Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Denison House: Women's Use Of Space In The Boston Settlement, Heather Marie Capitanio

Graduate Masters Theses

Established in 1892, Denison House Settlement in Boston, Massachusetts was the third college settlement of its kind in the United States. Like other settlement houses of the time, Denison House was established as a base for community refurbishment and statistical study. Located at 93 Tyler Street in the rundown South Cove area of Boston, it offered its lower class "neighbors" a variety of activities and facilities within its perimeters. Judging only from late nineteenth-century attitudes and mores, one would assume that the women who worked and lived at Denison House would have been turned away by the poor residents of …

Beef, Mutton, Pork, And A Taste Of Turtle: Zooarchaeology And Nineteenth-Century African American Foodways At The Boston-Higginbotham House, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Michael Andrew Way

Graduate Masters Theses

In 1774, nearly ten years before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, an emancipated African American weaver named Seneca Boston purchased a tract of land in the Newtown section of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is here that over the next thirty years Seneca Boston and his Wampanoag wife, Thankful Micah, would build a house, now known as the Boston-Higginbotham House, and raise six children. The Boston-Higginbotham House was home to the descendents of Seneca Boston and Thankful Micah for over one hundred years. Throughout the 19th century a vibrant and active African American community was developing in Newtown, and several generations of …

A Macrobotanical Analysis Of Native American Maize Agriculture At The Smith's Point Site, Kelly A. Ferguson

Graduate Masters Theses

The Smith's Point site was a seasonally inhabited Native American encampment in Yarmouth, Massachusetts occupied from the Middle Woodland through the early Colonial periods. Excavations at the site in the early 1990s yielded the remains of a multi-component site including both an agricultural field and an adjacent living area. The macrobotanical remains from the agricultural and living area features were examined for this thesis project in order to investigate subsistence practices at the site. The findings show that Native Americans actively shaped these ecological niches for purposes such as maintaining and improving their subsistence base. These landscape management activities included …

Getting Past 'Rational Man/Emotional Woman': Comments On Research Programs In Happiness Economics And Interpersonal Relations, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Orthodox neoclassical economics portrays reason as far more important than emotion, autonomy as more characteristic of economic life than social connection, and, more generally, things culturally and cognitively associated with masculinity as more central than things associated with femininity. Research from contemporary neuroscience suggests that such biases are related to certain automatic processes in the brain, and feminist scholarship suggests ways of getting beyond them. The “happiness” and “interpersonal relations” economics research programs have made substantial progress in overcoming a number of these biases, bringing into consideration by economists a wide range of phenomena which were previously neglected. Analysis from …

States To The Rescue: Policy Options For State Government To Promote Private Sector Retirement Savings, Christian A. Weller, Amy Helburn

Gerontology Institute Publications

We provide an overview of retirement plan proposals that could be implemented at the state level. All aim to increase participation in retirement savings, mainly by lowering the cost of doing so and possibly by offering some employer or government matches to employee contributions. The proposals vary widely on how much risk employees are exposed to. Some proposals leave most of the risks of saving for retirement – investment, market, and longevity risk – with the employee, while others try to eliminate them all. The tools of risk management range from well-diversified index funds and default investments to required offers …

Using Critical & Creative Thinking To Enhance Productivity In Integrated Marketing Communications Meetings And Procedures, Ashley N. Smith

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper provides a teaching model for how to effectively incorporate Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) methods into a business setting to initiate organizational change. I developed a workshop on workplace meetings based on the imperfections of the marketing team at “ICS.” The workshop touches on CCT methods that are needed in order for organizations to change. I also integrated CCT methods into the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Procedure to enhance productivity and produce results. Integrated marketing is made up of many pieces of the media field, but often the participants in IMC are searching for the same end result. …

New Bedford/Fairhaven Municipal Harbor Plan, Fort Point Associates, Inc., Apex Companies, Llc, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Fxm Associates

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

The historic harbor lying between the City of New Bedford and Town of Fairhaven has shaped the identities and economies of these two municipalities for centuries. Today, the Harbor is one of nation’s preeminent fishing ports, ranked #1 nationally in 2007 in dollar value ($268 million) of fish landings with an estimated total economic regional impact of nearly $1 billion. The New Bedford’s seafood processing industry has grown in size and sophistication in recent years and is an internationally established center for this industry. Marine service and vessel repair industries, centered in Fairhaven, have an excellent reputation with commercial fleets …

