Some Effects of the Community on Cultural Integration*

Attitudinal and behavioral data indicative of cultural integration support the hypothesis of decreasing race/ethnic differences. The study data were collected from inmigrant Mexican-Americans and Negroes and a control group of Anglo residents at two points in time separated by eleven years. Tau is used to describe similarity or dissimilarity in race ethnic distributions within each year's data and as a measure of changing race/ethnic response across the eleven-year span.     

The impact of collectivism on savings behavior: a case study of Mexican-Americans and non-Mexican Latinos

This interdisciplinary study combines anthropological and economic theories and methods to understand how Mexican-Americans’ collectivist cultural values affect their savings behavior and their preparation for retirement. Mexican-Americans are the fastest growing immigrant group in the United States and they are both younger and expected to live longer than other groups. Yet they are the most insecure in relation to funding retirement. Even when Mexican-American workers are eligible to participate in retirement savings plans at work, they have low participation rates. We analyze data from a Chicago area survey in light of broader anthropological and economic scholarship to argue that Mexican-Americans’ collectivist values influence the choices they make about how to build assets and resources differently from other Latino groups. Latinos are a diverse group by national origin, citizenship and immigration status, characteristics that strongly influence their employment prospects, asset building and retirement savings and security. Financial policy makers need to understand the heterogeneity of financial behavior within the Hispanic community. The collectivist informal economy of Mexican immigrants and their children is at odds with the formal defined contribution retirement savings system, which is geared toward both autonomous individuals and higher-income workers who benefit from the program’s tax deductions. Since these plans penalize participants who withdraw funds before retirement age, they can be deleterious to those who expect both to loan funds to and to borrow money from members of their collectivist social networks.     

WOMEN'S COMMUNITY SERVICE, 1940–1960: Insights from a Cohort of Gifted American Women

Americans who came of age during and immediately following World War II have recently become a central feature for more broadly understanding volunteerism, as well as civic participation, in the United States. Using data from the Stanford-Terman Study we examine women's community service participation and leadership over the period 1940–1960. The women studied moved in and out of community service over time, with patterns of participation showing a great deal of variability. Both the likelihood of involvement in community service and community service leadership peaked during midlife. Age-related patterns were largely accounted for by changes in correlated resources. Beyond age patterns, the marks of history are apparent in an increasing investment in volunteerism between 1940 and 1960 for this generation of American women. The findings of this study both support and extend a resource perspective on volunteering.     

Indexes of Racial Residential Segregation for 109 Cities in the United States, 1940 to 1970

Abstract

An index of racial residential segregation for a city may be calculated from census data reporting the number of white and nonwhite households resident in each city block. Such an index summarizes the dissimilarity in residential location of the two groups. Segregation indexes for 109 cities for the years 1940, 1950, and 1960 were published in Taeuber and Taeuber Negroes in Cities (1965).

Segregation indexes for 109 cities for 1970, together with the previously published indexes for the three earlier census dates, are presented in Table 1. The trend data from 1940 through 1970 refer to residential segregation of whites and nonwhites. For 1970 only, segregation indexes are also presented comparing whites and Negroes.

The trend data reveal a distinctive pattern of change during each of the three decades. From 1960 to 1970, declines in segregation prevailed among cities in each region of the country.

The indexes for 1970 were calculated from Public Use Summary Tapes issued by the Bureau of the Census. Certain difficulties were encountered in the use of these tapes. A methodological appendix describes the data source and retrieval procedure for calculation of city segregation indexes for 1970.     

