Digital Commons Network^™

Vulnerability Index For Urban Flooding: Understanding Social Vulnerabilities And Risks, Mae Brigitt Bernadel Loyloy Villordon, Philippe Gourbesville

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

According to the World Risk Report released by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, the Philippines is ranked third globally in terms of disaster risk. One of those disaster risks is flooding which poses a serious challenge to development and the lives of the people. Public health risks and social vulnerability were usually overlooked, undermined and only very little attention is given. Thus, this study focuses on these aspects. This study was an exploratory step towards assessing vulnerability particularly to fluvial flooding, it was a rapid assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) of the …

Diy Urbanism As An Environmental Justice Strategy: The Case Study Of Time's Up! 1987-2012, Benjamin C. Shepard

Publications and Research

Time's Up! is a New York environmental group which promotes nonpolluting transportation and sustainable solutions to an urban problems. Over the last twenty-five years, the group has taken a do-it-yourself approach to an environmental activism, bridging neighborhood, global justice, and occupy movements. With roots in the squatter movement in New York, Time's Up! has built its own distinct brand of DIY urbanism to fight for community gardens, support group bike rides, and create sustainable approaches to an urban living. While the group makes use of a wide range of approaches to reclaim public space, direct action is its guiding principle. …

Lessons For New York: Comparative Urban Governance And The Challenge Of Climate Change, Andrea L. Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

Teaching And Learning Los Angeles Through Engagement With Ucla Library Special Collections, Kelly E. Miller, Robert D. Montoya

Urban Library Journal

This article presents a case study of how library services and special collections, in particular, can be integrated into undergraduate education by engaging strategically with a high-impact area of the curriculum and concentrating on courses related thematically to collection strengths. The goals of such engagement include enhancing student academic success and increasing the visibility and use of library services and collections. During the academic year 2012-2013, the UCLA Library's Teaching and Learning Services and Library Special Collections partnered with the Division of Undergraduate Education's Freshman Cluster Program to experiment with embedding librarians into instructional teams in order to improve students' …

Can We Get Along, Long Enough To Collaborate?, Martha Lucia Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Successful collaborations take effort. This study analyzed the process followed by 20 groups of diverse professions that were brought together to solve a community health problem. To this goal a four part model of conflict was adapted and used to understand how conflict emerged, was managed or resolved. The model allowed for the identification of five routes to conflict. Conflict was either averted or managed constructively by most of the groups and a set of productive behaviors is associated with this ability. Experienced collaborators utilize these behaviors at various times throughout the collaborative process to promote group cohesion and the …

Social Aspects Of Developing And Sustaining Voluntarily Reduced Consumption Activity In New York City, Kirsten B. Firminger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the social aspects of voluntarily reduced consumption activity using the principles of cultural historical activity theory. Voluntarily buying less is viewed as ongoing interactive social process that is initiated and sustained as individuals engage with their surroundings. Data was collected from 320 online survey respondents living in the New York City Metro area, followed by a purposeful sampling of 24 participants for in-person, follow up interviews. Interviews revealed the social contextual influences on initiating voluntarily reduced consumption activity. For example, family experiences, personal life changes, and historical events played a role in individuals' choice to voluntarily buy …

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

Creating Collections Through Collaboration: An Innovative Digital Library Project In Monteverde, Costa Rica, Laurie Kutner, Cindy Dykes, Stefanie Havelka

Publications and Research

The proposed presentation will focus on a successful cross-cultural and cross-institutional collaborative model, involving four institutions, that was developed to create digital library collections of research-based information generated in the Monteverde Zone in Costa Rica. Addressing a need for the Monteverde community to have easy access to locally-produced research-based information, the digital collections contain unpublished research documents produced by area international study programs focusing on local sustainable community development, community health, and tropical ecology.

Each summer, since 2008, LIS graduate student interns from Syracuse University have spent 5-6 weeks on site at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica, working to …

In Transit Vol 5 Spring 2011, Laguardia Community College

LaGuardia Community College Publications

In Transit is the LaGuardia Journal on Teaching and Learning. It is published by the Center for Teaching and Learning at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY.

