Why is Helping Behavior Declining in the United States But Not in Canada?: Ethnic Diversity, New Technologies, and Other Explanations

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith N. Hampton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Neighborhood Diversity ◽  
Changing Attitudes

This paper explores whether there has been a recent decline in helping behavior in the United States. In a lost letter experiment, 7,466 letters were “lost” in 63 urban areas in the United States and Canada in 2001 and 2011. There has been a 10 percent decline in helping behavior in the United States, but not in Canada. Two arguments anticipate change in the level of help provided to strangers: the rise of new technologies, and neighborhood racial and ethnic diversity. Findings exclude increased privatism as a source for the decline in helping. In 2001 there was no variation in altruistic behavior based on neighborhood diversity. However, areas of the United States where the proportion of noncitizens increased since 2001 experienced reduced helping; the opposite was found in Canada. Possible explanations include changing attitudes toward noncitizens, and differences in public policy related to economic inequality, social inclusion, and the acceptance of multiculturalism.

Locating neighbourhood diversity in the American metropolis

Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Walker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Diversity Gradient ◽  
Low Diversity

Racial and ethnic diversity in the United States is on the rise, as the country is projected to no longer have a racial majority by the mid-2040s. Much of this diversity is found in the United States’ large metropolitan areas, where it manifests itself unevenly. While some metropolitan neighbourhoods are growing highly diverse, others remain segregated by race and ethnicity. This paper introduces a framework for exploring the geography of neighbourhood diversity in US metropolitan areas, and defines the diversity gradient, a visual representation of how diversity varies with distance from the urban core. Analysis of the geography of metropolitan diversity from 1990 to 2010 reveals that the greatest increases in diversity are found in the suburbs and outlying areas, where diversity now peaks in many large metropolitan areas. Additional spatial analyses of neighbourhood diversity in Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth show that clustering of highly diverse neighbourhoods has shifted to the suburbs from close-in urban areas, where many segregated and low-diversity neighbourhoods persist.

An Evolving Residential Landscape in Post-Katrina New Orleans

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Byron Strait ◽  
Gang Gong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Compositional Change ◽  
Residential Landscapes

Residential landscapes across the United States have been significantly altered in recent years by the increased racial and ethnic diversity evident within urban areas. In New Orleans, Louisiana, residential landscapes were particularly impacted by the disruptive influences associated with Hurricane Katrina, a storm that ultimately transformed the demographic make-up of this urban area. This research investigates the impacts that increased diversity has had on the levels of residential segregation among racial and/or ethnic groups in New Orleans from 2000 to 2010. Empirical analysis entailed the measurement of two dimensions of segregation evident among Non-Hispanic whites, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. Measures of residential exposure were decomposed in order to investigate the relative impacts of metropolitan-wide compositional change and intra-urban redistributive change on segregation among the four groups. During the 2000s, New Orleans exhibited very modest forms of residential integration. Results suggest that Non-Hispanic whites, Asians, and Hispanics exhibited some degree of “ethnic (or racial) self-selectivity” that functioned to concentrate these groups residentially, although these forces were partially overwhelmed by other forces operating at both the neighborhood and metropolitan scales. The evidence further suggests that the residential experiences among minorities were strongly impacted by the redistributive behavior of whites.

Epidemiology of Technology Use and Mental Health in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Seth W. Whiting ◽  
Rani A. Hoff
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Online Gambling ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues

Advancements in technologies and their mass-scale adoption throughout the United States create rapid changes in how people interact with the environment and each other and how they live and work. As technologies become commonplace in society through increased availability and affordability, several problems may emerge, including disparate use among groups, which creates divides in attainment of the beneficial aspects of a technology’s use and coinciding mental health issues. This chapter briefly overviews new technologies and associated emerging applications in information communication technologies, social media networks, video games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and online gambling, then examines the prevalence of use among the general population and its subgroups and further discusses potential links between mental health issues associated with each technology and implications of overuse.

Identification of Potential Freight Parking Locations in Urban Areas

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110130
Author(s):  
Glenn Vorhes ◽  
Ernest Perry ◽  
Soyoung Ahn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information System ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truck Drivers ◽  
Short List ◽  
Automated Processes ◽  
Parking Facilities ◽  
Urban Sites

Truck parking is a crucial element of the United States’ transportation system as it provides truckers with safe places to rest and stage for deliveries. Demand for truck parking spaces exceeds supply and shortages are especially common in and around urban areas. Freight operations are negatively affected as truck drivers are unable to park in logistically ideal locations. Drivers may resort to unsafe practices such as parking on ramps or in abandoned lots. This report seeks to examine the potential parking availability of vacant urban parcels by establishing a methodology to identify parcels and examining whether the identified parcels are suitable for truck parking. Previous research has demonstrated that affordable, accessible parcels are available to accommodate truck parking. When used in conjunction with other policies, adaptation of urban sites could help reduce the severity of truck parking shortages. Geographic information system parcel and roadway data were obtained for one urban area in each of the 10 Mid America Association of Transportation Officials region states. Area and proximity filters were applied followed by spectral analysis of satellite imagery to identify candidate parcels for truck parking facilities within urban areas. The automated processes created a ranked short list of potential parcels from which those best suited for truck parking could be efficiently identified for inspection by satellite imagery. This process resulted in a manageable number of parcels to be evaluated further by local knowledge metrics such as availability and cost, existing infrastructure and municipal connections, and safety.