Independent Information Technology Assessment: Prepared For The Town Of Middleborough And The Middleborough School Department, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

This Independent Information Technology Assessment (IT Assessment) arose from long­standing concerns among various elected and appointed officials in the Town of Middleborough about the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement and deployment of information technology (IT) in both the Town and in the School Department. At Middleborough’s direction, the IT Assessment specifically excluded the Police and Fire Departments as well as the Middleborough Gas and Electric Department.

Recognizing the need for a completely independent analysis of these issues, Middleborough contracted with the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management (the Collins Center), located within the McCormack Graduate School of …

Documentary Research And Archaeological Investigations At The Waite-Kirby-Potter Site, Westport, Massachusetts, Katharine M. Johnson, Christa M. Beranek, Kathryn A. Catlin, Laura W. Ng

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Research on the Waite-Kirby-Potter house in Westport, Massachusetts, included mapping historical resources visible on the surface and excavating 25 test pits and units near the house foundations in the fall of 2009. Field investigations were complemented by extensive documentary research including a complete chain of title and genealogical research on the three families who have owned the property between the late 17th century and the present. The visible historical features include elements associated with the former stone ender (the standing stone end and chimney, an adjacent brick chimney, and a stone-lined cellar hole), stone walls, a 19th-century barn foundation, a …

Analysis Of The Delivery Of Public Services On Martha's Vineyard: Prepared For The Martha's Vineyard Commission And The County Of Dukes County, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

This report was commissioned by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission through the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston and was funded by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development – District Local Technical Assistance Program. The report was prepared and presented by The Executive Suite for an analysis of the delivery of public services on Martha’s Vineyard. The purpose of the analysis is -

1. Inventory what existing services are delivered at various levels of local and regional government; prepare a list of services that are presently delivered, or could be delivered, by …

Kayan–Feminist Organization: Sustainable Grassroots Community Activism, Rula Deeb

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article describes the process by which Kayan (Being) created the model for the Women’s Leadership Development and Sustainable Community Activism Program. The organizational model presented here was developed as a result of activities that began in 1998, during which Kayan worked with approximately 180 Arab women’s groups, with over 3,000 women from around fifty villages and towns across Israel. The model changed and solidified, through repeated evaluations and testing of the program’s goals in general, and through the program’s ongoing feedback specifically with groups of women involved. Evaluations were gathered from women participating in the groups and also through …

Preface, Jenna Toplin

New England Journal of Public Policy

The preface of this journal speaks about the history of the Boston-Haifa Learning Exchange Network and how as teachers and learners, LEN members continue their learning and reflection in these pages. Their stories bring a diverse collection of voices, experiences, and perspectives and capture a shared vision of creating lasting, systemic change and bettering the communities in which we live.

Service And/Or Advocacy: Nonprofit Sector In The Twenty-First Century, Nancy K. Kaufman

New England Journal of Public Policy

In both Israel and the United States over the past twenty years, there has been an explosion in the number of nonprofit organizations that live in a space somewhere between government agencies and for-profit companies. While the growth of these organizations may have been stimulated by different factors in each country, there is much to be learned through a cross-cultural exchange like the one between organizations in Haifa and in Boston. In order to analyze some of the challenges facing nonprofit organizations across a wide spectrum of mission, purpose, and size, I have categorized the type of organizations being discussed …

Challenges For Nonprofit Organizations. Introduction: A Theoretical Framework. Civil Society And Challenges Faced By Nonprofits, Amnon Reichman

New England Journal of Public Policy

This introduction will tackle two issues. The first is theoretical: a framework will be proposed with which to approach the activity of nonprofit organizations within civil society in modern democracies. Whereas the traditional approach posits three sectors in a triangular setting (the top corner occupied by the government, the bottom-right corner occupied by the market, and the bottom left corner by the “third sector”), a better conceptualization defines civil society as a social space between the state (located above) and the individual or the private sphere (located below). This space is where for-profit organizations (usually clustered in one side of …

