Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Detroit Regional Analysis: Demographics, Economy, Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Merissa Piazza, Joan Chase, Chang-Shik Song, Elorm Tsegah, Ziona Austrian

Ziona Austrian

No abstract provided.

Minority Participation In Technology Based Growth Industries In Northeast Ohio, Merissa Piazza, Elorm Tsegah, Ziona Austrian, Ellen Cyran

Ziona Austrian

No abstract provided.

Maintain, Demolish, Re‐Purpose: Policy Design For Vacant Land Management Using Decision Models, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Alma Hallulli

Michael P. Johnson

Neighborhoods, cities, regions and countries face sustained economic and population decline, due to lower population growth rates, deindustrialization and sustained disinvestment, and the housing foreclosure crisis. Planners increasingly see ‘decline’ as something to plan for: a place may lose population while ensuring a high quality of life and enhanced social value (Delken 2008, Hollander 2010). Growth-oriented planning continues to maintain its hegemony over local government decision-making. Can decision models help planners devise strategies that will maximize the social value of managed decline?

Cornering The Black Market: A Role For The Corner Store In Community Development, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

This paper addresses these important themes by examining the impact of corner stores in two American cities: Buffalo, New York and Atlanta, Georgia. The paper illustrates how corner stores can effectively address unique demands in urban niche markets and the problems and possibilities these approaches present. The paper puts these developments into a historical, economic and spatial context that illustrates how neighborhood stores emerge and the dynamics of race, economics, and geography that they engage. Finally, the paper illustrates several models for effective small propriety grocers that specifically address issues of economic disparity and racial divisions, illustrating how these examples …

Nonpunctuated And Sweeping Policy Change: Bhutan Tobacco Policy Making From 1991 To 2009, Michael S. Givel

Michael S. Givel

This paper examines policy outputs associated with the 2004 Bhutan antitobacco law, including 2009 amendments, to determine if the law is congruent with punctuated equilibrium or social policy realism theories of policy change. There was no direct and sudden tobacco policy output change in Bhutan due to a shock to the policy system contrary to what punctuated equilibrium theory would predict. Rather, policy change was sweeping but nonpunctuated. This paper reconfirms prior findings of social policy realism theory that various and complex policy output patterns occur due to a mixture of contingent and complex factors. Under social policy realism, a …

What Is A Strategic Acquisition? Decision Modeling In Support Of Foreclosed Housing Redevelopment, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Rachel B. Drew, Jeffrey Keisler, David Turcotte

Michael P. Johnson

This paper describes and develops a model for calculating location-based strategic values of foreclosed properties considered for acquisition and redevelopment by community development corporations (CDCs). A property’s strategic value refers to its proximity to site-specific neighborhood amenities and disamenities (e.g. schools, public transit, distressed properties), given the relative importance of that proximity to CDC organizational and community objectives. We operationalize the concept of strategic value, and apply this concept to a salient public sector decision problem. Using data and value assessments from a CDC engaged in foreclosed housing redevelopment, we compute measures of strategic value for a set of acquisition …

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 …

Chagrin River Watershed Partners Needs Assessment And Service Strategy, Daila Shimek

Daila Shimek

This report describes the needs identified by member communities and organizations of the Chagrin River Watershed Partners (CRWP) that could be adopted by CRWP as part of its service strategy. The results suggest that members are pleased with the services provided by CRWP. Additional needs fell into one of eight categories: (1) Information, education, and training, (2) Planning, development, redevelopment, and resolutions/ordinances, (3) Funding and grants, (4) Technical assistance, (5) Regulations and requirements, (6) Storm water infrastructure maintenance, (7) Providing a strategic role in helping manage the watershed, and (8) Managing relationships.

Decison Models For Housing And Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Values, Objectives, And Decisions: Using Community-Based Operations Research For Neighborhood Redevelopment, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Rachel B. Drew, Jeffrey Keisler, David Turcotte

Jeffrey Keisler

In this presentation we describe an application of value-focused thinking and decision analysis to the design and evaluation of strategies for housing development especially in urban communities affected by the ongoing foreclosure crisis. This is part of a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary effort to study decision processes of community development corporations (CDCs) acquiring and redeveloping foreclosed properties for neighborhood stabilization.

Values, Objectives, And Decisions: Using Community-Based Operations Research For Neighborhood Redevelopment, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Rachel B. Drew, Jeffrey Keisler, David Turcotte

Michael P. Johnson

In this presentation we describe an application of value-focused thinking and decision analysis to the design and evaluation of strategies for housing development especially in urban communities affected by the ongoing foreclosure crisis. This is part of a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary effort to study decision processes of community development corporations (CDCs) acquiring and redeveloping foreclosed properties for neighborhood stabilization.

