Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons^™

The End Of Unmeasured Exploitation: How A.S.M., C.A.S., And S.I.A. Challenge Digital Attention Capitalism, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Digital attention capitalism generates value through the capture and monetization of human attention, yet it has historically lacked standardized mechanisms for measuring attention-related harm. This paper argues that the Attention Safeguard Models (A.S.M.), Cognitive Attentional Standards (C.A.S.), and Sociological Impact Assessment (S.I.A.) collectively challenge this system by introducing an integrated framework for classifying, measuring, and evaluating digital attention harm and its societal consequences. C.A.S. provides standardized measurement of digital attention harm, A.S.M. identifies and classifies patterns of attentional disruption and manipulation, and S.I.A. evaluates broader impacts on institutions, communities, civic engagement, education, social cohesion, and inequality. Together, these systems transform …

Marital Status And Wellbeing Of Females In Egypt: Informing The Discourse And Exploring A New Framework, Hoda Rashad, Mohamed Hassan, Amr El Sayed, Rania Elsebaie

Faculty Books

Egypt is experiencing important changes in marriage formation and dissolution amid broader social, economic, and gender transformations. This study examines these changes by analyzing the recent patterns and social distribution of delayed and non-occurrence of marriage and divorce, their association with women’s empowerment, and their implications for women’s subjective wellbeing. Drawing on nationally representative quantitative data alongside exploratory qualitative evidence, the study also develops and investigates a “Conscious Decision Model” to examine how resources, agency, aspirations, and prevailing gender relations may shape women’s marital decisions and wellbeing. The analysis responds to public narratives that frequently attribute delayed marriage and divorce …

Women's Empowerment And Transformations In Marriage Formation And Dissolution: From Social Anxiety To Evidence-Based And More Responsive Policies, Hoda Rashad, Mohamed Hassan

Faculty Journal Articles

The central premise of this policy brief is that effective family policy in Egypt cannot be built on public perceptions, ideological assumptions or isolated demographic indicators. It must instead be grounded in robust evidence and a comprehensive understanding of the changing mechanisms through which women form, sustain and dissolve marital unions.

The study provides evidence-based findings that are inconsistent with the crisis and anxiety mode dominating the public discourse. The findings neither dismiss the public concerns nor support their dominant framing. Delays in marriage, the growing visibility of never married and divorced women, and the increasing occurrence of divorce represent …

One Land, “Different Owners”: Theoretical Explanations Of Communal Conflicts In Nigeria, Chukwudi G. Njoku

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

Communal conflicts are prevalent in Nigeria, with thousands of fatalities recorded. Literature suggests that an overwhelming percentage of these conflicts are land ownership related. Through a systematic review of literature and an analysis of conflict data, this study provides further understanding of the role of land ownership and competition in the occurrence and lethality of communal conflicts. It argues that land competition, more than other socio-economic factors is the key driver of communal conflicts in Nigeria. The findings from the analyses are explained with three theories – the tragedy of the commons which proved that the conflicts are triggered by …

Without A Map: A Lived Experience Study Of The Paths People Create Through Homelessness, Kathleen P. Conte, Susan Avila, Desiree' J. Duboise, Carlton Bone, Marisa A. Zapata, Transformational Research For Equity And Experience In Shelter (Trees) Committee

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

The Pathways to Housing Study examines how people experience and navigate homelessness and the systems intended to help them move toward stable housing. Conducted in Multnomah County, Oregon, the study used a participatory mixed-methods design co-led with the TREES lived experience committee. The first phase was reported in April 2026 included surveys with 541 people with current or recent experience of homelessness. The second phase, reported here, used in-depth interviews and journey mapping with 29 participants to explore how pathways through homelessness unfold over time and across service systems.

