Monday, October 13, 2014

Solving the Hispanic Mortality Paradox

Place-based metrics make people seem poorer than they are at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Ironic demography.

Subject Article: "Why Hispanic-Americans live longer: The mystery that has puzzled researchers for decades."

Postscript: I've told this tale before. How does one figure out if global cities undermine state sovereignty when the data are national and not urban? Geographer Peter Taylor grappled with this question. Geographic units of analysis are social constructs. The bias is built into the metrics. What we measure tells us more than the measurements. Scholars studying domestic poverty have fallen into this place-trap.

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