An Assessment Of The Influence Of Advertisement On Patronage Of Beauty Care Products In Lokoja Metropolis, Kogi State, Nigeria, Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

In order to survive and successfully operate in a competitive environment, makers of beauty care products attach great importance to advertising products. The essence of advertising product is to provide consumers with product information as well as persuading them to buy. The consumers of beauty care products on the other hand dissect relevant information passed on in an advertisement in order to meet their beauty needs. The article intends to find out consumers expectations from beauty care products, and what aspect of advertisement influences patronage of beauty care products of their choice. It is also aimed at determining the extent …

An Investigation Of Causal Relationship Between Fiscal Deficits, Economic Growth And Money Supply In Nigeria (1970-2009), Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

This study posits to investigate the relationship between fiscal deficits, economic growth and money supply in Nigeria. In Nigeria, huge fiscal deficits had been recorded over some years. What has been the nature of the relationship between fiscal deficits, economic growth and money supply in Nigeria? To answer this question, Granger causality test was conducted to see whether fiscal deficits granger cause economic growth and money supply or economic growth and money supply granger cause fiscal deficits. The results show that fiscal deficits granger causes economic growth and broad money supply in Nigeria. This implies that fiscal deficits positively affect …

How Can Diversity Management Make A Difference? Massachusetts' Commonwealth Compact Initiative, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Georgianna Melendez

Michael P. Johnson

Commonwealth Compact is a unique membership-driven diversity initiative. Commonwealth Compact combines a practitioner focus on best practices and systems change and an academic grounding in theory, data and analysis. We argue that evaluating the social benefits and costs of programs like Commonwealth Compact is difficult but essential, and provide a conceptual framework for doing so.

Michael Johnson Research Profile, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

This document summarizes my disciplinary training and my research products.

Low Wage Earners And Low Wage Jobs In Greater Boston, Anneta Argyres, Brandynn Holgate, Susan Moir

Susan Moir

Anybody who has ever been employed can readily list the qualities of a good job. Some are easily identified factors, such as good wages, health benefits, paid sick and vacation time, and a pension plan. Others are harder to measure, such as job security, reasonable workloads, flexible work schedules, workplace safety and health, or being treated with respect. In either case, it’s clear that job quality is something to which every working person pays attention. We should also be concerned about job quality as a society. A society that is characterized by jobs with family sustaining wages and benefits will …

Finger Lickin’ Good: An Analytical Investigation Into The Urban Diet, Jennifer T.R. Tomlinson

Jennifer T.R. Tomlinson

In this analysis, the origins, customs and implications of fast-food culture will be explored with important focus on the customs of fast-food urban eating. Research indicates that lower-income urban areas are more likely to consume fast-food. The high consumption of fast-food subsequently results in the development of social and economical implications, which include health implications, economic dilemmas, a disconnection between consumers and their consumption and issues of social classification. This analysis also explores the customs of fast-food culture of Pine Hills, Florida with added emphasis on Pine Hills’ cultural uniqueness.

Community-Engaged Decision Support For Foreclosed Housing Acquisition And Redevelopment In Boston, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

This project develops decision tools and analytical methods to help non‐profit community development corporations (CDCs) acquire and redevelop foreclosed housing for neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. Interviews and direct observations at partner CDCs have helped us identify current practices, data and requirements for our decision models. Problem‐structuring methods through CDC focus groups have generated core operational and organizational objectives. Spreadsheet‐ and optimization based decision models generate policy and operational alternatives that address multiple resident and community outcomes. Our research will support efficient responses to the recent foreclosure crisis, especially in distressed neighborhoods, and suggest policy implications at local and national levels.

Public Policy Phd Program 2012 Policies And Procedures Manual (Draft), Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Policies and procedures manual for the Public Policy PhD program, Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts Boston. Covers courses, concentrations, candidacy requirements, procedures for completing the PhD. Includes forms and supporting documents.

From The Quadrangle To The River: Revitalizing The Heart Of Downtown Springfield, Mary F. Dehais, Yuanfang Gong, John E. Hulsey, Pamela Jo Landi, Adam G. Monroy, Seth A. Morrow, Alexander G. Seib, Jie Su, Kate A. Tooke, Owen M. White, Emily S. Wright, Kuang Xin, Xiao Zhou

Mary Dehais

This studio report explores community service learning in the graduate urban design studio taught in the in Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and instructed by Professor Frank Sleegers. The project will began with a visioning workshop, conducted to engage community members in the shaping of project goals and objectives within the project area of downtown Springfield. These findings were brought to the studio and guided the design process and outcomes. Five design teams developed five alternative master plans for the core area of downtown Springfield with focus on the revitalization of open …

Book Review On Gordon Mathews. Ghetto At The Center Of The World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong., Leung-Sea, Lucia Siu

Prof. SIU Leung-sea, Lucia

No abstract provided.

