Community Economic Development Strategies in Rural Washington: Toward a Synthesis of Natural and Social Capital*

Abstract Routes to economic development attract considerable attention in community and rural sociology. Social scientists draw increasingly on studies of social capital and environmental surroundings as they examine the factors that facilitate and inhibit economic development. However, few empirical analyses exist that analyze the impact of the combination of social infrastructure and natural capital on different forms of economic development such as on industrial recruitment and self‐development. Using data collected from six communities in Washington State, the interaction of a community's social infrastructure and natural capital on industrial recruitment and self‐development efforts is examined. Results suggest that while natural capital positively impacts a community's successful recruitment of outside industries, it is not significant for a community's level of self‐development. However, a community's social infrastructure, measured by the existence of active civic organizations, local businesses that support local community projects, community‐wide fund‐raising capacity, and extra‐local linkages to nearby communities, state, and national agencies, positively affects both industrial recruitment and self‐development. These findings illustrate the need for communities and local activists to carefully weigh their advantages and potential shortcomings when deciding on an economic development strategy.     

The Social Context of Police Lying

This is an analysis of the social context of normal police lies. We define lies as speech acts which the speaker knows are misleading or false, are intended to deceive, and where evidence to the contrary is known to the observer. Lies are relative to a moral context, and what an audience will accept. Lies include excuses, which deny full responsibility for an act, but acknowledge its immorality, and justifications, which accept responsibility but deny blame-worthiness. Police learn to lie and to carefully distinguish normal (or acceptable) lies from unacceptable lies, suggesting that lies are a part of a negotiated occupational order. We show how and why some types of lies are rewarded by police using ethnographic data from an 18 month field study of a large urban force. Lies can be of little issue, or become troublesome. We report and analyze two kinds of troublesome lies: case lies, recognized stories an officer utilizes in a courtroom or on paper to facilitate the conviction of a suspect, and cover stories, lies an officer tells in court, to supervisors, and on the job with the aim of providing a verbal shield or mitigation in the event of discipline. Both excuses and justifications are woven together in these vignettes. An example of a refusal to lie is used to illustrate some of the limits on lying as well organizational factors in lying. Some implications for official lying are also noted.     

On sequential closed testing dose groups with a control

Methods for a sequential test of a dose-response effect in pre-clinical studies are investigated. The objective of the test procedure is to compare several dose groups with a zero-dose control. The sequential testing is conducted within a closed family of one-sided tests. The procedures investigated are based on a monotonicity assumption. These closed procedures strongly control the familywise error rate while providing information about the shape of the dose-responce relationship. Performance of sequential testing procedures are compared via a Monte Carlo simulation study. We illustrae the procedures by application to a real data set.     

Racism in three dimensions: South African architecture and the ideology of white superiority

What has been the effect of three hundred and fifty years of colonialism and apartheid on South African architecture? What role has architecture played in reinforcing and perpetuating racist ideology? Can a building or a space be racist? Racism in Three Dimensions explores these questions and others pertaining to the relationship between race, racism and architecture in post‐apartheid South Africa and seeks to define a role for the architectural profession in the struggle to heal the wounds of apartheid     

Out with Multiple Choice and In with Essays: A More Accurate Way to Measure Reading Comprehension

The certification test for English teachers in a certain state asked candidates to identify the name of the frog in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." If students answered this question correctly and said, Dan'l Webster, does this mean that these students would be prepared for the teaching field? Conversely, if students answered this question incorrectly, does this mean they were ill - prepared for becoming teachers? Can such an irrelevant question really point to the knowledge and abilities of future teachers? Hardly, use of unimportant questioning such as this illustrates the main problem with using a multiple choice format when assessing students. Trivial items such as names of animals and other insignificant information are often given priority over their significance in the story simply because students are not able to demonstrate what they really know in narrative form (Smagorinsky, 2002).     

Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook

Since social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, began allowing organizations to create profiles and become active members, organizations have started incorporating these strategies into their public relations programming. For-profit organizations have used these sites to help launch products and strengthen their existing brands; however, little is known about how nonprofit organizations are taking advantage of the social networking popularity. Through a content analysis of 275 nonprofit organization profiles on Facebook, this study examines how these new social networking sites are being used by the organizations to advance their organization's mission and programs. Solely having a profile will not in itself increase awareness or trigger an influx of participation. Instead careful planning and research will greatly benefit nonprofits as they attempt to develop social networking relationships with their stakeholders.     

Self-perception of Gambling Problems among Adolescents Identified as At-risk or Problem Gamblers

The relative influence of perceived familial addictive behaviors and personal gambling behaviors on adolescents' self-perceptions of gambling problems was examined. Students from five high schools in Connecticut (N = 3,886) were surveyed. Of those between the ages of 14 and 17 who scored two or more on the South Oaks Gambling Screen--Revised for Adolescents (n = 532; 72% male; 43% Caucasian), 14.3% reported having a current or past problem with gambling. Wagering larger amounts in a single day, gambling on a daily basis, and perceived presence of a family member with a gambling problem were associated with increased odds of self-perception of a gambling problem. Thus, adolescents who may be less likely to be identified for prevention efforts (due to lack of engagement in high stakes gambling or the real/perceived absence of a problematic gambler in the home) appear less likely to perceive a gambling problem. To advance prevention and treatment strategies, the apparent discrepancy between adolescents' self-perceptions and objective reports of problem gambling behaviors warrants further investigation.