This article's authors offer an organizational framework for an economics capstone course focused on analyzing current public economic policy issues. In this course, thesis topics often include public issues such as city planning, health care, transportation, education, law, the environment, and monetary and fiscal policies. The authors provide…

Background: Exposure to nature may be particularly beneficial for the brain regions that support spatial working memory, a strong correlate of academic achievement. Aims: To explore whether children living in greener neighbourhoods (wards) have better spatial working memory. Sample: Drawn from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, the sample was 4,758…

The United Nations estimates that by 2050, more than 66% of the world's population will live in urban areas. In the face of continuing urbanization, how will communities meet the fundamental need for good food? What kinds of public policies, structures, and systems will ensure equitable and just access to food? We argue that urban universities…

This report focuses on systems thinking and its place in education transformation. It reflects on key published literature and on specific outputs from the Education Development Trust's own programme of research. The report offers an overview of the evolution of systems thinking and the relevance for policymakers and practitioners as they tackle…

The article highlights recent food policies in Chicago with the goal of exploring how higher education institutions can contribute to development of sustainable food resources for residents of North American cities. Thousands of Chicago residents face daily challenges accessing fresh food due to income constraints and/or lack of proximity to food…

In spite of decades of use of agent-based modelling in social policy research and in educational contexts, very little work has been done on combining the two. This paper accounts for a proof-of-concept single case-study conducted in a college-level Social Policy course, using agent-based modelling to teach students about the social and human…

Location-based social networks (LBSNs) have recently attracted the interest of millions of users who can now not only connect and interact with their friends--as it also happens in traditional online social networks--but can also voluntarily share their whereabouts in real time. A location database is the backbone of a location-based social…

Quality of urban life (QOUL) has become an important field within urban studies. The increased level of attention to this topic is due to the increasing importance of QoL studies in monitoring public policies and in the role they can play as effective tools in urban management and planning. The main objective of this study is to measure the QOUL…

Suggests changes that are needed in order to successfully face urban problems including the formulation of policies on policy-making" and the need to improve education on policy-making approaches. (AA)

The evolution of contemporary cities into solar cities will be affected by the decisions of countless specialists according to an established intellectual and professional division of labor. These specialists belong to groups responsible for advancing and applying a body of knowledge, and jointly, these bodies of knowledge make up a knowledge…

Presents a framework for formulating urbanization policies and discusses the application of this paradigm in the context of Islamic ideology. Operationalization of the framework is developed as a five-step sequence. (Author/WB)

This report describes the process of drawing up a national urban policy, summarizes the views presented at various forums, and sketches much of the data and analyses relied upon by urban policymakers. Part I summarizes the process of American urbanization leading to the emergence of a new stage in urban development. Part II describes changing…

The County Planner's Manual is part of a set of 21 manuals (AA 001 009-001 029) used in APEX (Air Pollution Exercise), a computerized college and professional level "real world" game simulation of a community with urban and rural problems, industrial activities, and air pollution difficulties. The first two sections, which are the same…

The objectives of this phase, Phase 2, of the Schools and Neighborhoods Research Study were designed to yield research that would lead to action. The overall goal of improving communication and cooperation between the city, school district, and Seattle citizens was the basic consideration. The following were the objectives of this phase: to…