The Borrower\u27s Tale: A History of Poor Debtors in \u3ci\u3eLochner\u3c/i\u3e Era New York City

This study adds to the recent scholarship on Progressivism in practice—fine-grained, place-based studies of reform at the local level—but focuses closely on the relationships among reformers, industry, and the law that an earlier generation of historians studied at the national level and outlined in broad brushstrokes. This study also builds upon the creditor-centered work of historians such as Mark H. Haller and John V. Alviti, but moves beyond their reliance upon distinctions and categories, such as those separating profit making credit providers from philanthropic credit providers, which were less important to borrowers than they have been for historians. In focusing primarily on the lived experience of poor borrowers, this article imports into the study of household credit relationships an approach mapped out by several historians of social welfare policy and institutions, who have attempted to reorient the institution-centered historiography of social welfare to give greater weight to the perspectives of welfare recipients. This study attempts to correct a similar imbalance in the historiography of household credit relationships. The value of viewing the history of credit through the lived experiences of working-class households is not solely in documenting the human dignity and agency of poor borrowers, although this is certainly one of the goals of this study. Rather, by looking at credit relationships from the borrower’s point of view, a number of different institutions, groups, and policies that borrowers experienced as simultaneous and overlapping, but that historians have usually studied separately from one another, are brought into the same analytic frame. Thus, in contrast to prior work, this study treats charitable and for-profit lenders to the poor together as participants in the same market for working-class credit. The debtors’ stories presented here show how impoverished families organized their financial lives, made ends meet, and employed borrowing as a survival strategy

Macro-level generators of crime, including parks, stadiums, and transit stations

This chapter examines the occurrence of crime at particular places that bring together lots of people in time and place, namely macro crime generators. Examples of these include hospitals, parks, large transit stations and interchanges, entertainment districts, and shopping malls. It begins by defining crime attractors and crime generators, and explores the subtle difference between them. It then examines why crime hotspots and crime generators tend to coexist, and considers the importance of scale in place-based studies of crime. Following this is a discussion of the “busyness” of crime generators, how the density of people, proximity of people, and interactions between people are all factors that influence crime opportunities at macro generators. Finally, the chapter reviews current evidence of three case studies of macro generators, namely parks, large stadiums, and large transit stations.</p

Creating Meaningful Opportunities for Children to Engage with Climate Change Education

The core assumption of this book is the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and that the future of the planet depends on humans’ recognition and care for this interconnectedness. This comprehensive resource supports the work of pre-service and practicing elementary teachers as they teach their students to be part of the world as engaged citizens, advocates for social and ecological justice. Challenging readers to more explicitly address current environmental issues with students in their classrooms, the book presents a diverse set of topics from a variety of perspectives. Its broad social/cultural perspective emphasizes that social and ecological justice are interrelated. Coverage includes descriptions of environmental education pedagogies such as nature-based experiences and place-based studies; peace-education practices; children doing environmental activism; and teachers supporting children emotionally in times of climate disruption and tumult. The pedagogies described invite student engagement and action in the public sphere. Children are represented as ‘agents of change’ engaged in social and environmental issues and problems through their actions both local and global

Panel discussion: U.S. EPA using modeling and ecosystem services to enhance coastal decision making

This panel will discuss the research being conducted, and the models being used in three current coastal EPA studies being conducted on ecosystem services in Tampa Bay, the Chesapeake Bay and the Coastal Carolinas. These studies are intended to provide a broader and more comprehensive approach to policy and decision-making affecting coastal ecosystems as well as provide an account of valued services that have heretofore been largely unrecognized. Interim research products, including updated and integrated spatial data, models and model frameworks, and interactive decision support systems will be demonstrated to engage potential users and to elicit feedback. It is anticipated that the near-term impact of the projects will be to increase the awareness by coastal communities and coastal managers of the implications of their actions and to foster partnerships for ecosystem services research and applications. (PDF contains 4 pages

Climate tolerances and trait choices shape continental patterns of urban tree biodiversity

Aim: We propose and test a climate tolerance and trait choice hypothesis of urban macroecological variation in which strong filtering associated with low winter temperatures restricts urban biodiversity while weak filtering associated with warmer temperatures and irrigation allows dispersal of species from a global source pool, thereby increasing urban biodiversity. Location: Twenty cities across the USA and Canada. Methods: We examined variation in tree community taxonomic diversity, origins and production of an aesthetic ecosystem service trait in a cross-section of urban field surveys. We correlated urban tree community composition indicators with a key climate restriction, namely mean minimum winter temperature, and evaluated alternative possible drivers: precipitation, summer maximum temperature, population size and the percentage of adults with a college education. Results: Species accumulation curves differed substantially among cities, with observed richness varying from 22 to 122 species. Similarities in tree communities decreased exponentially with increases in climatic differences. Ordination of tree communities showed strong separation among cities with component axes correlated with minimum winter temperature and annual precipitation. Variation among urban tree communities in richness, origins and the provisioning of an aesthetic ecosystem service were all correlated with minimum winter temperature. Main conclusions: The urban climate tolerance and trait choice hypothesis provides a coherent mechanism to explain the large variation among urban tree communities resulting from an interacting environment, species and human decisions. Reconciling the feedbacks between human decision making and biophysical limitations provides a foundation for an urban ecological theory that can better understand and predict the dynamics of other linked biotic communities, associated ecosystem dynamics and resulting services provided to urban residents

