Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering October 1, 2009 To December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• The number of records in the volunteer database decreased by 14% over last quarter. The database now contains 5,996 records.
• Website activity increased, recording an average of 121,918 hits per month, an increase of 8% from last quarter, with an average of 9,686 pages viewed per month.
• Volunteer fall training has been completed.
• One hundred and twenty-seven people attended the Volunteer Recognition Event.

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• A total of 25 stewards initiate Abandoned Mines survey for NP
• CSSP stewards record Grapevine Canyon near Laughlin
• CSSP recognition event draws 103 participants

New Hampshire's Population Exceeds Maine's For The First Time In 200 Years, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

For the first time in more than 200 years, the population of New Hampshire exceeded that of Maine. As of July 1, 2009, U.S. Census Bureau estimates New Hampshire's population at 1,324,575 compared to 1,318,301 in Maine. New Hampshire grew faster than Maine over the last decade. Since 2000, New Hampshire gained 89,000 new residents compared to Maine's 43,000.

Students In Rural Schools Have Limited Access To Advanced Mathematics Courses, Suzanne E. Graham

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This Carsey brief reveals that students in rural areas and small towns have less access to higher-level mathematics courses than students in urban settings, which results in serious educational consequences, including lower scores on assessment tests and fewer qualified students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) job pipelines.

Project Animate: Promoting Student Civic Participation Through Latino Voter Mobilization - Ollas Report No. 6, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

This project sought to expand voter outreach and mobilization of new registered and Latino voters through a series of activities in the greater Omaha metropolitan area. Following the successful development of a voter mobilization project undertaken in the 2006 election cycle, this project conducted door-to-door canvassing activities utilizing students to distribute nonpartisan voter information and engage in “get out the vote” activities with new Latino registered voters.

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Ben Bernanke Q&A Session, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

WKU Archives Records

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board regarding the question and answer session following Bernanke's speech at the Washington Economic Club.

Dmitri Shalin Interview With Dean Maccannell About Erving Goffman Entitled "Some Of Goffman’S Guardedness And Verbal Toughness Was Simply A Way Of Giving Himself The Space And Time That He Needed To Do The Work That He Really Loved", Dean Maccannell

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

This conversation with Dean MacCannell, Professor of Environmental Design at the University of California Davis, was recorded over the phone on July 7, 2009. The initial exchange lasting a minute or so is reconstructed from memory. Breaks in the conversation flow are indicated by ellipses. Supplementary information and additional materials inserted during the editing process appear in square brackets. Undecipherable words and unclear passages are identified in the text as “[?]”.

Understanding The Determinants Of Police Identification Of Human Trafficking Cases, Amy Farrell

First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2009

The passage of new laws criminalizing the trafficking of persons for labor and sexual services has raised public awareness about the problem of trafficking. In response, we expect local law enforcement to learn about the problem, identify trafficking victims and make arrests. The numbers of victims identified by the police, however, has paled in comparison to official estimates, leading some to question the existence of a trafficking problem. Missing from this debate is information about how frequently police encounter situations involving human trafficking and how well prepared officers are to deal with these cases. Analyzing survey responses from a national …

Increased Reliance On Wives As Breadwinners During The First Year Of The Recession, Kristin Smith

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Among low-income families, the wages of employed wives account for the majority of family earnings, according to this Carsey brief. The analysis finds that in 2008, women contributed 56 percent of total family earnings, up from 51 percent in 2007. Also, husbands' education level and race are factors in how much wives contribute to family earnings.

(Review) The Illusion Of Civil Society: Democratization And Community Mobilization In Low-Income Mexico, Robert Gay

Sociology Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "The Illusion of Civil Society: Democratization and Community Mobilization in Low-Income Mexico," by Jon Shefner.

The Impact Of An Urban Wal-Mart Store On Area Businesses: An Evaluation Of One Chicago Neighborhood's Experience, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Julie Davis, David Merriman, Lucia Samayoa, Brian Flanagan, Ron Baiman, Joseph Persky

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

Having achieved nearly complete coverage of non-urban and suburban markets, mega-retailer Wal-Mart has turned its attention to urban expansion. Evaluations of Wal-Mart’s impact on urban retail businesses and local employment are necessary to inform policy makers, scholars, and community activists looking to improve economic opportunities for inner-city residents. This study focuses on the Wal-Mart store that opened on the West Side of Chicago in September 2006.

