Matthew J. Burbank

Olympic Cities: Lessons Learned from Mega-Event Politics

As cities compete for jobs and capital in the context of limited federal aid and increasing global economic competition, a new and potentially high-risk strategy for stimulating local economic growth has emerged. This strategy, called the mega-event strategy, entails the quest for a high-profile event to serve as a stimulus to, and justification for, local development. We examine how the mega-event strategy has played out in the three US cities with contemporary Olympic experience: Los Angeles (1984), Atlanta (1996), and Salt Lake City (2002). We analyze the approaches taken by these three cities to bidding for and staging an Olympic mega-event. Our comparison focuses on the decade long period that cities use to prepare to host the games. We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and the policy implications of the mega-event strategy on urban politics.

EXPLAINING CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON VOTE CHOICE

How are individual voters influenced by their social surroundings? Though numerous studies establish that voting behavior can be influenced by the social context, we lack a full understanding of how the actions of individual voters can be influenced by the composition of their social environment. In this paper, I develop and test a micro-level model of the operation of contextual influences on political behavior. The model specifies the effects of both personal contact and individual perception of the partisan nature of the local environment. The data show little support for personal contact as a mechanism of contextual influence, but reveal that perception of partisan dominance markedly enhances the impact of partisan identification on vote choice.

Public Attitudes Regarding the Use of Residual Newborn Screening Specimens for Research

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many state newborn screening (NBS) programs retain residual NBS bloodspots after the completion of screening. Potential uses for residual specimens include laboratory quality assurance, biomedical research, and, rarely, forensic applications. Our objective was to evaluate public opinion about the policies and practices relevant to the retention and use of residual bloodspots for biomedical research. METHODS: A total of 3855 respondents were recruited using 3 methods: focus groups (n = 157), paper or telephone surveys (n = 1418), and a Knowledge Networks panel (n = 2280). Some participants (n = 1769) viewed a 22-minute movie about the retention and use of residual specimens while other participants were provided only written information about this practice. All participants were surveyed using a 38-item questionnaire. RESULTS: A diverse set of participants was recruited. Respondents were very supportive of NBS in general and accepting of the use of residual bloodspots for important research activities. Respondents were evenly divided on the acceptability of NBS without parental permission, but the majority of respondents supported the use of an “opt-in” process for parental permission for residual bloodspot retention and use. Viewing the educational movie was associated with greater support for bloodspot retention and use. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the general public surveyed here was supportive of NBS and residual sample retention and research use. However, there was a clear preference for an informed permission process for parents regarding these activities. Education about NBS was associated with a higher level of support and may be important to maintain public trust in these important programs.

Antigrowth Politics or Piecemeal Resistance?: Citizen Opposition to Olympic-Related Economic Growth

Regime theory predicts that opponents of a regime’s pursuit of economic development will have limited prospects for success. Some scholars, however, contend that evidence of widespread growth control movements poses a challenge to regime theory. The authors assess the viability of growth opponents when confronting an active growth regime under conditions that should enhance the prospects for the development of an antigrowth movement by examining opposition to Olympic-related growth in Los Angeles (1984), Atlanta (1996), and Salt Lake City (2002). Despite favorable circumstances for developing an opposition coalition, little evidence of viable antigrowth movements is found. Rather, opposition is better characterized as piecemeal resistance.

The psychological basis of contextual effects

Abstract How do the attributes of a particular geographic location, such as the class composition of a community, affect the political orientation of individuals? My study addresses this question by developing and testing a micro-level explanation for how people learn about their social environment. Unlike existing explanations which rely on social interaction as a mechanism, my model sets out an explicitly psychological process by which contextual influences are transmitted. The empirical evidence supports the central tenets of the model that the social environment can influence individual partisan cognition and, in turn, partisan cognition facilitates learning about the partisan nature of the social environment.

Assessing public attitudes on the retention and use of residual newborn screening blood samples: a focus group study.