Trans-national approaches to locally situated concerns: exploring the meanings of post-socialist space

The need to examine critially existing understandings of processes of societal change in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has formed a key area of debate in recent years. Suggested means for furthering this debate include an examination of the meaning and usefulness of the post-socialist category, a critique of the conceptual and practical divides between East and West, attention to the various impacts of change at the local level, and an active engagement with a wide range of actors (academics, policymakers and practitioners) working both in the UK and in the regions in question

Nature, materiality, and human agency in the literature of the Great Lakes, 1790-1853

Dissertation supervisors: Dr. Noah Heringman and Dr. John Evelev.Includes vita.The dissertation shows that human agency in all its discursive manifestations is a product of entanglement with nature's materiality--its physical objects and forces and this physicality's capacity for change--and this entanglement is understood, and sometimes resisted, through the application and/or revision of aesthetic theories. Put another way, conceptions of materiality are processed aesthetically, a discursive practice intertwined with the discourse on human agency and the visceral experience of human bodies. The implications of conceptions of materiality are deeply political and a major determinant of human conceptions of self and the human species at large. This dissertation is an original contribution to the fields of material ecocriticism, early national and antebellum American literature, and place-based studies. It is the first substantive study of the Great Lakes as a discernable literary region. Studying literature in the Great Lakes from 1790 to 1853 means investigating the ways intellectuals imagined drastic ecological, cultural, and political change in a region characterized by competing American, British, Canadian, and Native American interests. By way of material ecocriticism, the dissertation participates in current scholarly debates concerning Romanticism, Transcendentalism, sentimentalism, domesticity, the picturesque, the sublime, and nature. The dissertation contains readings of works in a wide array of genres.Includes bibliographical references (pages 220-226)

Australian gambling research priorities: summary findings from consultations conducted by the Australian Gambling Research Centre

This paper on gambling research priorities is intended to assist researchers and policy makers to develop research focused on improving the short- and long-term health and wellbeing of Australians who gamble and who are affected by gambling. Overview The Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC) conducted consultations with individuals and groups in the gambling sector in 2013-14. The priority areas helped inform the development of the research directions for the AGRC as well as priorities for knowledge translation and exchange. They should also assist researchers and policy makers to develop research focused on improving the short- and long-term health and wellbeing of Australians who gamble and who are affected by gambling. The national research priorities are to: understand gambling harm more broadly; determine ways to reduce or minimise harm from gambling; understand the ways in which community and gambling environments influence gambling; explore how new and emerging technologies influence gambling; examine the short- and long-term effects of marketing strategies on gambling; determine effective means of support and recovery for those harmed by gambling; and improve gambling research design and methodology

Investigating potential transferability of place-based research in land system science

Much of our knowledge about land use and ecosystem services in interrelated social-ecological systems is derived from place-based research. While local and regional case studies provide valuable insights, it is often unclear how relevant this research is beyond the study areas. Drawing generalized conclusions about practical solutions to land management from local observations and formulating hypotheses applicable to other places in the world requires that we identify patterns of land systems that are similar to those represented by the case study. Here, we utilize the previously developed concept of land system archetypes to investigate potential transferability of research from twelve regional projects implemented in a large joint research framework that focus on issues of sustainable land management across four continents. For each project, we characterize its project archetype, i.e. the unique land system based on a synthesis of more than 30 datasets of land-use intensity, environmental conditions and socioeconomic indicators. We estimate the transferability potential of project research by calculating the statistical similarity of locations across the world to the project archetype, assuming higher transferability potentials in locations with similar land system characteristics. Results show that areas with high transferability potentials are typically clustered around project sites but for some case studies can be found in regions that are geographically distant, especially when values of considered variables are close to the global mean or where the project archetype is driven by large-scale environmental or socioeconomic conditions. Using specific examples from the local case studies, we highlight the merit of our approach and discuss the differences between local realities and information captured in global datasets. The proposed method provides a blueprint for large research programs to assess potential transferability of place-based studies to other geographical areas and to indicate possible gaps in research efforts