Working Papers
Working Papers
Marketing Diversity and the ‘New’ Politics of Desegregation: Insights from An Urban Education Ethnography GCP-12-1
Pamela Anne Quiroz and Vernon Lindsay
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
Situating ethnographic methods within a framework of engaged research we offer a window into the adoption, implementation, and sociopolitical dilemmas of 15 African American males participating in an Initiative designed to maintain diversity at one of Chicago’s most successful and elite public high schools. The paper presents a four- year study (2007-2011) of an explicitly class-based and implicitly race-based attempt to engage the ‘new’ politics of desegregation and the microprocesses of integration. Promoted as reaching across geographic, race, and class boundaries, the Black Male Achievement Initiative [BMAI] at Selective Preparatory Academy [SPA] is just one of many attempts to satisfy stakeholders in a political environment that promotes school choice and voluntary initiatives to desegregate schools. Situated within the local context of Chicago school reform, the BMAI provides opportunities and builds relationships even as it raises questions about racial formation, the appropriation of space, the meaning of diversity, and how such educational programs are part of the broader processes of gentrification.
The Great Recession’s Impact on the City of Chicago GCP-10-7
Rebecca Hendrick
Department of Public Administration
University of Illinois at Chicago
Martin Luby
John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Ohio State University
Jill Mason Terzakis
Department of Public Administration
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This research describes the Great Recession’s impact on the City of Chicago budget and financial decisions about revenues, spending, and borrowing. It describes the economic and fiscal characteristics of the City of Chicago and the condition of its budget prior to the Great Recession in order to help separate budget deficits that existed before the recession from recession-driven changes in revenues and expenses. It identifies factor that have contributed to the city’s current and future expected deficits and changes in its financial position, and the research discusses how well the city is positioned for dealing with the lasting effects of the recession beyond 2011 and after the completion of stimulus funding in FY 2013.
“Chapter Three: What Must Be in Place for Someone to Believe in Human Rights?” in Democracy as Fetish: Rhetoric, Ethnography, and the Expansion of Life GCP-10-5
Ralph Cintron
Abstract
In this chapter of his book length-manuscript, Cintron analyzes classic documents from the history of human rights and classic commentaries on rights. He argues that rights talk, both legal and informal versions, is a metaphorical method for describing primal necessities and entitlements. Rights talk tries to settle, but ultimately cannot, the ambiguity between primal necessity/entitlement and “mere” want. Rights, then, are not substantive but a way of speaking and ultimately a way of inciting action.
From Gray Areas to New Communities: Lessons and Issues from Comprehensive U.S. Neighborhood Initiatives GCP-10-02
Karen Mossberger, Ph.D.
Public Administration
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper examines the issues embedded in both the comprehensive aspirations and neighborhood focus in approaches towards fighting poverty, campaigning for better conditions and providing education and social services to residents; this is done through exploration of a brief history of major initiatives, and the lessons and needs for the future suggested by that history. In addition to the literature review on previous programs in the U.S., some material is included from interviews on comprehensive neighborhood revitalization efforts in Chicago, especially the New Communities Program (NCP). So far, twenty-one interviews have been conducted, and research will be completed in 2010. This working paper is also part of a cross‐national project comparing neighborhood regeneration in ten countries in North America and Europe, and it builds on a paper presented at a conference on neighborhood initiatives in Britain. Therefore, it highlights issues introduced by the institutional context for U.S. neighborhood revitalization efforts.
Troubled Assets: Financial Emergencies and Racialized Risk GCP-10-01
Philip Ashton
Assistant Professor
Urban Planning & Policy
Abstract
This paper argues that new state strategies towards financial volatility have created dramatic new forms for the racialization of credit risk. Focusing on the aftermath of the banking crisis in the late 1980s, the paper examines the active role played by a series of exceptional measures in creating the legal and market spaces that increasingly trapped minority borrowers in a spiral of high cost lending. The resulting triage of minority borrowers into the subprime market has differentially exposed them to the expropriation of wealth through delinquencies, foreclosures, and the intensification of competition during the most recent speculative bubble. As this actually reproduces and extends financial risk, I conclude that the best way for us to understand this process is to examine this as a regime of differential citizenship that has reorganized the conditions for advancement among different racial and ethnic groups and whose features may be consolidating through the current crisis.
Prague, Tourism and the Post-Industrial City GCP-09-05
Lily M. Hoffman and Jiri Musil
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
Although urban tourism has been one of the important forces shaping cities during the past few decades, most studies on the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial city focus on the shift to financial and professional services. There are still few studies of the role of tourism in the transformation of urban political economy, social structure and culture (Hoffman, Fainstein, Judd, Cities and Visitors, Blackwell 2003). In an earlier article on post-communist Prague, we examined the emergence of tourism as a byproduct of democratization and marketization (Hoffman and Musil in The Tourist City, Judd & Fainstein (eds) Yale U Press 1999). This present article takes a broader more contextual view of the role of tourism in the development of contemporary Prague. Looking beyond tourism per se, we argue that the exponential growth of tourism in post 1989 Prague helps explain its relatively smooth (and rapid) transition from industrial to post-industrial or service center city. The specifics of this case address some of the lacunae in the discussion of transition from industrialization. First, much of the ‘de-industrialization’ literature refers primarily to industrial cities. Many cities however, are mixed. Second, there is little or no discussion of the role of tourism in the transition. Third, where tourism is discussed, it is usually, as an urban development stratagem; here it has emerged spontaneously. Fourth, by taking a developmental perspective, we hope to provide a more analytic account of tourism’s impact on social and spatial structure–both regulatory and representational aspects.
Joint Environmental and Cost Efficiency Analysis of the Electricity Production Industry: Applying the Materials Balance Condition GCP-09-03
Eric Welch and Darold T. Barnum
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
The electricity generation industry produces a substantial proportion of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change in the United States and globally. Yet, little research has been done to examine what the economic and environmental tradeoffs currently are for electric power plants. This paper demonstrates a new method, developed by Coelli, Lauwers, and Van Huylenbroeck [4,1,3], to calculate the optimal allocation of carbon containing fuel inputs and consideration of economic costs of electricity production. Using EIA 906 and FERC 423 data, the paper estimates cost/carbon tradeoffs facing two sets of plants: those that use coal and gas inputs and those that use coal, gas and oil inputs. Findings show that for the three input case, there is a 78.9% percent increase in cost for moving from the cost efficient point to the carbon efficient point, while there is a 38% increase in carbon to move from the carbon efficient point to the cost efficient point. These findings, while based only on a subset of electric power plants, indicates that the policy gap between efficient cost and environmental production is wide and will require substantial government and market incentives, as well as restructuring of the industry before it can be narrowed. The paper also identifies some plants that are super inefficient: they can improve both cost and carbon efficiency by changing their mixture of carbon inputs.
Making Sense of Renaissance 2010 School Policy in Chicago: Race, Class, and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberal Urban Restructuring GCP-09-02
Pauline Lipman
Abstract
Chicago has long been a focus of national attention on urban education policy, and its latest plan to remake public education is no exception. In 2004, Chicago’s mayor announced Renaissance 2010 (Ren2010), a plan to close 60-70 schools and reopen 100 new schools, at least two-thirds as charter or contract schools. Charter schools are public schools chartered by the state to be rum by private group. They have greater autonomy in operation and curriculum than CPS schools. Renaissance 2010 is perhaps the most significant experiment in the US to reinvent an urban public school system on neoliberal lines. Part of the Ren2010 agenda is to create new mixed-income schools in mixed-income communities created in the wake of the demolition of public housing. My focus in this paper is the cultural politics of this policy, how it “makes sense” on the ground and how neoliberalism is materialized through the actions of social movements and social actors. Here, I am interested in a) the discourse of racial pathology underpinning mixed-income schools/housing and b) rearticulation of discourses of equity and self-determination to the market and individual choice through charter schools. I am especially interested in how the “good sense” in these policies connects with people’s lived experiences to further a hegemonic neoliberal agenda and the implications for constructing a counter-hegemonic movement.