Mixed Immigration Status Households In The Context Of Arizona’S Anti-Immigrant Policies, Anna O. Oleary, Azucena Sanchez

Anna Ochoa OLeary

Although the seeds of legislated restrictions for immigrants can be traced to 1986 with California’s unsuccessful Prop 187, more recent trends epitomized by Arizona’s proposed Senate Bill 1070, signed by that state’s governor in April, 2010, have renewed concerns about the effects that such measures will have on the life and livelihood of communities that include immigrants present in the country without official authorization (“undocumented immigrants”). In this paper we use some of the results of a binational study of reproductive health care strategies to show how emerging anti-immigrant policies neglect how such policies impact mixed immigration status households, a …

Factores Que Determinan La Participación De Las Mujeres Inmigrantes En Actividades Por Cuenta Propia. Una Revisión Bibliográfica, Erika C. Montoya, Blas Valenzuela, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

En este trabajo analizamos perspectivas teóricas que no ayudan a entender la participación de las mujeres inmigrantes en la creación de autoempleo, con el fin de lograr dos objetivos: primero, determinar los factores que llevan a las mujeres inmigrantes indocumentadas a convertirse en trabajadoras por cuenta propia, y Segundo, puntualizar las condiciones específicas de género que coadyuvan a enfocarse en estas actividades.

The Scramble For Lugard House: Ethnic Identity Politics And Recurring Tensions In Kogi State, Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Successive Nigerian constitutions have always sought to legally prevent identities such as ethnic, religion, and regionalism from being the basis of political organisation and contest for state power. In Kogi state, Nigeria, the reality of the situation has been, however, far from its outward appearance. This is because, ethnic identity politics have not only proved to be resilient, but a in a wave of resurgence, have fast become a common feature in its body politics leading to incessant ethno-factionalism and tension in the state. This article explores the linkage between the nature of Nigerian democracy, ethnic identity politics, and escalating …

Boko Haram And The Recurring Bomb Attacks In Nigeria: Attempt To Impose, Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Attempt to forcefully impose religious ideology and or belief on Nigeria’s secular society is not new. The leader of the Maitatsine sectarian group attempted it in 1981 and eventually led to large scale uprisings. Since the early 1980s and 2012, Nigeria has witnessed other uncountable religious related crises. Beginning from 2009, the country once again, has been stormed by large scale and unimaginable bomb attacks by the Boko Haram movement. Although Boko Haram can be compared in terms of philosophy and objectives to the Maitatsine sectarian group, its organisational planning, armed resistance, and modus operandi is Taliban and attacks executed …

Normative Approaches To Ethnic Recognition And Accommodation:Their Applicability To The Nigerian Experience, Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

Ali Simon Yusufu Bagaji

This article explores the central theme in the normative philosophy arguments of Michael Walzer; Charles Taylor; and Will Kymlicka and their applicability to the state building processes and constitutional politics in Nigeria. The main argument of these scholars is that, in a multicultural society, equality and justice; unity and stability are likely to prevail if state building and constitutional processes of a country recognises and accommodates ethnic diversity. Critically applied, the article observes that since liberal democratic values are not well rooted in the Nigerian body politics, the specifi city of the Nigerian state would have to be recognised for …

Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

We investigate whether a more concentrated regional industrial structure – the dominance of a few large firms in a given industry in a region – limits agglomeration economies and ultimately diminishes the economic performance of firms in that industry, especially small ones. In an application to three industries using establishment-level production functions and a combination of confidential and publicly available data sources, we find a consistently negative and substantial direct productivity effect associated with regional industrial structure concentration and only mixed and relatively weak evidence that agglomeration economies are a mediating factor in that effect.

El Movimiento Ocupa Wall Street: Lecciones De Movimientos Latinoamericanos Y De Derechos De Los Inmigrantes En Eeuu, Clara Irazabal, Gabriel Fumero

Clara Irazabal

This essay shows the importance of placing Occupy Wall Street (OWS) in a global context of preceding social movements protesting against oppressive conditions from certain social groups. In particular, it suggests the opportunity that OWS has for thinking on and learning from Latin-American contestation and political projects against neoliberalism and in struggle for the rights of latina/os and immigrants in the United States. While in some Latin-American cases public protests, and in particular the occupation of public spaces, have helped in the election of political representatives who support popular agendas, in the case of recent pro-immigrant struggles in the United …

Book Review: Edward L. Glaeser, Triumph Of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, And Happier (The Penguin Press 2011), David J. Reiss

David J Reiss

It is always a bit unnerving to read someone else’s love letters, but even more so, when you have the same object of desire. Edward Glaeser’s TRIUMPH OF THE CITY is a love letter to cities and to New York City in particular. Glaeser provides a theoertical framework of the city, arguing that “Cities are the absence of physical space between people and companies. They are proximity, density, closeness.”

Glaeser prescribes three simple rules to protect the vitality of the urban environment: First, cities should replace the current lengthy and uncertain permitting process with a simple system of fees. Second, …

In Third Parties We Trust? The Growing Antitrust Impact Of Third-Party Green Building Certification Systems For State And Local Governments, Darren Prum, Robert Aalberts, Stephen Del Percio

Darren A. Prum

According to the American Institute of Architects, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of municipalities with a green building program in place since 2007. And 24 of the country's 25 largest metropolitan areas are built around a city with green building legislation on its books. Reducing buildings' environmental impact is a noble - and critical - goal. But governments' reliance on private, third-party standard-setting organizations - and the rating systems that they promulgate - as the basis for that legislation may be legally problematic.

This Article reviews one of those potentially problematic bases: antitrust. In order …