Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Power Of Fission: How The Discovery Of Fission Adversely Affected Us/Soviet Relations, Kathy Shinnick

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

In 1940 FDR told the leading Western scientists that they were not responsible for the way science was being used to perpetuate oppressive world domination. He went on to convince them that while they could not trust Hitler to use their knowledge towards positive means, they could trust the United States to forward the values of world peace.

In light of the events that followed from that speech in 1940 to the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945, without informing the Soviet Union, this pivotal moment insights a series of questions concerning the ways in which the United States’ …

The Human Flesh Search Engine: Democracy, Censorship, And Political Participation In Twenty-First Century China, Vincent Capone

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The Human Flesh Search Engine is a recent, unique phenomenon on the Chinese internet. Comprising of thousands of forum, micro-blog, and entertainment websites and mobilizing the overwhelming number of Chinese internet users, or netizens, the search engine is able to quickly find obscure information and identify seemingly anonymous internet personalities. These websites allow netizens to have their voices heard in an otherwise restrictive government, however these websites also become a hotbed for dissent, with web users highlighting stories and figures which they deem harmful to society. Through clever investigative work, netizens hunt down an individual's identity with the goal of …

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

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

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.

A Comparison Of Dsm-Iv And Dsm-5 Panel Members’ Financial Associations With Industry: A Pernicious Problem Persists, Lisa Cosgrove, Sheldon Krimsky

Counseling, School Psychology & Sport Faculty Publication Series

All medical subspecialties have been subject to increased scrutiny about the ways by which their financial associations with industry, such as pharmaceutical companies, may influence, or give the appearance of influencing, recommendations in review articles and clinical practice guidelines. Psychiatry has been at the epicenter of these concerns, in part because of high-profile cases involving ghostwriting and failure to report industry-related income, and studies highlighting conflicts of interest in promoting psychotropic drugs. The revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), scheduled for publication in May 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), has created a firestorm of controversy …

Research To Practice: The 2010–2011 National Survey Of Community Rehabilitation Providers Report 1: Overview Of Services, Trends And Provider Characteristics, Daria Domin, John Butterworth

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This the first in a series of research to practice briefs based on the 2010–2011 National Survey of Community Rehabilitation Providers (CRPs) funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities and the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. This brief presents findings on people with all disabilities and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who are served in employment and non-work settings by community rehabilitation providers (CRPs). The last national comprehensive survey of CRPs conducted by the Institute for Community Inclusion was in 2002–2003, and also gathered data on provider services for individuals with disabilities (Metzel et al., 2007). …

Data Note: State Intellectual And Developmental Disability Agencies’ Service Trends, Jean E. Winsor

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

In FY2010, an estimated 566,188 individuals received day or employment supports from state intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) agencies. This number grew from 458,650 in FY1999, a 23.4 percent increase. The estimated number of individuals supported in integrated employment services increased from 108,296 in FY1999 to 113,937 in FY2010, a 5.2% increase. State investment in supports continues to emphasize facility-based and non-work services rather than integrated employment services.

Brief 5: Enhancing Environmental Governance For Sustainable Development: Function-Oriented Options, John E. Scanlon

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, is likely to determine the future direction of the institutional framework for sustainable development and for international environmental governance. As States move towards the ‘sharp end’ of their negotiations, it is important to analyse some of the risks and benefits of the identified options for the reform of international environmental governance and offer pragmatic ideas on how to make best use of existing resources and structures.

Massachusetts Immigrants By The Numbers, Second Edition: Demographic Characteristics And Economic Footprint, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Paul Watanabe

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

With this update to the original groundbreaking study of Massachusetts Immigrants by the Numbers in 2009, we continue to focus on the economic and social contributions that immigrants have made in building the vibrant Massachusetts economy. It shows that, despite heightened public debate, the demographic characteristics and economic trends of the state’s immigrant population have remained largely unchanged. Immigrants continue to have a positive impact on the Commonwealth.

Data Note: Vr Outcome Trends And The Recent Decline In Employment For Vr Customers With Intellectual Disabilities, Frank A. Smith, John Butterworth, Daria Domin, Allison Cohen Hall

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Most people with intellectual disabilities (ID) aspire to gainful employment. To assist them with this goal, state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies offer employment services based upon Individualized Plans for Employment (IPEs). A commonly used measure of outcomes is the rehabilitation rate, defined as the percentage of individuals who achieve employment out of all individuals whose cases were closed after receiving services. This indicator, however, neglects to consider that not all eligible individuals progress to receive services. This Data Note explores trends in VR closure status for individuals with ID.