This paper discusses attitudes and opinions of a diverse group of participants toward the retention and use of residual newborn blood samples for research. Data were drawn from focus groups based in six states in the USA, and results provide support for the retention and use of residual newborn blood samples for research when parental permission is asked beforehand. However, there were a number of concerns that also warrant attention for the development of policy and maintaining trust with the public, such as timing of permission, use of samples already stored, level of personal control of sample use and education. The results demonstrate the complexity of the topic and the ethical ambiguities associated with the retention and use of residual newborn blood samples.

Contextualizing Olympic Legacies

This article examines the making of Olympic legacies. All cities bidding to host the Olympics after 2012 are now required to describe sports and non-sports legacies in their bid books, and this will become a consideration in awarding the Games. A review of the literature on the impacts of hosting the Games and on conceptualizing Olympic legacies shows that both have advanced in recent years. Yet an examination of the aftermath of hosting the Olympics in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City reveals that claiming Olympic legacies remains difficult given the political decisions made early in the bidding process and the local geography of locating Olympic facilities and venues outside the host city itself.

Concerns of Newborn Blood Screening Advisory Committee Members Regarding Storage and Use of Residual Newborn Screening Blood Spots

OBJECTIVES We assessed attitudes and opinions of members of newborn blood screening (NBS) advisory committees regarding the storage and secondary research use of residual specimens from NBS. METHODS We conducted focus groups in 2008 and 2009 with NBS advisory committees (4 focus groups; n = 39 participants) in the Mountain States region (i.e., AZ, CO, MT, NM, NV, TX, UT, and WY). RESULTS Participants identified several challenges to implementing policies for storage of and research on residual newborn blood specimens. Themes that emerged from the data were public health relevancy; improvement of parental knowledge; impact of enhanced parental involvement; concerns over ownership, privacy, and confidentiality; identification of secondary research uses; and role of advisory committees. CONCLUSIONS Participants indicated that secondary uses of residual specimens entailed opportunities for improvements in NBS programs but also carried significant risks for their programs. Addressing concerns from stakeholders will be necessary for state-level adoption of national recommendations.

Immigrant Support for the American Socialist Party, 1912 and 1920

The period of greatest socialist strength in the United States, the second decade of the twentieth century, coincided with the final decade of a great wave of immigration. This phenomenon has attracted the attention both of scholars seeking to understand the basis of support for the American Socialist party and of those seeking to address the more general question of the sources of immigrant radicalism (Bodnar 1985; Lipset 1977). Both perspectives pose a basic empirical question: What role did ethnicity play in support for the Socialist party, or, more specifically, which immigrant groups supported the party and which groups opposed it? The attempt to answer this question has spawned a vast scholarship on the part of historians and social scientists, but a definitive answer remains elusive. Part of the reason for this is that we lack sufficiently detailed and disaggregated data on the political orientations and activities of immigrants themselves. The smallest units of electoral return are at the ward or county level, and information at this aggregate level can never allow us to draw conclusions about individual behavior with any certainty. But it also seems to be the case that the analysis of currently available data has not been taken as far as possible. Previous research has explored the relationship between ethnicity and socialism by examining particular immigrant groups in individual states, cities, or towns (e.g., Critchlow 1986; Gorenstein 1961; Leinenweber 1981; Lorence 1982; Miller 1975; Wolfle and Hodge 1983). Such case studies provide invaluable accounts of the diversity of immigrant politics, but they do not provide a reliable basis for generalization. In this article we take a step back from the wealth of illustrative analysis and try to gain a broader, more systematic, overview of immigrant support for socialism across a wide range of contexts by examining voting among eight immigrant groups—Germans, English, Finns, Irish, Italians, Norwegians, Russians, and Swedes—in the presidential elections of 1912 and 1920, elections in which the American Socialist party received its highest levels of support.

American Studies: Politics

The study of American politics in the last three decades of the twentieth century is marked by persistent themes: a relentless questioning of the adequacy of institutional arrangements and the unresolved nature of citizenship. Though there have been no major changes to US political institutions in this period, scholars have raised concerns about interest group pressures, divided government, and public dissatisfaction with American politics. Scholars have also sought to understand the dynamics of American civic culture during a period marked by struggles to justify substantive rights of citizenship and struggles to acknowledge cultural and other significant differences between citizens.