Halting The Race To The Bottom: Urgent Interventions For The Improvement Of The Education Of English Language Learners In Massachusetts And Selected Districts, English Language Learners Sub-Committee, Massachusetts Board Of Elementary And Secondary Education

Gastón Institute Publications

Massachusetts students of limited English proficiency do better academically than students of limited English proficiency in other states. But relative to other students in the state, students of limited English proficiency in Massachusetts face a disadvantage greater than that faced by their peers in most states. This suggests that while the overall higher levels of education in the state benefit LEPs in Massachusetts relative to LEPs who attend schools in states where the quality of education is lower, current policy and practice leads to significantly greater inequality in this state. As the state takes steps to improve performance for all …

With The Sweat Of Our Brows: A Qualitative Interview Study On The Meaning Of Work For Illinois And Nebraska Family Farming Couples With Long Careers, Sheri J. Hink

Master's Theses - Sociology and Anthropology

This thesis explores the social identities and the work and business strategies of five farming couples who had long farming careers in the Midwest. Much of the literature presented within this thesis discusses the hardships that family farmers face in today’s economy. However, the research also points to a strong attachment to farming and the farming lifestyle despite its many challenges. Using a qualitative interviewing method, I was interested in studying what meaning these farming couples attached to their work, including any gendered division of labor, and what survival techniques they had employed. I found that the five family farming …

Working Report #5: Child Welfare Jobs (Service Provider Perspectives), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report compares how service providers experience their employment realities across central, integrated, and accessible service models. Differences in job satisfaction, worker retention, and feelings about the work itself are examined.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family (2010 Update), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services is the role that family plays in sustaining or eroding gains made by children and youth in treatment (Frensch & Cameron, 2002). This report includes a summary of family descriptive information, the nature of family relationships, and indicators of family functioning for children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being (2010 Update), Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services often continue to live with a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges after service involvement has ended (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of these children and youth is the ongoing management of emotional and behavioural challenges and the impact these challenges have in the daily lives of youth and their families. Several standardized measures of mental health, physical health, stress, and quality of life were used to assess parental and youth functioning in the life domain of …

Working Report #3: Use Of Legal Measures And Formal Authority (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this report is, across service delivery models, how front-line protection workers viewed their formal authority role and the extent to which they relied on legal measures in order to achieve protection goals. The analysis is guided by several overarching questions including (1) how does each model view the use of legal measures and formal authority? (2) How does each model impact service providers’ actual use of legal measures? (3) What value do workers place on the authority figure role? And (4) how effective is the use of formal authority in reaching child protection goals?

Type of program …

Working Report #1: Service Model Accessibility (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the differences in service accessibility across central, integrated, and school/community based child welfare service delivery models including geographic proximity to families, acceptability of the setting to families, and accessibility expectations of service providers. Results suggest that accessibility characteristics of the model can make a significant difference to front-line service delivery from the perspective of front-line protection workers.

A defining feature of the community and school based child welfare models was increased accessibility for families and workers. Through making themselves more accessible, the community and school based settings had some significant service delivery advantages including more regular, varied, …

Working Report #2: Client And Community Relations (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report addresses two important questions: how much emphasis is placed on building positive relationships with families and communities across agency based, integrated service, and community and school based models of service delivery? And, how successful is each model at building relationships, minimizing stigma for families, and improving the image of child welfare in the community?

Educating clients and the community about child welfare services was identified as an important role for workers in some sites and not in others. While families’ fears of child protection services were a concern, some workers also expressed a fear of their clients and …

Working Report #4: Range Of Services (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This working report examines the differences in range of services across central, integrated, and school/community based sites including referrals to other services, direct support, advocacy, and collaborative efforts to provide services to families. Which models provide the most service options for families? How do service providers view the service options available to them in their work with families? How helpful are services to families?

The range of services available within agency based settings seemed the narrowest in comparison to other types of service delivery settings. Integrated service models appeared to increase the range and access to many formal services. Community …

Working Report #7: Helping Relationships In Child Welfare (Parent Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the nature of first contacts in child welfare, the level of contact between families and service providers, and the quality of relationships over time across central, integrated, and accessible service delivery models.