Low-Wage And Low-Income Workers In The U.S., 1979-2009, Randy Albelda, Michael Carr

Center for Social Policy Publications

Three decades of stagnating earnings for bottom decides of male wage earners and 1990s anti-poverty policies promoting employment among poor single mothers suggest increases in the ranks of low-wage breadwinners living in low-income households. Low-wage workers often get few employer sponsored benefits, while antipoverty programs target poor non-earners; these factors suggest low-wage and low-income workers may be unprotected by employer or government supports. Using the Annual Economic and Social Extracts of the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1980-2010, the authors explore changes in low-income and low-wage earners by gender and family status. The authors find a growth in low-wage and …

Brief 4: Lessons From The Multilateral Trading System For Reforming The Architecture Of The International Environmental Regime, Thomas Cottier, Manfred Elsig, Judith Wehrli

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

Recent studies on environmental regimes suggest that important lessons and policy recommendations may be drawn from the functioning of the multilateral trading regime. This brief compares the needs and goals of the trade and environment regimes, and discusses how insights from over sixty years of experience of the multilateral trading system might provide ideas for redesigning the architecture of the international environmental regime. It further calls for a better dialogue and improved complementarities between the two fields in order to enhance coherence within international law.

Organizational Assessment Of The Brookline Planning & Community Development Department, Richard Kobayashi, Monica Lamboy

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

The immediate impetus for the organizational study of the Brookline Planning & Community Development Department (Department) was concern about the appropriate role for the Town in supporting the local business community, in particular whether the role performed by the Commercial Areas Coordinator position should continue.

In addition, the Town needed advice about the appropriate strategy for the Town to maintain planning and development services and staffing in light of the long‐term decline in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. Since its passage in 1974, CDBG has been a principal component of the Department’s financial architecture and a significant portion of …

Increasing Consumer Involvement In Medicaid Nursing Facility Reimbursement: Lessons From New York And Minnesota, Edward Alan Miller, Cynthia Rudder

Gerontology Institute Publications

Medicaid is the major purchaser of nursing home care in the United States. States design their methods of reimbursing nursing homes to achieve desired policy objectives related to facility cost and quality, access to care, payment equity, service capacity, and budgetary control. The incorporation of multiple, sometimes conflicting incentives into state reimbursement systems has resulted in enormously complex and demanding methodologies that inhibit consumer participation in state rating setting decisions. In turn, the lack of consumer involvement has the potential to result in the adoption of reimbursement systems that favor industry and government interests at the expense of issues important …

Introduction, Barbara Lewis

Trotter Review

What is the political valence of blackness at the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century; has it waxed or waned? Is it headed to greater potency or back into the dark days of the past when complexion determined the worth of character? Major political advances have been achieved nationally in the last ten years, most significantly in the election of the nation’s first African American president. Yet a resistant status quo remains. The push to unseat President Obama is virulent, and it is hard to imagine that all of the motivation to do so is tied only …

Governor Deval Patrick And The Representation Of Massachusetts’ Black Interests, Ravi K. Perry

Trotter Review

This article examines the rhetorical strategies and legislative initiatives of Deval Patrick and his efforts to represent black interests in Massachusetts. Utilizing speech content analysis, census data, interview data, and archives of executive and legislative actions, the article identifies that Massachusetts’ only black governor has been able to advance policies and programs designed to represent black interests. The results indicate that when black interest policy actions are framed utilizing a targeted universalistic rhetorical strategy, Patrick advanced black interests as he detailed how his proposed initiatives benefited all citizens. At the state level, the finding exposes the limits of the deracialization …

Considered A Foreign Policy Neophyte, Barack Obama Emerges As One Of The Nation’S Most Competent Commanders In Chief, Howard Manly

Trotter Review

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the main criticism against Barack Obama was that he was too green to lead America’s foreign policy and military.

It was a charge that Republican conservatives made against Democratic candidates with predictable frequency and had become a proven winning strategy after Ronald Reagan steamrolled perceived military bumbler Jimmy Carter in 1980. Conventional wisdom suggested that strategy would work even better against Obama.

