Presents a model developed from seven interrelated social factors to help diagnose various kinds of community conflicts. To verify the model and illustrate its utility, the standoff over the Berm Highway routing in Alton, Illinois, is analyzed. Findings suggest the importance of broadening the participants' definition of the situation through more…

The mainstream economy and culture are unable to compete with the money, respect, and identity that selling crack offers. The infiltration of organized crime and narco-dollars into the local economy, the inadequacy of entry-level wages, and the breakdown of basic public services have created a new kind of poverty. (CJS)

Explores the failure of market and political solutions to a common civic problem: a shortage of winter parking spaces. Narrow self-interest and a lack of community mindedness are seen as sources of this civic problem. (JDH)

Provides a brief background of the new town development in England during the past 20 years, describes the problems caused by lack of community identity and employment in the new town of Skelmersdale, and discusses the role of the library and its services in the new town setting. (JD)

Advocates sending news reporting students off campus and into the community to expand their horizons, interests, courage, and possibilities. Describes the use of such experiential learning in a broadcast reporting class, where students left the cameras at home as they experienced the police or social services sector, and wrote an in-depth story…

This statement of the Safer Society Foundation is designed to assist states considering public notification when convicted sex offenders are released to the community. It considers the impact of public notification on the greater community, including citizens, families, victims, and offenders. (DB)

Four types of theatre uses in adult education are theatre for education, for development, for conscientization, and popular theatre. The latter involves a group's interpretive study of its own social, economic, cultural, and political conditions, leading to collective action. (SK)

Reviews the different contributions the study of the U. S. Constitution can make to public administration courses. Maintains that such study may force students to a deeper appreciation of the United States political community, ultimately strengthening their thinking on future practical problems in public administration. (JDH)

Describes what goes on in teenage hangouts and why hangouts are important in providing a social meeting place for teenagers. Discusses physical features that make hangouts attractive, how small communities can effectively manage teenage hangouts, and how teenage hangouts encourage social development including developing a sense of community. (LP)

Community involvement too often becomes a patronising, paternalistic process designed and delivered by professionals to control rather than enable and empower. What alternatives are there? Pat Thomson argues that within the international radical tradition we have some important answers and urges us to draw once again on the work of people like…

Discusses how conversation about AIDS affects the possibilities of developing a Christian sexual ethic. Examines how the AIDS crisis influences and directs discourse about sex and sexuality, arguing that although safe sex is a legitimate public health concern, it is not the same as a Christian sexual ethic. (GEA)

Offers theses to encourage search for community in the changing countryside: because of its influence on social well-being, the community is alive; rural areas present special community development advantages/problems; strategies must address sources of rural problems in larger society; rural sociology can specify/measure parameters of rural…

Using video to communicate between two opposing groups lets each side work through the issue's emotional aspects and outlines possible solutions. (Author/JOW)

Effective communities are well-educated about themselves, have a better understanding of public information, talk through public issues to generate shared knowledge, appreciate the difference between public opinion and public judgment, and believe in public leadership as the key to using public power to solve community problems. (SK)

Discusses the use of simulation games in the development of social theory. Topics discussed include microsociological and macrosociological theory; the influence process in a game of community conflict; self-esteem in a high school social system game; and collective decisions and a theory of exchange of control over events. (LRW)