Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mountain Monitor - 2nd Quarter 2013, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Economic recovery progressed steadily across the metropolitan Mountain West in the second quarter of 2013. Many of the region’s major metro areas counted among the strongest economic performers nationally, but output growth slowed over the quarter and the region‘s unemployment recovery looked to be stagnating. Moderate job growth and a fast and accelerating housing recovery buoyed the Mountain West economy in the second quarter.

Mountain Monitor-1st Quarter 2013, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Economic recovery gained strength across the major metro areas of the Mountain West in the first quarter of 2013. Multiple metro areas achieved long-awaited full employment recoveries in the first quarter and regional production surpassed pre-recession levels of output for the first time. The region’s strong housing rebound continued to be a boon. Additionally, a special supplement to the Monitor shows that the healthcare sector has been an outsized contributor to recovery throughout the region. Despite progress on multiple fronts, though, many Mountain metro areas remain scarred with high unemployment rates, severely depressed house prices, and daunting jobs deficits.

Inclusive Business: Using For-Profit Business Models To Address Global Poverty, Samuel James Conner

Senior Honors Theses

Due to the rise of globalization, modernization, and the Internet revolution, awareness of global poverty has expanded, making its eradication a chief goal of the global development community for the twenty-first century. Though corporations are often expected to participate in social and community development initiatives without regard for profits, this paper presents inclusive business as a way for businesses to profitably engage impoverished segments of society. Inclusive businesses seek to expand their consumer bases or strengthen their supply chains by moving into new markets among the poor that have limited access to global markets and remain largely untapped. The research …

Center For Peace, Democracy, And Development, Center For Peace, Democracy, And Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development is dedicated to advancing peace, democracy, rule of law, and economic and social development in developing areas abroad.

Mirebalais, Haiti Planning Initiative, Jack Wiggin, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Mirebalais Planning Initiative (MPI), a joint project of the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston, Boston University, and the University of the West Indies, is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The initiative is a community-based participatory planning process designed to expand community leadership and decision-making capacity among community members in Mirebalais, Haiti.

People And Place: Understanding The Processes, Outcomes And Impacts Of Interventions Of The Fairmount Corridor Initiative, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Through a 5 year grant, the Center for Social Policy (CSP) serves as a strategic learning and evaluation partner to The Boston Foundation (TBF). TBF’s investment and people and place-based initiatives seek to make sustainable, positive change through community and economic development in neighborhoods along the Fairmount-Indigo transit line in Boston. From 2010-2012, the Center team worked closely with Mattapan United and Millennium 10 (in Codman Square/Four Corners) to identify community priorities for neighborhood change. From 2013-2015, the Center team is evaluating these neighborhood change efforts, as well as other initiatives aimed at increasing economic well-being for neighborhood residents. The …

School For Global Inclusion And Social Development: Expanding The Umass Boston Community On A Regional, National, And International Level, David Temelini, Institute For Community Inclusion, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The School for Global Inclusion and Social Development (SGISD) is the newest graduate school at UMass Boston. We are the first graduate program in the world to focus on wellness, disability, and economic development from an international perspective. The first students in our master's program will start classes in January 2014, with our PhD program to launch in September 2014. SGISD's emphasis is on groups of people who are excluded from communities here in the U.S. and abroad, due to disability or other conditions. Instruction will be delivered on campus, online, and through international exchange programs.

Global Patterns In Overweight Among Children And Mothers In Less Developed Countries, Jennifer Van Hook, Claire E. Altman, Kelly Stamper Balistreri

Sociology Faculty Publications

Objective: Past research has identified increases in national income and urbanization as key drivers of the global obesity epidemic. That work further identified educational attainment and urban residence as important moderators of the effects of national income. However, such work has tended to assume that children and adults respond in the same way to these factors. In the present paper, we evaluate how the socio-economic and country-level factors associated with obesity differ between children and their mothers. Design: We modelled the associations between maternal education, country-level income and urban residence with mother's and children's weight status. Setting We analysed ninety-five …

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2012, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Indicators of economic recovery depicted continued progress in the major metropolitan areas of the Mountain West in the fourth quarter of 2012. The region’s employment recovery gained momentum, and solid home-price increases in the region contributed to the nation‘s broader housing recovery. Such inroads bode well for further advances in 2013. At the same time, the region’s output recovery slowed and unemployment refused to budge.