An economy of false securities? An analysis of murders inside gated residential developments in the United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowland Atkinson ◽  
Oliver Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Residential Developments ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
Forms Of Violence

The move to gated communities has been linked to both rising affluence and anxiety. These attempts to withdraw from the perceived dangers of urban areas are also predicated on the pursuit of a neighbourhood ideal, and freedom from danger is usually central to this ideal. This paper critically reconsiders these propositions by examining news reports and media narratives surrounding the nature of homicidal violence occurring within such developments. We have analysed fifty news reports from the last decade that address murder committed inside gated communities. In our analysis of these reports we suggest that attempts to neutralise danger in high crime societies are by no means guaranteed—even via the most strenuous efforts at deploying walls, gates and guards. Building on the arguments of Low (2003) and Zedner (2003), we suggest that demands for security are not only unending but that an outward-facing orientation that positions risk outside gated neighbourhoods is a denial of the continued danger of intimate and other forms of violence within communities and households behind gates. In this context the move to enclosure is more than a pragmatic attempt to defend against threat; it appears to reflect the impotence of efforts associated with addressing deep ontological insecurities. Studies continue to record high levels of fear in gated developments, and highly gendered risks of violence continue to be a part of the social reality of the segregated neighbourhood.

The Other America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harris Beider ◽  
Kusminder Chahal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race Identity ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
The Right

Widely stereotyped as anti-immigrant, against civil-rights, or supporters of Trump and the right, can the white working class of the United States really be reduced to a singular group with similar views? This book begins with an overview of how the term “white working class” became weaponized and used as a vessel to describe people who were seen to be “deplorable.” The national narrative appears to credit (or blame) white working-class mobilization across the country for the success of Donald Trump in the 2016 US elections. Those who take this position see the white working class as being problematic in different ways: grounded in norms and behaviors that seem out of step with mainstream society; at odds with the reality of increased ethnic diversity across the country and especially in cities; blaming others for their economic plight; and disengaged from politics. Challenging populist views about the white working class in the United States, the book showcases what they really think about the defining issues in today's America—from race, identity, and change to the crucial on-the-ground debates occurring at the time of the 2016 U.S. election. As the 2020 presidential elections draw near, this is an invaluable insight into the complex views on 2016 election candidates, race, identity and cross-racial connections.

REPRESENTATION OF HISTORY: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MUSEUMS OF CONSCIENCE

2020 ◽  
pp. 116-132
Author(s):  
Tat'yana Yu. Mironova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Art Exhibitions ◽  
Holocaust Memorial ◽  
Memorial Museum ◽  
Holocaust Memorial Museum ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Historical Issues

Contemporary art more and more actively interacts with the nonartistic museums. For instance, biological, historical as well as anthropological museums become spaces for contemporary art exhibitions or initiate collaborative projects. This process seeks to link different types of materials to make the interaction successful. Thus, several questions appear: can we talk about interaction, if the museum becomes a place for the exhibition devoted to the topics of history, ethnography or biology? Does any appearance of contemporary art in the museum territory become a part of intercultural dialogue? And how do we assess and analyze the process of interaction between these two spheres? Among nonartistic museums working with contemporary art the museums of conscience appear to be one of the most interesting. This type of museums is quite new – it developed in 1990s when the International Coalition of Sites of Coscience was created and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was founded. The interaction between contemporary art and museums of conscience starts to develop in the context of changing attitudes towards historical memory as well as widening the notion of museums. In this situation museums need new instruments for educational and exhibitional work. Contemporary artists work with the past through personal memories and experience, when museums turn to documents and artifacts. So, their collaboration connects two different optics: artistic and historical. Thus, it is possible to use the Michel Foucault term dispositif to analyze the collaboration between artists and museums. Foucault defines the dispositif as a link between different elements of the system as well as optics that makes us to see and by that create the system. The term allows us to connect the questions of exhibition work with philosophical and historical issues when we analyze the projects in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Reducing Rural Car Ownership: Cultural Not Policy Changes?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma L. Rearick ◽  
Gregory L. Newmark
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multiple Regression Model ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Matched Pair ◽  
Car Ownership ◽  
Quarter Century

Automobile use is recognized as affecting public health, environmental sustainability, land use, and household expense. Car use is closely tied to car ownership rates. Most car ownership research focuses on urban areas; however, 97% of the United States’ land area and a fifth of its population remains rural. Factors that affect car ownership in these communities may be different than in more urbanized areas. This research focuses on the 2,285 counties in the continental United States that are defined as entirely rural by the guidelines established in the Agricultural Act of 2014. These counties were grouped by five multi-state regions using U.S. Census Bureau definitions. Their percentage changes in car ownership, as well as other demographic variables, over a quarter century were calculated using data from the 1990 Decennial Census and the 2014 5-Year American Community Survey. A multiple regression model was estimated for each grouping to identify counties with lower-than-expected changes in car ownership. For each grouping, one of these outlying counties was selected and matched with another county whose changes in car ownership were within expected ranges given demographic developments. Local professionals were then interviewed to identify policies possibly responsible for the difference in car ownership trends between the matched-pair counties. The interviews suggested that, contrary to expectation, transportation policies had no discernable effect on rural car ownership, but land use polices and, more often, cultural factors linked to changing populations were associated with reduced rural car ownership.

The effects of population and housing density in urban areas on income in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Daniel Hummel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing Density ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Urban Density ◽  
Urbanization Economies ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Cities in the United States have become increasingly less dense either from sprawl from rapid development or vacancy due to decline. The benefits and costs of urban density have been a topic of research since the mid-20th century. The effect of urban density on incomes is one of these areas of research. Based on concepts rooted in urbanization economies and social output, it is assumed in this paper that an increase in urban density increases incomes. Urban density is defined as population and housing density. It was found using a cross-sectional lagged mediated multiple regression that population and housing density have statistically significant indirect effects on income in a sample of more than 300 metropolitan areas in the United States. The significant effects of these variables on employment and the effect of employment on income mediated these effects.

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