Young people's engagement with urban public space has been facing a number of obstacles that reflect a lack of understanding of their needs, values and priorities. The emergence of digital devices and social media as integral elements of youth culture adds further urgency to the need to understand how young people themselves visually articulate…

Drawing on our experience teaching a 2-week field-based geography course on urban environmental issues, we reinforce the value of field-based experiential education (EE) especially as it faces growing threats. We show how such experience can enable students to understand the diversity of urban environmental challenges in situ; grasp cities as…

Examines public housing as a dynamic communication environment. Explores the role of communication in the construction of public perceptions and community identity as it functions in this highly stigma-laden locale. Examines the process of socially constructed meaning for insiders and outsiders within the context of this unique and problem-ridden…

Presents survey data indicating that residence in urban areas is not correlated with distrust of neighbors but is correlated with distrust of other people in the wider community. (Author/MK)

Recent studies have produced conflicting findings about the impacts of local nonresidential land uses on perceived incivilities. This study advances work in this area by developing a land-use perspective theoretically grounded in Brantingham and Brantingham's geometry of crime model in environmental criminology. That focus directs attention to…

Offers a communicative, dialogic approach to studying urban historic districts. Focuses on several contemporary conflicts concerning the meaning of "community" in Ybor City, a national landmark historic district in Tampa, Florida, to reveal how people actively occupy, struggle over, and use such urban spaces. (SR)

This paper briefly discusses three studies aimed at exploring the overload hypothesis posited by Stanley Milgram. That hypothesis suggests that impoverished social interaction in the city is an adaptation to overload of interpersonal contacts. The three studies examine various aspects of the phenomenon using different methodologies. Comparing city…

Twenty-four black parents from Houston were interviewed for their perspectives on nature and environmental education. Four overarching questions addressed the importance of nature, environmental concerns, environmental practices, and views toward environmental education for their children. Parents spoke of commitment to environmental issues and…

This paper argues that a re-examination of current goals and methodologies and modifications to management practices are necessary if urban water crises are to be minimized. Three problem areas are focused on: (1) the projection of demand and the estimation of supply; (2) the alternatives for balancing demand and supply; and (3) the management of…

This study examines several genres of Nuyorican literature (works by and about Puerto Ricans in New York) in an effort to demonstrate how authors interpret the political and social contexts of their environment. Works analyzed are the dramas "Short Eyes" and "The Sun Always Shines for the Cool" by Miguel Pinero and "Noo…

A study of fatal and nonfatal interpersonal violence-related injuries over one year in a poor African-American community in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) reveals that violence-related injury is the most common injury type for persons aged 15-49 years. Results yield dramatic evidence of the extent of urban violence for adults and children. (SLD)

Discusses ongoing longitudinal study of members of three SES groups in a high density metropolitan area in Nigeria to determine the impact of rural to urban migration on the provision of housing, health care, and employment opportunities. (FMW)

Describes the relationships between immigrants and established residents in one community in Philadelphia that is being affected by economic restructuring and suburbanization of wealth. A paradigm of host-guest relationship has emerged as established residents attempt to assert social control over newcomers with often higher educational levels and…

Investigates variables associated with posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents in a metropolitan area. Comparisons were made with regard to gender, ethnicity, family constellation, self-reported exposure to violence, self-reported exposure to trauma, and incidence of violent crime in the vicinity of school attendance. Revealed minority males…

Studies firearms behaviors among 835 criminally active male, mostly urban, youth and 1,653 male and female innercity high school students in 4 states. It is evident that the large urban environment encourages youth to be armed and that enforcement activities alone will not be enough to alleviate the problem. (SLD)