Underemployment In Urban And Rural America, 2005-2012,
2012
University of New Hampshire
Underemployment In Urban And Rural America, 2005-2012, Justin R. Young
The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository
Author Justin Young reports that underemployment (or involuntary part-time work) rates doubled during the second year of the recession, reaching roughly 6.5 percent in 2009. This increase was equally steep in both rural and urban places. By March of 2012, underemployment was slightly lower in rural places (4.8 percent) compared to urban places (5.3 percent). Prior to the recession, however, underemployment was slightly higher in rural America. Workers under age 30, as well as women, black, and Hispanic workers, continue to experience higher levels of underemployment. Underemployment is strongly linked with education, with the least educated workers experiencing higher rates …
Empowering Change: The Effects Of Energy Provision On Individual Aspirations In Slum Communities,
2012
Imperial College London
Empowering Change: The Effects Of Energy Provision On Individual Aspirations In Slum Communities, Priti Parikh, Sankalp Chaturvedi, Gerard George
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This paper discusses the role of energy provision in influencing the social aspirations of people living in slums. We examine factors that influence the shift in aspirations in five slum settlements using data from 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non-serviced slums from the state of Gujarat in India. The non-serviced slums did not have access to basic services namely water, sanitation, energy, roads, solid waste and rainwater management. We find empirical evidence which suggests that when basic infrastructure provisions are met, slum dwellers shift their focus from lower order aspirations to the higher order aspirations like health, education, housing …
It Takes A Community: Civic Life And Community Involvement Among Coös County Youth,
2012
University of New Hampshire
It Takes A Community: Civic Life And Community Involvement Among Coös County Youth, Justin R. Young
The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository
This brief explores the extent to which Coös County youth are involved in a variety of civic-related activities, with particular attention to the demographic and attitudinal factors associated with such participation. Author Justin Young reports that approximately 75 percent of Coös County youth report involvement in at least one type of civic-related activity. The types of activities varied by year in school. Eighth grad¬ers were more involved in 4-H, Scouts, church groups, and community center events, while twelfth graders volunteered more often and participated in community-service clubs. Forty percent of youth volunteered within the past year, and a third are …
Prelude To A Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts,
2012
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Prelude To A Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts, Belen Alfaro, Bruno Carneiro, Margaret Engesser, Kathryn E. Fox, Evadne R. Friedman, Timothy Inacio, Anita Lockesmith, Christina Mills, Stephanie Molden, Meagen Mulherin, Russell Pandres, Vinicius Pereira, Brian Reid, Pedro Soto, Jennifer Stromsten
Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity
Prelude to a Master Plan offers ideas, recommendations, and a toolkit to help the town chart its own path towards that future. While the teams and individual students worked to ‘drill down’ into specific topic areas, the Studio defined three basic areas in order to think about how the various assets, challenges and ideas undermine or reinforce one another. The report is loosely organized in those terms: addressing the outlying rural areas and issues specific to these places, considering one of the key growth areas that has extended from town and the conflicts that arise from the many uses occurring …
Is It Really Just All About Sex And Money? A Case Study Of Teenage Motherhood In The Village Of Kwaximba In The Valley Of A 1,000 Hills,
2012
SIT Study Abroad
Is It Really Just All About Sex And Money? A Case Study Of Teenage Motherhood In The Village Of Kwaximba In The Valley Of A 1,000 Hills, Margaret Nelson
Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection
The aim of this learnership at the Valley Trust was to gain insight into why teenage girls in the Valley of the 1,000 Hills fall pregnant and what is the cost of early motherhood on the future of young women. Previous research of the province KwaZulu-Natal has revealed that teenage pregnancies are a large problem in school districts and restricting the future academic pursuits of teenage mothers. The learner worked alongside the Valley Trust in coordination with their outreach programs in the local villages of the Valley of a 1,000 Hills to learn fundamental and underlying reasons behind teenage pregnancy …
Changing The Very Fabric Of Society: A Case Study Of The Fundación Entre Mujeres Holistic Empowerment Model,
2012
SIT Study Abroad
Changing The Very Fabric Of Society: A Case Study Of The Fundación Entre Mujeres Holistic Empowerment Model, Briana Frenchmore
Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection
The women of rural northern Nicaragua live in a context that is shaped by the inequalities of gender and class that originate in machista culture and the dominant economic system. To confront this reality, the non-government organization, Fundación Entre Mujeres (FEM) works from the “Gender and Development” (GAD) approach using a model of holistic women’s empowerment. To create social change, FEM’s programs focus on ideological, economic, and organizational empowerment. This investigation seeks to understand how FEM carries out its holistic empowerment model within communities, while reflecting on the strengths of their methodology and the challenges they face in creating social …
Youths' Opinions About Their Opportunities For Success In Coös County Communities,
2012
University of New Hampshire
Youths' Opinions About Their Opportunities For Success In Coös County Communities, Erin H. Sharp
The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository
