scholarly journals Informal, Inquisitorial, and Accurate: An Empirical Look at a Problem-Solving Housing Court

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (04) ◽  
pp. 1058-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica K. Steinberg

Substantive justice is often seen as elusive in courts dominated by low-income individuals. Complex court rules, coupled with pervasive lack of counsel, can make it difficult for the traditional adversary process to identify and redress legitimate grievances. This article takes on the social problem of substandard housing and examines whether inquisitorial procedure has the potential to produce accurate outcomes in a tribunal dominated by the unrepresented. Relying on in-court observations of nearly 300 hearings, and a longitudinal review of nearly seventy-five cases, this article surfaces the regularized procedures utilized by a purported “problem-solving” housing court, and theorizes that the inquisitorial features of judicially controlled investigation and enforcement may motivate landlords to repair substantiated housing code violations. This article adds nuance to our understanding of informal justice by identifying the hidden procedural formalisms that may guide alternative decision-making processes. Furthermore, it evaluates the relationship of one iteration of experimental formalism to substantive justice, and suggests that inquisitorial procedures may be correlated with improved accuracy in case outcomes.

Author(s):  
Alford A. Young

This article examines how the street has become a point of reference in scholarly and public discussions of the behavior of low-income African American men living in urban communities. It begins with a discussion of how the street has attained such an overriding centrality in the cultural analyses of low-income, urban-based African American men in public space, especially in the formation of images and understandings about them. It then considers how and why African American men have come to be viewed as a frighteningly disturbing presence on the street because of the social power they are assumed to have in affecting the actions and lives of others who make use of the streets. It also looks at various frameworks for the cultural analysis of African American men and concludes by arguing that the street has been both overdetermined and incompletely theorized in terms of its significance for cultural analysis.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana de Souza e Silva ◽  
Daniel M. Sutko ◽  
Fernando A. Salis ◽  
Claudio de Souza e Silva

This qualitative case study describes the social appropriation of mobile phones among low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) by asking how favela (slum) residents appropriate cell phones. Findings highlight the difficulty these populations encounter in acquiring and using cell phones due to social and economic factors, and the consequent subversive or illegal tactics used to gain access to such technology. Moreover, these tactics are embedded in and exemplars of the cyclic power relationships between high-and low-income populations that constitute the unique use of mobile technologies in these Brazilian slums. The article concludes by suggesting that future research on technology in low-income communities focus instead on the relationship of people to technology rather than a dichotomization of their access or lack thereof.


The purpose of this research was to examine the level of community child center help service influence to children in low-income with regards to their problem solving ability and to measure the relationship of its effect to the child’s self-esteem. This research used a nationwide surveyed data of community child center surveyed by Panel Study on Korean Children and was analyzed using a structural modeling. The survey was conducted in 2016 from July to August, survey questionnaires were sent to different community child center nationwide, the subjects were elementary 4th graders, and survey garnered 662 respondents. All this analysis were done using SPSS ver.21 and AMOS ver.21 program. The research results were the following. First, it shows that the higher the level of community child center help service to children in low-income the child’s problem solving ability goes high. Second, as the community child center help service increases the child’s self-esteem increases as well. Third, it shows that as self-esteem increases the problem solving ability goes high. Fourth, it also shows that the relationship of the effect between community child center help service to child in low-income and problem solving ability were statistically significant both total and indirect effect. Furthermore, it shows that relationship of community child center help service to child in low-income and problem solving ability has a mediating effect to child self-esteem. Base on this result, we propose that a better convergence of intervention and practical strategy must be impost to continue the betterment of child in low-income’s problem solving abilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 936
Author(s):  
Flavio Santino Bizarrias ◽  
Suzanne Strehlau ◽  
Marcelo Moll Brandão

The value of luxury is a multidimensional construct that assesses how consumers consider the various dimensions of luxury in their consumption relations. The consumption of luxury is not a trivial activity for most people, but brings a certain fascination and is part of the imaginary of the lower classes in emerging markets. The social identity of these consumers is changing because they aspire a new social position. But luxury consumption hurts the standards of this consumer profile. At the same time the self esteem is observed as an important element of people self-confirmation. For consumers, specifically, self-esteem is an important antecedent of consumption decisions. A sample of low income students was analyzed in this study to describe their relationship with luxury, and its influence on self-esteem when moderated by brand expressiveness. Through structural equation modeling this study found that the expression of the brand moderates the relationship of the value of luxury with self-esteem, allowing consumers of lower classes to observe a significant role of luxury in their lives.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Preslava Dimitrova

