Examines the role that historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played and continue to play in economic development, how these institutions have contributed to the cultural empowerment of African Americans, and the various ways that HBCUs have bridged the gap between the two to make a contribution to African Americans specifically…

This paper is a selective review of recent publications, focused on the economic value of public and special libraries which are treated separately, since context and organisational objectives differ widely for different types of libraries. Those who wish to further explore this topic will find many studies into the social value of libraries which…

In Canada and elsewhere around the world, Indigenous Peoples are struggling to rebuild their "nations" and improve the socioeconomic circumstances of their people. Many see economic development as the key to success. Recognizing the challenges they face in attempting to compete in the global economy on their own terms, Indigenous people…

The roles of universities have evolved over the last twenty years. Universities were once regarded as focusing on two key roles--teaching and research--which were exogenous to, and independent from, specific economic and social development imperatives. Today, it is increasingly recognised that universities perform important roles as enablers, even…

The social, economic and political systems of former communist countries have faced considerable changes since the late 1980s. Most countries in Eastern and Central Europe have undergone their own individual brand of transition from a centrally planned, command system to a more or less liberalized, Western-style market economy. Many observers…

Routes to economic development attract considerable attention in community and rural sociology. Social scientists draw increasingly on studies of social capital and environmental surroundings as they examine the factors that facilitate and inhibit economic development. However, few empirical analyses exist that analyze the impact of the…

Political-economic sociologists have long investigated the dynamics and consequences of international trade. With few exceptions, this area of inquiry ignores the possible connections between trade and environmental degradation. In contrast, environmental sociologists have made several assumptions about the environmental impacts of international…

When the author decided to start a college for cartoonists in Vermont, he knew he would be tapping into an unprecedented excitement about graphic novels in the literary, publishing and art worlds. What he did not know was that he would also be tapping into the energy swirling around New England's so-called "Creative Economy," which…

This article describes the contract signing of a cooperation proposal between Shanghai and Suzhou, and between Shanghai and Zhejiang to build a "Yangzi delta" cooperative system that would mutually benefit the three cities. The contract signing was carried out to push ahead the sharing of education resources in the Yangzi delta, to…

While working on the development of literacy in Portugal and comparing it with other European societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, I not only saw how late Portugal had been in achieving this process, but also how inaccurate the available numbers about it were. I decided that as part of securing a better understanding of the…

As accountability pressures have increased on community colleges, they have been challenged to demonstrate their value to the communities they serve. One role commonly included in community colleges' mission statements in Tennessee and nationally is support of local economic development. The purpose of the study was to assess the importance and…

From its inception, Penn State has played a role in Pennsylvania's economy. As a land-grant university, it has functioned as a change agent, transferring research and knowledge to increase farm yields, encouraging business and "the mechanic arts," and transmitting technology to the general population. While the university still does…

IMHE-Info is the newsletter published by the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) programme. This issue includes: (1) Regional Engagement: The Future for Higher Education?; and (2) Notes from Australia. IMHE News, publications of interest and upcoming events are included.

Through successive rounds of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) encourages countries to commit their higher education system to the mandates of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The WTO is an organization committed to the aggressive trade liberalization of services like higher education. This ideology, known as…

In the Maghreb, the struggle for independence was the starting point for a new relationship between people and institutions. Three different ways of developing a new state--in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco--are the result of a new social and political landscape that is being designed in the Mediterranean basin: from a monarchy in Morocco…