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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies

Community-Focused Problem-Solving With Operations Research And Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Jan 2019

Community-Focused Problem-Solving With Operations Research And Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

In these days of ‘analytics’, ‘big data’ and ‘smart cities’, many of us are aware of the importance of data and quantitative analytic methods for program design, implementation and evaluation. Less commonly-understood are specific tools and methods for community-based interventions in which the problem to be solved is unclear, and the ways in which data of many different kinds can be used to develop interventions that represent best-possible uses of organization and community resources. Moreover, it is also less commonly-understood how to put communities, and community members, near the center of problem-solving and decision-making.

Examples of challenging problems include: How …


Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Opportunities, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Feb 2017

Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Opportunities, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Scholars in multiple disciplines intersecting operations research have developed theory and applications to address the question, how can the decision sciences develop new ways to solve problems of special interest to organizations and individuals situated in geographically, economically and socially circumscribed communities? The motivation for this work is the belief that mission-driven and resource-constrained nonprofit organizations, and underrepresented, underserved, or vulnerable populations may have special needs for analytic and empirical problem-solving methods that have traditionally received less emphasis in traditional operations research and management science research and teaching. Scholarship in this area, alternatively labeled ‘community operational research’ (mostly in the …


Analysis Of The Cdf Early Learning Community Trust Process Phase I, Sherrill W. Hayes Jan 2016

Analysis Of The Cdf Early Learning Community Trust Process Phase I, Sherrill W. Hayes

Sherrill W. Hayes

The purpose of this report was to provide an external review of the participatory decision making process used in Phase I of the “Clarkston Families Decide” CDF Early Learning Community Trust (ELCT) conducted between July 2014 and January 2015. The reviewer’s primary purpose was to provide information about the process used to develop
the project outcomes in Phase I that may be useful in the overall evaluation of the ELCT. The reviewer employed primarily a qualitative research methodology as the data sources were text and visual secondary data from pre-existing documents created during the process. The primary source materials used …


Researching What Matters With Community Members: Session Introduction, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Jun 2015

Researching What Matters With Community Members: Session Introduction, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Data and technology can and do change people’s lives, but most often they are conceived as market-driven entities, where changes in people’s lives arise from consumption of goods and services they pay for. Of course, government is a big user of technology and data, but impacts are usually aggregate in nature, not usually targeted at specific communities. Yet, with inequality and structural barriers to economic and social progress quite high in the U.S., can there be a way to think of data and technology as a means to support individual and group opportunity, engagement, action for social justice? The purpose …


The Smart Cities Movement And Advancing The International Battle To Eliminate Homelessness - Barcelona As Test Case, John Travis Marshall, Jessica Venegas Jun 2015

The Smart Cities Movement And Advancing The International Battle To Eliminate Homelessness - Barcelona As Test Case, John Travis Marshall, Jessica Venegas

John Travis Marshall

Barcelona is a leader in the smart cities movement, a movement that aims to help cities deliver services to citizens more efficiently and economically as a way of making the city a more inviting and inclusive place to live and work. As with any city committed to forward-looking economic, social, and urban development initiatives, it is important to consider whether ambitious goals to reinvent the city include an agenda to solve the persistent problems that have faced major cities for decades, including affordable housing and caring for roofless or homeless men and women. This article ties together the challenges Barcelona …


Affordable Housing For Sustainable Cities: A North American Perspective, Detroit Metropolitan Area And Montreal (Quebec), Courtney Lauren Anderson, Maryse Grandbois Jun 2015

Affordable Housing For Sustainable Cities: A North American Perspective, Detroit Metropolitan Area And Montreal (Quebec), Courtney Lauren Anderson, Maryse Grandbois

Courtney L Anderson

Housing is an integral part to elevating and maintaining a quality of life to ensure a healthy and productive citizenship. The overwhelming number of citizens in Montreal and the United States who are unable to find housing that is less than 33% of their income stifles that economic progression of individuals and the society in which these individuals live. The ability for cities to dictate their own plans for creating and maintaining affordable housing without mandates from the federal vacillates among the various levels of government with each level having certain positive and negative elements. Although city autonomy can provide …


