Robust literatures separately estimate school effects and neighborhood effects on children's educational, economic, health, and other outcomes that measure well-being. A growing body of research ...acknowledges that both contexts matter and considers neighborhoods and schools jointly. In this review, we synthesize the array of results that emerge from these studies and critique the tendency for researchers to evaluate which matters more, neighborhoods versus schools. We propose a reorientation of this scholarship that incorporates research on neighborhood and school selection and segregation processes. We argue that contextual effects research would be enriched by considering local neighborhood-school structures: the ways that families choose neighborhoods and schools and that neighborhoods and schools mutually and cyclically constitute one another. We conclude with recommendations for bringing neighborhood-school structures to bear on both outcomes-oriented studies of neighborhood and school effects as well as studies of contextual selection and segregation.
This article provides a rich longitudinal portrait of the financial and social resources available in the school districts of high- and low-income students in the United States from 1990 to 2014. ...Combining multiple publicly available data sources for most school districts in the United States, we document levels and gaps in school district financial resources—total per-pupil expenditures—and social resources—local rates of adult educational attainment, family structure, and adult unemployment—available to the average public school student at a variety of income levels over time. In addition to using eligibility for the National School Lunch Program as a blunt measure of student income, we estimate resource inequalities between income deciles to analyze resource gaps between affluent and poor children. We then examine the relationship between income segregation and resource gaps between the school districts of high- and low-income children. In previous work, the social context of schooling has been a theoretical but unmeasured mechanism through which income segregation may operate to create unequal opportunities for children. Our results show large and, in some cases, growing social resource gaps in the districts of high- and low-income students nationally and provide evidence that these gaps are exacerbated by income segregation. Conversely, per-pupil funding became more compensatory between high- and low-income students' school districts over this period, especially in highly segregated states. However, there are early signs of reversal in this trend. The results provide evidence that school finance reforms have been somewhat effective in reducing the consequences of income segregation on funding inequities, while inequalities in the social context of schooling continue to grow.
Background: Women in every society play a central role in the family and at the same time, are highly exposed to the pressures of dysfunctional relationships of economic, social, and cultural ...institutions outside the family, and if they are constantly exposed to traumatic and critical conditions, they may inflict irreparable damage on themselves in an unwanted helplessness, and by unacceptable behaviors such as violent suicides including self-immolation, endanger their survival as well as that of their family. Accordingly, this study was conducted to identify the social contexts of self-immolation among women admitted to Isfahan Burns Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. Methods: This study was a qualitative content analysis which was conducted on 43 women hospitalized in Imam Musa Kazim Hospital in Isfahan due to self-immolation. Participants were purposefully selected and individually interviewed in a semi-structured interview. Data were categorized and analyzed by qualitative content analysis or thematic analysis. Findings: Totally, the study identified 157 primary codes which were reduced to 16 secondary codes and 5 main concepts including conflict in family, addiction, marriage, poverty and economic difficulties as well as individual and psychological problems were obtained. Conclusion: The problems of women who attempt self-immolation are related to harassment and dissatisfaction with at least one of their close relatives or difficult and stressful living conditions. The results of this study can be used for national planning by the relevant agencies to respect the rights and security of women in the family and society.
After a decades-long economic slump, the city of Flint, Michigan, struggled to address chronic issues of toxic water supply, malnutrition, and food security gaps among its residents. A ...community-engaged research project proposed a resilience assessment that would use panarchy theory to move the city toward a more sustainable food system. Flint is one of many examples that demonstrates how panarchy theory is being applied to understand and influence change in complex human-natural systems. Applied Panarchy, the much-anticipated successor to Lance Gunderson and C.S. Holling's seminal 2002 volume Panarchy, documents the extraordinary advances in interdisciplinary panarchy scholarship and applications over the past two decades. Panarchy theory has been applied to a broad range of fields, from economics to law to urban planning, changing the practice of environmental stewardship for the better in measurable, tangible ways. Panarchy describes the way systems—whether forests, electrical grids, agriculture, coastal surges, public health, or human economies and governance—are part of even larger systems that interact in unpredictable ways. Although humans desire resiliency and stability in our lives to help us understand the world and survive, nothing in nature is permanently stable. How can society anticipate and adjust to the changes we see around us? Where Panarchy proposed a framework to understand how these transformational cycles work and how we might influence them, Applied Panarchy takes the scholarship to the next level, demonstrating how these concepts have been modified and refined. The book shows how panarchy theory intersects with other disciplines, and how it directly influences natural resources management and environmental stewardship. Intended as a text for graduate courses in environmental sciences and related fields, Applied Panarchy picks up where Panarchy left off, inspiring new generations of scholars, researchers, and professionals to put its ideas to work in practical ways.
