Why we need to think again about the decline in social capital

In the 1990s, the sociologist Robert Putnam popularized the notion that there had been a large decline in social capital, compared to that which existed prior to the 1970s. But has social capital actually fallen? In new research, which uses four decades worth of national survey data, April K. Clark finds that not all aspects of social and civic life have been in decline; the greatest fall has been in trust. She also writes that this fall in trust is not due to the aging of the more civically minded World War II generation, as many scholars have argued, but due to differences in educational attainment, race, and religious preferences

Stops and Stares: Street Stops, Surveillance, and Race in the New Policing

The use of proactive tactics to disrupt criminal activities, such as Terry street stops and concentrated misdemeanor arrests, are essential to the “new policing.” This model applies complex metrics, strong management, and aggressive enforcement and surveillance to focus policing on high crime risk persons and places. The tactics endemic to the “new policing” gave rise in the 1990s to popular, legal, political and social science concerns about disparate treatment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. Empirical evidence showed that minorities were indeed stopped and arrested more frequently than similarly situated whites, even when controlling for local social and crime conditions. In this article, we examine racial disparities under a unique configuration of the street stop prong of the “new policing” – the inclusion of non-contact observations (or surveillances) in the field interrogation (or investigative stop) activity of Boston Police Department officers. We show that Boston Police officers focus significant portions of their field investigation activity in two areas: suspected and actual gang members, and the city’s high crime areas. Minority neighborhoods experience higher levels of field interrogation and surveillance activity net of crime and other social factors. Relative to white suspects, Black suspects are more likely to be observed, interrogated, and frisked or searched controlling for gang membership and prior arrest history. Moreover, relative to their black counterparts, white police officers conduct high numbers of field investigations and are more likely to frisk/search subjects of all races. We distinguish between preference-based and statistical discrimination by comparing stops by officer-suspect racial pairs. If officer activity is independent of officer race, we would infer that disproportionate stops of minorities reflect statistical discrimination. We show instead that officers seem more likely to investigate and frisk or search a minority suspect if officer and suspect race differ. We locate these results in the broader tensions of racial profiling that pose recurring social and constitutional concerns in the “new policing.”

An Analysis of Race and Ethnicity Patterns in Boston Police Department Field Interrogation, Observation, Frisk, and/or Search Reports

The report, authored by researchers from Columbia, Rutgers and the University of Massachusetts, analyzed 200,000+ encounters between BPD officers and civilians from 2007–2010. It is intended to provide a factual basis to assess the implementation of proactive policing in Boston and how it affects Boston's diverse neighborhoods. It found racial disparities in the Boston Police Department's stop-and-frisks that could not be explained by crime or other non-race factors. Blacks during that period were the subjects of 63.3% of police-civilian encounters, although less than a quarter of the city's population is Black.

Large-scale changes in cortical dynamics triggered by repetitive somatosensory electrical stimulation.

BackgroundRepetitive somatosensory electrical stimulation (SES) of forelimb peripheral nerves is a promising therapy; studies have shown that SES can improve motor function in stroke subjects with chronic deficits. However, little is known about how SES can directly modulate neural dynamics. Past studies using SES have primarily used noninvasive methods in human subjects. Here we used electrophysiological recordings from the rodent primary motor cortex (M1) to assess how SES affects neural dynamics at the level of single neurons as well as at the level of mesoscale dynamics.MethodsWe performed acute extracellular recordings in 7 intact adult Long Evans rats under ketamine-xylazine anesthesia while they received transcutaneous SES. We recorded single unit spiking and local field potentials (LFP) in the M1 contralateral to the stimulated arm. We then compared neural firing rate, spike-field coherence (SFC), and power spectral density (PSD) before and after stimulation.ResultsFollowing SES, the firing rate of a majority of neurons changed significantly from their respective baseline values. There was, however, a diversity of responses; some neurons increased while others decreased their firing rates. Interestingly, SFC, a measure of how a neuron's firing is coupled to mesoscale oscillatory dynamics, increased specifically in the δ-band, also known as the low frequency band (0.3- 4 Hz). This increase appeared to be driven by a change in the phase-locking of broad-spiking, putative pyramidal neurons. These changes in the low frequency range occurred without a significant change in the overall PSD.ConclusionsRepetitive SES significantly and persistently altered the local cortical dynamics of M1 neurons, changing both firing rates as well as the SFC magnitude in the δ-band. Thus, SES altered the neural firing and coupling to ongoing mesoscale dynamics. Our study provides evidence that SES can directly modulate cortical dynamics

The I and the We: Individuality, Collectivity, and Samoan Artistic Responses to Cultural Change