Nonprofits And Social Change. Introduction: An Anchor. Reshaping The Relationship, Jennifer Cohen

New England Journal of Public Policy

In response to a variety of internal and external forces, including the recent economic downturn, nonprofit organizations in both Israel and the United States have increasingly been called upon to provide a safety net and serve as central players in the development, strengthening, and maintenance of civil society. These shifts include the privatization of services, blurring of the sectors and their traditional roles in providing services, reduced funding from traditional sources, welfare reforms including devolution, opening of new markets, enhanced role of faith-based people and organizations in service provision, intensified dependency and connectedness of policy makers and stakeholders, and the …

Global Learning Partnerships, Margaret Leonard

New England Journal of Public Policy

The title of this section is profoundly significant to those of us who have experienced global partnerships. Our experience has revealed to us that there is a profound organic integrity to these five words, Transnational, Social Change, Learning, Networks, and together they are revelatory of an emerging future we are stretching to envision and realize in the twenty-first century. In this brief essay I would like to share with you five core experiences of global learning partnerships that I have had over the past half decade. From these experiences I have learned volumes about the organic relationships of these five …

Change From The Inside Out, Miriam Messinger

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this article, I proffer that one way to build social change is to create organizations, lead, and build relationships that model and reflect the change being sought on a grander scale. Sometimes this necessitates burrowing deeper and focusing inward as a means to building sustainable change. I was engaged in this work for eight years at The City School of Boston. While The City School is a functioning, vibrant organization, I no longer work there and so will talk about the work I was a part of in the past tense.

Doing The Right Thing: Doing Things Right, Jane Matlaw

New England Journal of Public Policy

I was privileged to be a part of the “birthing” of the Learning Exchange Networks (LENs) and am a veteran participant. I sat through many superb workshops and led a piece on social justice and advocacy. I had no idea that during year three of our endeavor, I would see how my world of work would so clearly intersect with the mutual learning that was happening with my colleagues in Boston and in Haifa. In my job as Director of Community Relations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), I am responsible for the community relations activities of a 560-bed …

Nonprofit Leadership. Introduction: Miracle Workers At The Helm. New Ways Of Exercising Leadership, Kristen Mccormack

New England Journal of Public Policy

Leading a nonprofit organization in today’s world requires nothing less than a miracle worker at the helm. That could be the conclusion one might draw from reading the literature on the traits, skills, and characteristics required to lead a nonprofit organization. Today’s leaders should be honest, competent, forward looking, and inspiring as well as intelligent, fair-minded, broad-minded, courageous, straightforward, and imaginative. Leaders should be of high integrity, dedicated, magnanimous, humble, open, and creative while energizing others. Able to cope with change, leaders must establish direction, align people, motivate, and inspire while effectively communicating their story. He or she must be …

Concluding Synthesis: Lessons Learned. A Complex Web: A Collective Process To Advance Social Justice, Donna Haig Friedman, Jennifer Cohen, Amnon Reichman, James Morgan

New England Journal of Public Policy

In Blessed Unrest, referenced by the opening quotation and several essay authors, Paul Hawken uses the metaphor of the immune system to describe the connectivity of organizations and activists across the world fiercely working to realize local and global social, economic, political, and environmental justice. Just as the invisible but interconnected parts of the body’s immune system jump into concerted action to restore health to an ill body, this social-change movement is organizing from the bottom up and emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s unstoppable need to reimagine their relationships to the environment and to one another. …

Collaborations, Partnerships, Networks. Introduction: From The Personal To The Professional. Interorganizational Partnerships And Networks, Liron Peleg-Hadomi

New England Journal of Public Policy

Often, when I think about the nature of interorganizational partnerships and networks, I find myself thinking about the broader meaning of relationships, which form an integral part of our lives. What is it about relationships that make them so intricate, unique, mysterious, and full of opportunities? What are the components required for building a successful relationship that allows us to grow and develop in the complex world in which we live? Is it the ability to trust one another? Is it the ability to recognize one another’s needs and interests? Or maybe it is the belief that together, we can …

