scholarly journals Planning to maintain the status quo? A comparative study of digital equity plans of four large US cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Stratton
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Kansas City ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Digital Inequality ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Digital Equity ◽  
The Status ◽  
Government Planning

The term digital equity is at the forefront of municipal government planning to mitigate digital equity. Digital equity signifies a desired future to be achieved, yet its meaning is not well-established. As such, planning for digital equity offers an opportunity for new discursive construction. This study examines how municipal governments have constructed the concept of digital equity through textual evidence, the digital equity plans of Kansas City, MO, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA. Adopting an approach from critical discourse studies, comparative analysis of the texts demonstrates how digital equity plans conceive of digital equity, characterize current problematic circumstances, and prescribe actions to make change. The plans have strikingly little to say about why digital inequality has emerged, yet they prescribe actions that indicate a more complex understanding of the problem than they articulate. The dynamics of policy diffusion suggest that the work of early adopters will influence other municipalities to create similar plans. Thus, the current moment is ripe for scholars to influence municipal planning for digital equity and participate in its discursive construction in both academic research and policymaking circles.  

An empirical investigation of the influence of municipal fiscal policy on firm growth

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1825-1842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Van Cauwenberge ◽  
Peter Beyne ◽  
Heidi Vander Bauwhede
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
The Impact

Over the last decades, many countries experienced a trend towards fiscal decentralisation, with the result that municipal governments have a largely increased degree of autonomy with respect to their fiscal policy. This shift has not been matched however with a change in the focus of the academic research on the economic effects of public finance, which is still predominantly conducted at the national and regional level. In this paper, we study the impact of municipal government taxation and spending on the growth rate of firms. We explore a panel dataset which combines detailed information from the financial accounts of Flemish municipalities with the financial reports of the firms located in those municipalities. Our analysis of data from close to 70,000 firms in 308 municipalities for the period 2004–2013 indicates that municipal fiscal policy has a statistically significant effect on firm added value growth and employment growth. No statistically significant effect was found on asset growth. Overall, the economic significance of municipal fiscal policy turns out to be small and is, for instance, not able to outweigh the effects of the recent financial crisis.

A failed Roma revolution: Conflict, fragmentation and status quo maintenance in Rome

Ethnicities ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 775-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Clough Marinaro ◽  
Ulderico Daniele
Keyword(s):  
Municipal Government ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Status ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article examines novel spaces for Roma political participation that opened up under a right-wing municipal government in Rome between 2008 and 2013. Three channels were created through which Roma could engage with policy-makers and, in theory, make their voices heard: a ‘Mayor’s Delegate for Roma Issues’; a forum for debate among Roma groups and elected representatives in two official camps. Based on in-depth interviews with protagonists of this key period of mobilisation, we evaluate the successes achieved and obstacles faced. In particular, we highlight the differentiations which emerged among Roma actors, concluding that, following an initial period of enthusiasm and cohesion, most participants withdrew, achieving few of their initial goals. While the analysis demonstrates the heterogeneity of Roma groups and interests in this process, it also underlines the constraints created by the external political opportunity structure which ultimately worked to co-opt activists in order to maintain the status quo.

Noise-Making, Occupy Wall Street, and the Politics of Amplification

Resonance ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-280
Author(s):  
John Vilanova
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
The Status ◽  
Drum Circles ◽  
Acoustic Device

This research explores a set of sound technologies deployed during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City’s Zuccotti Park. It examines the People’s Microphone, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) sound cannon, the drum circle, and the noise complaint. Deepening understandings of their places within the contemporary urban soundscape and their use during the protests, it uses historical research, textual analysis, and qualitative discourse analysis methods to explore the technologies within a larger framework of the city’s discourses around (in)appropriate sound and action. Its findings suggest that each individual technology was evidence for the nature of its user in a way that presaged how the conflict would play out. The microphone epitomized the ideology (and fragility) of the hyper-democratic Occupiers’ ethos. The LRAD suggested the state’s superlative sonic capability and its “monopoly on the legitimate use of noise.” And the drum circles and noise complaints that followed ultimately showed the ways “noise-making” is better understood as a discursive construction that delegitimizes sound. Together, they suggest the ways the hegemonic soundscape serves the status quo. The essay also elaborates a taxonomy of sonic terms, specifically exploring volume, amplification, and noise-making as terms that explain the dynamics of sound during protest. It offers scholars of media activism a toolkit for sound studies that gets at the dynamics and structures of sonic power and explores the way sound-making is a key battleground of modernity. Sound conventions are a way that contemporary society is codified, legislated, and contested.