Landscape,vegetation characteristics,and group identity in an urban and suburban watershed: why the 60s matter

As highly managed ecosystems, urban areas should reflect the social characteristics of their managers, who are primarily residents. Since landscape features develop over time, we hypothesize that present-day vegetation should also reflect social characteristics of past residents. Using an urban-to-suburban watershed in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region, this paper examines the relationship between demographics, housing characteristics, and lifestyle clusters from 1960 and 2000 with areas of high woody and herbaceous vegetation cover in 1999. We find that 1960 demographics and age of housing are better predictors of high woody or tree coverage in 1999 than demographics and housing characteristics from 2000. Key variables from 1960 are percent in professional occupations (+), percent of pre-WWI housing (−), percent of post-WWII housing (+), and population density (−). Past and present demographic and housing variables are poor predictors of high herbaceous cover in 1999. Lifestyle clusters for 2000 are very good predictors of high herbaceous coverage in 1999, but lifestyle clusters from 1960 and 2000 are poor predictors of high woody vegetation coverage. These findings suggest that herbaceous or grassy areas, typically lawns, are good reflections of contemporary lifestyle characteristics of residents while neighborhoods with heavy tree canopies have largely inherited the preferred landscapes of past residents and communities. Biological growth time scales of trees and woody vegetation means that such vegetation may outlast the original inhabitants who designed, purchased, and planted them. The landscapes we see today are therefore legacies of past consumption patterns.     

Life Histories from the Namibian Liberation Struggle

This paper unfolds in three parts. The first section argues that there has been an innovation in the rights of private property, especially in the area of residential property. Starting in the 1960s, though only really coming into its own in the 1980s, the rights of private property have been grafted onto a regime of communal ownership. Thus, during the very period of capitalist ascendancy, historically non-capitalist forms of sociability were being elaborated from within the holy ark of capitalism itself, the relation of private property. The second part shows that the condominium or sectional-title estate is transforming urban landscapes across the globe, generating novel urban constellations that are frequently imagined and lived as non-suburbs. Effectively, the growth of townhouses is associated with the decline of the traditional suburb as an urban phenomenon. The third part of this essay focuses on a South African case study, where condominiums (or townhouses under sectional title) have become important sites of uncanny, post-apartheid community. Using the example of Roodepoort, this paper argues that body corporates are elaborating domains of post-apartheid sociality that are largely unrecognisable and even uncomfortable from the dominant, normative tropes of post-apartheid life: non-racialism, cosmopolitanism, constitutionalism.     

The participation of women in the labour force of Latin America: fertility and other factors

The level of labor force participation among Latin American women, when compared with participation rates for other countries, is the lowest in the world. Only 20% or less of women 10 years of age and older are economically active. This level did not change much between 1950 and 1970. Few women work in agriculture. The following factors are considered for their effect on labor force participation of urban women: marital status, education, income, and the structure and stage of development of the society. Married women have a low participation rate. More highly educated women are more likely to work, but there must be demand for their work services. As the economy of various countries has progressed, female participation in domestic services has decreased, in industry has remained constant between 1960 and 1970, and in social services has expanded. It is concluded that work participation for married women will only increase with the following changes: 1) improved educational opportunities for women; 2) structural change and modernization in the economy; and 3) reduced family fertility. Changes in the first 2 factors are more important than reduced fertility. Since 1960, only Chile and Costa Rica have had a 25% decline in fertility rates.     

A snapshot analysis of age distributions of fishes in urban and forested Virginia streams

An understanding of the spatial variation in the population structure of lotic fishes is vital to their conservation. Population level approaches may be more suitable than community level approaches for identifying stream fish response to urbanization. Lithophilic (clean mineral substrate) spawners are disproportionally affected by common habitat disturbances, and are thus expected to exhibit great demographic variation along gradients of disturbance. We related age distributions of six stream fishes, exhibiting four different types of lithophily (speleophily, saucer-pit nesting, gravel mound nesting, and simple broadcasting/nest association), to land cover and instream habitat variables. Fishes were collected from 18 urban or forested reaches of three 2nd-4th Strahler-order tributaries of the New River, Virginia. Individuals were assigned to age classes based on length-frequency histograms verified by sagittal otolith analysis. Chi-square tests and multiple polytomous logistic regression were used to relate population structure to land cover types and associated instream habitat variables. Age distributions of broadcast lithophils were unbalanced (containing relatively higher proportions of adults than juveniles) in urban reaches, whereas those of nest-constructing spawners were always balanced. Mixed responses were observed between the two speleophils. Differences in the directional effect of urbanization on population structure may be attributable to species?? tendency to: a) modify available substrate, b) to provide parental care to their brood, and c) life-history traits other than spawning mode (e.g. age at maturation). Although nest association may confer greater reproductive success to participants, this activity was not beneficial enough to give associates balanced age distributions in urban reaches. These results suggest that source-sink dynamics may operate to prevent populations of various fishes in urban reaches from being extirpated. Future research should focus on differences in population dynamics of stream fishes among land cover types.     

