Society for the Study of Social Problems COMMUNITY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION Spring 2010 In this issue: => Message from the Division Chair => 2010 Graduate Student Paper Competition => Spotlight on Research: Studying Public Housing Relocation in Atlanta => Book Review: From the Ground Up => Announcements => 2010 Division Conference Sessions +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- MESSAGE FROM THE DIVISION CHAIR Heather MacIndoe, University of Massachusetts, Boston Greetings to members and friends of the Community Research and Development Division of SSSP! I'd like to take a brief moment to introduce myself. As an Assistant Professor at UMass Boston, my research focuses on the varied roles that nonprofit organizations perform in urban areas. As service providers, advocates, and sites of civic engagement, these organizations are vital to cities and their residents. I'm excited to be serving as CRD Division Chair and look forward to reconnecting and meeting more Division members at the upcoming 2010 SSSP conference in Atlanta. This newsletter has several announcements, including a note on our annual Graduate Student Paper Competition. Please encourage your students to participate and to become involved in the Division! Finally, the new "Spotlight on Research" section features community research in Atlanta, GA. If you have research you would like featured in a future newsletter, please email me: Heather.MacIndoe@umb.edu Enjoy the newsletter! 2010 GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION Community Research and Development Division - Deadline: 4/15/10 Please encourage your graduate students to submit their work! Paper topics can focus on various aspects of the community including its capacity (i.e., social capital), development, renewal, and its relationship with other social issues or problems. Qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses and theoretical papers are welcome. To be eligible for submission, a paper must not be published or accepted for publication. Papers must be student-authored; they may be authored by a single student or co-authored by more than one student, but may not be co-authored by a faculty member or other non-student. Papers must not exceed 30 pages including all notes, references, and tables. To be considered for the award, the author must make a commitment to present the paper at a Community Research and Development Division session during the 2010 SSSP meeting. Send two copies of the paper with a cover letter to: Dr. Kimberly Kennard Department of Human Services - Modesto Junior College 435 College Avenue - Modesto, CA 95350 kennard@mjc.edu A brief letter from each author's advisor should be included certifying the person's status as a student and include some comments about the research. The winner will receive a $300 cash award at the SSSP 2009 Annual Meeting August 13-15, 2010, registration for the meetings, a ticket to the Awards Banquet, and the opportunity to present her/his paper at the SSSP meetings in Atlanta, Georgia. Committee Members: Kimberly Kennard, Modesto Junior College (chair) and Andrea Leverentz, University of Massachusetts Boston. SPOTLIGHT ON RESEARCH: STUDYING PUBLIC HOUSING RELOCATION IN ATLANTA by Deirdre Oakley, Erin Ruel and Lesley Reid, Georgia State University In 2007 the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) announced plans to demolish the rest of the city's family public housing communities as well as two senior high rises. The last residents were moved out in December 2009 effectively making Atlanta the first city in the country to eliminate all of its traditional public housing. Almost 10,000 residents have been relocated, seventy percent qualifying for a voucher subsidy to private market rental housing. There are currently no plans to build replacement housing. The Georgia State (GSU) Urban Health Initiative is following about 300 residents from six of the public housing communities earmarked for demolition including four family communities and two senior high rises. In addition, we are following 70 residents from Cosby Spear, a senior high rise currently not slated for demolition. Funded by NSF, the ASA's Funds for the Advancement of the Discipline, and the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, the purpose of our study is to follow this cohort over time (with Cosby Spear as a comparison site) to examine how relocation impacts their lives: Do they end up in lower poverty neighborhoods that are safer and have improved living conditions? How is their health and overall well-being affected by relocation? We are currently conducting six-month post-relocation interviews, which we have completed for just over half the sample at the writing of this article. Our retention rate is 85 percent. Findings concerning the characteristics of the destination neighborhoods of the families mirror other public housing relocation case studies. Specifically that, on average, they are moving to neighborhoods with less poverty than public housing. But the destination neighborhoods are still poor (30 percent as compared to 44 percent pre-relocation) and racially segregated (pre and post-relocation neighborhoods are over 90 percent