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At Penn State, urban and community sociology flourishes due to a strong group of faculty researchers who consider locations as significant, evolving environments for societal interactions. Our scholars explore various place-centric subjects such as racial and ethnic housing segregation, neighborhood transformations, contextual influences (on crime, health, education, and similar areas), community expansion, urbanization trends, immigrant settlement distributions, local connections (including social networks and place-based bonds), and urban versus rural economic disparities. These studies often span multiple geographic levels, from local communities to entire metropolitan regions. While the primary research focus remains on North America, some faculty members also examine urban and community dynamics in other global regions.