Differences in soil chemical properties with distance to roads and age of development in urban areas

The main objective of this study was to characterize variation in soil chemical properties with length of urbanization period and distance to roads. Urban boundaries from 1920’s (old), 1960’s (middle) and 2000’s (new) were identified for three cities in northeast Ohio: Massillon, Wooster and Canton. Within each identified historic boundary, soil samples were collected from two road-side and two interior lawns in one public school site in each city. Thus, there were three urban age and two distance-to-roads classes. Soil particle composition and basic chemical properties including pH, available phosphorus (P), exchangeable potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), cation exchange capacity (CEC), nitrate, total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), and soil organic matter (SOM) were measured. Two notable spatio-temporal patterns appeared repeatedly in the data set. First, total C, total N and SOM were higher in the soils of old (>50 years) urban sites than of newly developed sites. Similar, but not always significant, trends in soil pH, and exchangeable Ca were also observed. Second, road-side soils had higher pH, Ca, total C and N than interior sites regardless of urban age. These data indicate that key soil chemical properties can vary in predictable ways with urban age and distance-to-roads classes. Such variations in key soil chemical properties may influence or reflect soil biota and biogeochemical processes in urban soils.     

Marriage and female labour supply in Brunei Darussalam: A case study of urban women in Bandar Seri Begawan

We analyse the relationships between marriage and female labour supply for urban householders in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital city of Brunei Darussalam in Southeast Asia. This analysis is based on a survey of 151 adult women. We establish that age, total number of career work position(s) held, expressing the degree of labour mobility, and the level of educational attainment influence participation of women (both married and single) in formal labour markets. A major factor influencing the likelihood of married women working is the number of their children below the age of 18. Higher propensity to work occurs with decreasing number of children. Wage incomes of working women are largely determined by the level of educational attainment, work experience and social class status. Married women are more likely to work than unmarried women and on average earn about 53% more than unmarried women assuming other things constant. The main factors influencing the value of time in marriage of currently married women are the income of husband, their work experience, educational attainment and age. This value decreases with increasing age of the woman spouse but it increases with higher levels of work experience and educational attainment of the woman, and higher income of her husband.     

Impact of soil compaction on soil biodiversity – does it matter in urban context?

Soil invertebrates are poorly studied in an urban context. Here we examine soil compaction in an urban environment, focusing on its persistence and its impact on biodiversity. This is achieved by studying a sensitive taxon, the collembolan (springtails). Soil core samples were taken in different location of a residential neighbourhood under construction, and collembolan species were extracted using a Berlese-Tullgren funnel. Soil compaction was determined by measuring bulk density. We documented soil compaction, ranging from 1 g/cm3 to 1.6 g/cm3. While collembolans are normally affected by compaction, such an effect was not observed in terms of species diversity, which remains relatively constant under all compaction levels. However, compaction was correlated with differences in the structure of collembolan communities. Indeed, we were able to discriminate different levels of compaction using collembolan community data alone. Moreover, this study confirms that compaction decreases with time. However, differences in species community structure can be observed one year after the end of the disturbance. Finally, we provide some insights into the reality of soil compaction in an urban environment, and highlight that the classical biodiversity indices may be insufficient for assessing the impact of an environmental disturbance, and that more detailed analyses at the community level may be very useful, or even indispensable.     

