Very cool research and presentation! What were the key factors that seemed to create the distinct boundary within Santo Domingo? Also, have you considered how community membership may change in the future as the social, economic and ecological context changes?

Hi Julia,
I think the main key factor in the distinct boundary with Santo Domingo was wealth: the two areas have very different levels of poverty. This was pretty apparent when I visited the country. It would be fascinating to consider how community membership might change in the future. We found that sugar cane production was important for communities, but the country is currently making an economic transition from agricultural activities to manufacturing and tourism, so I expect sugar cane to be less important in the future. Another major change is that people are migrating from rural to urban areas very rapidly. I would expect that a consequence of this migration is that connections between urban and rural communities might be strengthened, as people that moved to urban areas call relatives and friends who still live in rural areas. I’d love to collect this data again in 10 years to see if we can detect those changes!

Very interesting interdisciplinary research. I think it would be fascinating to look at social networks in various states in the U.S. Because the state of Florida is so culturally diverse, it would be interesting to see what attributes may help predict community membership. Are there any plans to look at the attributes in other locations? In other countries? or in the U.S?

Hi Annie,
Thanks for visiting. I agree, Florida would be particularly interesting. I would expect to see very distinct communities in the different parts of the state-Miami, Gulf Coast and Northern Florida. Tourism vs. agriculture as different economic activities would be some of the first place-based attributes I would try in Florida.
We are interested in extending this approach to other countries-at the top of our list for the next country to try is Haiti. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola but are totally different culturally, economically and historically, so I’m very curious to compare community structure between the two.

How interesting! What inspired this research and why did you examine the Dominican Republic?