Jóvenes Sin Fronteras: Latino Youth Take Action for Social Justice & Well-Being GCP-09-01
Michele A. Kelley, Meghan Benson, Mayra Estrella and Joann Lugardone
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
Latino adolescents in the U.S. endure health and social inequities such that they are less likely to complete high school and less likely to have access to health care than their non-Latino white counterparts. These disparities can compromise chances for health and social advancement over the life course. The purpose of this paper is to present a participatory evaluation using an empowerment framework to demonstrate how a local, urban cultural center for youth fosters (1) Latino Unity and positive youth development among participants; (2) youth led action and organizational empowerment, (3) positive community connectedness and community-building and (4) broader societal connectedness and social justice.
360 Degrees of Development: Universities as Real Estate Developers in Atlanta
David Perry, Scott Levitan, Andre Bertrand, Carl Patton, Dwan Packnett and Lawrence Kelley
Free registration with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is required to download this document.
Abstract
The university is increasingly viewed as one of the key institutions of urban development. Where there may have been a time when campus development could have occurred as if the university were an “ivory tower” removed from the “turmoil” of everyday life (Bender, 1988), the institutional importance of academic institution to economic development, local job formation and even to the cultural identity of the city as well as to knowledge formation is now recognized. However important the university may be to the city, the conditions and practices that make up the university – city relationship are not necessarily smooth or well understood. The purpose of this report is to contribute to this understanding.
A Quality Control Framework for Bus Schedule Reliability GCP-08-06
Jie Lin, Ming L. Wang, & Darold T. Barnum
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This paper develops and demonstrates a quality control framework for bus schedule reliability. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) devices provide necessary data; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) yields a valid summary measure from partial reliability indicators; and Panel Data Analysis provides statistical confidence boundaries for each route-direction’s DEA scores. If a route-direction’s most recent DEA score is below its lower boundary, it is identified as in need of immediate attention. The framework is applied to 29 weeks of AVL data from 24 Chicago Transit Authority bus routes (and therefore 48 route-directions), thereby demonstrating that it can provide quick and accurate quality control.
Comparing the Performance of Urban Transit Bus Routes after Adjusting for the Environment, Using Data Envelopment Analysis GCP-08-05
Darold T. Barnum, Sonali Tandon, & Sue McNeil
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
Urban transit managers strive to attain multiple goals with tightly constrained resources. Ratio analysis has evolved into a powerful tool for dealing with these goals and constraints. Ratio analysis provides analytical methods for comparing the performance of multiple agencies, as well as the performance of subunits within a particular agency, in order to identify opportunities for improvement. One ratio analysis procedure that has become increasingly popular is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA yields a single, comprehensive measure of performance, the ratio of the aggregated, weighted outputs to aggregated, weighted inputs. This paper makes two contributions to the practice of urban transit performance evaluation using DEA. First, instead of using DEA to compare the performance of multiple transit systems, it uses DEA to compare the performance of multiple bus routes of one urban transit system. Second, it introduces a new procedure for adjusting the raw DEA scores that modifies these scores to account for the environmental influences that are beyond the control of the transit agency.
DEA Efficiency Analysis Involving Multiple Production Processes with an Application to Urban Mass Transit GCP-08-02
Darold T. Barnum & John M. Gleason
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This paper addresses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency analysis in organizations with multiple production processes. It shows how to measure the impact on an organization’s overall efficiency of (a) inefficient and superefficient subunits, and (b) the efficiency with which input resources are allocated to the subunits. It introduces a simple model for efficiently allocating inputs among subunits, and applies the entire analytical process to a large urban mass transit agency.
Estimating Data Envelopment Analysis Frontiers for Nonsubstitutable Inputs and Outputs: The Case of Urban Mass Transit GCP-08-03
Darold T. Barnum & John M. Gleason
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models assume that inputs are substitutable for each other, and that outputs are substitutable for each other. However, recent DEA articles frequently include outputs that cannot be substituted for each other and inputs that cannot be substituted for each other. In this paper, we demonstrate that conventional DEA models report invalid efficiency scores when outputs and/or inputs are nonsubstitutable. We use artificial data to illustrate the differences between the efficient frontiers of substitutable and nonsubstitutable variables. Assuming that the inputs and outputs are nonsubstitutable, we compare the DEA scores from a conventional DEA model with those from a new model, the Fixed Proportion Additive (FPA) model, which we developed to deal with nonsubstitutable variables. Then, we apply the conventional and FPA models to real-world data involving urban mass transit systems, where the outputs are nonsubstitutable, and where the inputs are nonsubstitutable. Finally, we make recommendations for model use when inputs or outputs are nonsubstitutable, one involving the development of new models and the others involving adaptations that can be made if one wishes to use conventional models.
Structure Is Space: 63-66, a mosaic installation at the Hilliard Apartments GCP-09-06
Olivia Gude
Abstract
Creating a safe space for expression through art can forge immense opportunity for meaningful communication and sharing of space between diverse inhabitants of a specific location. This account of the making of a community-based public artwork for the newly renovated Hilliard Apartments documents through pictures and stories how this mosaic installation facilitated the building of connections among old, new and newly returned inhabitants of this housing complex. The project explores space-remembered, internalized spaces, psychological and social spaces, and the actual spaces in which we live, learn and work by way of inhabitant participation and exploration of the architectural design history of the Hilliard Apartment complex, namely Bauhaus-education artist Bertrand Goldberg. In this way, the creation and installation of a series of mosaic pieces resulted in an intergenerational and multicultural common appreciation of the meaning of these themes.
Estimating DEA Confidence Intervals for Canadian Urban Paratransit Agencies Using Panel Data Analysis GCP-08-01
Darold T. Barnum, John M. Gleason, & Brendon Hemily
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Great Cities Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This paper illustrates three concepts new to the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) literature, and applies them to data from Canadian urban paratransit agencies. First, it predicts valid confidence intervals and trends for each agency’s true efficiency. Second, it uses Panel Data Analysis methodology, a set of statistical procedures that are more likely to produce valid estimates than those commonly used in DEA studies. Third, it uses a new method of identifying and adjusting for environmental effects that has more power than conventional procedures.
Third Space Scholars: Enacting Third Space Within The Academy GCP-08-04
Benet DeBerry-Spence
Associate Professor
Managerial Studies
Abstract
This paper explores the notion of ‘Third Space’, the space between the academy and activism. This space allows the academician to make sense of her contribution to social change. The author uses literature from divergent disciplines and from a transformative research initiative working with the MASAZI Welcome Center in Accra, Ghana, West Africa, to better understand how an academician experiences third space. The author created the center to support the economic empowerment of micro-business owners through its mediation of social and economic differences that often exist between tourists and hosts. Her understanding of third space is shaped by this particular set of experiences.
This paper is no longer available on the GCI site. Please contact the author directly for a copy at benet@uic.edu.
Using Panel Data Analysis to Estimate Confidence Intervals for the DEA Efficiency of Individual Urban Paratransit Agencies GCP-07-10
Darold T. Barnum*, John M. Gleason, Brendon Hemily
Darold Professor of Management and Professor of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
John Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Technology within in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University in Omaha,
Brendon Hemily Principal for Brendon Hemily and Associates
Abstract
This paper demonstrates a methodology using Panel Data Analysis to estimate confidence intervals for the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency of individual urban paratransit agencies and the statistical significance of trends in individual agency efficiency. The procedure accounts for stochastic variations of the inputs and outputs of the target agency as well as stochastic variations of the inputs and outputs of its efficient benchmark peers. The procedure is demonstrated using nine years of data from 34 urban paratransit agencies.