An Ecological Approach to Examining Cumulative Violence Exposure Among Urban,African American Adolescents

Using an ecological approach, this study examined experiences with community, family, and partner violence within a sample of 280 urban, African American high school students. The prevalence of each type of violence by gender, associations between severe violence exposure, and the rate of exposure to multiple types of violence were examined. Findings include high rates of exposure to each type of violence, with significant gender differences on several indicators of community violence and intimate partner violence victimization; among the female students, associations between each type of severe violence exposure; and a very high rate of exposure to two or more types of violence. Implications for social work practice are discussed.     

Welfare,Premarital Childbearing,and the Role of Normative Climate: 1968–1994

Nationally representative, longitudinal survey data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were used to examine the conditions under which welfare benefit levels affected the likelihood that low‐income women age 15–24 bore their first child prior to marriage. Benefit levels had a positive effect on premarital childbearing during the 1980s and early 1990s but not during the 1970s or late 1960s. The effect of benefit levels was also stronger where community attitudes toward premarital sex were more tolerant than where attitudes were less tolerant, but this did not account for the varying effect of benefit levels over time. The study introduces a new way of measuring normative climate using attitudinal data from the General Social Surveys.     

利益分化与居民参与——转型期中国城市基层社会管理的困境及其理论转向

城市基层社会的参与者分为生计型参与者和权责型参与者两类。在基层社会管理实践中,代表国家的权责型参与者与代表社会的生计型参与者内部均存在着利益分化。权责型参与者处于强势地位,可以在部门利益与公共利益之间自由切换;生计型参与者处于弱势地位,相互间的利益冲突却使"社区自治"陷入需要权责型参与者重新介入才能达成的尴尬境地。中国城市基层社会秩序建构中的"悖论事实"要求我们的理论研究必须转向——从规范理论走向实证理论。     

Book Review

This article is concerned with current understandings of the relevance of urban community studies within sociology. It starts by revisiting some of the major critiques made of community studies in the 1960s and 1970s, and briefly reviews whether network analysis, and in particular a focus on ‘personal communities’, provided a satisfactory alternative approach. The main part of the article argues that despite the criticisms there have been there is still much to be gained from a focus on people's attachments to locality, including the networks to which they are linked. Taking processes of globalization and migration as its major themes, the article explores how research has demonstrated the continuing relevance of ‘locality’ and ‘community’ for understanding the ways that contemporary social and economic transformations shape people's experiences. As well as considering different aspects of social exclusion, the article reviews how recent studies have explored the increasingly complex interplay of locality and identity.     

Lentic and lotic odonate communities and the factors that influence them in urban versus rural landscapes

Habitat alteration via urbanization has very different effects on even closely related taxa. Most research investigating the ecological effects of urbanization has focused on birds or mammals, resulting in a relatively poor understanding of how the species richness and community composition of invertebrates may change. We quantified differences in species richness of adult odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) at lentic and lotic sites in urban and rural landscapes, and we examined environmental factors that might drive the differences in community composition that we observed. For lotic sites, species richness did not differ between urban versus rural sites for either dragonflies or damselflies. For lentic sites, urban and rural sites contained similar dragonfly species richness, but damselfly species richness was significantly lower at urban sites than at rural sites. Differences in lentic odonate community composition were associated with the amount of urban development within 150 m of each site, mean algal coverage, and distance to the urban center. At lotic sites, water temperature and distance to the urban center were correlated with differences in odonate community composition. The differing responses to urbanization observed in this study were probably a consequence of differences between lentic versus lotic ecosystems and between dragonflies versus damselflies in dispersal capability and habitat specificity. Given that different environmental factors affected these taxa differently in lentic and lotic sites, maintaining the highest level of odonate diversity possible across a landscape will require the use of different management practices for each ecosystem type.     

