My name is Dante Chinni and I’m head of the Christian Science Monitor’s Patchwork Nation project. Funded by the Knight Foundation, Patchwork Nation is an entirely new way of understanding the American electorate and the kinds of places that comprise it.

		Coming soon… Campus and Careers The Environment More »
		Mon. Oct. 27, 2008 Tractor Country Agriculture, ethanol More »
		Fri. Oct. 17, 2008 Immigration Nation Immigration More »
		Mon. Oct. 6, 2008 Monied ‘Burbs Changes in savings and spending More »
		Fri. Sept. 26, 2008 Service Worker Centers The economy, the economy, the economy More »
		Fri. Sept. 26, 2008 Emptying Nests Income protection, the markets More »

Elections aren’t just about individual voters, they are about places. Patchwork Nation is about different kinds of places, different Americas, rather than different kinds of people. The goal is to blow away the myth of Red and Blue America, to see what kinds of issues matter in different kinds of places and to see how the candidates change their message depending on the audience.

Patchwork Nation is based on evidence that people’s voting patterns are at least partly informed by where they live. People of the same race and age and family situation may vote differently depending on whom they connect with and what they see on their streets and in their local news. In some areas, people live for NASCAR; in others, residents like opera. Some cities see Sunday mornings as church time, others see it as $30-brunch time or more-work time. And Starbucks and Wal-Marts aren’t everywhere… yet.

		Mon. Sept. 8, 2008 Evangelical Epicenters Abortion, gay marriage, cultural issues More »
		Wed. Sept. 3, 2008 Minority Central Storms, race, education More »
		Mon. Aug. 25, 2008 Industrial Metropolis Crime, gun ownership, education More »
		Sun. Aug. 24, 2008 Military Bastions The Iraq war, race More »
		Tues. Aug. 19, 2008 Boom Towns Growth, housing, immigration More »

Over the next weeks, I’ll be reporting on the 11 voter communities we’ve identified after examining demographic and consumer data: Monied ‘Burbs, Minority Central, Evangelical Epicenters, Tractor Country, Campus and Careers, Immigration Nation, Industrial Metropolis, Boom Towns, Service Worker Centers, Emptying Nests, and Military Bastions. We’ve picked one specific representative community for each one of our community types — Sioux Center, Iowa, for example, typifies Tractor Country — and we’re watching the election unfold through their eyes.

We hope the approach can provide a fuller picture of the campaign and voters’ decision-making.

Dante Chinni is head of the Christian Science Monitor’s Patchwork Nation project, online at www.csmonitor.com/patchworknation. Patchwork Nation, which is funded by the Knight Foundation, uses demographic and consumer data to break down and map the nation’s counties into 11 different kinds of voter community.