Comparing the Efficiency of Urban Transit Park & Ride Lots Using Data Envelopment Analysis GCP-07-09
Darold T. Barnum, Sue McNeil, Jonathon Hart
Darold Professor of Management and Professor of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Sue Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware, Jonathon transportation analyst and project manager with Wilbur Smith Associates’ Transportation Finance
Abstract
This paper discusses the need for a performance measure that compares the efficiencies of subunits within an urban transportation organization, reflects the diversity of inputs and outputs, and is objective and consistent. The paper presents a method for developing such a performance indicator, and illustrates its use with an application to the park-and-ride lots of the Chicago Transit Authority. The proposed method applies Data Envelopment Analysis supplemented by Stochastic Frontier Analysis to estimate efficiency scores for each subunit. The paper demonstrates how the scores can provide objective and valid indicators of each subunit’s efficiency, while accounting for key goals and values of internal and external stakeholders. The scores can be practically applied by a transit agency to identify subunit inefficiencies, and, as demonstrated by several brief case studies, this information can be used as the basis for changes that will improve both subunit and system performance.
University Employer-Assisted Housing: University-Community Partnerships
David Perry, Joseph K. Hoereth, Dwan Packnett
Free registration with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is required to download this document.
Abstract
The paper critically explores the potential for EAH programs to not only meet the needs of universities, but also contribute to the improvement of the communities that reside in “the shadows” of universities. The research seeks to uncover the ways in which EAH programs serve to catalyze relationships between universities and those communities. The authors identify the motivations for and common models of university employer assisted housing (EAH) programs, and use these motivations and models as a framework for a scan of twenty-two university EAH programs across the country. The framework is then applied to three more in-depth case studies of university EAH programs at: Case Western Reserve University, the University of Chicago, and Howard University. Analysis of the case studies reveals that EAH can be an effective way for universities to address a housing shortage for its employees, or a particular segment of its staff. The efficacy of EAH as a tool with which to both revitalize a community and improve university-community relationships is not quite as clear. Trust between universities and their neighboring communities is identified as a key factor in limiting or enhancing the community development outcomes of university EAH programs.
The HistoryMakers: A New Primary Source for Scholars GCP-07-08
Julieanna L. Richardso
Vernon D. Jarrett Senior Fellow at The Great Cities Institute of the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities of increasing the use and accessibility of The HistoryMakers’ video oral history archive. The archive of oral histories of African American “HistoryMakers” from a wide range of backgrounds is a potential resource for academics, school teachers, students, and historians alike. Information is presented on the current state of the archives, potential future uses, and the importance of documenting and preserving these oral histories to gain a deeper understanding of African American history and experience.
Addressing Controversy in the Classroom: Teaching about Immigrant Rights in Chicago Schools GCP-07-07
Irma M. Olmedo
Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This article examines the issue of teachers’ decisions to address controversial issues as teaching opportunities in the classroom, using the recent immigrant rights mobilizations of 2006. As public reports of planned deportations of the undocumented were heard, especially in communities in urban areas with high proportions of these populations, many families were gripped with fear about their status. This research involved exploring the classroom-based activities of Chicago teachers to engage their students in inquiry on these issues, and the participation and perspectives of children that resulted from these activities.
Joint Environmental and Cost Efficiency Analysis of the Electricity Production Industry: Applying the Materials Balance Condition GCP-09-03
Ann M. Feldman
Associate Professor in the Department of English and Director of the First Year Writing Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
The complex relationship between the university and the city provides the context for this chapter, which explores not only the changing nature of scholarship in the metropolitan research university, but how its changing intellectual climate should, in turn, change our conception of writing instruction for students who attend college in the city. It is argued that engaged research — participatory, reciprocal research — depends on an awareness of research as a discursive practice; that is, on how language and rhetoric are used to shape emerging knowledge. When both faculty members and students focus on engagement, their relationship to the city is enhanced, while also enhancing undergraduate education and, in particular, writing instruction.
Maximization of Non-Residential Property Tax Revenue by a Local Governmen GCP-07-06
John F. McDonald
Professor Emeritus of Economics and Director, Center for Urban Real Estate at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
The paper presents a model of the market for commercial or industrial real estate at the local level that is used to derive an equation for the property tax rate that maximizes tax revenue – given that demand for real estate at the local level is highly elastic and capital is mobile in the long run.
The Ecological City: Metaphor versus Metabolism GCP-07-05
Sharon Haar
Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
In this study – a textual and visual analysis – I look at the ways the term “ecology” has been used to motivate western-style modernism in a global context and to prescribe and advance design decisions based largely in formal, compositional, and stylistic assumptions. Among the questions I am interested in is how new frameworks – sustainability, sustainable communities, and sustainable design – extend earlier ecological metaphors and the extent to which they have sublimated stylistic and formal design ideas without truly resolving the impact of modernization on the landscape.
Preparing Adolescents to Read-To-Learn in the 21st Century GCP-07-03
Louis M. Gomez and Kimberley Gomez
Louis M. Gomez Professor of School Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
Kimberley Gomez is Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper explores ways to remedy adolescents’ failure to acquire reading-to-learn skills and explains the importance of being able to understand texts from diverse disciplines in order to be successful in the professional workplace and enhance overall life chances. The authors suggest that inquiry-centered learning environments in schools might better prepare students for the educational demands of careers in the 21 century labor market. They also offer suggestions about how these learning environments might better be coupled with the support of reading and literacy.
Optimal Leverage in Real Estate Investment with Mezzanine Lending GCP-07-02
John F. McDonald
Professor Emeritus of Economics and Director, Center for Urban Real Estate at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the optimal leverage for the purpose of investing in real estate under the condition that borrowing in excess of a standard amount such as 70 to 80 percent of the purchase price must be accomplished through a mezzanine loan with a high rate of interest. The conditions under which a mezzanine loan is used are derived. It is shown that a larger mezzanine loan is used the greater is the required expected after-tax rate of return to equity. Investors who choose greater risk require a higher expected after-tax return to equity and therefore borrow more and purchase more real estate with a given equity investment.
Does Form of Fiscal Governance Matter: Fiscal Practices and Outcomes in Chicago Suburbs GCP-07-01
Rebecca Hendrick
Associate Professor of Public Administration in the College of Urban Planning & Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper explores the extent to which government performance varies between traditional council-mayor structures and reformed council-manager structures. Little research exists on the linkage between type of government and financial management practices outside of budgeting or performance measurement. The research presented here uses both qualitative and quantitative data on suburbs in the Chicago metropolitan region and a relatively unique, three- stage research design to address these analytical problems and provide more detailed inferences about the linkages between fiscal governance, financial management practices, and financial conditions in these local governments. The findings demonstrate interesting and complex relationships between fiscal governance (and form of government), financial management practices, financial conditions, and other factors important to these conditions.
Urban Aesthetics and the Excess of Fact GCP-06-05
Helen Liggett
Professor
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs
Cleveland State University
Abstract
The “excess of fact” describes the complexity and crowded nature of un-staged photography, where many factors aside from the single subject interact to create meaning. This essay examines the ways in which three modes of “excess of fact” in urban life—echoes, encounters and exchange—create an urban aesthetics. Taking back the right to the city and dialogic occasions are explored in this discussion of the construction of meaningful urban existence.
The New Chicago School – Not New York or L.A., and Why It Matters for Urban Social Science GCP-06-04
Terry Nichols Clark
Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago
Abstract
Michael Dear et al’s “LA School” builds on a critique of the old Chicago school. This paper extends the discussion by incorporating broader theories about how cities work, stressing culture and politics. New Yorkers lean toward class analysis, production, inequality, dual labor markets, and related themes–deriving for some from a secular Marxism. LA writers are more often individualist, subjectivist, consumption-oriented; some are also postmodernist. Chicago is the largest American city with a heavily Catholic population, which heightens attention to personal relations, extended families, neighborhoods, and ethnic traditions. These in turn lead observers to stress culture and politics in Chicago, as these vary so heavily by subculture. The paper outlines seven axial points for a New Chicago School.