I. First Contacts Clarity, consultation, use of power, and positive shifts in perception were central issues identified by parents when discussing their experiences of first contacts with child welfare. More parents in accessible sites had experiences with workers who were clear and provided a sense that they would be supported. Within the accessible sites a strong philosophy of collaboration emerged between worker and participant. Participants …

'City Air Makes Free’: A Multi-Level, Cross-National Analysis Of Self-Efficacy, Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, Christopher M. Huggins

Sociology Faculty Publications

The effects of cities on the subjective states of individuals have been the subject of continuous inquiry. Recent research has demonstrated potential links between immediate environments and individual outcomes such as perceived powerlessness. However, the results of such studies are inconsistent and fail to account for the greater societal environment in which observations occur. Using a more comparative, cross-national sample and multi-level modeling, we retest the expectation that the immediate physical and social environment influences feelings of powerlessness, and extend the test to consider urbanism operating at societal levels beyond the local. Controlling for demographic composition, we find that urban …

Primetimes Newsletter, Winter 2009-2010, Office Of Lifespan Studies

PrimeTimes Newsletter

PrimeTimes is the newsletter of the Office of Lifespan Studies in the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.

Primetimes Newsletter, Winter 2009, Office Of Lifespan Studies

PrimeTimes Newsletter

PrimeTimes is the newsletter of the Office of Lifespan Studies in the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.

Service Learning E-News - December 2009, Parkland College

Service Learning Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Animal Cognition, Kristin Andrews, Ljiljana Radenovic

Sentience Collection

Debates in applied ethics about the proper treatment of animals often refer to empirical data about animal cognition, emotion, and behavior. In addition, there is increasing interest in the question of whether any nonhuman animal could be something like a moral agent.

The Impact Of Third Places On Community Quality Of Life, Leo Wayne Jeffres, Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Guowei Jian, Mary F. Casey

Communication Faculty Publications

Older cities struggling with issues of survival focus on jobs and the economy, but competition requires all cities to pay attention to the quality of life that attracts residents. Creating such an inviting environment includes “third places” that foster community and communication among people outside of home and work, yet we have little empirical evidence that speaks to the subject, or their importance for a community’s quality of life. Here we report on a national U.S. survey that asked people to identify such places in their community, producing a wide variety of “third places” that ranged from the most popular …

[Re]Formulating The Informal, Sebastien Coles

Architecture Senior Theses

The identity associate with the inhabitants of the "Bidonvilles" of Haiti is arguably nonexistent aside from its connection to the impoverished conditions of the Haitian slum/shantytown. This thesis contends that with the insertion of a reformative intervention in the heart of the community promoting a conducive and educational environment while overlaying a currently absent infrastructure, will help in creating a positive inner growth within the informal typology. More specifically architecture will act as a form of "pride of place," enticing interaction through the direction connection to culture.

Nonknowledge: The Bibliographical Organization Of Ignorance, Stupidity, Error, And Unreason: Part Two, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Starting with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom paradigm in information science it is possible to derive a model of the opposite of knowledge having hierarchical qualities. A range of counterpoints to concepts in the knowledge hierarchy can be identified and ascribed the overall term “nonknowledge.” This model creates a conceptual framework for understanding the connections between topics such as error, ignorance, stupidity, folly, popular misconceptions, and unreason by locating them as levels or phases of nonknowledge. The concept of nonknowledge links heretofore disconnected discourses on these individual topics by philosophers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, satirists, and others. Subject headings provide access to the categories …

Disproportionate Minority Contact In Maine: Dmc Assessment And Identification, Becky Noréus, Teresa A. Hubley, Michael Rocque

Justice Policy

Executive Summary:

Since 1998, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act has required all states that receive formula grant program funding to determine whether the proportion of minority youth in confinement exceeds their proportion of the population, and, if so, to develop corrective strategies. In 1992, Congress elevated this issue to a “core requirement” of the JJDP Act. In 2002, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention expanded the requirement to include the proportion of minorities at each key decision point, and not just at confinement. This allows a broader examination of how minority groups are treated in the …