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Kean University

Jake is an urban and political sociologist, focused on democracy, housing, and changing cities. His research focuses on how community- and city-level processes exacerbate social inequality – and how to reduce those disparities through institutional innovations and reforms. This includes examining the legacy of racial residential segregation, gentrification, and displacement as well as how movements and governments attempt to provide "social goods." Based on this research, he has been engaged in a variety of policy efforts, including co-authorship of the proposal for a "Social Housing Development Authority." Jake’s writing can be found in Demography, City & Community, Urban Geography, Social Science History, and Political Behavior, as well as the New York Times, Boston Review, and Metropolitics

Education

  • PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • BA, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Courses Taught

  • Social Statistics
  • Data Analysis and Management
  • Introduction to Sociology

Selected Publications

  • Carlson, H. Jacob, and Gianpaolo Baiocchi. 2023. “Who Will Decommodify Housing? Race, Property, Class and the Struggle for Social Housing in the United States.” Engaging Wright: Between Class Analysis and Real Utopias. Edited by Michael Burawoy and Gay Seidman. New York: Verso.
  • Logan, John R., Samuel Kye, H. Jacob Carlson, Elisabeta Minca, Daniel Schleith. 2023. “The Role of Suburbanization in Metropolitan Segregation after 1940.” Demography. 60(1): 281-301.
  • Johnson, Carolina, H. Jacob Carlson, and Sonya Reynolds. 2021. “Testing the Participation Hypothesis: Evidence from Participatory Budgeting.” Political Behavior.
  • Carlson, H. Jacob. 2020. “Measuring Displacement: Assessing Proxies for Involuntary Residential Mobility. City & Community. 19(3): 573-592.
  • Carlson, H. Jacob. 2018. “Model Employers and Model Cities?: Bangalore’s Public Sector and the Rise of IT.” Urban Geography. 39(5): 726-745