Foreword, Nancy K. Kaufman

New England Journal of Public Policy

The “Haifa–Boston Connection” began twenty years ago under the auspices of Combined Jewish Philanthropies as a way to deepen the connections between people in the Greater Boston community and Israelis from the City of Haifa. The Mayors of Boston and Haifa signed a formal Memorandum of Agreement between their cities in 1999. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) was charged with the responsibility of developing projects that would promote social justice and advance civil society, making Haifa a model for all of Israel. Working with the emerging nonprofit sector in Haifa, JCRC worked with the Council of …

Management For Growth, Michal Dagan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article describes the Haifa organization and dealing with a missle crisis. This also deals with how the center took charge of a dire situation and helped many victims of the missle attacks. It talks about the work the organizers had done and the social impact of the organization.

Leadership As Legacy, Elias Sussan

New England Journal of Public Policy

I joined the House of Grace twenty-three years ago when I was looking for a job as a social worker and, very soon after, I found myself taking part in important and fulfilling social and community work, in an ever-renewing and developing institute — a house that is a home for people in distress. I chose social work and not one of the professions because I had a strong desire and a need to do something for the community: to work with prisoners, women survivors of violence, the homeless — with underprivileged and disadvantaged people. In my childhood and youth, …

Joining Forces In Boston: Community Development Corporations, Carl Nagy-Koechlin

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 2005, the Jewish Community Relations Council organized a Learning Exchange in which a group of Boston antipoverty leaders traveled to Israel with the goal of fostering cross-fertilization between the Boston delegation and their counterparts in Haifa. The Exchange achieved that goal remarkably. At the time, I was the director of a Boston-based community development corporation (CDC) that faced challenges related to rapid neighborhood change, and my experience spurred me to seek out opportunities for cross-fertilization and collaboration within greater Boston of the type we experienced in Haifa. Specifically, I brought colleagues together to share our experiences leading CDCs in …

A Story Of Collaboration: Haifa Council Of Volunteer Organizations And Shatil, Hagit Sachar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The present essay tells the story of a partnership between two organizations: the Haifa Council of Volunteer Organizations (CVO) and the Haifa branch of Shatil (The New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel). They have cooperated for many years and, in the last two years, have further tightened their partnership. The first part of this essay presents a theoretical framework that serves as a basis for the case study discussed in the second part. The summary offers a number of open ended questions for further consideration and research.

Adaptive Capacity And Social Change. Introduction: A Conceptual Framework. Organizational Learning And Long-Term Stability, Nancy Strichman, Fathi Marshood

New England Journal of Public Policy

If there is one kind of certainty for social-change nonprofits such as those participating in the Haifa–Boston Learning Exchange, it is that they will continually be challenged to cope with periods of instability and possible crises. The ability to adapt to changing environments, learn from experience, and perform in conditions of uncertainty are considered critical tools for organizations in order to ensure sustainability. Developing this “adaptive capacity” is a particular challenge for nonprofits at the start-up or growth phase of their organizational development, as are many of the Haifa–Boston Learning Exchange participants. This discussion presents a conceptual framework for adaptive …

The Haifa Council Of Volunteer Organizations: Challenges And Dilemmas Of An Umbrella Organization, Yael Abada

New England Journal of Public Policy

This paper reviews the challenges faced by the Haifa Council of Volunteer Organizations (CVO) as the umbrella organization of third-sector organizations working in Haifa, Israel. It will review challenges that affect our everyday decisions and shape the council’s activities. Most likely, some of these challenges affect other umbrella organizations as well, while some are unique to the CVO and are the result of local, historical, structural, and organizational factors.

We Make A Difference: Balancing Advocacy And Service, Marina Zamsky

New England Journal of Public Policy

The present essay deals with the problem of balancing community service provision and social-change advocacy, as well as other strategies, from various aspects: efficacy in achieving short-term and long-term goals, necessary resources, the benefits for society as well as for individuals, empowerment, and empowerment deficit.

Speaking Up And Taking Charge, Urban Teens, Claudio Martinez

New England Journal of Public Policy

The beginning of this article will describe an authentic youth-led organizing effort is a model of social change that has developed at the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) over the past decade in our work with urban youth. We believe that members of this segment of the population are critical change agents, those with the potential to have a major impact on the future cultural and political development of our society.