Culture, Reform Politics, And Future Directions: A Review Of China’S Animal Protection Challenge, Peter J. Li, Gareth Davey

Animal Welfare Collection

Incidents of animal abuse in China attract worldwide media attention. Is China culturally inclined to animal cruelty, or is the country’s development strategy a better explanation? This article addresses the subject of animal protection in China, a topic that has been ignored for too long by Western China specialists. A review of ancient Chinese thought asks whether China lacks a legacy of compassion for animals. The article then considers how China’s reform politics underlie the animal welfare crisis. Through its discussion of the welfare crisis impacting nonhuman animals in China, this paper sheds light on the enormity of the country’s …

Towards Aid Effectiveness : Contested Theories And Concepts : A Case Study Of Ghana’S Community–Based Rural Development Project, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The discussion of aid effectiveness continues to gain prominence in international development policy discourse and analysis. However, the question of why aid seems to be ineffective is far more complicated and remains largely unanswered. While the notions that aid drives donors’ interests and creates dependency are still relevant, this thesis confronts the problem, by examining the issues that influenced the operationalisation and effectiveness of aid programs in the context of Ghana’s Community-Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) (2005-2011). By arguing that aid dependency and “aid as a concept” are different, the thesis makes the most basic assumption that ‘aid’ is not …

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2012, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

The major metropolitan areas of the Intermountain West finally put the housing bust behind them in the third quarter of 2012 and in most places made solid progress. House prices rose in all 10 major metropolitan markets in the months from June to September for the first time since the recession began. Likewise, output growth accelerated and the unemployment rate continued to fall. Unfortunately none of this prevented the region’s already feeble jobs recovery from slowing.

Mountain Monitor-2nd Quarter 2012, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Data for the second quarter of 2012 reveal that the large metropolitan areas of the Mountain region were undergoing some of both the strongest and weakest economic recoveries in the nation—even as the pace of recovery across the region as a whole slackened. The result is a new geography. Crash-blasted Boise and Phoenix, along with Utah’s metropolitan areas, are now recovering relatively strongly while Colorado’s metropolitan areas and Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Tucson struggle.

Mountain Monitor-1st Quarter 2012, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

For three years now the Mountain Monitor — Brookings Mountain West’s Mountain Zone variant of Brookings’ MetroMonitor — has been tracking the region’s protracted, in-most-places anemic, economic recovery. Quarter-to-quarter, the Monitor has reported on a slow healing of the region’s metropolitan economies that has differed starkly from the region’s past boom-bust cycles.

Overview Of Economic Development, Don Macke, Nancy Arnold, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Independent Living and Community Participation

Economic development is a vast concept with an abundance of meanings depending upon the audience. A widely accepted view of economic development is as follows: In the United States with our market economy focus, economic development typically centers on increasing private business activity as a way to increase new investment, job creation and tax base expansion. Economies and economic development should serve the needs of residents and society through the creation of meaningful work. (RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, 2005) Historically, rehabilitation worked to restore as much lost function as possible so that a person with a disability could engage …

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2011, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Recovery was firmly underway in the Intermountain West by the fourth quarter of 2011 but its pace varied considerably across the region’s 10 major metropolitan areas. Six of the 10 metros saw job growth in the fourth quarter but only four saw it accelerate over the previous one. Output grew everywhere but only in half of the region’s metros did the pace of growth quicken. The unemployment rate was down across the board from one year earlier. House prices in most markets stabilized. Yet signs of a robust, sustained, and self-fueling recovery remained elusive.

National economic indicators from early 2012 …

U.S. Student Achievement From A Global Perspective, Thomas Loveless

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Tom Loveless, a former sixth-grade teacher and Harvard public policy professor, is an expert on student achievement, education policy, and reform in K-12 schools. He also is a member of the National Math Advisory Panel. What do we know about U.S. students' academic achievement compared to students in other countries? The talk will present the latest evidence on U.S. performance on international tests and examine long term trends. In addition, the performance of Nevada and Las Vegas students will be reviewed in the context of national and international assessments.