Preventing childhood obesity Koplan, Jeffrey; Liverman, Catharyn T; Kraak, Vivica I
2005, 20050113, 2005-01-31, 2005-01-15, 20050101
eBook, Book
Open access
Children's health has made tremendous strides over the past century. In general, life expectancy has increased by more than thirty years since 1900 and much of this improvement is due to the ...reduction of infant and early childhood mortality. Given this trajectory toward a healthier childhood, we begin the 21st-century with a shocking development?an epidemic of obesity in children and youth. The increased number of obese children throughout the U.S. during the past 25 years has led policymakers to rank it as one of the most critical public health threats of the 21st-century.
Preventing Childhood Obesity provides a broad-based examination of the nature, extent, and consequences of obesity in U.S. children and youth, including the social, environmental, medical, and dietary factors responsible for its increased prevalence. The book also offers a prevention-oriented action plan that identifies the most promising array of short-term and longer-term interventions, as well as recommendations for the roles and responsibilities of numerous stakeholders in various sectors of society to reduce its future occurrence. Preventing Childhood Obesity explores the underlying causes of this serious health problem and the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth.
Our study contributes a contextual perspective on entrepreneurs’ networking, shifting focus from individual-level network structure and networking activities toward understanding networking as a ...multilevel process involving individual and contextual mechanisms. Through a multiple case study of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and Berlin, we introduce networking temperature as novel concept that captures context-bound templates for how entrepreneurs should network, ranging from colder to warmer. As core implications, networking temperature enables a contextualized understanding of tie quality, to explain why networking takes different forms in different contexts, and why entrepreneurs gain more cumulative advantage from their existing relationships in warmer than colder contexts.
Social Capital and Health Kawachi, Ichiro; Subramanian, S. V; Kim, Daniel
2007, 2008, 2007-11-15, 20080401
eBook
This text discusses social capital, a concept that originated in the social sciences, & its application to the field of public health. The editors take care to define the concept of social capital, ...describe its theoretical origins, & discuss the controversies & debates surrounding the use of the concept in public health research.
The aim of this study was to explain the cultural contexts affecting gender inequality in the executive apparatus in 1400. This study is based on the purpose of including quantitative applied ...research. The statistical population of this research is 8200 thousand employees of the executive apparatus in Kerman. Based on Morgan's table, 400 people were selected. The sampling method is cluster sampling.The research tool is a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was obtained by Cronbach's alpha 0.79 and the formal and content reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed. Method of statistical analysis of partial least squares (pls).The findings of this study showed that among the cultural contexts of the media, patriarchal ideologies, cultural capital, stereotypes, education and gender socialization methods have affected gender inequality in Kerman city administrations, respectivelyThe result of these findings is a confirmation that the cultural factor plays an effective rolegender inequality in the executive bodies of Kerman.Education of the family institution, which is a responsible part of the process of socialization and gender socialization, is the solution that should be paid attention to in order to reduce gender inequalities in future generations.
Informed by the poststructuralist theory, this study investigates the case of Ming, a Chinese professor of English, about the impacts of his first language (L1) and second language (L2) learning ...experience, and the changes of social contexts on his L1 and L2 identities construction. It was found that being a learner of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Ming's identities development aligned with the poststructuralist theory, in which it is considered dynamic, fluid and conflicting. Ming negotiated and renegotiated his identities in various social contexts in China and the United States and finally gained acceptance into the L2 academic community. This study not only analyzes Ming's experience with his language learning and identities, but also unravels that conflicts may be part of the process of identities construction, and encourages learners to be persistent and emotionally resilient, while using certain strategies to retain a stable L1 identity so that they can navigate through the negative encounters during the second language acquisition (SLA) process to sustain the development of their identities and L2 abilities.