Computational sociology

I am puzzled by the lack of ML research (/groups) using ML to solve or understand sociological problems (poverty, hunger, etc.). Could anyone point me to PhD/MSc/Private-Sector research/work in this area?

Edit: I was partly asking the question to find out ways in which ML can help with social problems (healthcare, etc. were good examples).

I was thinking about applying ML to food (etc.) aid: tracking its distribution then creating a simulation of the agents/distribution mechs involved to better inform aid distribution policy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17392088 ?

I have the opportunity at the moment to propose a masters physics project (for which computational simulation & ML are suitable). Any data sets/teams/groups that I can look at would be extremely helpful.

I would imagine that most applications of ML to these kinds of problems will be at quantitative sociological institutes/groups/etc.