This fact sheet examines Coös County youths’ beliefs about their access to educational and occupational opportunities in their home communities and whether these beliefs relate to their expectations for the future. To do so, author Erin Hiley Sharp draws on the Coös Youth Study data collected in 2011 from 318 eleventh graders in the public schools. Overall, Coös County youths’ opinions about the educational and occupational opportunities available in their home communities are somewhat positive but youths do perceive areas of concern. Youths’ perceptions of opportunities are fairly similar across the three regions of Coös County; however, those youths living …
Over Sixteen Million Children In Poverty In 2011,
2012
University of New Hampshire
Over Sixteen Million Children In Poverty In 2011, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Jessica A. Bean, Andrew P. Schaefer
The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository
In this brief, authors Marybeth Mattingly, Jessica Bean, and Andrew Schaefer use American Community Survey data released on September 20, 2012 to address patterns of child poverty. To evaluate the changes in child poverty, they focused on two time periods -- change since 2007, as the nation entered the recession, and change since 2010. According to the American Community Survey, the overall child poverty rate for the United States rose slightly from 21.6 in 2010 to 22.5 percent in 2011, resulting in an estimated 16.4 million children living in poverty. Of these children, 6.1 million are young (under age 6). …
Lifting Spirits And Changing Lives: Analysis Of Outcomes From One Organizations Journey With Community-Based Research,
2012
Institute for Community-Based Research
Lifting Spirits And Changing Lives: Analysis Of Outcomes From One Organizations Journey With Community-Based Research, Anna M. Kleiner, Sarah D. Walker
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, local nonprofit service providers in the Gulf Coast region faced numerous challenges responding to people’s immediate and long-term needs. Experiencing increased demand for services, limited resources, and vulnerability to future crises,several organizations commenced systematic planning, capacity development, and evaluation projects to help mitigate the effects of disaster and to promote long-term sustainability at the organizational and community levels. One such organization, Visions of Hope (VOH), Inc., in East Biloxi, Mississippi, participated in a collaborative community-based research (CBR) and evaluation process with a sociology, community development, and public health interdisciplinary team. Combining our academic and …
History As Community-Based Research And The Pedagogy Of Discovery: Teaching Racial Inequality, Documenting Local History, And Building Links Between Students And Communities In Mississippi And Tennessee,
2012
Kansas State University
History As Community-Based Research And The Pedagogy Of Discovery: Teaching Racial Inequality, Documenting Local History, And Building Links Between Students And Communities In Mississippi And Tennessee, Spencer D. Wood, Ricardo Samuel
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
In this article we describe the process of implementing a community-based research project that linked student learning with documenting elements of local histories surrounding the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Tennessee. We show that developing a dialogue among community members, ourselves, and our students worked to democratize the research project, produce strong support among the community members, and contribute to an improved understanding of racial inequality for our students. We rely on our accounts of the process, student journals, and oral histories compiled during the research. Our findings show that there are considerable opportunities for community-based research around documenting …
Imagination Enviro-Station: Students Connecting Students To Ecological Sustainability,
2012
Southeastern Louisiana University
Imagination Enviro-Station: Students Connecting Students To Ecological Sustainability, David Burley, Natalie Shelton, Chris Daunis, Jessica Cuifi, Jamie Walker, Maria Coleman, Bertha-Fabianna Matheu
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
The development of an environmental identity is viewed by many as essential if we are to reorganize our societies toward ecological sustainability (Bell 2009; Clayton and Opotow 2003; Thomashow 2002). That, along with an eye toward environmental justice, was the major impetus for our graduate seminar in applied environmental sociology to partner with an elementary school in our small city of Hammond, LA, during the spring semester of 2010. After conducting focus groups with a group of fourth to sixth grade students and holding decision-making discussions with them for this community-based research (CBR) project, we went about two projects – …
Insider, Outsider, Or Somewhere Between: The Impact Of Researchers’ Identities On The Community-Based Research Process,
2012
George Mason University
Insider, Outsider, Or Somewhere Between: The Impact Of Researchers’ Identities On The Community-Based Research Process, Katie Kerstetter
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Sociologists and qualitative researchers have engaged in an extensive debate about the merits of researchers being “outsiders” or “insiders” to the communities they study. Recent research has attempted to move beyond a strict outsider/insider dichotomy to emphasize the relative nature of researchers' identities, depending on the specific research context. Using the Institute for Community-Based Research in Mississippi as a case study, this article presents findings from qualitative interviews with academic researchers and community partners involved in four different research projects. These findings examine how researchers and community partners characterize researchers’ identities and the impact that those identities have on the …
Community-Based Research And The Two Forms Of Social Change,
2012
University of Wisconsin
Community-Based Research And The Two Forms Of Social Change, Randy Stoecker
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