So called Girl-on-Girl Violence is Actually Adult-on-Girl Violence GCP-05-03
Laurie Schaffner
Sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
As arrests of girls for violent offenses rose in the 1990s, public concern about adolescent girls’ aggression grew around the notion of girl-on-girl violence. This research briefly explores that idea and argues that young women are indeed experiencing violence, but not necessarily from each other, as much as from the effects of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and poverty. Indeed, girls suffer more from adult-on-girl violence, evidenced by legislators’ refusal to fund infrastructure such as housing, jobs, and schools; voter apathy; and the ruthlessness of a highly-profitable prison system. These factors, more than any change in girls’ behavior, have combined to usher in the era of the criminalization of social problems.
Marketing Safe Sex: The Politics of Sexuality, Race and Class in San Francisco, 1983 – 1991
Jennifer Brier
Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper explores the growth of two AIDS organizations in San Francisco: the San Francisco AIDS Foundation started in 1982, the largest AIDS service organization in the city and one of the largest in the nation, and the Third World Advisory Task Force (TWAATF), a community based organization formed in 1985 to focus attention on AIDS in communities of color to understand both the evolution of AIDS prevention work as well as how that process elucidates the larger political landscape of the 1980s.
From Daley to Daley: Chicago Politics 1955 – 2006 GCP-06-03
Dick Simpson
Professor in the Department of Political Sciences
Abstract
In the past fifty years Chicago has been transformed socially, economically, governmentally, and politically. By tracing campaign contributions, aldermanic voting, election results, and government jobs and contracts we can begin to trace the political transformation. Yet, a full explanation requires considering biographical facts and social forces as well. This paper begins that exploration.
Financing Infrastructure in the 21st Century City: “How Did I Get Stuck Holding the Bag?” GCP-06-02
Michael A. Pagano with David Perry
Michael A. Pagano is Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
David Perry is Director of the Great Cities Institute at the University Of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This essay identifies critical issues in financing city infrastructure and a realistic set of options available to policymakers. In particular, the report examines trends toward decentralization and fragmentation of governmental and financial institutions and toward market-based and consumer- or customer-oriented policies. Urban policymakers today find themselves in the position of negotiating with neighboring communities, competitive markets, and citizens in a fragmented governance system. What appears to be little more than organized chaos has evolved over decades into the complex, if not always rational, system of infrastructure finance and governance in which cities find themselves today.
Regionalizing the Global-Local Economic Nexus: A Tale of Two Regions in China GCP-06-01
Xiangming Chen
Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
The study of regions has been undergoing an intellectual “renaissance,” resulting in a growing literature on the renewed importance of new and more varied forms of regions and regionalism. This literature has focused on supranational regional schemes such as the EU, NAFTA, and APEC on one hand, and within-country dynamic or declining regions like the Silicon Valley, the industrial districts, or the heavy industrial areas in Europe or the United States on the other. However, insufficient research has been devoted to other geographical scales and political contexts where regions have become the “crucial middle” for integrating global, national, and local economies. This stronger role of regions can also turn them into more contested terrains for the diverse tensions and outcomes of economic integration or lack of it to play out, especially in terms of simultaneous tendencies in competitive and cooperative policies and practices of subnational and local governments, special-purpose authorities, and global and local firms. In this paper, I offer a new framework for conceptualizing and analyzing region as capable of mediating or restructuring global-local economic relations in varied ways. This framework allows region to be scrutinized as a more active and dynamic entity for investment and economic growth, which nevertheless faces a greater dilemma of fostering collective efficiency and welfare through a rational regional division of labor and cooperation while forestalling extreme intraregional or inter-local competition through unbridled location incentives under the condition of accelerated capital mobility and more discriminating global investors. Using this framework to guide a comparative analysis of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China— two of the most dynamic manufacturing regions in the world, this paper describes the structural and spatial formations of regionalized global-local value chains and production networks, analyzes the opportunities and constraints for indigenous Chinese firms in these two regions to achieve industrial upgrading, and finally discusses the implications for new forms of regional governance.
PTSD in Children and Adolescents GCP-05-04
Tanya Anderson
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
There are a myriad of challenges and issues faced when working with children and adolescents diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many children and adolescents that present with PTSD symptoms have been exposed to chronic traumas of community violence, physical injury and maltreatment. Exposure and experiences resulting in a diagnosis of PTSD influences a child’s development, their ability to build relationships and their mental well-being. This paper reviews the history of PTSD, common symptomatology among children and adolescents diagnosed with PTSD, issues in diagnosing PTSD in children and adolescents, and lastly, trauma’s impact on development.
From Hunger Strike to High School: Youth Development, Social Justice and School Formation GCP-05-01
David Stovall
Assistant Professor, Department of Education
Abstract
The following project seeks to identify the attempt of two communities (one Mexican-American, one African-American) to authentically involve young people in the development and planning process of a community high school. As an active participant in the process, I have utilized the tenets of participatory action research to identify challenges faced by young people and adults in neighborhood school development. Where issues of race, class and gender are usually given nominal attention in school improvement, the subsequent study seeks to highlight an instance where community members realized that engaging young people was the most viable means by
which to address potential racial/ethnic conflict in a new school. Through youth development, young people are leading the process to engage dialogue and coalition building to address commonalities between cultures with distinct histories and realities.
Playing with Race in Transnational Space: Rethinking Mestizaje GCI-04-01
Marcia Farr
Professor of English and Education
Ohio State University
Abstract
Race and ethnicity have a complex history in the New World, in the confrontation of Europeans, and Africans, with Indians. After the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a hierarchical society based on caste, or “race,” was established, with Spaniards at the top, followed by castas (mixed bloods of various types), then Indians, and then Africans. Although this caste hierarchy evolved toward a more class-based system, especially during the 19th century, colonial racial ideology endured, and it continues to underlie Mexican society even today (Lomnitz-Adler, 1992). Most studies of Mexico and Mexicans have assumed that mestizaje, or racial mixing, has been so thorough that the two resulting social categories, the (remaining) indigenous Indians and mestizos, are generally indistinguishable from one another physically. That is, there has been so much genetic, and cultural, mixing in both groups that one cannot tell who is Indian and who is mestizo by physical characteristics alone. For example, Foster’s (1967/1979/1988) statement that one cannot distinguish racially between indigenous and mestizo communities in this region of northwest Michoacán is common in the ethnographic literature on rural Mexicans. Foster, however, carried out his study in Tzintzuntzan, Michoácan, a very old indigenous site that was the seat of power in the pre-conquest Purépecha kingdom. Presumably most mestizos in Tzintzuntzan would have heavily indigenous familial histories, unlike those from the rancho in the present study, which seems to have experiencedCand is experiencingCmestizaje from a heavily Spanish and other European familial history. The fact that Tzintzuntzan is only a few hours drive from the rancho in this study points out how much (unstudied) variation exists within the northwest portion of this state, let alone in the rest of Mexico, or among Mexicans in the United States.
From Immigration Assimilation to Metropolitan Regeneration and Transformation: Notes and Reflections on the Processes of Immigrant Settlement and Metropolitan Change in Chicago Today GCP-04-02
Anthony Orum
Professor, Department of Sociology
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
United States. As of the year, 2002, more than 32 million new residents, or approximately 11 per cent of the total population, had been added in this manner to the population of the United States (U.S. Census, February 2003). This stream of new immigrants has come to America from places very different from those in the past. As the result of a major overhaul of immigration policy evident in the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act, the long-time preference for settlement given to immigrants from Western Europe was dropped; in its place new criteria were enacted that would shift the basic flow of immigrants from Western Europe to Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The large majority of these newcomers today, or about 50 per cent, arrive from countries in Latin America (U.S. Census, February 2003). By far the largest number comes from Mexico. As of the year 2000, 9.2 million immigrants, or roughly 30 per cent of the total foreign-born residents of the United States had entered from Mexico (U.S. Census, December 2003). As one might expect, these immigrants bring with them many things – not the least of which is often a rich culture and a different language, both of which are beginning to alter the character of the United States.
