Interview with Roger Hart recounts discussions with the environmental psychologist on his childhood influences related to gardening and geography, his studies of children's understanding of the physical environment, and his current work involved with identifying ways to create environmental opportunities for children. Also notes his work with…

Explores an effort by Colgate University (New York) to enhance economic development in two low-income hamlets in New York through community-visioning programs. Describes the process of community visioning and shows how Colgate has been instrumental in its promotion. Argues that universities are better situated than governments or nonprofits to…

Discusses two areas central to the development mission of the University of Massachusetts (Lowell): (1) restructuring activities for a transformative effect on the regional economy while maintaining academic standards, and (2) who should be involved in these decisions. Reviews projects undertaken by the university under a community-outreach…

Presents a case study of the Campus Affiliates Program, a collaborative venture designed to revitalize the most severely impoverished sectors of New Orleans (Louisiana). Focuses on processes that created the program; organizing principles; obstacles encountered; and impacts of the program on faculty, students, staff, and institutions. (DSK)

Explores why service-learning students have only rarely been engaged directly as neighborhood organizers, then employs John Dewey's understanding of democracy to analyze one program which has succeeded in making widespread use of college students as front-line organizers. Describes how the complementarity between what students do at their…

Examines Detroit's economic development policy-making culture and assesses its impact on the formation of the community development corporation (CDC) network that dominated Empowerment Zone (EZ) planning in the initial stages. Analyzes the importance of distrust between City Hall, business interests, and community residents in consolidating CDC…

Examines the ritualistic nature of community art, distinguishing elements and qualities essential for it to effectively generate private, organic relationships in settings where public independent relationships prevail. Research on two community art projects indicates that community art provides a ritual framework for social interaction by…

High school, undergraduate, and graduate students conducted ethnographic research on the quality of older adults' environments through service learning and community development projects. Students gained understanding of elders' daily experiences as well as knowledge of research methods. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)

This paper examines the influence of community attachment on voluntary citizen participation in rural community improvement projects. We do so by modifying the original systemic model of community attachment (Kasarda and Janowitz 1974) and combining it with tenets of rational choice and social embeddedness theories. The modified model is then…

Shared values, capacity building and a powerful focus upon learning and leadership (at all levels) would be inter-related elements of many consultants' recipe for school and community regeneration. Add to that collective alignment around core purposes, enquiry processes and collaborative working norms, and you have a powerful combination of…

One of the Millennium Development Goals declared by the United Nations in 2000 was to reduce by half the population of people living in extreme poverty, by 2015. Adult education can and should contribute significantly to this development goal. Nevertheless it has hardly been explored so far in the national Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers. In…

The "CURA Reporter" is published quarterly to provide information about the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), an all-University applied research and technical assistance center at the University of Minnesota that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public…

This article shares critical reflections on cultivating community partnerships through arts education and provides an analytical framework for community building. It is argued that increasing access to arts education requires attention be paid not only to content issues in arts education, but, also, to holistic approaches that address the contexts…

This article challenges social (dis)organization theory by investigating the impact of religious culture on civic engagement. Using qualitative data from 'Bridge View,' a historically African-American neighborhood in San Francisco experiencing environmental racism, this article asks: (1) How does the Nation of Islam (NOI) affect social…

This article is a historical case study of George Fox University (GFU) in Newberg, Oregon. Using organizational lifecycle as a theoretical framework, George Fox University had a long and delayed childhood in that it remained a small and struggling institution for most of the 20th century, and then experienced rapid growth in the late 1980s. This…