Laurie Ross

Complex Communities and Emergent Ecologies in the Regional Agroforest of Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic

Global economic change and the discourses, models and practice of international sustainable development are major forces of ecological construction and restructuring. The paper illustrates how the social and ecological co-construction of forests in the Zambrana-Chacuey region in the Dominican Republic has material consequences for distinct groups of people and for other species in rural landscapes. The introduction of the Acacia mangium - a fast growing tree - as a timber cash crop for smallholder farmers in the region between 1984 and 1994 had major social, economic and ecological consequences. A rural federation collaborated with ENDA-Caribe, an international non-government organization, in a ten-year social forestry experiment to develop and promote economically and environmentally viable timber cash cropping systems for smallholder farmers. The experience of the federation members provides a window on the workings of gender, class and popular organization in the making of forest ecologies, and demonstrates the influence of transnational sustainable development models and organizations in the social and biological transformation of rural life. The encounter between the complex social and ecological context with an apparently simple project yields insights into the social, political and material construction, destruction and transformation of biotic assemblages in forests, fields, pastures and gardens in this forest/farm matrix. The research findings also illuminate the distinct effects of the resulting restructured ecologies on the diverse interest groups and plant communities within the regional agroforest.

Sustaining Youth Participation in a Long-term Tobacco Control Initiative: Consideration of a Social Justice Perspective

This article presents an in-depth case study of the Healthy Options for Prevention and Education Coalition’s Teens Tackle Tobacco initiative, a 3-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) project about the distribution of tobacco vendors and tobacco advertising in Worcester, Massachusetts. Using two theoretical frameworks, positive youth development (PYD) and social justice youth development (SJYD), the case reveals personal and community conditions that drove youth to get engaged in this project, how CBPR guided the group’s research and action strategy, and results of the work to date. Analysis of this case highlights factors that facilitate and pose barriers to active youth involvement in a long-term, tobacco-related community change initiative. Specifically, to affect oppressive community conditions, a blend of PYD’s focus on individual skill building, participation, and empowerment— joined with SJYD emphasis on community organizing and building youth’s self-awareness of how race, class, and other dimensions of power affect their lives on a daily basis—is needed.

Using geographic information systems to compare the density of stores selling tobacco and alcohol: youth making an argument for increased regulation of the tobacco permitting process in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Background This study is based on a community participatory research (CBPR) partnership between a youth group and a local university to explore whether greater regulation of tobacco permits would reduce the density of tobacco outlets overall, and particularly in low-income, high minority neighbourhoods in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Methods Applying Geographic Information Systems and regression analyses to neighbourhood demographics and the location of stores selling tobacco and alcohol, the study predicts the density of tobacco outlets as compared to alcohol outlets at the neighborhood block group level and in relation to the location and demographic composition of public schools. Results This study found that there are more than double the number of stores that sell tobacco as compared to alcohol in the city of Worcester. For every alcohol vendor there was a 41% increase in the estimated number of tobacco vendors, independent of the effect of other variables. The likelihood of having a tobacco outlet located near a school was greater than having an alcohol outlet as the percentage of minority students in schools increases. Conclusions Based on these findings, the authors conclude that to reduce the impact of tobacco on socially and economically disadvantaged communities, the issuing of tobacco permits requires more regulation and oversight and should take into consideration the density and actual location of other licensees in an area.

Vulnerability, Risk Perception, and Health Profile of Marginalized People Exposed to Multiple Built-Environment Stressors in Worcester, Massachusetts: A Pilot Project

Millions of low-income people of diverse ethnicities inhabit stressful old urban industrial neighborhoods. Yet we know little about the health impacts of built-environment stressors and risk perceptions in such settings; we lack even basic health profiles. Difficult access is one reason (it took us 30 months to survey 80 households); the lack of multifaceted survey tools is another. We designed and implemented a pilot vulnerability assessment tool in Worcester, Massachusetts. We answer: (1) How can we assess vulnerability to multiple stressors? (2) What is the nature of complex vulnerability-including risk perceptions and health profiles? (3) How can findings be used by our wider community, and what lessons did we learn? (4) What implications arise for science and policy? We sought a holistic picture of neighborhood life. A reasonably representative sample of 80 respondents captured data for 254 people about: demographics, community concerns and resources, time-activity patterns, health information, risk/stress perceptions, and resources/capacities for coping. Our key findings derive partly from the survey data and partly from our experience in obtaining those data. Data strongly suggest complex vulnerability dominated by psychosocial stress. Unexpected significant gender and ethnic disease disparities emerged: notably, females have twice the disease burden of males, and white females twice the burden of females of color (p < 0.01). Self-reported depression differentiated by gender and age is illustrative. Community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches require active engagement with marginalized populations, including representatives as funded partners. Complex vulnerability necessitates holistic, participatory approaches to improve scientific understanding and societal responses.

Urban Youth Workers' Use of “Personal Knowledge” in Resolving Complex Dilemmas of Practice

Using narrative inquiry to analyze accounts of how two experienced youth workers handled the potential for gun violence in their organizations, this article argues that youth worker expertise in part is based on personal knowledge derived from childhood neighborhood-based peer groups and participation in youth programs. Expert youth workers draw on personal and professional craft knowledge and move between the rules of youth organizations and the rules of the streets to read people and situations and address the potential for serious violence. Implications for youth worker professional development are raised.