The social policy of a country is a set of specific activities aimed at regulating the social relations between different in their social status subjects. This approach to clarifying social policy is also called functional and essentially addresses social policy as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality in society. It provides an opportunity to look for inequalities in the economic positions of individuals in relation to ownership, labor and working conditions, distribution of income and consumption, social security and health, to look for the sources of these inequalities and their social justification or undue application.The modern state takes on social functions that seek to regulate imbalances, to protect weak social positions and prevent the disintegration of the social system. It regulates the processes in society by harmonizing interests and opposing marginalization. Every modern country develops social activities that reflect the specifics of a particular society, correspond to its economic, political and cultural status. They are the result of political decisions aimed at directing and regulating the process of adaptation of the national society to the transformations of the market environment. Social policy is at the heart of the development and governance of each country. Despite the fact that too many factors and problems affect it, it largely determines the physical and mental state of the population as well as the relationships and interrelationships between people. On the other hand, social policy allows for a more global study and solving of vital social problems of civil society. On the basis of the programs and actions of political parties and state bodies, the guidelines for the development of society are outlined. Social policy should be seen as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality between different individuals and social groups in society. Its importance is determined by the possibility of establishing on the basis of the complex approach: the economic positions of the different social groups and individuals, by determining the differences between them in terms of income, consumption, working conditions, health, etc .; to explain the causes of inequality; to look for concrete and specific measures to overcome the emerging social disparities.


Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Marianna Charitonidou

Takis Zenetos was enthusiastic about the idea of working from home, and believed that both architecture and urban planning should be reshaped in order to respond to this. He supported the design of special public spaces in residential units, aiming to accommodate the inhabitants during working hours. This article argues that Zenetos’s design for “Electronic Urbanism” was more prophetic, and more pragmatic, than his peers such as Archigram and Constant Nieuwenhuys. Despite the fact that they shared an optimism towards technological developments and megastructure, a main difference between Zenetos’s view and the perspectives of his peers is his rejection of a generalised enthusiasm concerning increasing mobility of people. In opposition with Archigram, Zenetos insisted in minimizing citizens’ mobility and supported the replacement of daily transport with the use advanced information technologies, using terms such as “tele-activity”. Zenetos was convinced that “Electronic Urbanism” would help citizens save the time that they normally used to commute to work, and would allow them to spend this time on more creative activities, at or near their homes. The main interest of “Electronic Urbanism” lies in the fact that it not only constitutes an artistic contribution to experimental architecture, but is also characterized by a new social vision, promising to resynchronize practices of daily life. An aspect that is also examined is the relationship of Zenetos’s ideas and those of the so-called Metabolists in the 1960s in Japan, including Kenzo Tange’s conception of megastructures. Zenetos’s thought is very topical considering the ongoing debates about the advanced information society, especially regarding the social concerns of surveillance, governance, and sovereignty within the context of Big Data. His conception of “tele-activities” provides a fertile terrain for reflecting on potential implications and insights concerning home-office conditions not only within the context of the current pandemic situation but beyond it as well.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-51
Author(s):  
Simran Kaur Madan ◽  
Payal S. Kapoor

The research, based on uses and gratifications theory, identifies consumer motivation and factors that influence consumers' intention to follow brands on the social media platform of Instagram. Accordingly, this study empirically examines the role of need for self-enhancement, the need for entertainment, and deal-seeking behaviour on the intention to follow brands on Instagram. Further, the study investigates the mediation of social media usage behaviour for consumption decisions on eliciting brand following behaviour. Moderation of consumer skepticism on the relationship of deal-seeking behaviour, and intention to follow brands is also investigated. Findings reveal a significant direct effect of need for self-enhancement, need for entertainment, and deal-seeking behaviour on intention to follow brands. Indirect effect of social media usage behaviour for consumption decisions was also significant; however, moderation of consumer skepticism was not found to be significant. The study will help marketers create engaging content that enables consumer-brand interactions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-165
Author(s):  
Khekheti Makhudu

Having written and compiled from memory, over 700 Setswana proverbs when he was briefly resident in London, around the 1900s, Sol T. Plaatje exhibited unusual ethnographic knowledge and remarkable, creative translation skills in diaspora-like circumstances.  While most literary researchers attest to those achievements, few have been the theories that account sufficiently for Plaatje's multilingual proverb renditions. The view propounded here is that Plaatje's paremiological enterprise was probably never only an exercise of his polyglot abilities. Rather his quest appears to have been to assert the cultural similarities and convergences between African and European people's histories.  His socio-political beliefs propelled deep pride over his Setswana identity and became the driving force for highlighting the human bonds among nations of the North and the South. For Plaatje, seeing the overlaps and equivalences in and through the proverbs of the Dutch, English, French, Germans and the Batswana peoples, firstly validated orality as the bedrock of modern literary expression.  Secondly, the relationship of the two seemed to recapitulate the communicative connections among people and their languages, across time and space. Lastly, the paper makes the point that Plaatje's search for unity in the cultural diversity as exhibited in his 1916 Diane tsa Setswana collection and the 1924 A Sechuana Reader stories, provides instructive lessons that present-day South Africa would ill afford to ignore considering the social cohesion challenges the nation faces.


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