Living Through Decline: Resident Perceptions of Change Within Cleveland’s Urban Neighborhoods

Despite the vast amount of research focused on neighborhoods within the environmental gerontology, very little attention has been paid to learning how older residents make sense of and describe the changes that have occurred within their communities over the course of their lives. The purpose of this study was to provide a space for residents to tell their stories of what it was like to live through neighborhood decline within Cleveland. Older adults are an ideal group for examining perceptions of neighborhood decline as they have the perspective to address both the historical changes of their neighborhood and the biographical changes of their lives. This study utilized data from 4 years of ethnographic observations with over 30 older (age 60+), African-American adults who have aged in place within Cleveland since their childhood. Additionally, multiple in-depth life history interviews were conducted with 13 long-term residents. Data was analyzed using grounded theory techniques for emergent themes. While each resident had their own unique perspective of neighborhood change, common themes emerged related to 1) institutional decline, 2) changes in safety and crime and 3) changes to the people living in their communities. The findings suggest that resident perceptions can help us better understand how neighborhood dynamics work their way into the lives of long-term residents. The results are particularly important as they provide the foundation for exploring how residents responded to neighborhood decline and why residents remained within their neighborhoods when so many others left.

India Tomorrow

The next generation of political leaders will determine India’s future. We know their names, but not what lies behind what we hear or see in the event/news-focussed coverage in newspapers and television channels. For instance, what moves them? Who inspires them? What are their passions and interests outside of politics? Where do they stand on some of India’s most contentious political issues? Do they have any regrets about their political careers? How do they explain some of the inconsistencies in their words and actions? Have their career choices come with significant personal costs? We set out to write a book that would give readers a snapshot of contemporary Indian politics, and its future, through the stories of 20 of the country’s most prominent next-generation politicians, each of whom we would interview in person. The goal was simple—to understand their personalities and ideologies, and offer readers unique insights. This book does not focus much on the quotidian aspects of politics but rather attempts to unravel the personalities, aspirations, ideologies, interests, passions, and motivations of the leaders featured. In doing so, it explores issues and tensions that lie at the heart of contemporary India’s politics, including but not limited to divisions of caste and religion, institutional decline, federalism, and centre–state relations, integration of Jammu & Kashmir, dynastic politics, and women empowerment.

The Fate of International Monetary Systems: How and Why They Fall Apart

The collapses of the interwar and Bretton Woods monetary regimes have been understood as evidence that international monetary regimes fail when sudden economic shocks destabilize the political coalitions or shared ideas underpinning them. But while these histories are important, other monetary regimes, such as the Sterling Area and Latin Union, disintegrated over long periods of time. If exogenous shocks do not account for varied patterns of destabilization, what does? Using the tools of comparative-historical analysis, I argue that these patterns are the result of strategic choices made by hegemonic powers, choices that are in turn governed by the historical-structural foundations of regimes. From these foundations emerge alternative leadership strategies and membership behaviors responsible for endogenous macro-institutional effects that drive the observed regime trajectories. Regime leaders may establish visibly unequal collective arrangements that maintain their positions but leave a system vulnerable to overt internal resistance and sudden breakdown. Or leaders may reject collective arrangements in order to secretly discriminate among members, slowly building dysfunction into a system, driving its gradual abandonment by members and institutional decline. The analysis both suggests that more equal state power may improve long-run regime performance, and also locates structural vulnerabilities in contemporary regimes.

Evaluating the impact of Bill 101 on the English-speaking communities of Quebec

Though forty years of language policies much improved the status and use of French in Quebec, laws such as Bill 101 played a role in reducing the demographic and institutional vitality of the English-speaking communities of Quebec (ESCQ). Pro-French laws maintained Francophones at close to 80% of the Quebec population and ensured that 95% of the Quebec population acquired knowledge of French. Language laws contributed to the decline of Anglophone mother tongue speakers from 13% of the population in 1971 to 7.5% in 2016, while increasing to 70% French/English bilingualism amongst Anglophones. With a net interprovincial loss of over 310,000 Anglophones who left Quebec for the rest of Canada (ROC), results show that Anglophones who stayed in Quebec are less educated and earn lower income than Quebec Francophones. Language laws limiting access to English schools succeeded in reducing the size of the English school system from 256, 251 pupils in 1971 (100%) to only 96,235 pupils in 2018 (37%). While the Anglophone minority bemoan their demographic and institutional decline in education, health care, and government services, many Francophones remains concerned about threats to French by bilingualism in Montreal and their minority status in Canada and North America.

The Folklore of Deinstitutionalization: Popular Film and the Death of the Asylum, 1973–1979

The demise of America's state mental hospital system, or “deinstitutionalization,” has received much attention from sociologists and historians of medicine. Less understood is the manner in which the public experienced and came to terms with it. Using elements of folklore and horror studies, I will examine how popular films accommodated audiences to institutional decline and confirmed popular antistatist pessimism. The Exorcist (1973), One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Halloween (1978), and When a Stranger Calls (1979) helped weave a tapestry of distrust. By endorsing popular conceptions of institutional failure and presenting mythical narratives of individualist triumph, these films helped pave a path towards the conservative Reagan era to come.

Can a Civilisation Know Its Own Institutional Decline?

This chapter asks if current indicators of low trust and moral decay in Europe can be better traced to facts than similar perceptions on record from the Western Roman Empire during its decline. The answer is provided by complementing individual-level analysis of corruption survey data with national-level data, using three novel fact-based indicators. The findings provide a general validation of public perception by more objective indicators. Most individuals seem to report what they observe and experience, uninfluenced by media or social status, so these negative perceptions are likely to reflect the overall practices that people observe as well as the integrity policy framework. The chapter argues that public perception does not need direct evidence to have objective evidence, and indirect indicators offer sufficient grounds for the perception of corruption and decaying standards. Nevertheless, the chapter also shows that objectivity is uneven across respondents of a survey.