, the valuation of damages, the role of abatement in lowering damages, design of policy instruments (e.g. […]
Research Team
Global Studies at UC Berkeley
A new interdisciplinary major Global Studies is planned as part of a major restructuring of the International and Areas Studies Teaching Programs (IASTP) at UC Berkeley. In Fall 2015, Social Science Matrix is funding a prospecting seminar dedicated to bringing together faculty and graduate students from a wide range of departments and professional schools to […]