Global Trade Impacts: Addressing The Health, Social And Environmental Consequences Of Moving International Freight Through Our Communities, Martha Matsuoka, Andrea Hricko, Robert Gottlieb, Juan Delara Apr 2015

Global Trade Impacts: Addressing The Health, Social And Environmental Consequences Of Moving International Freight Through Our Communities, Martha Matsuoka, Andrea Hricko, Robert Gottlieb, Juan Delara

Martha Matsuoka

As ports and goods movement activity expands throughout the United States, a major challenge is how to make the adverse impacts of freight transportation a more central part of economic development, policy and planning discussions and transportation decision making. In 2009, faculty and staff from the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College and from the environmental health sciences and regional equity programs of the University of Southern California (USC) began a study of this evolving global trade and freight transportation system, focusing on areas in the United States where the system is expanding and where community, labor and …


Invisible No More: Domestic Workers Organizing In Massachusetts And Beyond, Natalicia Tracy, Tim Sieber, Susan Moir Scd Oct 2014

Invisible No More: Domestic Workers Organizing In Massachusetts And Beyond, Natalicia Tracy, Tim Sieber, Susan Moir Scd

Tim Sieber

Domestic workers across the country are making it clear that, even in a difficult political environment, it is possible to make gains for low-wage workers. For the first time in many, many decades, domestic workers are finding ways to win. They are creat
ing policy change that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in tangible and substantial ways. The 2014 Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights is the most expansive codification of rights for this long-overlooked part of the labor force ever to be enacted. In one sense, there is nothing new about domestic workers organizing …


Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone Feb 2014

Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone

Michael E. Stone

Relatively little research has been conducted that focuses on the housing situation of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (hereafter generally referred to as Asian Americans), especially on the national level. From a review of about 30 articles and reports over the past decade that examine racial/ethnic housing situations nationally, only one specifically addressed housing problems of Asian Americans (Hansen, 1986) while two others included Asian Americans along with other populations of color. Of the remaining articles, most used the terms race, racial discrimination, or segregation in their titles, yet did not include Asian Americans in the studies. Of particular note, …


Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone Feb 2014

Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone

Michael E. Stone

This paper argues, first, that most housing problems—in Boston and throughout the nation—are ultimately the result of the squeeze between inadequate incomes, on the one hand, and the cost of profitably providing housing on the other. It is also argued that housing cost and incomes together are the most decisive determinants of the overall quality of life of families and communities. Third, it is contended that the long history of inadequate attempts to cope with the affordabiiity problem have not only failed to solve the problem, but have indeed contributed significantly to the broader and serious problems of the overall …


Community Voices: New State Voting Districts In Final Stages, Carroy U. Ferguson Dr. Oct 2011

Community Voices: New State Voting Districts In Final Stages, Carroy U. Ferguson Dr.

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

Last week the Massachusetts Legislature produced redistricting legislation that will forever change the direction of state politics for blacks, Latinos and Asians. By this time next year, the number of state house elected officials of color can increase by 100 percent, from 10 to 20 members. And communities of color will be well positioned to elect a person of color to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in the history of the state.


Ray Flynn's Legacy: American Cities And The Progressive Agenda, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

Ray Flynn's Legacy: American Cities And The Progressive Agenda, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Affordable Housing: Lessons From Canada, Peter Dreier, J. David Hulchanski Jun 2011

Affordable Housing: Lessons From Canada, Peter Dreier, J. David Hulchanski

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


A Chicago, La Lutte Syndicale A Payé, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

A Chicago, La Lutte Syndicale A Payé, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Social Justice Philanthropy: Can We Get More Bang For The Buck?, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

Social Justice Philanthropy: Can We Get More Bang For The Buck?, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


The Future Of Community Reinvestment, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

