Lois M. Takahashi

THE SOCIO-SPATIAL STIGMATIZATION OF HOMELESSNESS AND HIV/AIDS: TOWARD AN EXPLANATION OF THE NIMBY SYNDROME

A central element of community response to controversial human service facilities is the socio-spatial construction of stigma. This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding the constitution and role of stigma in community rejection of human services, particularly those associated with homelessness and HIV/AIDS. Three facets of stigma concerning homelessness and HIV/ AIDS (non-productivity, dangerousness, and personal culpability) are offered as a way of understanding the rising tide of community rejection toward human service facilities.

The Changing Dynamics of Community Opposition to Human Service Facilities

Abstract Community opposition is an increasingly common response to the siting of controversial human service facilities. This paper explores the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome by presenting an analysis of the first national survey of attitudes toward controversial human services conducted in the United States. The analysis focuses on the volatility and synergy of attitude change, the degree of regionalization of rejecting and accepting attitudes, the differences between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan responses, and the perceived exclusionary nature of suburban respondents. The results indicate that the dynamics of community opposition consist of client, community, and facility variations significantly influenced by regional context and the spatial location of respondents.

Seeing People Differently: The Sociospatial Construction of Disability

In this paper the authors develop the concept of difference as it applies to people with disabilities. The production of difference is characterized as necessarily a social and a spatial process which allows the self to be partitioned from the Other. In the aggregate, such processes facilitate the stigmatization of whole classes of people and the institutionalization of rules for boundary maintenance between different groups. One important consequence among the population at large is a ‘hierarchy of acceptance’, that is, a structure of preferential ranking among various disability categories. A metaanalysis of 44 acceptance hierarchy studies since 1968 reveals both stability and change in community preference structures. The largest impetus for change derives from the appearance of new ‘disabilities’ including most especially people with AIDS, and homeless people. Evidence also suggests that significant attitudinal variations occur through space as well as time and when different facility types are considered and that actual behavior may differ from expressed attitudinal preferences. This paper concludes with remarks directed toward a more adequate sociospatial theory of disability.

Social Capital and Trust in South-east Asian Cities

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of social capital and environmental management in two rapidly growing regions in south-east Asia, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. Theoretical and empirical triangulation are used to clarify the nature of social capital and the ways that gender, in particular, affects trust and co-operation. Theoretical triangulation is accomplished by drawing on conceptual arguments made in economics, geography and urban planning to develop a theoretical framework explaining social capital and environmental management in south-east Asia. Empirical triangulation is accomplished through a multimethod analytical approach, including survey methods and experimental games conducted with the same populations. The results of the comparative analysis among squatter residents in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City are presented with a focus on gender differences in trust and co-operation and the paper concludes with a summary of the results and recommendations for policy and future research.

Collaborative Windows and Organizational Governance: Exploring the Formation and Demise of Social Service Partnerships

For collaboratives to form, this article argues that a collaborative window (the confluence of problem, policy, organizational, and social/political/economic streams) must open, and a collaborative entrepreneur must act (recognizing the window and bringing together appropriate partners). This article argues that because collaborations form in response to particular collaborative windows, the initial governance structures developed will correspond to the conditions characterizing the window. Because initial governance structures are difficult to change and the conditions that characterized the collaborative window shift when the window closes, social service partnerships have built into them the seeds for their short-term demise. To illustrate this argument, a case study is presented of three small, community-based organizations that partnered to provide social services for persons living with HIV and AIDS in Orange County, California. The implications of this case study for understanding the potential long-term impacts of collaborations are discussed.