This article discusses articulations of the Samoan “relational self,” traces broad patterns and recent developments that indicate an interplay of global forces and local expressions of Samoanness, and reflects on questions regarding how, given contexts of globalization and cultural change, Samoans might be negotiating between individuality and collectivity—“being for the self” and “being for the group.” As a means of addressing these questions, it explores the work of Samoan literary and performing artists, drawing on the novel Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel and on a wide range of Samoan hip hop artists based in California, Hawai‘i, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Situating itself within a history of Pacific critical writing that pays attention to the work of art and artists—according to them not just the ability to represent Pacific societies but also the power to shape, change, and build them—this article understands Samoan literary and performing artists as providing important commentary toward fashioning an Oceanic com- munity of critique capable of navigating future ways of being Samoan

Relatedness of Male Hoary Bats at a Migratory Stopover Site in Northwestern California

The social structure and genetic make-up of the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) during its fall migration is not well known. Recently, pairs of male hoary bats were observed flying together in the Humboldt Redwoods during the autumn migration. When one individual was netted, the other member of the pair circled around and remained in the area while the two bats called to one another. This suggests a strong social, and a possible genetic, bond between the two males. In order to determine whether these males were related, wing tissue samples were collected from 15 pairs and 76 singleton individuals from the general migrating population. All but two individuals were genotyped at 14 microsatellite loci. The genetic relatedness analysis revealed that although the behaviorally interacting pairs were not more related than the general population, there was a wide range of relatedness within the population ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. Unexpectedly, 31 singleton individuals were found to have high relatedness values with another individual in the population that indicated a full-sibling or parent-offspring relationship. Furthermore, five pairs of singleton individuals possessed relatedness values of 1.0 that reveal an identical twin relationship. Altogether, our results suggest that this area is part of a commonly used migration route for male hoary bats and that this migratory behavior is shared within families even if the individuals are not observed exhibiting co-migratory behavior

A Case of a Situative Model for Professional Learning

A sociocultural ontology forms the foundation for this grounded theory ethnography describing how teachers in a U.S. elementary school changed professional learning from a “training model” to a “situative model.” Findings answer the research question: How does the introduction of a situative model influence the process of teacher learning and professional development? A practitioner researcher stance and emic perspective facilitated an iterative analysis of 42 veteran teachers during the first-year implementation of a situative professional learning model called Teacher Communities of Learning (TCLs). Data collection included a repeated questionnaire, participant observations with field notes, and audio transcripts of TCL meetings. Formal and informal interviews provided opportunities for triangulation of data and theory development. ATLAS.ti assisted a constant comparative analysis process. Findings include a description of teachers’ participation in TCLs, influences on participation (e.g., roles, care, reflection), responses to TCLs among Suntree teachers, and shifts that occurred during the academic year as TCLs were introduced. The role of practitioner research in school and teacher change processes, the process of negotiation during situative learning, and differences in teachers’ roles and responses to TCLs are discussed. This research promotes a model for understanding how reflection and enaction account for teacher change and the importance of an ethic of care on formation of a professional community of learners

COVID and Clinical Practice: Now is the Time to Engage Future Educators

After a tumultuous end to the school year, it is more important than ever to cultivate new teachers in the field of education. Combining the experience of veteran teachers with the eagerness and adaptability of students in clinical practice (student teaching) a new form of co-teaching may emerge for the fall semester that covers both in classroom and virtual classroom options. Student teachers experienced the student side of virtual learning during the spring semester and are able to offer valuable insight and knowledge for school communities. This article provides five guidelines for how teachers can mentor clinical practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) Reflect and relate, 2) Collaborate and listen, 3) Trust and engage, 4) Develop and empower, and 5) Converse, recommend, and release. The article offers specific discussion topics and practices to implement during field experience for a successful student teaching experience for both the student and the mentor teacher

Examining Social Capital and its Role in Special Education Leadership

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to analyze the relationships that existed between the special education leaders and other members of a district leadership team in order to measure their access to social capital. Quantitative data were collected using surveys of one school district’s leadership team and social network analysis (SNA) was used to visually analyze the connections between members of the team. Qualitative data were subsequently collected via semi-structured interviews of each of the 19 members of the leadership team. What types of ties do the special education administrators have to fellow administrators within district leadership teams? What level of influence do the special education administrators hold as measured by access or position within a district administrative leadership team’s social network? Themes of trust, support/advice, acceptance/reassurance, and collegial relationships emerged as a result of the research. A model conceptualizing the impact and import of social capital in special education leadership within a district leadership team was developed and depicts how themes that emerged in this study can interact with each other to form positive collaborative networks that not only support leaders of special education but all members of the leadership team. Recommendations for future research are included