H. Jacob Carlson

Jake is an assistant professor of sociology at Kean University. He was previously a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4) and the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC). Jake was a Dissertation Fellow with the Institute for Research on Poverty, and a Research Fellow at Participatory Budgeting Project.

His research examines how community- and city-level processes exacerbate social inequality – and how we can reduce those disparities through institutional innovations and reforms. 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 Nonprofit Quarterly.

Jake is currently working on a book with Gianpaolo Baiocchi, entitled Housing is a Social Good (University of Chicago Press), about the origins of our housing crisis and how to get out of it. He is a co-author of the proposal for a Social Housing Development Authority, and has provided technical assistance in the development of the Homes Act of 2024.