Encouraging Civic Commitment in Diverse Neighborhoods: An Evaluation of a City Planning Service-Learning Course

Many students who study city planning are interested in working in community development. However, their demographics are often dissimilar to those of the communities with which they will work once they graduate. For instance, most of the students who study planning at The Ohio State University are white and come from a middle-class background, but they often want to work with diverse populations and income groups. In order to prepare students for their future professions, educators have an obligation to assist students in understanding the communities with which they will work. Increasingly, planning educators are focusing on community service-learning courses to promote student understanding of the social and public purpose of their profession

Land Use Planning and Zoning in Ohio Townships

The study reported here examined the use of zoning for growth management in Ohio townships. Data were obtained from a survey of 252 township officials. The results showed that 59% of townships are using zoning, primarily due to citizen support. Zoned townships are using a variety of zoning techniques to assist in managing land use change and growth. Those townships without zoning cite a lack of growth and citizen interest as reasons for not using zoning

Using social media and mobile technologies to foster engagement and self-organization in participatory urban planning and neighbourhood governance

This editorial explores the potential of social media and mobile technologies to foster citizen engagement and participation in urban planning. We argue that there is a lot of wishful thinking, but little empirically validated knowledge in this emerging field of study. We outline key developments and pay attention to larger societal and political trends. The aim of this special issue is: 1) To offer a critical state-of-the-art overview of empirical research; and 2) to explore whether social media and mobile technologies have measurable effects on citizens' engagement beyond traditional mobilization and participation tools. We find that wider engagement only ‘materializes’ if virtual connections also manifest themselves in real space through concrete actions, by using both online and offline engagement tools. Another requirement is that planners do not seek to marginalize dissenting voices in order to promote the interests of powerful developers.PostprintPeer reviewe

Universal Design and Visitability: from Accessibility to Zoning

National Endowment for the Art

Revolution in acute ischaemic stroke care: a practical guide to mechanical thrombectomy

Rapid, safe and effective arterial recanalisation to restore blood flow and improve functional outcome remains the primary goal of hyperacute ischaemic stroke management. The benefit of intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator for patients with severe stroke due to large artery occlusion is limited; early recanalisation is generally less than 30% for carotid, proximal middle cerebral artery or basilar artery occlusion. Since November 2014, nine positive randomised controlled trials of mechanical thrombectomy for large vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation have led to a revolution in the care of patients with acute ischaemic stroke. Its efficacy is unmatched by any previous therapy in stroke medicine, with a number needed to treat of less than 3 for improved functional outcome. With effectiveness shown beyond any reasonable doubt, the key challenge now is how to implement accessible, safe and effective mechanical thrombectomy services. This review aims to provide neurologists and other stroke physicians with a summary of the evidence base, a discussion of practical aspects of delivering the treatment and future challenges. We aim to give guidance on some of the areas not clearly described in the clinical trials (based on evidence where available, but if not, on our own experience and practice) and highlight areas of uncertainty requiring further research

E-government and Planning: Key Citizen Participation Issues and Applications

Citizen participation is a common goal of local governments. Local governments face the challenge of giving information to and getting input from citizens. The use of the Internet for citizen participation is growing among local government planning departments. This book explores the issues related to on-line citizen participation for local government planning departments. In designing for e-government planning departments need to consider accessibility, trust, and the types of participation tools that are most appropriate to meet citizen needs.The John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Polic

Planning in the age of Facebook: the role of social networking in planning processes

Abstract There has been rapid growth in the use of online social networking sites, such as Facebook. The public is increasingly using these sites for organizing around place-based issues. This research examines the extent to which the public and planners are using social networking sites to organize the public around place-based planning issues. Using content analysis of social networking sites, place-based planning groups are identified and analyzed. The administrators for the groups were contacted to determine their goals and satisfaction with their groups' work. Planning departments in the same communities were then contacted to determine the degree to which the social networking groups influenced the planning process. The results of this study found that the public primarily organizes to oppose development projects. While on average these groups attract hundreds of people, planners and group administrators report that there is minimal influence on the planning process

How to Do Things Without Words: Infants, utterance-activity and distributed cognition

Clark and Chalmers (1998) defend the hypothesis of an ‘Extended Mind’, maintaining that beliefs and other paradigmatic mental states can be implemented outside the central nervous system or body. Aspects of the problem of ‘language acquisition’ are considered in the light of the extended mind hypothesis. Rather than ‘language’ as typically understood, the object of study is something called ‘utterance-activity’, a term of art intended to refer to the full range of kinetic and prosodic features of the on-line behaviour of interacting humans. It is argued that utterance activity is plausibly regarded as jointly controlled by the embodied activity of interacting people, and that it contributes to the control of their behaviour. By means of specific examples it is suggested that this complex joint control facilitates easier learning of at least some features of language. This in turn suggests a striking form of the extended mind, in which infants’ cognitive powers are augmented by those of the people with whom they interact