Civil Society Opposition to Nonferrous Metals Mining in Montana

This paper discusses the opposition of civil society to nonferrous metals mining in Montana. The mineral resources and mining history of Montana are discussed, as is the vibrant civil society of that state. Montana’s civil society has opposed mining due to its environmental effects, particularly upon areas of high conservation value. This opposition has involved litigation and the implementation of a ban on the use of cyanide by the mining industry. The paper concludes with a discussion of whether this opposition to mining has damaged the economy of the state and Montana’s future as an example of the “New West,” wherein amenities based growth act as the principal agent of economic activity.     

Remedial Policies in Radiologically-Contaminated Forests: Environmental Consequences and Risk Assessment

As a result of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986, large forested areas in Europe were contaminated by radionuclides. Extensive societal pressure has been exerted to decrease the radiation dose to the population and to the environment. Thus, in making abatement and remediation policy decisions not only economic costs, but also human and environmental risk assessment are desired. Forest remediation by organic layer removal, one of the most promising cleanup policies, is considered in this paper. Ecological risk assessment requires evaluation of the radionuclide distribution in forests. The FORESTPATH model^(1,2) is used for predicting the radionuclide fate in forest compartments after deposition as well as for evaluating the application of the remedial policy. Time of intervention and radionuclide deposition profile was predicted as being crucial for the remediation efficiency. Risk assessment conducted for a critical group of forest users in Belarus shows that consumption of forest products (berries and mushrooms) leads to about 0.004% risk of a fatal cancer. Cost-benefit analysis for forest cleanup suggests that complete removal of organic layer is too expensive for application in Belarus.     

A Multitude of Voices: Pushcart Prize Winning Publications 1976–2006

The Pushcart Prize, established in 1976, has a well-deserved reputation for highlighting the best in small press publication. The authors examined the first thirty volumes, 1976/1977 through 2006, to identify attributes of the items included in each volume and placed the volumes into five time periods of six volumes each to facilitate trend analysis. In order to identify the most productive publications, titles that had fewer than four selections in the thirty volumes and did not appear in at least two time periods were eliminated. The authors examined: press status as independent or affiliated, state and region where published, and type of work (poetry or other). Finally, highly productive titles were reviewed in WorldCat to determine how frequently these were held in the United States.California, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio have a continuing, substantial presence in the Prize volumes. Most of the publications included were still active and were affiliated with a larger institution. The three small press titles appearing most frequently were Ploughshares, Paris Review, and American Poetry Review. The Pushcart Prize selections most frequently listed in WorldCat were the Hudson Review, the Paris Review, and the American Poetry Review. Each is held by more than eight hundred U.S. libraries.     

Cognitive Risk Factors to the Development of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Adolescents

This exploratory study examines cognitive risk factors, anxiety sensitivity, and positive and negative affect, as related to the development of anxiety and depression. In a mailed survey, adolescents completed the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Positive and Negative Affectivity Scale. Previous research utilized the broad and unified variable of anxiety sensitivity as a predictor of anxiety. In this study, we separate and examine the four specific factors of anxiety sensitivity: mental incapacitation concerns, social concerns, disease concerns, and unsteady concerns, and relate it to specific anxiety disorders and depression. Results indicate good convergent validity and improved divergent validity when utilizing the four factors of anxiety sensitivity as compared to using it as one construct. Results also suggest: (1) OCD and GAD share numerous similarities and (2) the importance of the role of negative affectivity in anxiety and depression. Being aware of the components of anxiety sensitivity and how they relate to specific anxiety disorders can help a social worker when rendering a diagnosis. Part of the data presented in this article was from David A. Dia’s doctoral dissertation.     

Return Migrations of African‐Americans to the South: Reclaiming a Land of Promise,Going Home,or Both?*

Abstract Using samples of census data from the University of Minnesota Population Center's “Integrated Public Use Microdata Series” (IPUMS), we describe trends in African‐American migration to the South across recent decades, and explore the applicability of the concept of “return migration” to various demographic patterns. Our findings suggest that the return movement contains multiple migration streams involving African‐Americans of higher socio‐economic status (compared with both origin and destination populations) moving to both urban and rural destinations. These patterns represent clear differences from the earlier 20^th century's “Great Migration” of African‐Americans from South to North. The recent return migration streams suggest that the South may be replacing the North as a “land of promise” for some upwardly mobile African‐Americans, and may also reflect what Carol Stack (1996) has termed a “call to home” as a motivating factor shaping recent African‐American migration to the rural South.     

Carry on Shrinking?: The Bankruptcy of Urban Policy in Detroit

Much attention has recently been focused on the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit in 2013 and the reasons for the largest municipal fiscal melt down in US history. Contrary to a view gaining currency, which dismisses Detroit as the product of exceptional forces and largely calls it the architect of its own collapse, this article argues the case that Detroit conveys more general lessons for European cities struggling with decline, not least of which is the need for interventionist regional planning to avoid predictable but avoidable urban distress. The article briefly reviews the well-documented decline of the city of Detroit measured against population, economic, fiscal and image impacts. It considers five current misreadings of the reasons for Detroit's predicament and implicit signposts for European practice before concluding with an assessment of what has been hailed as the shoots of yet another possible renaissance in the originally proclaimed Renaissance City over 40 years ago.     

Social integration and dialect divergence in coastal Palestine

The history of Palestine has caused communities to be displaced and relocated, entailing that speech communities have been dismantled and created anew. The coastal cities of Jaffa and Gaza exemplify this reality. This study analyzes speakers from Jaffa, some of whom remained there and others residing in Gaza as refugees. Through an examination of three variables, (?), (AH), and (Q), we shed light on the effects of dialect contact while highlighting the link between dialect contact and identity formation and maintenance. All three variables are found to be in varied states of change as a result of contact with other varieties of Arabic, as well as with Modern Hebrew. We conclude that (Q), through its high social salience, works to create and maintain a sense of community identity for Jaffan refugees in Gaza at a time when the speech of the larger Jaffa community is undergoing substantial linguistic change.