L’Essor Et Le Déclin De L’Occident: Une Perspective Géographique (The Rise And Fall Of The West: A Geographical Perspective), Nicole Andréa Mathys, Jean-Marie Grether, Claude Lutzelschwab

Nicole Andréa Mathys

This paper proposes a new representation of the worldwide distribution of human population and economic activity over two millennia. Combining the Maddison and the G-Econ databases, it tracks the evolution of the world’s demographic and economic centers of gravity during the 1-2010 period. The distributional and temporal patterns that emerge are clear and contrasted, with a stable East- Asian predominance during the first eighteen centuries, followed by a boomerang-like westward shift during the last two centuries. New turning points are identified, suggesting that the reversal of the Western shift occurred as early as the 1920s in demographic terms and in …

Attraction And Retention—Maine’S Challenge, Ed Cervone

Maine Policy Review

In the Margaret Chase Smith Essay Ed Cervone, Presdent/CEO of the Maine Development Foundation, discusses Maine’s demographic challenges in attracting and retaining population if the state is to grow its economy and sustain that growth. He makes recommendations for attracting a larger, younger, and more diverse population.

Maestros To Multipliers: Exploring The Evolution Of Public Sector Innovation Intermediation And Governance (A Case Study Of Greater Manchester, 2003-2011), Martin Wain

Martin Wain

There has been a trend within the last decade, observable to economic development practitioners, for innovation becoming increasingly integrated into and central to mainstream economic development. To date it can be seen across all areas of economic development, including factors of competitiveness and competitive advantage, to the attraction and retention of talent. Arguably, this extends the policy recommendations and implications of innovation from competitiveness and growth to the perceived dynamicity and attractiveness of a locale to potential inward investors and upwardly mobile entrepreneurs.

This dissertation explores the evolution of innovation policy, through design and implementation, over a nine-year period. The …

Mountain Monitor-2nd Quarter 2011, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Data through the second quarter of 2011 raise new questions about the pace and certainty of recovery in the Intermountain West. Even places like Denver, Colorado Springs, and Ogden—which only suffered mild setbacks in the early quarters of the recession—have stagnated in the wake of the nation’s worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Output and employment increased hesitantly in eight of the 10 major metros of the Intermountain West in the second quarter while the housing market slumped to new lows everywhere.

Mountain Monitor-1st Quarter 2011, Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri, Jonathan Rothwell

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

The pace of economic recovery slowed in the large metros of the Intermountain West in the first quarter of 2011. Widespread but slowing output growth was coupled with much slower improvement in the labor market, where for the first time the region’s unemployment rate edged above the nation’s. The weight of a still-depressed housing market slowed recovery further. Overall, the differing courses of the region’s 10 major metro economies since the beginning of the recession can be characterized by relatively strong bouncebacks to the north and east of the region and more sluggish and protracted slogs to the south and …

Warren County Citizens For Managed Growth (Mss 355), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 355. By-laws, minutes, newsletters, correspondence and other material related to WCCMG, an organization founded to deter development of the Kentucky Trimodal Transpark, located near the rural community of Oakland in Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes information about Oakland, Kentucky. A bibliography of newspaper articles about the Kentucky Trimodal Transpark is included. To access the bibliography click on "Additional File" below.

Economic Development At The Cost Of Indigenous Land, Brian Chama

Ethnic Studies Review

The notion of economic development has affected the general welfare of indigenous groups worldwide. The major conflict has been on land ownership claims on which they have occupied for many years and government quest to bring about economic development. The indigenous groups have struggled to retain their lands despite appealing to both customary and international laws. The paper argues as to whether customary law and international law are vital sources for indigenous land claims. It also presents empirical cases to land claims while making these arguments within the context of economic development.