Narrative Inquiry as a Relational Methodology

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Vicki G. Mokuria ◽  
Alankrita Chhikara
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Narrative Research ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
Ways Of Being

The authors present an overview of narrative research and focus primarily on narrative inquiry, highlighting what distinguishes this approach from other research methods. Narrative inquiry allows scholars to go beyond positivism and explore how research can be conducted based on participants' stories, rather than using a purely scientific methodological approach. This research method acknowledges and honors narrative truths and provides a scholarly framework that makes space for voices often marginalized or excluded when dominant narratives and/or data hold a prominent place in a research agenda. As such, narrative inquiry can be used in academic research to challenge the status quo, thus harnessing research to stretch beyond hegemonic ways of being and knowing. The authors provide a robust overview and conceptualization of this approach, along with foundational concepts and exemplars that comprise this method of research.

Demography of the San Francisco Gartersnake in Coastal San Mateo County, California

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Halstead ◽  
Glenn D. Wylie ◽  
Melissa Amarello ◽  
Jeffrey J. Smith ◽  
Michelle E. Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Thamnophis Sirtalis ◽  
Annual Survival ◽  
Coastal Prairie ◽  
Probability Of Survival ◽  
Annual Probability ◽  
The Status ◽  
San Mateo County

Abstract The San Francisco gartersnake Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia has been federally listed as endangered since 1967, but little demographic information exists for this species. We examined the demography of a San Francisco gartersnake population on approximately 213 ha of California coastal prairie in San Mateo County, California, from 2007 to 2010. The best-supported mark–recapture model indicated annual variation in daily capture probabilities and annual survival rates. Abundance increased throughout the study period, with a mean total population from 2008 to 2010 of 443 (95% CI  =  313–646) individuals. Annual survival was slightly greater than that of most other gartersnakes, with an annual probability of survival of 0.78 (0.55–0.95) in 2008–2009 and 0.75 (0.49–0.93) in 2009–2010. Mean annual per capita recruitment rates were 0.73 (0.02–2.50) in 2008–2009 and 0.47 (0.02–1.42) in 2009–2010. From 2008 to 2010, the probability of an increase in abundance at this site was 0.873, with an estimated increase of 115 (−82 to 326) individuals. The estimated population growth rate in 2008–2009 was 1.52 (0.73–3.29) and in 2009–2010 was 1.21 (0.70–2.17). Although this population is probably stable or increasing in the short term, long-term studies of the status of the San Francisco gartersnake at other sites are required to estimate population trends and to elucidate mechanisms that promote the recovery of this charismatic member of our native herpetofauna.

scholarly journals Status of Members' Education and Training in the Co-operatives of Ilam

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-45
Author(s):  
Bhupal Krishna Thapa
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Quantitative Survey ◽  
True Path ◽  
The Status ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Dairy Cooperatives ◽  
Professional People ◽  
And Training

Cooperative is an organization run by the similar professional people for the betterment of their socio-economic uplift with common goals in the democratic way. The success or failure of any cooperative depends upon the members' role. If the members are well educated about cooperatives and have sound knowledge of their business, it is the true path to success. The present study was conducted to explore the status of cooperative member education and training to the members by the concerned cooperative in Ilam, Nepal. The nature of the study was quantitative survey method. There were 226 cooperative members from three types of cooperatives: Savings and Credit, Tea, and Dairy cooperatives. The present study showed that the majority of the members were deprived of their basic rights of getting cooperative members’ education and training from their concerned cooperatives. Thus, the study recommends that cooperatives must requested to provide their members with education and business oriented training.Journal of Advanced Academic Research Vol.1(1) 2014: 43-45

