Pittsburgh Quality of Life (P-QOL) Survey Working Group

Undergraduate and graduate students, University researchers and community partners are working to develop a 2021 QOL survey, building from previous QOL surveys. The panel reflected on the scientific and community engagement process for survey development

University-Community Engagement: How Digital Scholarship Can (and Should) Move From the Classroom to the Community

Students at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs have worked to promote the use of digital governance for Pennsylvania’s local communities through Capstone seminars. Building on knowledge from previous years, the Spring 2017 Capstone Seminar on Digital Governance made recommendations to Pennsylvania\u27s State Planning Board, with concrete proposals for state leadership to help local governments, especially smaller communities, incorporate digital applications. The premise of this work is that digital technologies present opportunities for local governments to improve service delivery, and our graduate students in public administration have digital expertise to lend to these communities. Digital scholarship here represents a university-community partnership, as students work with communities to understand how digital tools can help municipalities operate more efficiently, effectively, and equitably

Digitizing Governance in Homestead and West Homestead, PA

Over the digital age, civic movements and technological processes have advanced the use of information in governments and communities. At the end of the 20th century, democratizing data became a movement of information transparency, dedicated to making public data public, with today’s technology now enabling “open data” for many governments. Unfortunately, there exists today a new “digital divide,” where many smaller municipalities have few digital support systems, continued reliance on paper public records, and limited access to public information for residents. This project and Spring Capstone class pulled together partners across the University of Pittsburgh interested in piloting a demonstration of how students can help to create and implement digital technology use in smaller communities, help to build the capacity for sustainable improvements, and help them move from paper to digital formats. Working with the Homestead and West Homestead boroughs and other partners, undergraduate and graduate students: 1) “Liberated” municipal data from paper to digital formats via scanning and data entry; 2) Developed electronic forms, with residents filling out permits on line rather than with pen and paper as the only option; 3) Created a web management and alert system that automated the rental property/fee notifications for the collection of rental property fees; and 4) Created a 311 mobile phone application available at Apple to submit complaints on five non-emergency, nuisance areas. The students’ work has led to direct advances in digital applications in these communities and can be extended to others. The capstone work will continue Spring 2016

Partnering Globally to Achieve Better Outcomes Locally

The University of Pittsburgh has engaged in strategic partnership with Newcastle University (UK) that includes a focus on inclusive innovation in university-led innovation districts. In 2023, Pitt faculty and community partners from Hazelwood traveled to the UK to learn from colleagues in Newcastle, particularly around the Newcastle Health Innovation Neighborhood. In 2023, Pitt and Newcastle researchers are expanding the partnership to explore connections with universities in the Global South. This project highlights the ways in which universities can mobilize global partnerships and international networks to achieve better outcomes for hyper-local (neighborhood) projects

Rejoinder to Elizabeth Bury

It is always good to have additional empirical evidence for one's work In her regressions on the relationship between U.S. military procurement spend­ ing and state-level changes in growth rates over the period 1977 to 1986, Elizabeth Bury adds to the body of work confirming a statistically significant and positive correlation between the two. What puzzles us is the interpretation that Bury places on these results, especially her suggestion that they refute our contention about the substantial contribution ofAmerican military preparedness to the economic remapping of the United States. In fact, Bury's formulation comes nowhere near capturing the extent of the phenomena we encompass with our term "the gunbelt.