The changes to America are concentrated both regionally and in major metropolitan areas. The foreign-born tend to be most heavily concentrated in the West and Northeast, and least heavily in the Midwest (U.S. Census, December 2003). For example, fully 26 per cent of the population of the state of California comes today from foreign countries. Moreover, as of the year, 2000, four counties held 22 per cent of the total U.S. foreign-born population (U.S. Census, December 2003). They were: Los Angeles County; Miami-Dade County; Cook County, Illinois; and Queens County, New York.
How Community Development Education Can Build Capacity: The Case of the Urban Developers Program
Janet Smith and Rachel Weber
Urban Planning and Policy Program
University of Illinois at Chicago
The views expressed in this report represent those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the
Great CitiesInstitute or the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
The future of affordable housing in the US depends on the capacity of community development corporations (CDCs) to maintain the existing stock and to develop additional units. This article examines three different approaches to delivering community development education– workshops and short courses, traditional professional education programs, and hybrid programs– to enhance different forms of CDC capacity. Each embodies a different philosophy of acquiring conceptual and operational knowledge in the community development field. We present a case study of the Urban Developers Program, a certificate program offered jointly by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Chicago Rehab Network, to illustrate how hybrid programs can enhance skills and competencies while providing an opportunity for practitioners to be reflective and to critically assess development-related tools and strategies.
Reconstructing Regional Politics: Special Purpose Authorities and Municipal Governments GCP-03-01
Dennis R. Judd
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
As Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff have noted, “Theorists of urban politics have paid scarce attention to mega-projects,” because “mega-projects are usually constructed by regional and state agencies” and not by municipal governments. I argue in this brief essay that the tendency of scholars to focus on city governments has meant that urban scholarship has missed the most dynamic politics driving urban development for decades – the emergence of institutions that often dwarf the fiscal, administrative, and political capacity of general-purpose governments. Unless these institutions are taken into account, most of the development occurring within urban regions cannot be explained or even accounted for. Any discussion of regionalism and regional policies must go beyond discussions of municipalities and their cooperative arrangements and must also go beyond a discussion of regional governmental authorities that pool taxes and administer services.
Development politics in the New York and Los Angeles regions from the 1920s to the 1960s, as described vividly in Robert Caro’s book about Robert Moses and in the films Roger Rabbit and Chinatown (and elsewhere) should have alerted scholars long ago to the overwhelming power that regional authorities have exerted in shaping patterns of metropolitan development – and theories of urban politics should have taken these institutions into account. In the past thirty years the problem inherent in focusing on municipal governments has become even more apparent. Since the early 1980s public/private institutions established to finance and manage the large facilities of tourism and entertainment such as convention centers and sports stadiums have grown up alongside older regional institutions such as airport and transit authorities.
As observed by Peter Eisenger, local priorities have shifted to policies favoring tourists and middleclass users entertainment spaces because public officials have become adept at bypassing the public.3 The deals that public officials must strike with private developers to assemble land, provide public amenities, and guarantee sufficient profits are so complicated that it would often be impractical to consult the public.4 As large-scale public planning has given way to deal-making, the most important development decisions are made in behind-the-scenes day-to-day negotiations.5 In addition, new public/private institutions of urban development have been created that are not bound by rules normally applied to municipal governments. As a consequence, the politics of urban redevelopment is rapidly moving from the arena of electoral and municipal politics into an expanding number of institutions that operate with little public accountability. It is imperative that the consequences of these developments for local democracy and for regional governance be explored.
Can Chicago Make It As a Global City? GCP-00-2
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Professor Emerita, Sociology, Northwestern University
Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, New York
Abstract
Is Chicago an international city? Of course it is. It has been ever since the second half of the nineteenth century: (1) when it was British bond investments that funded the rail lines to open the prairies and the west to the New York port; (2) when midwest corn and wheat began to supply Europe’s bakeries; and (3) when new techniques of curing and refrigeration permitted the delivery of Chicago’s meat to distant and even foreign markets.
And talk about a cosmopolitan population! Recall that at the turn of the century, four-fifths of Chicago’s residents had either been born abroad or were the children of those who had. Attracting international capital, offering banking and financial services to tributary cities and towns, producing goods for export, and drawing diverse immigrant labor are all characteristics of a dominant global center.
Is Chicago now a global city? Of course it is. It has all the contemporary earmarks: high tech, producers’ services, the MERC, and the busiest airport in the country, even though its attractiveness to migrants now trails Los Angeles and New York.
Nonetheless, Chicago is a city that for half a century first denied and then succumbed to “rustbelt anxiety,” at best whistling in the dark. And especially after the census ignominiously demoted it to “third city,” it has been the object, inter alia, of a glossy (even hysterical) Chamber of Commerce report in 1992, boasting that, like any third world country or depressed American city, it was prepared for a race to the bottom: Comparing the city to its “rivals” (especially New York and Los Angeles), the Chamber propaganda stresses that Chicago has lower wages, congestion, lower rents for office space, lower utility rates, corporate and individual, and a more “cooperative” administration.
The Politics of School Desegregation in Oak Park, Illinois GCP-00-1
Evan McKenzie
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
Oak Park, Illinois, has more than 30 years of experience with policies expressly aimed at maintaining an integrated community. The policies address issues in housing, education, public safety, and economic development that policy makers believe contribute to resegregation. In this working paper, I examine the area of education, focusing on the enrollment trends, areas of controversy, and public policies that have emerged in Oak Park over the last 30 years. Oak Park’s school desegregation efforts in 1976 and 1987 accomplished their intended purpose, which was to promote racial balance among the neighborhood elementary schools. But new disparities have emerged in the years since. I present data covering 1979 to the present, showing significant and growing racial imbalance in the district. Changed circumstances have altered the prospects for future policy interventions to maintain school integration.
Despite the effectiveness of previous desegregation efforts in Oak Park, there is serious question whether such interventions will be undertaken again. The most significant divergence in support for integration maintenance may be among middle class, educated, involved citizens– Oak Park’s policy elite. This elite is more ideologically liberal than in years past, and has expanded to include a significant number of black elected and appointed officials, journalists, and other influential citizens. Those who question the need for school desegregation are well educated and familiar with contemporary issues in American politics. Their views of Oak Park politics are not derived from purely local experience, but are heavily influenced by the national discourse over race relations. That discourse is highly conflictual, ideological, emotional, and sensitive to the symbolic dimension of politics and policy. By contrast, Oak Park’s local politics, where integration is concerned, have historically been relatively nonpartisan and highly pragmatic, being focused on non-ideological local solutions to concrete issues.
The advocates of integration maintenance are still speaking the language of pragmatism, but they are now being met with rebuttals saying, in effect, that proposals to achieve racial balance in the schools through public policy have the potential to make black people feel negatively about themselves. It may be possible to resolve the existing impasse over school desegregation in Oak Park by taking advantage of a new Leadership Council process to let a new pragmatic consensus come into existence that addresses both the emotional and rational dimensions of public policy.
The Proposed New Interstate 69 Highway: Is It a Cost-Effective Rural Economic Development Tool for Southwest Indiana? GCP-99-3
Wim Wiewel, Joseph J. Persky and Mark Edward Sendzik
Wim Wiewel is Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Joseph J. Persky is a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mark Edward Sendzik is a Ph.D candidate specializing in public policy analysis.
Abstract
This study examines the cost-effectiveness of the Evansville-to-Bloomington portion of the proposed new Interstate 69 highway in Southwest Indiana in fulfilling its stated purpose of stimulating economic development in four rural Indiana counties. We compare the proposed highway with other rural economic development programs and strategies such as rural enterprise zones, federal economic development programs, business incubators, and local industrial development groups. In addition, we use a variety of state cost and job creation estimates, cost calculations, and comparison figures. Although this study does not take a position on whether the proposed new highway should be built, we conclude that if the purpose of the I-69 project is economic development in these rural counties, far more cost-efficient alternatives almost certainly exist.