Development Of A Green Roof Environmental Monitoring And Meteorological Network In New York City, Stuart R. Gaffin, Reza Khanbilvardi, Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publications and Research

Green roofs (with plant cover) are gaining attention in the United States as a versatile new environmental mitigation technology. Interest in data on the environmental performance of these systems is growing, particularly with respect to urban heat island mitigation and stormwater runoff control. We are deploying research stations on a diverse array of green roofs within the New York City area, affording a new opportunity to monitor urban environmental conditions at small scales. We show some green roof systems being monitored, describe the sensor selection employed to study energy balance, and show samples of selected data. These roofs should be …

Development Of A Green Roof Environmental Monitoring And Meteorological Network In New York City, Stuart R. Gaffin, Reza Khanbilvardi, Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publications and Research

Green roofs (with plant cover) are gaining attention in the United States as a versatile new environmental mitigation technology. Interest in data on the environmental performance of these systems is growing, particularly with respect to urban heat island mitigation and stormwater runoff control. We are deploying research stations on a diverse array of green roofs within the New York City area, affording a new opportunity to monitor urban environmental conditions at small scales. We show some green roof systems being monitored, describe the sensor selection employed to study energy balance, and show samples of selected data. These roofs should be …

The Greening Of Community Economic Development: Disputes From New York City, Carmen Huertas-Noble, Jessica Rose, Brian Glick

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Domestic Violence Services And Advocacy, Julie Goldscheid

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Creating Collaborative Partnerships To Support Teacher Growth: Mapping The Partnership Process, Lynda Kennedy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The urban setting has tremendous resources for the support of teaching and learning social studies and history but many teachers do not know how to make use of them. Collaborations centered on teacher professional development between cultural institutions such as museums, historical societies, historic houses, libraries, etc., universities and k-12 schools can create wider communities of practice that can support the professional growth of history and social studies teachers from their pre-service education throughout their careers.

This qualitative case study - grounded in the social/historical context of teacher education and a century of history/social studies pedagogy both in school and …

The Rise Of Private Equity Media Ownership In The United States: A Public Interest Perspective, Matthew Crain

Publications and Research

This article examines the logic, scope, and implications of the influx of private equity takeovers in the United States media sector in the last decade. The strategies and aims of private equity firms are explained in the context of the financial landscape that has allowed them to flourish; their aggressive expansion into media ownership is outlined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the public interest concerns raised by private equity media ownership relating to the frenzied nature of the buyout market, profit maximization strategies, and the heavy debt burdens imposed on acquired firms. The article concludes with discussion of …

Environmental Politics In Paradise: Resistance To The Selling Of Vieques, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

The most notable instance of a massive and successful social protest in Puerto Rico in recent years has been on the island of Vieques between 1999 and 2003. This was a rare case in which Puerto Ricans were able to overcome their partisan divisions to end the U.S. Navy's 60 years of training on this small, 51- square-mile island off the main island's east coast. Part of the reason for the Vieques victory, including gaining support from some influential U.S. politicians, was that leaders framed the protest in terms of human rights, public health and environmental degradation rather than Yanqui …

Placeworx: A Model To Foster Youth Engagement And Empowerment, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Atanacio Gonzalez

Publications and Research

The Placeworx project is an innovative community-university partnership between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum located in Pilsen, the heart of Chicago's Mexican community. This field report describes a participatory research initiative that created opportunities and spaces for young people to creatively participate in planning the future of their community. The Placeworx project offers a model for engaging and empowering young participants. The participants used a variety of communicative tools and techniques to describe community assets as well their concerns about rapid urban development and gentrification in their immediate neighborhood. Based on our …

Social Capital: Lessons From A Service-Learning Program, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

In an increasingly complex society, public administrators continue to pursue their ultimate goal of maintaining a democratic society. Confronted with decreasing civic engagement and social capital, universities are being sought as partners in the movement to address our faltering democracy. University based service-learning programs provide an opportunity to address our faltering democracy, while addressing the University mission of service to the community. Empirical research, using CASE, the Rutgers University service-learning program, was conducted to further explore the possibility (D’Agostino 2006).

“Peace Is More Than The End Of Bombing”: The Second Stage Of The Vieques Struggle, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

The nature of colonialism in Puerto Rico has caused most political issues to be viewed within the framework of status politics. In the first stage of the struggle to expel the U.S. Navy from the island (1999–2003), civil society in Puerto Rico united when the issues were reframed with links not to status politics but to human rights and social justice. Viequenses symbolized for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, on the mainland, and in the world at large the costs of military colonialism. In the second stage of the struggle, since the military’s departure, Viequenses have struggled to control the …

The Invisible Can Or, Gendering Corporate Globalization Trouble: Technological Utopianism And The Language Of Erasure, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

In the following, noted science fiction scholar Marleen S. Barr argues for an increased attention to science fiction as a literature of the potentials of globalization, a genre that has largely been marginalized in discussions of the future of a globalized techno-culture. Further, Barr argues for greater attention being paid to feminist utopian fiction which helps to reimagine women's roles in the increasingly complex, and increasingly capitalistic, globalized techno-culture that has continued to marginalize the female body (and consciousness) in much the same way that scholars have denied the possibilities of utopian science fiction.