Changes through time in soil Collembola communities exposed to urbanization

The study aimed to assess if long-term exposure to urbanization changes the structure and composition of soil collembolan communities in urban green components (street lawns and park lawns) and in all urban green. Species diversity metrics, rarefaction, species richness estimators (Chao 1 and ACE) and multivariate analysis were used for the comparison of changes in community structure and diversity pattern over ca 30 years’ time span. Our results clearly demonstrate a shift, through time, in Collembola community composition and structure in an urban ecosystem and confirm that there is a linkage between long-term exposure to urbanization and changes in collembolan communities. Long-term urbanization led to erosion in species diversity and the formation of species-poor communities, species replacement, loss of specialized forms and promoted the invasion of exotic species. However, we show that the time span considered produced significant differences in diversity attribute values for the collembolan communities from street lawns and insignificant differences in park lawns, also we noted lack of significant differences in collembolan abundance across the two urban green components. The observed temporal changes in collembolan communities indicate that their response to disturbances in urban settings and selecting species is shaped by multiple processes. We conclude that more resistant collembolan communities were found over time in less stressed urban greening components such as park lawn soils compared to street lawn soils.     

World population trends in 1960-70

The rapid rise in world population for the 4 periods 1950-1955, 1955 -1960, 1960-1965, and 1965-1970 is mainly due to a decline in the crude death rate from 24/1000 in 1950-1955 to 16.1/1000 in 1965-1970. 1950 was a turning-point in mortality rates because for the first time public health measures became widely available in less developed regions. These less developed regions contained 63.4% of the world population in 1930, 65.5% in 1950, and 70.0% in 1970. World population increased by 22% in 1960-1970, compared to 20% in 1950-1960, which was twice as much as the 20% registered for the 20 years 1930-1950. Developed regions contributed a 14% increase between 1950-1960 and 12% between 1960-1970; in less developed regions the increases were 23% and 27% respectively. Demographic conferences have begun to neglect mortality, but this is still a vital part of total population growth. Evidence is that the mortality decline in less developed countries is beginning to level off so that previous population projections may not be reached. What decline has been seen in crude birth rates in less developed countries is largely attributable to declines in East Asia, notably in the People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea, and other Chinese or Chinese culture-related populations, as well as some of the smaller Latin American countries and some small islands off Africa. Such demographic giants as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and sub-Saharan Africa have shown little change. In areas with high fertility there are more mothers under age 20 and more births to women over age 35 while in low-fertility areas births are concentrated in the 20-35 year groups. An interesting example is Japan which has 50% of its births to mothers 25-29 years of age. Less developed countries have a larger proportion o f the population under age 14 while developed countries which have had lower fertility for a number of years have larger numbers in the older age groups. In less developed areas the greatest burdens are associated with child-rearing while welfare for the aged is the great concern in the more developed areas of the world. The great trend toward urbanization in all parts of the world means that the population problems commanding greatest attention are those associated with large and fast-growing cities.     

Urban infrastructure: Trends,needs and the role of aid

The benefits of urban services have to be made accessible to increasing numbers of low income families in less developed countries. High levels of service are unlikely to be sustainable, and success depends upon addressing the key issues of Affordability and Maintenance. The complex interactions between technical, financial and social factors must be considered. The provision of high standards of service by implementing agencies is expensive and reflects neither the priorities of the beneficiaries nor their ability to pay. It is more effective to provide only the most basic level of service (primary level infrastructure) at the outset, which can subsequently be upgraded. The community should be able to take individual and collective responsibility for their priorities in improving the services based upon what they can afford. Primary level infrastructure is provided without cost recovery, with subsequent improvements being funded through loans to individuals and the community. It is easier both to recover costs from and to maintain individual plot service connections; however, the installation costs and tariffs must be affordable. Efficient operation and maintenance is essential. This is frequently the responsibility of an urban local authority who should be fully involved throughout; design and implementation should take account of their technical and financial capabilities.The factors which should be considered in the implementation of urban infrastructure can be summarised by the “Five I's”: Incremental improvement; Involving people; Individual services; Income related; Institutional.Possible implications for external aid are: (1) funding of primary level infrastructure for identifiable communities, including support for continued community development; (2) funding loans for infrastructure upgrading, with loan repayments forming a revolving fund; (3) strengthening the financial and managerial performance of urban local authorities; (4) technical training for housing authorities, urban local authorities, and public utilities.