Principles and Practices for Creating Systems Reform in Urban Workforce Development GCP-99-2
Joan Fitzgerald
Associate professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and a faculty fellow at the Great Cities Institute.
Abstract
This brief provides advice for state and local governments as they define their One-Stop Employment Centers and broader workforce development systems. Seven principles are developed to provide a framework for analyzing how to create systemic reform in urban workforce development. The principles identify several key issues that will have to be addressed in thinking through systems change, including the role of various stakeholders, accessibility, the role of intermediaries in coordinating services, curriculum, and performance accountability.
Obstacles to Employment of Women with Abusive Partners: A Summary of Select Interview Data GCP-99-1
Stephanie Riger, Courtney Ahrens, Amy Blickenstaff, Jennifer Camacho
Stephanie Riger Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Courtney Ahrens is a graduate student in the Community and Prevention Research Division of the Psychology Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Amy Blickenstaff is a doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jennifer Camacho graduate student in Psychology at UIC
Abstract
A high proportion of women who receive welfare are abused by their intimate partners. This paper examines the relationship among welfare receipt, job readiness (i.e., employment history and training), employment resources (i.e., transportation and child care) and intimate violence among women in three domestic violence shelters. These women have few job skills and many barriers to employment. Many reported long-term physical or mental health problems, and most had young children at home, making work difficult. Most of the women were unemployed and few had any kind of job training. Their job histories consisted of intermittent work for low pay in unskilled positions. Many of their abusers disrupted the women’s work and school efforts, severely interfering with their attempts at self-sufficiency.
Esperanza Familiar: A University-Community Partnership in the Settlement House Tradition GCP-98-4
Richard S. Kordesh
Richard S. Kordesh teaches family policy and community development at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This paper uses a network analysis to study the emergence of a communityuniversity partnership in Chicago’s Pilsen community. It tracks the creation of Esperanza Familiar, a joint product of the Resurrection Project, a community development corporation in Pilsen and the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. The partnership has been supported by funding and technical assistance from the University of Illinois Neighborhoods Initiative. Seen as a social learning network, the partnership creates and disseminates knowledge to such diverse beneficiaries as faculty, graduate students, staff of the Resurrection Project and families in the neighborhood. This learning is reminiscent of the education-based approaches to community empowerment that were spawned by Jane Addams’ Hull-House in Chicago in the early twentieth century.
Social Mobility Along the Continuum of Care GCP-98-3
Charles Hoch, Lynette Bowden
Charles Hoch Professor in the Urban Planning and Policy Program in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Lynette Bowden former research assistant at the Great Cities Institute.
Abstract
The homeless problem now enjoys a settled if marginal place in U.S. domestic policy. Programs to treat and remedy the homeless problem have also found acceptance and become integrated within a “continuum of care.” In this essay we argue that current ideas about the problem and its solutions emphasize social mobility for the poor-a mobility that existing empirical research does not support. The overemphasis on framing versions of social dependence as the problem has encouraged the use of shelters and social programs to change individual households rather than increasing the kinds and amounts of low-rent housing available.
To illustrate the limits on mobility, we review current evidence on shelter use. Providing supportive housing to remedy the privations of the poor does make good sense, but mainly if it is organized to strengthen social reciprocity among households in affordable residential communities. This not only requires social investment, but also innovative design and use of affordable housing alternatives. A brief case study provides an example.
The Chicago Response to Urban Problems: Building University/Community Collaborations GCP-98-5
Loomis Mayfield , Maureen Hellwig , Brian Banks
Loomis Mayfield Coordinator of the University of Illinois at Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative. Maureen Hellwig Program Coordinator of the Policy Research Action Group (PRAG) at Loyola University, Chicago. Brian Banks Research/Action Coordinator at PRAG.
Abstract
Modern university/community relationships are sometimes marked by division and hostility. Key problems in the relationship include the assumed objectivity of the academy; the real estate interests of universities; and the alliance of real estate interests and political figures in opposition to community concerns. The history and description of these relationships in Chicago indicates there are other historical trends which have led to fruitful partnerships, including: the influence of the settlement house movement; the strength and diversity of community groups; change and diversity in the university; and the influence of the civil rights movement. This article uses the examples of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Policy Research Action Group, a consortium of four universities Loyola, DePaul, Chicago State University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago and community partners, to show how strong, viable collaborations can occur. Their experiences point to a new research model and some key “lessons learned” on how to use collaborative partnerships to enhance the way society deals with today’s urban problems.
Goal Achievement , Relationship Building, and Incrementalism GCP-97-12*
Wim Wiewel and Michael Liber
William, Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, UIC. Michael, Faculty of Department of Anthropology at UIC.
Abstract
Planning theories have often argued that the rational planning model continues to dominate the rhetoric and intent of most planners, even though there is a great deal of intellectual acceptance of the idea that planning practice rarely conforms to the model (Baum 1996; Hoch 1995, 225).
*Paper no longer available
Long-Term Collaboration: Building Relationships and Achieving Results in the UIC Neighborhoods Initiative GCP-98-1
Wim Wiewel and Ismael Guerrero
Wim Wiewel Professor and Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ismael Guerrero is the Associate Director of The Resurrection Project
Abstract
Much has been written in the past few years about the need for universities to become involved in partnerships with other organizations to address societal problems more directly. Many of the articles and conference presentations calling for this new involvement also identify the obstacles and barriers to pursuing this course successfully (see, for instance, the Winter 1996 issue of this journal). In this article we offer an analysis of a successful cross-sector collaboration and seek to identify the critical factors in creating success. Lest this sounds self-satisfied and presumptuous, let us add that the main reason we feel able to do this is that we have experienced plenty of failures as well, and thus can draw on that history in trying to isolate, in a qualitative manner, the key elements that have contributed to the partnership described here.
Economic Renaissance in the Windy City: The Wind of Change of Just Hot Air? GCP-97-6
Wim Wiewel
Wim Wiewel Dean of College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
With cities, the story always seems to be dramatic–either they are dying, becoming irrelevant, going bankrupt; or they are being reborn, cities are on the rise, the return of the downtown. The description of my talk in the conference program reflects this: “the continued renaissance of Chicago” “will discuss winning strategies that have helped the Windy City rebound and prosper.” It was language like that, rather than the climate, which earned the city the “Windy” moniker in the first place.
New Directions for Central City and Suburban Development GCP-97-7
Wim Wiewel
Dean of College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
In recent years some well-known economists and political commentators have characterized cities as economically and politically irrelevant. Urban policy has been neglected by the federal government. Cities have been seen only for their problems, as the garbage cans of society, with crime, poorly educated residents, and deteriorating infrastructure.
Peering into the Urban Future: Blurred Visions, Double Visions and a Little Clear Thinking GCP-97-8
Anthony M. Orum
Department of Sociology College of Liberal Ats and Sciences
Abstract
Over the past 25 years, there have been massive political and economic changes across the world. Capital moves freely, seeking its most profitable investments. Some people grow wealthy from such investments, but many people do not. The changes have altered the face of urban places, creating in many older industries cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Detroit or Milwaukee a destitute “underclass.” At the same time, there appears to be a growing polarity between the rich and the poor of many cities. These problems are compounded by political disputes, particularly in the United States, between central cities and their fringe areas. This essay reviews four major books on these and related changes, and looks for common threads as well as critical solutions. Among other things, the essay reminds social scientists that the changes are not uniform across the world, and that not every city will be fated to die the death of an old industrial empire. Some older cities have remade themselves, such as Barcelona; newer industrializing cities like Shanghai face other challenges and offer new hope for the future. The solutions for cities will depend on the rich and varied resources history has made available to their residents, and how residents are able to make use f them. In the United States, the capacity of metropolitan places to solve their problems will depend very much on the ability of mainly white suburban residents to view themselves as part of the same moral community as their black and brown brethren living in the inner city.
