The use of "participatory research" and "participation" to promote the empowerment of the poor and marginalised began in the 1970s and gained momentum in the early 1980s. The approach builds on the "learning for change" paradigm in which everyday experience is the basis for developing agency, and committing to and…

This article explores the pedagogical implications of students' embodied and emotional reactions to difficult course material inside and outside of the classroom. Scholarship on teaching typically focuses on dimensions of students' cognitive engagement and development, yet geographical coursework often involves emotionally fraught topics:…

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors of its 22 member Task Force on Joblessness on Hunger to determine the current status of hunger in cities revealed the following facts among others: (1) Despite 15 months of economic recovery, the problem of hunger has grown and is expected to increase over the next year; (2) Two-thirds of the cities…

This paper examines trends that have contributed to the changing awareness and understanding of poverty and community in the United States. It also describes and comments on the recent amalgam of place-based and people-based approaches known as comprehensive community initiatives (CCIs) and community building that have grown up as a result of the…

This brief essay outlines the progression over the last 20 years of ecological theories of interpersonal violence. The period between the present and the early 1980s began with a revival of cultural explanations of violence that paralleled the introduction of the neo-conservative social science and then witnessed a rediscovery of deficits-based…

Ghetto residents liken their communities to prisons as they comment on America's political, economic, and legal systems. (DM)

Despite stubborn problems, urbanologist sees steady improvement in city conditions. (Editor)

Describes the need to broaden the civil rights agenda to deal more effectively with issues faced by the Hispanic community. Discusses the need for a continuing governmental role in addressing urban problems. (MW)

Explores the ironies of urban reform faced by social scientists and other elite professional reformers that resulted from the clash of two American values (science and democracy), focusing on the Mobilization for Youth program. Reveals the inherent conflict between the utilization of highly credentialed experts in the enhancement of mass-scale…

A range of hypotheses of varying specificity is examined in this paper in an attempt to account for the location of racial disorders. The initial sections consider what general assumptions must be met by any satisfactory explanation of the distribution of disorders. Mathematical models are constructed which embody the most prevalent assumptions as…

Case study focuses on Omaha, Nebraska, between the years of 1880 and 1920, where closer examination of ethnic residential patterns have established that around the turn of the century, clustering of national groups did not exist in degrees as strong as assumptions about the American ghetto'' suggest. (RJ)

Downtown developments have saved some cities from collapse but don't make up for the loss of federal funds, nor do they provide jobs or housing suitable for most inner city residents. Nothing, however, has hurt the inner cities more than drug use. (DM)

The widening disparity between wealth and poverty is the major obstacle to racial conciliation in the United States. Organized labor is the most important vehicle for challenging the widening gap between rich and poor to work for racial and economic justice. (SLD)

Reviewed herein are the ideas of nine men who have addressed themselves to the problems of human settlements in this century. The ideas reviewed include those of Arnold Toynbee, Lewis Mumford, Hassan Fathy, Buckminster Fuller, Constantinos Doxiadis, Charles Correa, Paul Mwaluko, Robert McNamara and John F. C. Turner. (BT)