In a move that foreshadowed his military decision-making, Obama authorized within the first four months of his administration the military rescue of Richard Phillips, the American sea captain taken hostage by pirates in …

Commentary: Creating A Pipeline For A More Inclusive Democracy, Joyce Ferriabough

Trotter Review

After the 2010 elections, the number of women holding elective office in Massachusetts plummeted to 1998 levels, with women comprising only 24 percent of all officeholders and 20 percent of local elected officials.

The figures for women of color who were officeholders were even starker: They held only 2 percent of elected offices, despite people of color comprising more than 20 percent of the state’s population. Women of color who are current officeholders in Massachusetts are typically the “first and only.” In the state senate, there is one woman of color, Sonia Chang-Diaz. She is the first Latina woman to …

Denver And Boston: Why One City Elects Black Mayors And The Other Has Not, Kenneth J. Cooper

Trotter Review

Denver’s population is only 10 percent black, and has never been above 12 percent in any Census, yet in July 2011 the city elected a black mayor. Michael Hancock, a former city councilman, is actually the second African-American mayor of Denver. Wellington Webb served the limit of three terms through 2003. Three of the city’s last four mayors have been of color. Federico Peña, a Mexican American, became the first in 1983.

At 24 percent, Boston’s black population is twice as large as Denver’s and has been so throughout the three decades during which Denver has sent two African Americans …

Double Jeopardy: Low-Wage And Low-Income Workers In Massachusetts, 1980–2009, Randy Albelda, Michael Carr

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Data reveal a growing number of Massachusetts workers who both earn low wages and live in low-income families. They face “double jeopardy”: As low-wage earners, they are least likely to receive employer-sponsored benefits, yet they are often ineligible for means-tested government anti-poverty programs.

Data Note: Growth In Community-Based Non-Work, Jean Winsor, John Butterworth

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Understanding the role of community-based non-work (CBNW) services is complex. While different data sources suggest different levels of investment, there is consistent evidence that the service is being used more frequently. The number of states reporting that they provide CBNW services on the IDD Agency Survey grew from 18 in FY1996 to 30 in FY2010. Nationally, the reported participation in CBNW services has grown steadily for states that report it as a service, from 18.7% in FY1999 to 47% in FY2010.

CBNW services also accounted for 57.7% of state IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disability) agency expenditures for FY2010, for states …

Relationships Among Leader-Member Exchange, Satisfaction, Productivity, And Self-Efficacy Of Rehabilitation Doctoral Students, James Soldner

School for Global Inclusion and Social Development Faculty Publications

A satisfactory relationship between doctoralstudents and their academic advisors is anessential component of successful doctoraltraining. The purpose of this study was toinvestigate the relationships between leadermemberexchange (LMX), satisfaction withtheir programs, self-efficacy, and productivityof rehabilitation doctoral students. We alsoexamined the potential effects of studentshaving advisors of a different gender orethnicity from the students’ own. Data werecollected from a nationwide sample of 101current rehabilitation doctoral studentswith at least one term of doctoral trainingexperience. An internet-based survey wasused for data collection purposes. Resultsindicated that LMX was significantlycorrelated with both satisfaction (r99  = .325,p  = .001) and self-efficacy (r99  = .262, p = .008), …

Inter-University Collaboration For Online Teaching Innovation: An Emerging Model., James Soldner

School for Global Inclusion and Social Development Faculty Publications

Distance education is constantly evolving and improving. To stay current, effective online instructorsmust utilize the most innovative, evidence-based teaching methods available to promotestudent learning and satisfaction in their courses. One emerging teaching method,referred to as blended online learning (BOL), involves collaborative education across multipleuniversity settings. In this article, we describe an inter-university educational collaboration designedto connect students from various academic institutions using the BOL teaching method.The article begins with an overview of the theoretical framework that informs the BOL method,followed by an overview of the method and its key components. Benefits of this collaborativelearning effort to students, educators, universities, and …

The Alternative Staffing Work Experience: Populations, Barriers And Employment Outcomes, Helen Levine, Brandynn Holgate, Risa Takenaka, Françoise Carré

Center for Social Policy Publications

This paper presents results of a three-year study of workers and former workers at four Alternative Staffing Organizations (ASOs). ASOs are fee-for-service job brokering businesses created by community-based organizations and national nonprofits whose objective is to gain access to temporary and “temp to permanent” opportunities for workers facing barriers to employment. The paper looks specifically at the relationship between the personal characteristics of workers, their temporary work experiences through the ASO, and the subsequent employment status of former ASO workers, determined through a follow-up survey conducted by telephone six to eight months after workers had left the ASO. We found …

Why Use The Services Of Alternative Staffing Organizations: Perspectives From Customer Businesses, Françoise Carré, Brandynn Holgate, Risa Takenaka, Helen Levine

Center for Social Policy Publications

Organizations that aim to improve the experiences and employment chances of job seekers who face barriers to employment have, over the years, had to contend directly with potential employers and their requirements. This is particularly true for community-based job brokers that use a temporary staffing model, offering job access and immediate work to their service population.

