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, William and David L. Brown. 2006. (eds.) Population Change and Rural Society. Dordrecht: Springer.

Brown, David L., Laszlo J. Kulcsar, Laszlo Kulcsar, Csilla Obadovics.
2005. "Post-Socialist Restructuring and Population Redistribution in Hungary." Rural Sociology 70(3): 336-359.

Brown, David L. and Louis E. Swanson (eds.). 2004. Challenges for Rural America in the 21st Century. University Park: Penn State University Press.

Brown, David L. and John Cromartie. 2004. “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, Kai A. and David L. Brown. 2004. ”Social Capital, Social Networks, and Social Power.” Social Epistemology. Vol. 17, no. 3: 329-342.

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

Schafft, K. 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.

Brown, D. L. and S. Rayer. 1999. "The Volume and Impact of Migration to and From New York." Tom Hirschl and Tim Heaton (eds.) New York State in the 21st Century. Praeger.

Glasgow, N. and D. L. Brown. 1998. "Older rural and poor." Ch. 10 in Ray Coward and John Knout (eds.) Aging in Rural Settings. Springer Pub.

Brown, D. L., G. V. Fuguitt, T. B. Heaton and S. Waseem. 1997. "Continuities in Size of Place Preferences in the United States, 1972-92." Rural Sociology 62(4): 408-428.

Brown, D. L. and T. A. Hirschl. 1995. "Household poverty in rural and metropolitan core areas of the United States." Rural Sociology 60(1): 44-56.