"Is The Concept Of A Green Economy A Useful Way Of Framing Policy Discussions And Policymaking To Promote Sustainable Development?", Sheng Fulai, Gary Flomenhoft, Timothy Downs, Maángeles Grande-Ortiz, Dana Graef, Bert Scholtens, Arthur P.J. Mol, David Sonnenfeld, Gert Spaargaren, Rajeev Goel, Edward W.T. Hsieh, Serban Scrieciu, Reinhard Steurer, Christine Polzin, Genia Kostka, Tiho Ancev, Elke Pirgmaier, Frank Boons, Karl Henrik Robèrt, Christopher Bryant, Ke Zhou, Surya Raj Acharya, David Huberman, Denis Sonwa, Michelle Mycoo, Dabo Guan, Klaus Hubacek, U. Rashid Sumaila, Hector Lopez-Ruiz, G. Jason Jolley, Michael Dougherty, André Francisco Pilon, Ravi Prakash

Sustainability and Social Justice

In this article, the authors discuss the use of green economy to promote sustainable development. Research and Partnerships Unit Head Sheng Fulai states that sustainable development is composed of economic, social and environmental development. Furthermore, it features Research and Partnerships associate Gary Flomenhoft who believes that green economy is useful when it deals with factors such as distribution of wealth and throughput of materials and energy.

Cross-Scale Value Trade-Offs In Managing Social-Ecological Systems: The Politics Of Scale In Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, Asim Zia, Paul Hirsch, Alexander Songorwa, David R. Mutekanga, Sheila O'Connor, Thomas Mcshane, Peter Brosius, Bryan Norton

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Management of social-ecological systems takes place amidst complex governance processes and cross-scale institutional arrangements that are mediated through politics of scale. Each management scenario generates distinct cross-scale trade-offs in the distribution of pluralistic values. This study explores the hypothesis that conservation-oriented management scenarios generate higher value for international and national scale social organizations, whereas mixed or more balanced management scenarios generate higher value for local scale social organizations. This hypothesis is explored in the management context of Ruaha National Park (RNP), Tanzania, especially the 2006 expansion of RNP that led to the eviction of many pastoralists and farmers. Five management …

Strengthening Greater Manchester's Economic Base Through Science, Innovation And Research And Development: Report Of Panel, Manchester Developmental Panel

Martin Wain

This report offers the findings and conclusions of the Developmental Panel, which visited Greater Manchester at the invitation of the Commission for the New Economy and the Northern Way. The Panel’s goal was to inform thinking about how Greater Manchester can strengthen its economic base through science, innovation, and research and development in a context of economic and structural change. The Panel visited Manchester on February 23rd and 24th, 2011, meeting with representatives of public, private, university, community and other organisations engaged in innovation, business, and economic development in Greater Manchester. The Panel is grateful for the time and co-operation …

From The Alliance Of Economies To The Alliance Of Civilizations: Turkey's Strategic Role And Importance, Murat Doral

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In "The Clash of Civilizations;' Huntington hypothesized that the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between groups of different civilizations, and concluded that the "clash of civilizations" will dominate global politics in the future. In addition, Huntington declared Turkey as one of the "torn countries" and tried to make connections between its Muslim identity and its delayed ED membership. The growing trade and investments volume tell us that regardless of our differences, people around the world understand the benefits of economic cooperation and would prefer this route to starting a war of civilizations.

Mountain Monitor-1st Quarter 2010, Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Where are the jobs? That anxious question pervading national discussions of the Great Recession and its aftermath is becoming acute in the Intermountain West. Not only has the region’s usual faster-than-the-nation employment snapback after recessions failed to materialize this time around. What is more, the Mountain region’s halting economic recovery in some ways actually weakened in the first three months of 2010 as reports this new edition of the Mountain Monitor, a quarterly report produced by Brookings Mountain West, a partnership between Brookings and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and a companion product to Brookings national MetroMonitor. Drawing …

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2009, Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

The Mountain West’s recovery from the Great Recession is spreading. Output is growing in every metropolitan area. Still, hiring remains elusive—a fact frustrating the entire nation, but perhaps more so in a region used to snapping, even roaring, back from recessions faster than the rest of the nation. Drawing on data covering the fourth quarter of 2009 (ending in December), this new Mountain Monitor—a companion product to Brookings’ national MetroMonitor and a quarterly resource produced by Brookings Mountain West, a partnership between Brookings and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas—surveys a region that is at once recovering and still …