Alternative staffing organizations (ASOs) are worker-centered, social purpose businesses that place job seekers in temporary and “temp-to-perm” assignments with customer businesses, and charge their customers a markup on the wage of the position. These fee-for-service organizations can help job seekers who face labor market …

Brief 3: Clustering Assessment: Enhancing Synergies Among Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Judith Wehrli

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

Against the background of a widely fragmented and diluted international environmental governance architecture, different reform options are currently being discussed. This issue brief considers whether streamlining international environmental regimes by grouping or ‘clustering’ international agreements could improve effectiveness and efficiency. It outlines the general idea of the clustering approach, draws lessons from the chemicals and waste cluster and examines the implications and potentials of clustering multilateral environmental agreements.

Global Environmental Outlook 5, United Nations Environment Programme: Chapter 17, Global Responses, Maria Ivanova, Ivar Baste, Bernice Lee, Satishkumar Belliethathan, Ibrahim Abdel Gelil, Joyeeta Gupta, Peter M. Haas, Zerisenay Habtezion, Achim Halpaap, Jennifer Clare Mohamed-Katerere, Peter King, Marcel Kok, Marcus Lee, Trista Patterson, Vivien Campal, Bradnee Chambers, Melissa Goodall, Slobodan Milutinovic, Felix Preston

Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance Faculty Publication Series

Global environmental change such as climate change and the degradation of ecosystem services is heightening risks and reducing opportunities, especially for poor and vulnerable populations. Such change is taking place in an increasingly globalized, urbanized, interconnected and fast-moving world amidst shifting geopolitical power balances. Burgeoning flows of goods and services, capital and technology, information and labour all fuel a growing global population with implications for patterns of consumption and production. The scale and persistence of global environmental problems require sustained collective efforts to meet internationally agreed goals. Responses at national and regional levels are already available, but addressing the underlying …

Mothers In Prison: Maintaining Connections With Children, Sylvia Mignon, Paige Ransford

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The significant increase in the number of incarcerated women ensures that many children must live without their mothers for some period of time. Women in prison were interviewed about their efforts to maintain relationships with their children. Mail and telephone contacts were more frequent than actual visits. Almost one half of mothers had never received a visit from their children. This article identifies challenges to the development and maintenance of contact between incarcerated mothers and their children. Recommendations are made for correctional agencies to enhance opportunities for incarcerated mothers to foster positive connections with their children.

The Emergence Of A Standards Market: Multiplicity Of Sustainability Standards In The Global Coffee Industry, Juliane Reinecke, Stephan Manning, Oliver Von Hagen

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time, they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets,’ this paper examines this tension and studies how different social movement and industry-driven standards organizations compete as well as collaborate over governance in transnational arenas. Based on an in-depth case study of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry, we find that the ongoing co-existence of multiple standards is being promoted by …

The Massachusetts Elder Economic Security Index (2011), Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

The Elder Economic Security Standard^TM Index measures the income that Massachusetts’ seniors need to maintain independence and meet their basic living expenses in the community. The Elder Index uses an income measure that reflects the actual expenses for basic needs of older adults, and includes cost estimates for housing, food, medical care, transportation, and household essentials. Elder Index values are calculated for each state, on a county-by-county basis, providing policy makers and individuals a benchmark for determining what income or governmental supports are needed in their communities.

Elder Economic Security Initiative™: The Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index For North Carolina, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Wider Opportunities For Women

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report addresses income adequacy for North Carolina’s older adults using the national WOW-GI National Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index) methodology. The Elder Index benchmarks basic costs of living for elder households and illustrates how costs of living vary geographically and are based on the characteristics of elder households, including household size, home ownership or renter status and health status. The costs are based on market costs for basic needs of elder households and do not assume any public or private supports.