Navigating the time–space context of HIV and AIDS:: daily routines and access to care

Geographers have shown that daily activities and social networks are constrained by time-space, but there are also enabling facets or opportunities created by daily routines for accessing material and emotional resources, improving quality of life, and even challenging existing power relations. Time-geography in this paper is taken as a starting point to assess how individuals living with HIV and AIDS navigate the complex and often difficult time space contexts defining their access to services. The concept of time space windows of access is offered as a way to understand the opportunities created by daily routines and social network interaction even in highly marginalized social, economic, and political circumstances. Survey data and in-depth interviews conducted with a diverse group of persons living with HIV and AIDS are used to illustrate this conceptual argument. Results indicate that the time space characteristics of daily routines, such as frequency of activities, variety or heterogeneity in activities, and whether activities are self- or social network-oriented, serve to define the availability of temporal and spatial windows of access to services. In addition, daily routines seem to matter for specific types of services, and have a limited role to play in terms of primary medical services or those associated with basic needs. The implications of these findings for theorizing and for enhancing access to services are provided.

CONTROVERSIAL FACILITY SITING IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT : RESIDENT AND PLANNER PERCEPTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

Conflict over facility siting has become increasingly common across facility types and neighborhoods throughout the United States. This article posits that the conflict about facility siting stems from the distinct roles played by the state (with a central role played by planners), the shadow state (consisting of voluntary and nonprofit organizations), and interest groups (primarily community residents). This article explores the similarities and differences in perception toward controversial facilities for two of these three actors: the state (represented by planning directors) and interest groups (in this case, community residents). To investigate the similarities and differences between resident and planner perceptions, this article analyzes the first national survey of resident attitudes, which included both environmental and human service facilities, and a recent national survey of planning directors. Implications of this analysis for understanding facility siting, community opposition, and planning responses are discussed.

Toward a Conceptual Model Linking Community Violence Exposure to HIV-Related Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents: Directions for Research

PURPOSE To present a conceptual framework which accounts for the relationship between community violence exposures (CVEs) and youth HIV risk behaviors. METHODS This article provides an overview of existing research on the links between CVE and HIV risk for youth and offers a conceptual framework for clarifying how CVE might contribute to HIV sexual risk behaviors. RESULTS Increasing empirical findings substantiate that the links between CVE and HIV risk behaviors among youth are mediated by psychological problem behaviors, low school success rates, and negative peer influences. CONCLUSIONS Researchers have identified the behaviors that place teens at risk for becoming infected with HIV. However, most scholars have overlooked the potential importance of CVE in influencing such behaviors. This article presents new directions for adolescent research and HIV interventions on the basis of an integrated conceptual framework.

Evolving Institutional Arrangements, Scaling Up, and Sustainability Emerging Issues in Participatory Slum Upgrading in Ahmedabad, India

Urban development and poverty alleviation efforts in the Global South, such as slum upgrading, have been transformed by policy shifts toward more decentralization, reduced state control, and greater civil society and community participation in local governance. The Slum Networking Project (SNP) in Ahmedabad, India, is an internationally recognized “best practice” in participatory slum upgrading. We illustrate how changing the nature of multi-stakeholder participation in the SNP affected its potentials for sustainability and scaling up. Stakeholder ability to alter the institutional arrangement resulted in a significant transfer of project implementation responsibility and authority from the state to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Although these stakeholder-initiated institutional innovations initially expedited and expanded SNP and made it more sustainable, we argue that the enlarged role for NGOs in the current institutional arrangement can limit the program’s potential for further scaling up.

Social Capital, Networks, and Community Environments in Bangkok, Thailand

This paper considers the case of Bangkok where, as in many Asian cities, the expansion of urban areas has outpaced the ability of public entities to manage and provide basic services. One potential way to improve the capacity of neighborhoods to assist in provision or improvement in environmental services is to enhance the positive contributions provided by local social networks and social capital. A conceptual framework is presented to explore the role of social networks in environmental management in polluted urban environments. This is followed by a brief description of the methodology and survey instrument used to collect information from a sample of community households in Bangkok and an analysis of the results from this survey regarding environmental practices, community action, and social networks. Some of the results suggest that increasing the number of social interactions that residents of a community experience is associated with increased community participation as, apparently, is increasing knowledge about what happens to waste or waste water after it leaves the community. Local public education efforts that focus on useful knowledge about environmental impacts may well be an effective way to encourage community participation. Copyright 2002 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.