Kent P. Schwirian

The effectiveness of neighborhood collective action

Urban redevelopment forces have created major and complex issues for residents in neighborhoods. Faced with such threats, many neighborhoods have become proactive and have attempted to protect and improve their environment through collective organization and social action. This paper investigates the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of neighborhood organization. A theoretical model that places emphasis on the role of local ecology, organizational complexity, and coalitional embeddedness is developed. The model is tested using data collected from neighborhood associations. Greater effectiveness is associated with socioeconomic status, neighborhood investments, and environmental threats. Organizational resources and coalitional embeddedness were found to be the most important factors explaining effectiveness.

Modeling urbanism: Economic, social and environmental stress in cities

The time has come for urban social indicator research to converge with the basic substantive efforts of urban researchers. Such a convergence may propel both basic and applied researchers toward more fruitful outcomes. This paper argues that the traditional model of urbanism provides the medium for the convergence. When urbanism is conceptualized to be multidimensional, seemingly discreet indicators of demographic, economic, social, and environmental conditions in cities may be incorporated into a more general model of urban structure and change. Specifically, using social indicators for 195 cities from ZPGs Childrens Stress Index and the 1990 U.S. Census, we show empirically: (1) Urbanism is a complex factor with four distinct dimensions: demographic scale, economic stress, social stress, and environmental stress. (2) These four dimensions of urbanism may be reliably measured with standard composite variables used in todays social indicator research. (3) Within the Urbanism factor there are causal connections among the separate dimensions, the most basic of which is that asserted by arguments from the traditional theory of urbanism; specifically, that population size, density, and social heterogeneity are causally linked to stress in economic, social, and environmental systems of the city.

The residential distribution of status groups in Puerto Rico’s metropolitan areas

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pattern of residential segregation of status groups in Puerto Rico’s three metropolitan areas. The findings showed that in all three areas: (1) as the social status distance between groups increases so too does the degree of dissimilarity of their residential distributions; (2) the status groups most residentially segregated are those at the top and at the bottom of the status pyramid; (3) the pattern of residential centralization of status groups for Ponce and Mayaguez are such that the highest status groups are the most centralized while the lowest status groups are the most decentralized, but in San Juan it is the highest status groups that are the most decentralized and the lowest status groups that are the most centralized. The data are from the 1960 census. Indicators of status employed are education, occupation, and income. Differences in findings about centralization between San Juan and the other cities are explained in terms of differential economic development.

Attention to the Media and Worry Over Becoming Infected: the Case of the Swine Flu (H1N1) Epidemic of 2009

This paper examines the relationship between attention to the mass media and concern about becoming infected with H1N1 in two nationwide random samples interviewed during the flu epidemic of 2009. The first sample (N = 1004) was taken at the end of the first wave of the outbreak in the US and the second sample (N = 1006) was taken as the second wave was accelerating. The data were gathered by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Over the period studied, the percentage worried about becoming infected increased in almost all social categories of respondents. With social category controlled, both those who followed the H1N1 outbreak closely and those who were more interested in reports about it were more likely to be worried about becoming infected. As time went on, interest in media reports declined, but worry over infection continued to increase. Our findings imply that despite the decrease in the percentage of the population expressing interest and following the news, media exposure was the most important factor as it explained the likelihood of being concerned about the possibility of infection.

Confidence in government and vaccination willingness in the USA

The most recent internationally widespread disease outbreak occurred during the flu season of 2009 and 2010. On April 2009, the first cases of influenza A (H1N1) (Popularly called, Swine Flu) were confirmed in the USA and UK following a novel virus that was first identified in Mexico. As the virus spread rapidly, the risk of morbidity and mortality increased in several countries. In this paper, we rely on the social cognitive theory of risk to assess the willingness of the US public to comply with vaccination and reduce the risk of sickness and death from the flu. We conduct a secondary data analysis of the Pew Research for the People and Press October 2009 and investigate the factors associated with willingness to take the swine flu vaccine (n = 1000). The findings indicate that the decision to take the swine flu vaccination was highly polarized across partisan lines. Controlling for education, income and demographic factors, the likelihood of taking the vaccine was associated with party identification. Individuals that identified themselves as Democrats were more likely to be willing to take the swine vaccine than individuals that identify themselves as Republicans and Independents. Confidence in the ability of the government to deal with the swine flu crisis seems to explain party identification differences in the willingness to take the vaccine. The implications of the findings are discussed.

