Integrated Modeling Approach for the Transportation Disadvantaged

Transportation models have not been adequate in addressing severe long-term urban transportation problems that transportation disadvantaged groups overwhelmingly encounter, and the negative impacts of transportation on the disadvantaged have not been effectively considered in the modeling studies. Therefore this paper aims to develop a transportation modeling approach in order to understand the travel patterns of the transportation disadvantaged, and help in developing policies to solve the problems of the disadvantaged. Effectiveness of this approach is tested in a pilot study in Aydin, Turkey. After determining disadvantaged groups by a series of spatial and statistical analyses, the approach is integrated with a travel demand model. The model is run for both disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged populations to examine the differences between their travel behaviors. The findings of the pilot study reveal that almost two thirds of the population is disadvantaged, and this modeling approach could be particularly useful in disadvantage-sensitive planning studies to deploy relevant land use and transportation policies for disadvantaged groups

Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Microfinance in India

In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the performance of microfinance groups, known as Self-Help groups, based on an original census we carried out in a poor area of Northern India. We examine whether traditionally disadvantaged villagers, such as members of lower castes or landless farmers, are less likely to have access to groups. We also analyze their performance in terms of access to bank loans, which is an important benefit of the groups. We nd evidence of the attrition process being selective against lower castes: they have a lower probability of becoming a permanent member of a group. The net effects in terms of their expected access to a bank loan remain however relatively limited. By contrast, even though landless farmers are more likely to fail or leave the groups, they tend to benet disproportionately. In expected terms, they receive more than two times the amounts of bank loans given to farmers owning more than one acre. Overall, the program therefore has positive and important distributional implications.

Hands-on guide to questionnaire research: reaching beyond the white middle classes

Apparently simple questions can easily be misunderstood or cause offence in disadvantaged groups. But such problems can be avoided by careful design, piloting, and administration

Challenged Index: Why Newsweek's List of America's 100 Best High Schools Doesn't Make the Grade

Some schools on Newsweek's list of America's Top 100 high schools have large achievement gaps, grossly shortchange disadvantaged groups, and have a substantial number of drop-outs

The Impact of Low Unemployment Rates on Disadvantaged Groups

This paper compares employment rates by gender, race and ethnicity, and educational attainment from 2013 to 2015 in the 20 metro areas with the lowest unemployment rates and the 20 metro areas with the highest unemployment rates to get some measure of the disproportionate gains to disadvantaged groups from low unemployment.The analysis in this paper strongly supports the view that relatively disadvantaged groups have been the major beneficiaries of recent declines in unemployment. In all cases, the gains for whites — and especially college-educated whites — were limited. This suggests that if the unemployment rate is allowed to fall further, there can be large additional benefits in employment, hours, and wages for the most disadvantaged groups in the labor force

Examining prejudice reduction through solidarity and togetherness experiences among Gezi Park activists in Turkey

Prejudice reduction research has focused on reducing negative regard as a means to improve relations between various groups (e.g., religious, ethnic, political). Though positive regard between groups may be created, these forms of contact and common identification do not alter policy orientations of advantaged groups toward disadvantaged ones. Rather than intergroup contact, it is suggested that a collective action model of prejudice reduction (Dixon, J., Levine, M., Reicher, S., & Durrheim, K. (2012). Beyond prejudice: Are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 411-425) would create ties between disadvantaged groups to work toward beneficial policy change. We seek to show that the Gezi Park protests in Taksim, İstanbul functioned as an intergroup phenomenon, requiring the cooperation of a number of disadvantaged groups (e.g., feminists, Kurds) working together to improve the status of all present. In a series of interviews with 34 activists from the Gezi Park protests, participants were to reflect on their individual and group-based experiences during their time in the Gezi Park protests. Data indicate that although a few groups remained distant or disconnected during the protests, a common ground was achieved such that some participants were able to overcome past prejudices. Data also indicate that through group perceptions and individuals’ descriptions of events, groups who had previously not been able to cooperate were able to work and stick together at Gezi. Results also imply, in line with Dixon et al. (2012), that if disadvantaged groups work together, they might change the position of their groups and improve each group’s disadvantaged position via collective action

Disparities in multiple chronic conditions within populations

Disadvantaged populations are disproportionately affected by multiple chronic conditions (MCCs), yet few studies examine the prevalence, outcomes, or effectiveness of MCC interventions in minority and socioeconomically deprived individuals and populations. An important first step in understanding MCCs, not only in such diverse population groups, but also in the general population as a whole, is to broaden the definition and scope of MCC measurement, to encompass more than the simple additive effect of clinical conditions, and to include a wide range of health and health-related aspects that interact and make up the full spectrum of multimorbidity. Only with the use of a comprehensive MCC measurement can some of the differences between the disadvantaged populations be adequately detected. Better understanding of the disparities in access to high quality health and healthcare for persons with MCCs can help guide policy and practice aimed at the prevention and amelioration of the effects of MCCs among disadvantaged groups. Indeed, disparity in MCC populations has been identified as a key goal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Strategic Framework on MCCs. The aim of the present paper is to describe current knowledge on disparities in the population of persons with MCCs and to guide efforts for the prevention and management of MCCs in disadvantaged populations.Journal of Comorbidity 2013;3(2):45–5

Children facing economic hardships in the United States

This paper helps document significant improvements in the child low-income rate as well as the significant decrease in the proportion of children who relied on public assistance in the United States during the 1990s. Many disadvantaged groups of children were less likely to live in poor or low-income families in the late 1990s than such children a decade earlier. The improvement in the child low-income rates of these disadvantaged groups was accompanied by a substantial increase in parental employment. However, parental employment appears to do less to protect children from economic hardship than it did a decade earlier. This paper shows that working families’ children in many disadvantaged social groups, especially groups in medium risk ranks--children in families with parents between ages 25 to 29, with parents who only had a high-school diploma, and in father-only families--suffered the largest increase in economic hardship. Our results indicate that the increased odds of falling below low-income lines among children in working families facing multiple disadvantaged characteristics and the increased proportion of these children in various subgroups of working families in the 1990s can help explain the increased economic hardship among subgroups in the medium risk ranks listed above. Finally, the paper also notes that the official measure of poverty tends to underestimate low-income rates.bootstrap, child poverty, employment, income, low income, poverty measure, welfare reform

Diversity, Disadvantage and Differential Outcomes: An analysis of Samoan students narratives of schooling

Social justice discourses, particularly those attentive to the politics of difference, suggest that the perspectives of least-advantaged groups need to be taken into account when endeavouring to realise social justice in education for these groups. In this paper, we analyse narratives on schooling produced by one cohort of least-advantaged students, namely Samoan students attending state-designated disadvantaged secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. Specifically, the narratives of educational disadvantage provided by Samoan students are analysed. The focus is on 'the what' (the knowledge to be transmitted) and 'the how' (the teacher-student relations) of pedagogy in state-designated disadvantaged schools. Attention is paid to the contradictory and ambivalent discourses inherent in these narratives, particularly in terms of realising socially just pedagogic practices