Swanson Evaluates Cluster Analysis as a Means to Identify Communities of Interest for Legislative Redistricting
Posted: 5/23/2024 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate David Swanson (Sociology, UC Riverside) co-authored new research in Papers in Applied Geography, titled “Using cluster analysis to identify communities of interest for purposes of legislative redistricting: A case study of parishes in Louisiana“. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has been found to limit the kinds of communities that can in principle achieve political representation through redistricting because the process excludes “communities of interest” (COIs) that cannot be mapped. Authors argue that these limits can be overcome using empirically based variables to define a COI in conjunction with an empirically based classification system, cluster analysis.