Findings demonstrate that homelessness pathways are rarely linear. Participants described entering …

Nihilistic Violence Aesthetics In Public Online Communication, Heath Nicholas Landress

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Public online communication has increasingly included violence-related content that is meme-based, ironic, visually stylized, multimodal, and only partially ideological. This comprehensive literature review synthesized research on online extremism, extremist memes, toxic multimodal content, dehumanizing digital communication, nihilistic violent extremism, warning behaviors, platform affordances, and youth-facing online environments. The purpose was to clarify what the literature had established; identify where the scholarship remained fragmented; and map research domains relevant to social, behavioral, public safety, and human services scholarship. The review used a structured, comprehensive literature review strategy supported by integrative synthesis procedures. The final corpus contained 34 scholarly sources, including 32 …

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …

Largest Generations In The Mountain West States, 2024, Anirudh Polagani, Kian Parikh, Mohit Pande, Sean Curry, Kristian Thymianos, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet presents population data by generation and by state, identifying which generation represents the largest share of the population in Mountain West states. The data are derived from the Brookings Institution report, "Baby boomers are turning 80: A closer look at the generation that reshaped America," by William Frey. This fact sheet compares the 2024 population of each generation, from Pre-Baby Boom to Gen Alpha, to identify the largest generation in each of the five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

How Far Does Social Security Go? Comparing Benefits To Elder Index 2025: Infographic, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Social Security remains the foundation of retirement income, but for millions of older adults it does not fully cover the cost of basic necessities such as housing, health care, food, and transportation.

Governing Longevity: Biopolitics And Economic Restructuring In East Asian Aging Societies, Sherlyn She

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

How do rapidly aging societies govern longevity when demographic change threatens established welfare arrangements? This thesis examines aging governance in China, Japan, and South Korea to show how states simultaneously manage aging as a public-health problem and build it into an economic sector through what I term life capitalism.

Two interpretations of East Asian aging policy are widely circulated: that it is a peripheral case of Western neoliberalism, or a residue of Confucian familism. I reject both: the neoliberal reading captures marketization but misses the state as its active builder, since these states are expanding rather than retreating; the Confucian …

Factors Affecting Pedestrian-Vehicle Conflicts: An Empirical Analysis, Christo D. Jamo

Honors Scholar Theses

The number of pedestrian deaths increased by 78% between 2009 and 2023, while other motor vehicle crash deaths increased by 13% in the same period [1]. To identify potential pedestrian safety measures, this study analyzed the effects of location-based demographics, pedestrian phasing type, and other physical infrastructure and behavior variables on the probability of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts at signalized intersections, which is a surrogate measure of crash risk. Data were collected from 55 intersections in Connecticut, and the pedestrian-vehicle interactions were classified by severity based on the Swedish Traffic Conflict Technique: undisturbed passage, potential conflict, minor conflict, or serious conflict. Because …

Economic Security & Older Adults In Massachusetts: Infographic, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Elder Index measures the income older adults need to meet their daily living costs while staying in their own homes. This fact sheet presents overview data of economic security of Older Adults in Massachusetts based on the 2025 Elder Index data.

Economic Security & Older Adults In The United States: Infographic, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Elder Index measures the income older adults need to meet their daily living costs while staying in their own homes. This fact sheet presents overview data of economic security of Older Adults in the United States based on the 2025 Elder Index data.

Temporary Protected Status Populations In Massachusetts In 2026, Phillip Granberry, Iván Espinoza-Madrigal

Gastón Institute Publications

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is one of the best expressions of U.S. humanitarian protection and relief. It recognizes a basic truth: people should not be deported to danger.

May this report help build a stronger Commonwealth for all by advancing more thoughtful policymaking and stronger interventions that recognize the deep connections among immigration, community, and economic life.

A Decade Revealed By Npo Financial Data In A Depopulating Region — Tottori Prefecture, Japan, 2014–2023, Yoshinori Shimosakai

Japanese Society and Culture

This paper examines the quantitative scale, field composition, and financial structure of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in rural regions experiencing population decline and aging at three levels—the nonprofit sector as a whole, policy fields, and individual organizations—and explores their adaptation and sustainability under demographic change. The empirical setting is certified NPO corporations located in Tottori Prefecture. Drawing on publicly available financial data for fiscal years 2014–2023, the study constructs ratio indicators and per-capita indicators and, in particular, depicts recent trends through a two-point comparison between FY2014 and FY2023 together with a description of year-by-year changes. The analysis shows that, although the …

The Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index: Methodology Overview, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Jan Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldan, Michelle Ward, Ceara Somerville, Caitlin E. Coyle

