# Sociologix — Patrick Burnett

> Patrick Burnett is a computational sociologist and methods pragmatist who builds applied AI tools, mixed-methods research instruments, and data infrastructure for mission-aligned teams. PhD Sociology, University of British Columbia, 2019. Based in British Columbia, Canada. Available for contract engagements in 2026.

Sociologix is the portfolio site that catalogues Patrick's research, visualisations, and ongoing applied-AI work. The content is intentionally factual and citation-friendly — most claims trace back to a specific publication, dataset, or shipping artifact.

## Core areas of expertise

- Computational sociology and relational methods (Bourdieusian field theory, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, social network analysis)
- Applied machine learning and NLP for sensitive populations (harm-report triaging, news crawling, transcription pipelines)
- Mixed-methods research design — large-scale surveys (n=852+), qualitative analysis, instrument design
- Interactive data visualisation and geospatial mapping (D3, three.js, deck.gl)
- Sex industry safety, harm reduction, and policy research
- Higher education, academic credentialing, and field-of-power analysis
- Vulnerable populations research across siloed literatures (public health, criminology, social work, disability studies)

## Visualisations and research artifacts

- [Client Mobility Network — Canada](https://www.sociologix.ca/canada-clients): Geographic network of 1,133 Canadian sex industry clients, weighted by travel volume. Patterns of local vs. mobile purchasing behaviour.
- [4D Field Model — Sex Buyers](https://www.sociologix.ca/dissertation): Past, present, and future actions of 1,133 Canadian sex buyers via 4D Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Doctoral dissertation, 2019.
- [3D Field-of-Power Model](https://www.sociologix.ca/margins-freedom): Class-based health dispositions in three dimensions. To Patrick's knowledge, the first 3D MCA in published sociology.
- [NeuroDevNet Scrollytelling](https://www.sociologix.ca/dev-net-vid): Co-publication network growth from 13 researchers (2010) to 316 across four themes (2014).
- [Canadian University Faculty Map](https://www.sociologix.ca/ra-chart): Forty years of degree-granting institutions, 4,934 full-time U15 social-science faculty. Lachapelle & Burnett, *Canadian Review of Sociology* 2018.

## Literature networks (live, navigable)

- [Sex Industry Research Networks](https://www.sociologix.ca/sex-lit-network/): 47,789 papers indexed, 62,190 authors, 175,918 citation links across sex work, sex industries, and trafficking research.
- [Vulnerable Populations Network](https://www.sociologix.ca/vulnerable-network/): Cross-discipline mapping of research on migrants, refugees, unhoused folks, people who use drugs, and other populations whose work spans siloed literatures.
- [Academic Field Network](https://www.sociologix.ca/academia-network/): A meta-network of the academic research enterprise across disciplines and decades.
- [Department Audit Pilot](https://www.sociologix.ca/crim-network/): Anonymised department-level audit tool for hiring committees — specialisation mapping, teaching coverage, gender and training-origin breakdowns.

## Current applied-AI work

- **National Ugly Mugs (NUM, UK)** — Long-term collaboration with Dr. Raven Bowen on applied AI for sex worker safety. Patrick built the hierarchical-classification triaging system for harm reports, the news crawler that feeds the Memorial Map, and the speaker-diarised transcription pipeline for sensitive video content.
- **Subfield** — In-development platform for AI-enabled academic field analysis and department-level audits.
- **Homicide database / news crawler** — Locally-hosted LLM extraction for sex worker violence cases, deliberately kept off commercial APIs because the content is too sensitive.

## Key publications

- Burnett, P. J. (2019). *The social emergence of health: A theoretical interpretation and empirical application of Pierre Bourdieu's relational theory of social action in a three-dimensional Canadian field.* Doctoral dissertation, UBC.
- Atchison, C. & Burnett, P. J. (2016). The social dynamics of safe sex practices among Canadian sex industry clients. *Sociology of Health & Illness* 38(6), 939–956.
- Lachapelle, F. & Burnett, P. J. (2018). Canadian university faculty origins, 1977–2017. *Canadian Review of Sociology*.

## References (collaborators who can vouch)

- **Chris Atchison** — Department of Sociology, University of Victoria. Decade-plus joint sex industry research; knows Patrick across the full research arc.
- **Dr. Raven Bowen** — Head of Research, Innovation, and Expansion, National Ugly Mugs (UK). Knows Patrick as the person who scopes a hard technical problem, builds the thing, and stays through deployment.

## Contact

- Email: pjb@sociologix.ca
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sociologix/
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sociologix.bsky.social
- ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patrick_Burnett
- Academia.edu: https://ubc.academia.edu/PatrickBurnett

## Hiring

Patrick is available for 2026 contract engagements. Best fit: mission-aligned teams in research, NGOs, public health, or policy who need someone who can do *both* the science (scoping the question, designing the method, validating the analysis) and the build (shipping the system that actually gets used). Contact via pjb@sociologix.ca.