The Non-Randomness of Municipal Government Reorganization: Evidence From Village Dissolution in New York

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 914-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengju Zhang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Fiscal Health ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Survey Sample

Municipal government dissolution used to be a rare occurrence in American history and has thus far received little attention in the literature. More than 300 of municipal governments, however, have dissolved since the mid-1990s. To understand this emerging momentum in practice and to fill the gap in literature, this article focuses on the increasing trend of village dissolution in New York, builds an analytical framework, and investigates the driving forces behind the possibility of dissolution, which is measured either by the presence of any dissolution-related activity or by the passage of a dissolution referendum. Based on a representative survey sample and a rich set of secondary data, this article consistently finds that dissolution does not randomly occur. Rather, dissolution is more likely to be considered and approved in a village where the economy struggles, the population declines, political trust undermines, and fiscal health deteriorates. In other words, the research suggests dissolution may not be as appealing or take place in economically strong and politically dynamic areas.

Mobile phones and inequality: Findings, trends, and future directions

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 3498-3520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Marler
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Socioeconomic Disparities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Safety Device ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Digital Inequality ◽  
The Status ◽  
User Motivation

Smartphones are more prevalent than computers in the digital age, particularly in poor and minority communities. Is it the effect to reduce or perpetuate socioeconomic disparities? This article reviews two decades of research investigating whether mobile phones contribute to enhancing the status of disadvantaged populations. Conclusions on the nature and extent of the mobile effect vary across areas of inquiry, including digital inequality, social networks, and coordination and mobility. Advantages accrue in particular areas, such as strengthening core ties, promoting particular Internet activities, and enhancing daily coordination and safety. Device limitations and structural inequalities overwhelm the mobile effect in many arenas, though new conditions emerge with changes in mobile technology and digital habits. Future research will benefit from closer attention to how mobile affordances, user motivation and habituation, popular mobile uses, and the particular conditions of disadvantage shape outcomes for marginalized populations.

scholarly journals Integration in health: cooperation at triple international border Amazon

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Giane Zupellari dos Santos-Melo ◽  
Selma Regina de Andrade ◽  
Betina Hörner Schlindwein Meirelles ◽  
Angela Maria Blatt Ortiga
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Health Council ◽  
International Border ◽  
Health Cooperation ◽  
Municipal Health

OBJECTIVE: To describe the scope and limitations of the main strategies of cooperation in health, adopted between 2005 and 2017, in the context of the triple border Brazil, Colombia and Peru. METHOD: Single, explanatory, qualitative, integrated case study carried out in 2017, in the context of the triple Amazon border, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, in the city of Tabatinga, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Our sources of evidence were: documentary data; interviews with health managers of the State Health Secretariats of Amazonas and Municipal Health of Tabatinga, Municipal Health Council of Tabatinga and Consulate of Peru in Colombia; and direct observations in four health services of Tabatinga. Data were organized with MaxQDA12® software. RESULTS: Data analyzed showed that, during the study period, the Brazilian federal government made several health cooperation agreements with both Peru and Colombia and that the state government of Amazonas undertook strategies to improve the health conditions of the dwellers of Tabatinga and the region of Alto Solimões, which indirectly reached the populations of neighboring countries, supporting the interrelationships between the countries of the region. Regarding the municipal government, we verified the existence of health integration agreements, established informally, to minimize the adversities of the local health. CONCLUSION: The cooperation strategies in health adopted in the triple Amazon border have different purposes, benefits and limitations. It is noteworthy that the existence of cooperation agreements between the federal governments of Brazil, Colombia and Peru and the presence of informal cooperation agreements between the municipal governments of Tabatinga (Brazil), Leticia (Colombia) and Santa Rosa (Peru). The limitations of this study are the lack of knowledge of local managers about the cooperation agreements established between federal governments and the lack of legitimacy of the informal agreements established by the Tabatinga government.

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