Regional Cooperation and Sustainable Growth: A Study of Nine Councils of Government in the Northeastern Illinois Region GCP-97-9
Bonnie Lindstrom
Abstract
Nine councils of government in the Chicago region exemplify a new institutional arrangement in regional governance. Formed partially from the need of mayors and managers to consult on issues specific to their subregions and from the mandate of ISTEA for local consultation on transportation issues, the councils of government have become articulate advocates for suburban and regional rather than urban or rural policy agendas. They exemplify a new form of functional regionalism that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration in transportation planning, solid waste management, regulatory standardization and intergovernmental agreement. The research examines the historical development, functional responsibilities, and subregional economic development agendas of nine councils of government in the six county northeast Illinois region and suggests explanations for their emergence and effectiveness.
Gender Issues in the Construction of Scientific Knowledge: Inquiry into a 6th Grade Urban Classroom GCP-97-5
Maria Varelas, Barbara Luster, Stacy Wenzel, Jane Liao
Maria, College of Education, Barbara, Department of African American Studies,
Abstract
In this paper, we share with our readers preliminary data and analyses that point towards some themes that relate gender issues with the teaching and learning of science within our specific conceptual framework. We consider our work to be a form of teacher research in science education. One of us, Barbara, is an elementary school teacher and a school-based researcher and the rest of us are University-based researchers. Barbara and Maria have been working together for more than two years trying to bring in the science classroom a specific take on science education–one that views science as a socio-cultural activity that centers on the dialectic of theory and data, or the theory-data dance as we like to call it. Recently (this school year) Barbara and Maria became interested in exploring issues related to gender as they are played out in the science class as teacher and students attempt to develop scientific theories (stories), collect and analyze empirical data, and relate the two in order to construct scientific knowledge. Stacy and Jane joined us for this project which has been slowly getting off the ground due to many different reasons–reasons often discussed in relation to teacher research.
Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Economic Development Initiatives in a Context of Global Integration GCP-97-10
Victor M. Ortiz
Victor M. Ortiz is on the faculty of the Latin American Studies program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
This article highlights socio-political implications of local responses to globalization as reflected in their time and space orientations. It illustrates two local responses in El Paso, Texas, to the ongoing integration of the U.S. and Mexican economies. One response concerns an economic strategy promoted by a group of labor advocates in efforts to address social dislocation caused by plant relocations. The other response concerns an economic plan embraced by the local business community in relation to regional infra structural needs for international production. The article explores the developmental implications of these responses in relation to sharp discrepancies among local groups as well as between local and global entities. These discrepancies entail complex socio-political dynamics influencing the allocation of resources not only in terms of local groups but, increasingly, also in terms of international operations. In theoretical terms, the case study provides a vivid illustration of contrasts and changes that suggest tangible new insights about the temporal and spatial dimensions of globalization.
Analyzing Economic Integration GCP-97-11
David C. Ranney
David C. Ranney is a professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
Analysis of economic integration should evaluate the dominant form of development which emphasizes growth through exports, high capital mobility, privatization, and governmental deregulation. This form of integration, termed neoliberalism, has its roots in the structural adjustment programs of the 1980’s and has been generalized globally. Thus its impact should consider a period that includes at least the past decade. Because integration includes non- contiguous nations and supra-national corporations, units of analysis should be conceived as transnational spaces that include data from an appropriate configuration of nations and corporations.
There are many topics that should be included in a study of the impacts of neoliberalism. While the focus of this paper is on the study of trade, I argue that it is misleading to isolate trade analytically as many studies do. Trade should be considered in relation to capital flows, and impacts should include many variables that constitute the broad concept of social wage. It is also misleading to isolate the export side of the trade relation. The net impacts of exports and imports should be estimated. When imports are considered, some researchers have argued that negative impacts of imports are overstated unless one considers the extent to which they are product complements rather than substitutes. The paper cautions that models which are sensitive to elasticities of substitution should consider factors that could cause elasticities to vary over time. Furthermore, it is important to estimate opportunity costs of non-domestic product complements by considering potential benefits of import substitution. Finally the paper critically evaluates efforts in the U.S. to estimate export supported jobs and wages. I am specifically critical of some estimating methodologies and the tendency to view export growth rather than social wage as the policy goal.
The Centrality of Place: The Urban Imagination of Sociologists GCP-97-4
Anthony M. Orum
Department of Sociology College of Liberal Art and Sciences
Abstract
About ten minutes from where I live, in Highland Park, north of Chicago, a house is being built. It sits at 1371 Sheridan Road and occupies virtually the entire lot, from one side to the other. A driveway runs from the road to the house, and to its two two-car garages that face the street. The house is massive, clearly too big for its lot, but just the right size for its owners. It cost at least a million dollars, and, when done, will be occupied by a commodities trader and his wife, both in their fifties. It is their dream house — massive, high ceilings, 5,000 square feet, and with a toney address on Chicago’s North Shore.
Does “Free Trade” Create Good Jobs? A Rebuttal to the Clinton Administration’s Claims GCP-97-2
David C. Ranney, Robert R. Naiman
David C. Ranney Associate Professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Robert R. Naiman Ph.D. student in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at UIC.
Abstract
U.S. government officials, business leaders and many economists tout “free trade” agreements as U.S. employment and wage boosters. They claim that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) will generate U.S. export growth, which will automatically translate into more and better U.S. jobs. And yet these rosy jobs claims seem to have little connection to the reality of the U.S. economy, in which nearly every week an export powerhouse like AT&T, Allied Signal or Kimberly Clark announces another mass layoff. This paper examines why the theory-based jobs claims related to deregulatory, export-promoting policies seem so out of touch with what many Americans are seeing in their workplaces and their communities. Using corporate case studies and statistical data, the paper concludes that these job claims are unsubstantiated. Not only is deregulated, export-led development inadequate as an employment policy, this prevailing model also undermines the capacity of national and local governments to create and sustain good jobs.
University Involvement in the Community: Developing a Partnership Model GCP-97-3
Wim Wiewel and David Broski
Wim Wiewel Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs David Broski Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Abstract
University involvement in the community is not a new phenomenon. Historian Thomas Bender describes initiatives supported by Columbia University in the 19th century, as well as John Dewey’s prescriptions for the University of Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century. Since the last century, the concept of the land grant university has been based on the belief that the university should be useful to its community in a direct and applied way, not just through the education it provides or the long-term potential benefits of pure research. What explains today’s new emphasis on university-community partnerships, as reflected in new federal programs, and indeed the founding of this new journal itself?1 And what is different about the current wave of interest in the issue?
Long-term and Dangerous Inmates: Maximum Security Incarceration in the United States GCP-96-12
Jess Maghan
Department of Criminal Justice College of Liberal Art and Sciences
Abstract
In the federal courts and in a few states, the judge does not have discretion to fix sentences. Rather, sentences are determined according to administrative guidelines based upon previous criminal record and the seriousness of the current offense. In these “guidelines jurisdictions” there is little room for lengthening a sentence based upon predictions of future dangerousness. Inmates define themselves and are defined by prison officials in terms of age, race, dangerousness, gang affiliation, and interests, but not in terms of the length of their sentences.
The juxtaposition of long-term incarceration and the management of dangerousness have come to represent an important custodial problem for the American penal system. The development of social control mechanism and classification systems is directly related to the containment of institutional violence. Ethnographic research on long-term inmates suggests that most attempt to come to terms with their circumstances. The significant operational problem of today’s prisons is to create an environment where a positive custodial adjustment can occur.
Property Taxes and Commercial Real Estate Values in Urban Areas GCP-96-11
John F. McDonald
John F. McDonald Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research in the College of Business Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of what is known about the effects of property taxation on the market rents and market values of commercial and industrial real estate in urban areas. More precisely, the paper concentrates on the impacts of changes in and variations in property tax rates on commercial and industrial property rents and values. The topic includes an examination of the effects of variations in property tax rates within an urban area. The paper does not examine the effects of public spending that might be funded by increasing the property tax rate on commercial and industrial property. It is taken as a given that commercial and industrial property usually pays far more in property taxes than the cost of the public goods and services directed at such property. Some 60 percent of all local government spending is on public schools, a public service that is assumed to benefit the owners of residential property.