The Future Of Community Reinvestment, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


America's Urban Crisis A Decade After The Los Angeles Riots, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

America's Urban Crisis A Decade After The Los Angeles Riots, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Foreclosing On The Free Market, John Atlas, Peter Dreier, Gregory D. Squires Jun 2011

Foreclosing On The Free Market, John Atlas, Peter Dreier, Gregory D. Squires

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


California's Single-Payer Initiative: What Went Wrong?, Peter Dreier, Matthew Glasser Jun 2011

California's Single-Payer Initiative: What Went Wrong?, Peter Dreier, Matthew Glasser

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Economic Inequality And Public Policy: The Power Of Place, Peter Dreier, Todd Swanstrom, John Mollenkopf Jun 2011

Economic Inequality And Public Policy: The Power Of Place, Peter Dreier, Todd Swanstrom, John Mollenkopf

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Look For The Union Label, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

Look For The Union Label, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Redlining Cities: How Banks Color Community Development, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

Redlining Cities: How Banks Color Community Development, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Downtown Development And Urban Reform: The Politics Of Boston's Linkage Policy, Peter Dreier, Bruce Erlich Jun 2011

Downtown Development And Urban Reform: The Politics Of Boston's Linkage Policy, Peter Dreier, Bruce Erlich

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Local Success Stories, Peter Dreier Jun 2011

Local Success Stories, Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


Scapegoating Rent Control: Masking The Causes Of Homelessness, Richard Appelbaum, Michael Dolny, Peter Dreier, John Gilderbloom Jun 2011

Scapegoating Rent Control: Masking The Causes Of Homelessness, Richard Appelbaum, Michael Dolny, Peter Dreier, John Gilderbloom

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.


A State-In-Society Approach To The Nonprofit Sector: Welfare Services In Japan, Mary Alice Haddad Feb 2011

A State-In-Society Approach To The Nonprofit Sector: Welfare Services In Japan, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

This article uses the case of Japan to advocate for a new theoretical approach to the study of the nonprofit sector. In particular, it examines how theoretical models based on the European and North American experiences have difficulty explaining the relationship between the nonprofit sector and the state in Japan, and argues that a state-in-society approach is better suited to explaining complex state–society relations in diverse cultural contexts. It does this by examining the evolution of social welfare service provision in Japan. This article is motivated to explain an apparent paradox: Japan’s recent efforts toward greater government decentralization and privatization …


Linking Environmental Justice And Pollution Prevention: Livable Communities And Cleaner Production, Robert Gottlieb Feb 2011

Linking Environmental Justice And Pollution Prevention: Livable Communities And Cleaner Production, Robert Gottlieb

Robert Gottlieb

No abstract provided.


The Stirrings Of A New Progressive Movement Can Be Heard, Peter Dreier, Robert Gottlieb Feb 2011

The Stirrings Of A New Progressive Movement Can Be Heard, Peter Dreier, Robert Gottlieb

Robert Gottlieb

No abstract provided.


Re-Envisioning The La River: A Program Of Community And Ecological Revitalization, Robert B. Gottlieb, Andrea M. Azuma, Brooke Gaw, Amanda L. Shaffer Feb 2011

Re-Envisioning The La River: A Program Of Community And Ecological Revitalization, Robert B. Gottlieb, Andrea M. Azuma, Brooke Gaw, Amanda L. Shaffer

Robert Gottlieb

No abstract provided.


Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson Jun 2010

Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

In relation to the Cosmos, we all, as human beings, live on this tiny planet we call Earth, a planet that supports and sustains life, as we know it. There are many different kinds of people, plants, and animals functioning in harmony with soil, air, and water--all linked to one another in a complex web of life to form one Earth community. Unfortunately, we often take this miracle and ecosystem of life for granted. When, however, we take the ecosystem of life too much for granted, Mother Earth "speaks," reflecting imbalances and dis-harmonies. When Mother Earth "speaks," her message is …