Increasingly refined data can pave way for upward economic mobility

At Winston-Salem State University’s Center for the Study of Economic Mobility (CSEM), data is one of our bedrocks. The data we have collected and analyzed regarding public transportation and education in Forsyth County has helped to define the dialogue on those issues for our community, but CSEM has not stopped there. New data is consistently being created, collected, analyzed and explored. One of the fields in which our data collection is advancing most rapidly – and pointing most definitively to solutions – is that of spatial justice.

Spatial justice is an emerging field of study that seeks to bring together multi-disciplinary perspectives to help resolve longstanding geographical inequalities impacting Winston-Salem and numerous other communities across the globe. CSEM has, almost since its inception three years ago, supported research to resolve these challenges through its emphasis on one type of spatial injustice — economic mobility. Economic mobility is at its core a spatial justice issue, since research has proven that one of the largest factors impacting a person’s ability to climb the ladder of economic success is geography.