REU Site: Addressing Social and Environmental Disparities through Community Geography and Geographic Information Systems

知识价值：为期六周的夏季REU网站吸引了不同群体的学生，教师和社区成员，以社区为基础，对亚特兰大社区的社会和环境差异进行地理调查，包括社区变化，房地产市场，空气质量，城市绿地和社区愿景的检查。该研究培训项目明确侧重于社区地理、大学-社区伙伴关系和参与式方法，是美国首个针对本科生的此类项目。REU的目标是培养有充分准备，有道德的研究人员，他们致力于以社区为基础的研究，以解决社会和环境差异。该项目还试图为社区地理学开发一个新的概念框架，这是一个新兴的地理分支，它借鉴了参与式地理信息系统（PGIS）、混合方法和批判性城市理论。社区地理学明确强调识别从社区居民的经验中产生的空间思维和当地知识，并寻求以各种方式影响积极的社区变化，无论是可视化挑战和资产，改善服务提供，还是更准确地识别地理差异。在这个项目中，本科生和教师导师调查了寻求解决亚特兰大社会和环境差异的居民的空间思维和当地知识。更广泛的影响：最重要的影响是，该网站是美国第一个明确以社区为基础的地理调查为重点的本科生培训项目，本科生在这里培养他们对社区地理的兴趣。其次，这是一个知识发现的机会，可以识别和减轻城市社区的社会和环境差异。第三，每个学生都将面对现实生活中的例子/研究伦理冲突。第四，对当地社区具有实际意义，因为以地图、数据集、在线GIS服务器、非技术报告、口述历史和多媒体的形式开发了共享产品和数据。最后，随着团队为社区地理开发了一个新的概念框架，从现场获得的知识和实践可以导致学科转型。

Intellectual Merit: The six-week summer REU site engages a diverse group of students, faculty and community members in community-based geographic inquiry of social and environmental disparities in Atlanta neighborhoods, including examinations of neighborhood change, property markets, air quality, urban green spaces, and neighborhood visioning. With an explicit focus on community geography, university-community partnerships and participatory methodologies, the research training program is among the first of its kind for undergraduates in the United States. The REU aims to develop well-prepared, ethical researchers who are committed to community-based research for addressing social and environmental disparities. The site also seeks to develop a new conceptual framework for community geography, an emerging subfield of geography that draws from Participatory GIS (PGIS), mixed methodologies, and critical urban theory. Community geography places explicit emphasis on identifying the spatial thinking and local knowledges that emerge from neighborhood residents' experiences and seeks to affect positive community change, in a variety of ways, whether it is to visualize challenges and assets, improve service delivery, or more accurately identify geographic disparities. Undergraduates and faculty mentors in this project investigate the spatial thinking and local knowledges of residents who seek to address social and environmental disparities in Atlanta.Broader Impacts: The most important impact is that the site is among the first U.S.-based undergraduate training programs explicitly focused on community-based geographic inquiry where undergraduates develop their interests in community geography. Second, there is an opportunity for knowledge discovery to identify and mitigate social and environmental disparities in urban neighborhoods. Third, each student will be confronted with real-life examples/conflicts in research ethics. Fourth, there is practical significance for local communities as shared products and data are developed in the forms of maps, datasets, an online GIS server, non-technical reports, oral histories and multimedia. Finally, knowledge and practices gained from the site can lead to disciplinary transformation as the team develops a new conceptual framework for community geography.