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Elder Index illustrates how living costs vary geographically (specifically, by county, metropolitan area, and state), and based on the characteristics of households. Costs are calculated based on household size (one person age 65 or older, two persons age 65 or older), housing tenure (owner with no mortgage, renter, owner with a mortgage), and health status (excellent, good, poor). The expenses included in the Elder Index cover basic needs of older households, including shelter, medical care, food, and transportation; the costs reflect average market costs and do not take into account any needs-based subsidies. The Elder Index helps answer important …

2025 Elder Indextm For Boston: Fact Sheet, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Elder Index^_TM measures of the cost of living independently for older adults aged 65 or older. The Elder Index allows us to identify older people with incomes “in the gap” between the Federal Poverty Guideline (FPL) and what it takes to live with security. Older adults living “in the gap” have incomes too high to qualify for many means-tested public benefits programs, yet too low to achieve intermediate- or long-term economic stability. This fact sheet presents 2025 Elder Index for older adults living in Boston, Massachusetts.

Living Between The Lines: Economic Insecurity And Older Americans: Insecurity In The Massachusetts, 2025, Caitlin E. Coyle, Michelle Ward, Nidya Velasco Roldan, Ceara Somerville, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

New estimates from the 2025 Elder Index^TM demonstrate that the cost of living in Massachusetts has increased substantially in recent years for older adults, especially for renters. The Elder Index measures the necessary costs faced by households made up of one or two older adults, calculated county by county for the entire United States. Estimated costs are higher in Massachusetts than in any other state in the nation. Within the Commonwealth, the Elder Index is lowest in Western Massachusetts, and highest in Metro Boston, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, with differences in the Elder Index across locations accounted for largely …

Counter-Urbanization In China: A Systematic Review Toward A Comprehensive Typology, Chengxue Yang, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Drawing on a systematic review of both international and Chinese-language scholarship on counter-urbanization in China, this article proposes a comprehensive typology of counter-urbanization migrations—consisting of eight types of new migrants—based on the diverse motivations driving such migration. We build a bilingual corpus of 273 research papers published between the 1970s and 2025. Integrating bibliometric mapping and qualitative synthesis, we conduct a systematic review to trace the temporal evolution and thematic diversification of counter-urbanization research. The review reveals persistent conceptual ambiguity surrounding counter-urbanization in the Chinese context, which this study addresses by conceptually distinguishing counter-urbanization from suburban expansion, population decentralization, and …

Typeface: Machine-Viewing Gentrification On Storefront Imagery In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Alexander Mcquilkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Gentrification—broadly, the replacement of a less powerful group by a more powerful one in an urban context—is oft-discussed in the popular press, but its definition is much-debated in the urban planning literature. Furthermore, academic treatments of displacement understandably focus on measurable yet fairly abstract indicators like changes in rent or income, whereas neighborhood change is often registered by residents on the ground using visual, but difficult-to-quantify markers like retail turnover. This project uses image recognition technology on a set of storefront photos to index the visual streetscape of a neighborhood, as well as to track changes to that portrait over …

Nebraska Insights 2026, Josie Gatti Schafer, Morgan Vogel, Tara Grell, Michael Lee, Mahmuda Akhter Nishu, Meagan E. Paez, Ignacio Ruelas Avila

Publications

Nebraska Insights is a collaboration between the Nebraska Chamber Foundation and the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Public Affairs Research. The series provides a curated set of indicators that benchmark Nebraska’s demographics, economy, and quality of life against all U.S. states. Each webinar explores selected indicators from the guide and offers guidance on how Nebraska stakeholders can effectively interpret and apply the data.

“Black Students Matter”: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Student Experiences At A Predominately White Institution In Appalachia During The Dual Pandemic Of Covid-19 And Systemic Anti-Black Racism, Toni Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As the spread of COVID-19 escalated into a global pandemic in 2020, simultaneously, the nationwide media in the United States (U.S.) highlighted coverage of the country’s ongoing incidents of longstanding systemic anti-Black racism in America, another pandemic. In the Summer of 2020, a collective of Black students at West Virginia University (WVU) signed and publicly submitted a petition to the university’s leadership with a list of demands to address their needs as they were further exacerbated by the dual pandemic. This study is guided by the question, “What are the lived experiences of Black Students at West Virginia University during …

The Asymmetric Effect Of Social Connection And The Cumulative Damage Of Comorbidities On Physical And Mental Health Of Older Virginians, Newton Ochoki, Lynn Wiles, Peijia Zha, Vince Falco, Carielle Joy Rio, Jonathan Romero, Leorey N. Saligan

Ellmer School of Nursing Faculty Publications

Objectives

This study explored relationships of social connection with physical and mental health in older adults, specifically examining the effects of comorbidities on these relationships and the influence of sociodemographic variables on the strength of these associations.