COMMUNITY CONFLICT OVER ARENA AND STADIUM FUNDING: COMPETITIVE FRAMING, SOCIAL ACTION, AND THE SOCIO SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE*

Abstract This is a study of community conflict over an attempt by the power elite at urban redevelopment through the construction of a stadium and an arena at public expense. The facilities would be for the use and profit of private sector hockey and soccer franchises. Our analysis of the conflict is guided by three theoretical perspectives: competitive framing analysis, social action theory, and the socio-spatial perspective. In this paper our primary focus is on frame analysis as we discuss the contested referendum for public funding for the planned sports facilities. Our goal is to determine why the economically and politically powerful pro-development forces lost the vote to a lightly funded and loose coalition of ideologically diverse citizen groups. We especially focus on the role in the conflict of the contentious issue framing and counterframing activities engaged in by the two combatant sides. In our discussion we add insights from the socio-spatial and social action perspectives to those from frame analysis. Together the three perspectives provide a valuable analytical framework for issues of community conflict over growth and development. Although in the case under discussion the popular opposition was able to defeat the power elite at the ballot box, the elite were able to build their projects through a combination of their own funds and public dollars not subject to voter approval. The success of the opposition in the frame alignment of their position with the voters has provided an action model for oppositional groups in other cities.

An Axiomatic Theory of Urbanization

A demographic theory of urbanization is formulated through the use of an axiomatic model. Nine variables are initially included within the theoretically closed system. The basic hypotheses of the theory serve to specify relationships between certain pairs of the variables. The basic hypotheses are based upon valid, empirically established findings or the conceptualization of urbanization. Through the syllogistic technique the remaining hypotheses of the system are deduced from the basic hypotheses. Tests of the hypotheses indicate that two variables are not consistently related to others within the system. After the elimination of the two weak variables from the system the hypotheses are reformulated. It is suggested that the inclusiveness of the theory may be increased through the addition of crucial variables and basic hypotheses.

Spatial and Temporal Aspects of the Density-Distance Relationship

Abstract Numerous studies of the relationship between urban population density and distance from the citys center have shown that: (1) Cross-sectionally, the relationship between density and distance is negative, such that density crests in the interior of the city and declines toward the periphery. (2) Longitudinally, the slope of the density-distance relationship becomes flatter as central densities decline as neighborhoods age and thin and as fringe areas develop and increase in population. Most studies have worked with the total relationship between density and distance, ignoring cross-sectional and longitudinal variants from the general pattern for subareas of the metropolis. Large cities seldom develop uniformily in concentric patterns focused upon the CBD. More typical is the axial pattern described by Hurd or the sectoral pattern by Hoyt in which development is axial along principal arteries of transportation with inner-axial areas developing at later points in time. This paper pursues intra-urba...

Globalization, Plague and the Local Community: Healthcare Capacity, Politics, and the Microbe War

Abstract Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is the first major international epidemic of the twenty-first century. In a few short months it spread to every continent, infected 8,096 people, and claimed the lives of 774. It hit older persons particularly hard; it killed 50 percent of the infected of that age category. The rate of plagues spread from one country to another has greatly increased as the globalization of the worlds economy has produced rapid daily transportation of people, products, plants, animals, and, of course, microbes. Each day cities are at risk for the invasion of deadly infectious diseases. While international expert agencies such as the World Health Organization stand by to help fight outbreaks, ultimately, plagues are fought in the local community. I discuss two theses: (1) To successfully contain and fight a major epidemic the capacity of the communitys health care system must be enhanced by its functional linkages to external expert and bridging organizations and systems of organizations; and (2) that the extent to which a communitys health care system can draw on external expert and bridging organizations and systems is a function of the degree to which the political state in which the community is embedded facilitates for fails to facilitate) those linkages. My focus is on Hong Kong and the cities of the Peoples Republic of China; they were at the epicenter of the SARS outbreak, and it was from them that the contagion spread to other countries. Findings show that plagues are not only matters of biology and health, but also matters of politics, power, and international relations.

The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology, and Industrial Growth.

Chapter 1: The Inconstant Geography of Capitalism Chapter 2: Industrialization as Disequilibrium Growth Chapter 3: How Industries Produce Regions Chapter 4: Technological Change and Geographical Industrialization Chapter 5: The Territorial Organization of Production Chapter 6: Labour - The Politics of Place and Workplace Chapter 7: The Process of Territorial Development Chapter 8: Economy, Society, Territory.