As community-based research (CBR) takes hold in academic settings, where there is vast expertise in producing research but a dearth of experience in producing practical outcomes, there is a risk that CBR will produce little of consequence. This paper begins by arguing that part of the problem is the result of CBR practitioners assuming that research is, in itself, causal. Yet it is only when research is embedded in an effective overall social change strategy that it matters. The present paper develops a model specifying the role of research in both local and broader social change strategies. The overall model …
Increasing Community Participation With Self-Organizing Meeting Processes,
2012
Michigan State University
Increasing Community Participation With Self-Organizing Meeting Processes, Philip H. Howard
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Involving many people in community-based research provides many benefits, such as more labor power and increased buy-in. Traditional meeting formats, however, are not well suited to attracting broad engagement. One way to address this challenge is to instead employ self-organizing meeting processes, which are designed to invite active participation from attendees, and do not predefine the agenda. This article describes three such processes, 1) Open Space Technology, 2) World Café, and 3) Dynamic Facilitation, followed by my observations on their advantages and disadvantages when employed in community-based research efforts. Their use requires giving up a great amount of control when …
Frans Schryer, Farming In A Global Economy: A Case Study Of Immigrant Farmers In Canada,
2012
Iowa State University
Frans Schryer, Farming In A Global Economy: A Case Study Of Immigrant Farmers In Canada, Cornelia Butler Flora
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Review of Farming in a Global Economy: A Case Study of Immigrant Farmers in Canada, by Frans Schryer
Community-Based Research: Analysis Of Outcomes For Learning And Social Change: An Introduction,
2012
Institute for Community-Based Research
Community-Based Research: Analysis Of Outcomes For Learning And Social Change: An Introduction, Anna M. Kleiner, Katie Kerstetter, John J. Green
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Broadly defined, community-based research (CBR) is a process of conducting research that embraces and integrates the participation and local knowledge of people in communities and organizations with the goal of informing efforts to achieve social change. Although several publications on CBR exist, they primarily focus on processes, methods, and tools for developing and implementing CBR projects. This special issue of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences builds from that knowledge base, analyzes the outcomes of real-world CBR projects, and assesses learning outcomes for students, faculty, organizations, and community residents. This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the …
Examining Community-Based Research As An Application For Public Health Training,
2012
University of Michigan
Examining Community-Based Research As An Application For Public Health Training, Jolynn P. Montgomery, Dana L. Thomas
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
The University of Michigan School of Public Health provided community-based research (CBR) opportunities to masters-level students through week-long field experiences in two communities in Mississippi through interdisciplinary collaboration with Delta State University. This article examines the learning outcomes of those field experiences in the context of CBR and the value that those experiences added to their public health proficiency. Quantitative and qualitative data from post-deployment evaluations were examined to determine strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the public health learning process. Overall, students found this approach to provide a rich context for research, help put a face to the …
Who Counts Reality And Why It Counts: Searching For A Community-Based Approach To Quantitative Inquiry,
2012
University of Mississippi
Who Counts Reality And Why It Counts: Searching For A Community-Based Approach To Quantitative Inquiry, John J. Green
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Community-based research is often discussed in a way that assumes an inherent qualitative methodological approach. This includes discussions of research design, data collection, and analysis. The limitations of quantitative research aside, ignoring this strategy for developing knowledge may result in many project outcomes going undocumented and unmeasured, and it may ultimately be disempowering for the people and organizations that community-based researchers seek to assist. On this basis, I argue that researchers should take a more holistic and pragmatic approach to methods and analysis, following efforts to go beyond the traditional qualitative-quantitative divide. Doing so will provide the basis for addressing …
Phillip Vannini, Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place And Time On Canada’S West Coast,
2012
University of Palermo, Argentina
Phillip Vannini, Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place And Time On Canada’S West Coast, Maximiliano E. Korstanje
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Review of Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place and Time on Canada’s West Coast, by Phillip Vannini
Re-Thinking The Rural-Urban Divide In China’S New Stratification Order,
2012
Singapore Management University
Re-Thinking The Rural-Urban Divide In China’S New Stratification Order, Qian Forrest Zhang
Qian Forrest ZHANG
I use a Marxist framework centred on the mode of production to conceptually analyze the changing stratification structure in today’s China with a focus on the changing nature of rural-urban inequality. As the state-managed tributary mode of production, once dominant under socialism, is being gradually eclipsed by the reviving petty-commodity mode of production and the newly emerged capitalist mode of production, both of which are market-based and enable the transfer of surplus from labour to capital, a new set of mechanisms are creating and sustaining rural-urban inequality in China. Rural-urban inequality – although still significant in its magnitude – is …
