W. Richard Goe

Professor of Sociology
& 
Graduate Program Coordinator

 Address: 
210 Waters Hall 
Department of Sociology 
Kansas State University 
Manhattan, KS 66506-4003 

Phone: (785) 532-4973 
Fax: (785) 532-6978 
E-mail: goe@ksu.edu

Areas of Specialization:

Research Methods & Applied Statistics, Community, Rural Sociology

Research Interests:

Technology and Social Change, Economic and Regional Development, Sociology of Work, Economic Sociology

Description of Research Program:

My research program predominantly focuses on three separate, but potentially overlapping issues.  The first issue concerns understanding the implications of the growth of the service sector of the U.S. economy for workers, corporations and other organizations, and communities.  My primary focus has been on understanding the dynamics underlying the growth of "producer" services industries.  This work has included participation in a survey of over 2,700 service sector business establishments in the four metropolitan areas of the northeast Ohio region and, an NSF funded study of the outsourcing of computer and information services by large American corporations.   The second issue concerns understanding the implications of the development of computers and information technology for labor processes, and the organizational structure of corporations and industries.  My primary focus has been on understanding the impacts of computers and information technology on agriculture and the food system.  This work includes projects funded by both the USDA's National Research Initiative and the National Science Foundation that examined the impact of the development of the Internet and electronic commerce on the structure of the food system. The third issue concerns understanding the consequences of economic restructuring for U.S. communities and labor markets, in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan spatial contexts.  My work in this area includes a project funded by the USDA's National Research Initiative that examined the effects of economic restructuring on social and economic well-being in nonmetropolitan communities and their surrounding localities.  I have recently begun working on a new project funded by the Department of Energy that examines the impacts of biorefineries on nonmetropolitan communities in the Midwest. Citations for my published work on all of these issues can be found in my curriculum vitae.
 

Teaching Philosophy and Selected Course Syllabi

Curriculum Vitae

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