African American). In addition, the families' destinations are geographically clustered on the south side of the city. Using 2008 crime incident data from the Atlanta Police Department we have found that on average families are moving to neighborhoods with higher crime rates (both violent and non-violent). Yet preliminary findings from our six-month follow-up suggest that residents' fear of crime remains about the same as it was in public housing and that collective efficacy is slightly higher. We are also finding slightly lower levels of social support post-relocation. Two heads of households among the families in our study have passed away. These deaths occurred post-relocation and both individuals were in their 40s. The story for the seniors stands in contrast to that of the families. The neighborhoods where the senior high rises were located were not high poverty or racially segregated (25 percent poverty and 42 percent African American). They were, in fact, gentrifying neighborhoods close to all the services and amenities the seniors needed. Yet the neighborhood where the majority of the seniors are moving has a poverty rate of 48 percent and is 95 percent African American. It also lacks the services and amenities that the seniors had access to in the high rises. As with the families, the destination neighborhoods have slightly higher violent and non-violent crime rates, yet fear of crime among the seniors remains about the same as pre-relocation. Prior to relocation seniors reported higher neighborhood collective efficacy than the family residents. However, at six-month post relocation, seniors report a much lower level of collective efficacy. Fourteen seniors in our study have passed away. These deaths occurred post-relocation. BOOK REVIEW: FROM THE GROUND Reviewed by Felicia M. Sullivan, University of Massachusetts Boston Growing up in a small rural town in upstate New York, I recall the quintessential-ness of being part of a neighborhood and the connections to playmates living within a bike ride around the block. The streets formed the boundaries of our small world. And within this world, eyes were upon us via a network of parents and others who knew who you were and what you were doing. These geographic boundaries of place and the social networks found within neighborhoods cemented by the activities of children form the basis of sociologist Rick Grannis' new book From the Ground Up: Translating Geography into Community through Neighbor Networks. Through the lens of geographical constraints and social networks, Grannis examines the conditions under which effective neighborhoods emerge. While theories of social capital and the building of normative value systems within a neighborhood community are a critical component of Grannis' work, the important role that geography plays in bounding and lubricating social interactions and processes is made equally important and visible. Here tertiary streets used as the primary travel corridors for pedestrians form a neighborhood equivalent, the t-community, first articulated by Grannis in 1998. These t-communities, more than school catchment areas, census tracts, or other administrative neighborhood definitions, form both the cognitive and lived reality of neighborhood life for residents. In From the Ground Up, Grannis builds on earlier work by exploring neighboring process including casual interactions based on proximity or interests, intentional connections, and actualized engagement built through trust or normative bonds. These process can be altered by even a small change in these fragile landscapes (i.e. a new stop sign, a vacant house, a handful of new neighbors) resulting in threats or benefits to effective neighborhood formation. In addition to t-communities, Grannis finds that the presence of children with their limited mobility as well as proximity to others increase the likelihood of casual interactions between neighbors. This initial stage of the neighboring process creates greater possibilities for neighbor networks to form and ultimately the potential for the easy transmission of values, norms and trust. Grannis also explores the way in which the forces of selection and influence shape neighborhoods working to create communities with shared interests and likes over time. Race within this context is not as strong a barrier to network formation, however language does appear to impact these processes. In fact, Grannis found that racially heterogeneous neighborhoods had more neighbor networks able to extend to a larger geographic area. Methodologically, From the Ground Up is based on structured interviews with over 2,800 individuals documenting nearly 25,000 neighbor connections in 70 neighborhoods (68 in Los Angeles and 2 connected to a college town). These interviews are supplemented by an in-depth ethnographic study of a gang barrio in the Los Angeles sample and a complete census of the college town with longitudinal re-sampling. The richness of these data sources provide detailed and solid grounding for the links between geography and social networks formed within t-communities. Effective neighborhoods are critical to healthy individuals, families, and society. In From the Ground Up, Grannis provides insights not only into the value of neighbor networks but the role that geographic configurations play in bolstering these processes. The rich data and engaging presentation make for valuable reading for scholars interested in a range of interests to urban development to stable family formation to activated communities. Rick Grannis is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Other reference: Grannis, R.. 1998. "The Importance of Trivial Streets: Pedestrian Street Networks and Geographic Patterns of Residential Segregation," American Journal of Sociology 103, 1530-1564. ANNOUNCEMENTS Member News: Shirley A. Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Southern Connecticut State University, has been named Woman of the Year by the State of Connecticut's African American Affairs Commission. The award is given to members of the community who have been engaged in activities to help advance the African American community. The award will be given on May 7, 2010 at the State Of Connecticut's Legislative Office Building. Peggy Wireman's Op Ed, "Let's Go Beyond 'Gotcha' on Race" was published in the Madison Capital Times in Feb. http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_a835bc84-12a2-11df-a172-001cc4c03286.html . New Books: Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow (by William Freudenburg, Robert Gramling, Shirley Laska and Kai Erikson). Island Press; $18 hardcover from amazon.com Lots of books have "Katrina" in their titles, but almost all of them argue that mother Nature attacked New Orleans. This book argues that Hurricane Katrina was instead a case where a few humans first did significant damage to nature -- with consequences that came back to haunt us all. . More info at: http://islandpress.org/catastrophe/ The Integration Debate: Competing Futures For American Cities edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires with a foreword by Henry Cisneros. This book explores both long-standing and emerging controversies over the nation's ongoing struggles with discrimination and segregation. More urgently, it offers guidance on how these barriers can be overcome to achieve truly balanced and integrated living patterns. More info at: http://www.routledge.com/books/The-Integration-Debate-isbn9780415994606 Connecting the Dots: A Community Action Guide, published by Transaction Publishers as an e-book, is the how-to-do it material based on Connecting the Dots: Government, Community and Family which is now also available as an e-book. Chapters of the book can be purchased separately as can the individual sections in the guide. For example, those the basic discussion of "How Can We All Get Along? Race, Class and Ethnicity" in the book could be read along with the Guide selection on Community which covers ways to promote cooperate living in a diverse community. Chapters with related Guide sections are available on income, food, housing, health, children and maintaining the home. Journals of Interest: Special Issue of Organization & Environment (Vol 22. Issue 4). The Social Organization of Demographic Responses to Disaster: Studying Population-Environment Interactions in Case of Hurricane examines the population movements that occurred in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina. It assembles nine articles from scholars who were on the ground in the first year after the hurricane. Guest editors are Elizabeth Fussell and James R. Elliott. More info at: http://www.coba.usf.edu/jermier/TOC22four.html 2010 DIVISION CONFERENCE Join us at these upcoming division sessions at the 2010 SSSP meeting in Atlanta, GA! Community Research: Making a Difference Organizer: Patrick Donnelly (donnelley@udayton.edu) Community Research and Development Roundtables Organizer: Linda Majka (linda.majka@notes.udayton.edu) Grass-Roots Community Development Practices and Social Change (with the Conflict, Social Action and Change Division) Organizer: Andrea Leverentz (andrea.leverntz@umb.edu) National and Local Immigration Policies and their Impacts on Communities (with the Conflict, Social Action and Change Division) Organizer: J.S. Onˇsimo Sandoval (jsandov2@slu.edu) Bridging the Gap Between Research, Social Justice and Community Learning: Voices from the Academy - THEMATIC (with Educational Problems Division and Racial and Ethnic Minorities Division) Organizer: J. Theo Majka (theomajka@notes.udayton.edu) Housing Policies and Practices and Social Justice - THEMATIC (with Sociology and Social Welfare Division) Organizer: Dierdre Oakley (doakley1@gsu.edu) ABOUT THE COMMUNITY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION: The CRD Division's mission is to provide opportunities for scholars, researchers, students, activists, and others to share and discuss their scholarship and experiences in a supportive setting. In order to further the goal of a just world the Division seeks to integrate the theory, empirical findings, and practice of both scholars/researchers and grassroots activists. Heather MacIndoe, CRD Division Chair, University of Massachusetts, Boston Phone: 617-287-4861 E-Mail: Heather.macindoe@umb.edu Newsletter Editor: Felicia M. Sullivan, University of Massachusetts, Boston We're on the Web! See us at: http://www.sssp1.org