Learning from Data: From Systemization to Investigation

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Benjamin Hartman is a 2016 Summer Diversity Fellow  at the MPC. As part of his fellowship, he learned how to take unprocessed data to produce harmonized IPUMS-I data and documentation, make GIS maps, and conduct his own case study investigating the spatial dimensions of internal migration using the Cambodian census. Hartman worked with his colleagues in IPUMS International to create this blog post.

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A History of Data: Good People, Good Work

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Bethel University Professor of History Diana L. Magnuson is documenting the growth of the Minnesota Population Center. Believing that preserving institutional memory is vital, the Center is supporting Magnuson’s work to capture oral histories of past and present MPC faculty and staff. This is the third in a three-part series of oral histories. This post features several senior research staff: Trent Alexander, Sarah Flood, Ron Goeken, Patricia Kelly Hall, Monty Hindman, and David Van Riper.

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When Migration is Out of Reach: New MPC Research on International Climate Migration

A farmer in Burkina Faso. Photo: Ollivier Girard for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR
A farmer in Burkina Faso. Photo: Ollivier Girard for Center for International Forestry Research

Migration is a valuable adaptation strategy under certain conditions, but when the world’s poorest regions experience crop failures from drought or other climate events, international migration decreases. Why do climate events lead to increased migration in some places, but decreased migration in others?

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Conference Recap: Time Use Across the Life Course

Attendees from the recent Time Use Conference and Workshop in Maryland.

 

Over 100 students, faculty, and researchers gathered June 27 and 28, 2016 at the University of Maryland, College Park, for a conference on Time Use Across the Life Course,  funded by the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland and organized by Liana Sayer. Conference attendees came from the United States, Australia, Singapore, England, and Belgium.

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How Historical Data Become Public

1950 Census Bureau employees photographing records from the 1900 census for storage on microfilm. Photo: U.S. Census Bureau

An enormous amount of information about the characteristics and activities of ordinary people is just waiting to make its debut for researchers to analyze — two billion people and their households, spanning over 100 countries, from 1703 to the present day. All these data will be available for computer analysis by the general public, for free, by 2018.

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Data Release Details: IPUMS-DHS now includes 90 surveys from 20 African countries and India

The time is now – mums waiting for family planning services. Photo by UK Department for International Development – CC 2.0

As of May 2016, IPUMS-DHS includes over 2000 integrated variables from 90 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 21 countries, and allows researchers to select women, children, or births as their unit of analysis.

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