Solid Waste Incineration in the Chicago Metropolitan Area: The Battle over the Illinois Retail Rate Law GCP-96-10
Mark Sendzik , Wim Wiewel
Mark Sendzik was a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Wim Wiewel Professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.
Abstract
Theories of market and government failure emphasize that public policies may often have unintended consequences. As such, policies should be carefully designed to minimize potential shortcomings, which may hinder resolution of a perceived problem. This paper examines the underlying rationale and consequences of actions taken by local, state, and federal governments in the United States during a perceived solid waste crisis during the 1980s.
Future Directions of the Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation GCP-96-9
Thomas J. Lenz
Senior Associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago Great Cities Institute
Abstract
Public housing in the United States is in the midst of unprecedented change. For decades, public housing authorities have operated large housing complexes for the poorest of the poor relying on huge federal subsidies. The current U. S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Henry Cisneros, has promised to “end public housing as we know it by radically changing the way it is built, located, managed, occupied, and connected to the wider community.”
Development: Who Pays and Who Benefits? GCP-96-8
Joseph Persky, Wim Wiewel
Joseph Persky Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Wim Wiewel Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.
Abstract
All firm locations create costs and benefits. Conventional wisdom holds that any negative effects of firms locating in the outer suburbs are greatly overshadowed by very large private benefits. The weight of the evidence presented here suggests this is not the case. For society as a whole, deconcentration of development to outer suburban areas brings few or no net gains while presenting significant inequities in the distribution of costs and benefits. Firms locating in outer suburban areas reap most of the benefits, while most of the costs (or benefits foregone) are borne by unemployed city residents, commuters who bear the cost of congestion, accidents, pollution and taxpayers who foot the bill for subsidies for transportation, home-ownership, and other public subsidies.
Lessons from the Field: Three Case Studies of Mixed-Income Housing Development GCP-96-4
Michael F. Schubert and Alison Thresher
Michael F. Schubert is with Community Development Strategies and Alison Thresher is with Thresher Associates
Abstract
This report presents three case studies of mixed-income housing development in three very different settings: Montgomery County, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Boston, Massachusetts. Each case study presented here looks at mixed-income development from a different perspective based on local market conditions, the degree of political support and the financing and subsidy opportunities that existed at a given point in time. While each is different, they provide practical answers to basic questions crucial to making mixed-income communities successful.
Improving Health Care Efficiency: Strategic Approaches to Managing Care for Asthma, Sickle Cell Disease and Tuberculosis Conference Proceedings GCP-96-5
Elizabeth S. Hauser, RN, PhD Richard B. Warnecke, PhD Susan Kerby, MA Charles Bright, BA
Survey Research Laboratory College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
On May 2, 1995 the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Initiative, in collaboration with Bethany Hospital in Chicago, a member of the Advocate group of hospitals, brought together local policy makers, researchers, health care providers and consumers in an all-day working conference on the effective and efficient management of sickle cell disease (SCD), asthma and tuberculosis (TB). Management of these three diseases is a major health problem facing state and local governments as they attempt to move the Medicaid population into a capitated system. Some health care providers propose that such conditions, which are costly and often difficult to control, be exempt from capitated models of health care. However, participants in this conference recommended that these three conditions can best be treated within a Medicaid capitated system if it allows for adequate provider and client education; service coordination among the health care, school and community systems; alternative models of health care delivery; and other specialty referral services. A successful Medicaid capitated system would reduce unnecessary medical costs, such as repeated diagnostic tests, improve health outcomes and reduce the public’s risk of contracting communicable diseases such as TB.
The Illinois Voter Project: An Experiment in Using Issue Information To Increase Citizen Participation in the 1994 Illinois Gubernatorial Election GCP-96-6
Barry Rundquist , Sharon Fox, Gerald Strom
Department of Political Science University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract
This paper describes the Illinois Voter Project (IVP) conducted by the Illinois League of Women Voters and the University of Illinois at Chicago during the 1994 Illinois gubernatorial election. It summarizes the project’s approach to increasing voter participation, some of its research on citizen views regarding problems in the state, and the evaluation of the impact of the IVP on voter participation.
The problem the IVP addressed is nonvoting. It is often observed that voter turnout in the United States is lower than in other democracies and is declining. A variety of solutions to nonvoting, focusing mainly on easier registration processes and civic education, have been suggested. The question addressed by the IVP is whether increasing citizen involvement in defining what issues receive media coverage and candidate discussion during an election might increase voter participation.
The IVP generated a considerable amount of media coverage of citizens’ policy views and the citizens’ agenda, conducted a statewide poll showing that most Illinoisans agreed with proposals in a “citizens’ agenda,” and hosted a televised Town Hall Meeting in which citizens and reporters asked questions of candidates Dawn Clark Netsch, the Democratic challenger, and Jim Edgar, the Republican incumbent. Did the IVP work? A post-election survey suggests that, depending on the measures used, the IVP reached anywhere from one-sixth to one-third of the eligible (over age 18) electorate. It also reached disproportionately more traditional non-voters (less educated, poorer citizens) than traditional voters. Moreover, the evaluation survey found that people reached by the IVP were more likely to have voted than were people unfamiliar with the IVP. This voting effect was apparent between different socioeconomic groups and among citizens with varying levels of information about the election. The paper concludes that involving citizens in issue definition and discussion and the creation of a citizen-initiated policy agenda should be considered in future efforts to stimulate voter participation.
Value Exchange and the Social Economy: Framework and Paradigm Shift in Urban Policy GCP-96-3
David Fasenfest, Penelope Ciancanelli and Laura A. Reese
Abstract
Urban policy creation and evaluation derive from an often unstated but far-reaching paradigm or framework that privileges a particular model of market processes. It is a paradigm in the full Kuhnian sense. This is the world view of most governmental officials, development professionals, and even academics. It influences the way urban problems have been identified, the kind of questions asked, the range of solutions considered, and the research methodologies employed. As Tetreault and Abel have observed, “what we can see is, to a large extent, conditional on the existence of prior categories and our understanding of how they fit together” (1986:4). Henriot spells out the implications of a paradigm for the researcher’s field of vision when he writes, “it is clear that the manner in which a problem is defined has much to do with the possible solutions which can be suggested” (1983:27). Moreover, both explicitly and implicitly a market paradigm has been defining and driving urban policy for the past several decades as “development officials have almost universally remained within the institutional and value framework of traditional capitalism” (Bingham and Blair, 1984:13.)
An Investigation into the Impact of Hazardous Waste Contamination Liability in Urban Industrial Land Redevelopment in the City of Chicago GCP-95-5
Daniel T. McGrath
Daniel T. McGrath, Coastal Economic Development Specialist with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate empirically how the behavior of buyers and developers of industrial property in Chicago might be influenced by the perceived contamination risk. There seem little question in most policymakers’ minds that this problem exists, and that its impact is quite substantial. This study is focused on taking a historical look at the problem and presents a method to measure its impact on both industrial land value and industrial redevelopment within the City of Chicago. There exist no previous studies that have attempted to systematically measure this problem, and this study hopes to begin to fill that gap.
An Economic Analysis of Guns, Crime and Gun Control GCP-95-4*
John F. McDonald
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research in the College of Business Administration
Abstract
A model is posited in which guns are demanded for recreation, self-protection or criminal purposes, and in which crime is supplied. Crime rates influence guns demanded for self-protection, and guns demanded by criminals depend upon guns held by law-abiding citizens. Comparative-static analysis is used to investigate the effects of crime and gun control policies. The results show that increases in crime control policies may reduce crime by less than one would expect because of the indirect negative effect on guns owned by the law-abiding public. Gun control policies reduce the demand for guns, but the effect on premeditated crime is ambiguous because of the negative effect on guns owned for self-protection and recreation.
*Paper no longer available