Methods

This cross-sectional study enrolled 174 community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older residing in Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA. Data were collected from April to August 2025. Hierarchical linear regression analyses examined the associations of social connection with physical and mental health. Moderated mediation analysis examined if comorbidities mediated these relationships and whether sociodemographic factors moderate the strengths of these associations.

Results

In …

A Scoping Review To Conceptualize Social Privilege For Studying Patients' Health Outcomes And Health Disparities, Elizabeth A. Brown, Priyanka Patel, Esther May B. Sarino, Vladimir Markovic, Carles Muntaner

Health Behavior, Policy & Management Faculty Publications

Background

The continued reliance on single-category self-reported demographic data (e.g., race/ethnicity) reflects conceptual limitations that hinder the study and understanding of health outcomes research. There is a pressing need for more precise measures of social privilege that conceptualize privilege and oppression while enabling the examination of their effects on health outcomes in the United States (US) healthcare system.

Objective

The purpose of this scoping review was to review the literature, determine how researchers have measured aspects of privilege and oppression, and develop a conceptual framework to study patients' social privilege in the US healthcare system and public health research.

Methods …

The Cost Of Getting To “No”: Cultural Evolution Of Community Psychology In Two Indiana Communities, Catherine Cullen, Megan Peek

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Latino Economic Inequality In New York City: Income And Snap Recipiency, 2013–2023, Oswaldo A. Mena Aguilar

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This Latino Data Project Report analyzes trends in the economic well-being of Latino households in New York City between 2013 and 2023, focusing on household income and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The findings reveal a paradoxical pattern: although median Latino household income increased over the decade, economic inequality within the Latino community widened substantially. Income gains were unevenly distributed, with higher-income households pulling further ahead while the lowest-income households experienced stagnation or decline. Over the same period, Latino households fell further behind all other racial and ethnic groups in the city. Additionally, Latinos consistently exhibited the …

Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, Kevin Abourezk, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson, Gabriel Bruguier, Preston Love Jr., Adam Fletcher Sasse, Heather Fryer, J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sándoval, Sharon Ishii-Jordan, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Julia Reilly

Zea E-Books Collection

There is much to understand about the history of Nebraska and how the past shapes the present. This book attempts to bring into clearer focus the triumphs and trials of five broad groups whose lives have often been overlooked when the state’s history is told. The authors know some of this history of racism firsthand: Most of them have lived as people of color in Nebraska. They’ve experienced “the good, the bad and the ugly” that makes up our state story. We encourage educators, scholars and family historians to continue to dig, to document and to tell these stories. And …

Massachusetts' Latino Population: 2020-2040, Phillip Granberry

Gastón Institute Publications

Latinos have been a vital component of Massachusetts’ population growth since 1990. Their younger age structure has helped to offset the older age structure of the much larger non-Latino White population. As Latinos’ population crosses the 1 million threshold by 2030, their growth (even as it slows) will be faster than the commonwealth’s overall population change.

The State Of The Unions 2025: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

Organized labor has taken center stage in the 2020s, with workers leading successful organizing drives at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and across a range of industries from health care to higher education. Public approval of unions has reached its highest level in decades, and a new generation of workers is stepping forward as leaders in the movement. The State of the Unions 2025 provides the most comprehensive profile of organized labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, highlighting where unions are growing, who is leading the charge, and how labor is shaping the future of work …

Births In The Mountain West, 2023, Lara Karaalp, Yashesvi Sharma, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet details data from a National Vital Statistics report on the number of births within the Mountain West in 2023. This report, offered through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), includes data on the race/ethnic demographics of mothers of American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, white, and Hispanic descent. This fact sheet explores birth data for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, by the mother’s place of residence.