Crossroads Community Hospital

Place-Based Initiatives (PBIs) involve efforts to mobilise and coordinate local resources, services and expertise across multiple organisations and sectors in order to strengthen the social, structural, physical and economic conditions of historically disinvested neighbourhoods. While promising, these initiatives have had some documented challenges, and some are leveraging partnerships with academic institutions to address those challenges. In this article, we explore perspectives of leaders and staff from three PBI organisations in Charlotte, NC to better understand the benefits of PBI-academic partnerships and the conditions under which they are most effective. Thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews revealed that PBIs leverage partnerships with academic institutions to accomplish two key goals. First, these partnerships stimulate asset- based community development (ABCD) by connecting community organisations and neighbourhood residents with academic resources and by strengthening PBI service delivery. Second, some partnerships give rise to community-based research efforts that help address external accountability challenges and inform PBI programming. The findings also illuminated several pitfalls in academic-PBI partnerships, sometimes rooted in conflicting priorities and approaches of academic researchers and non-profit practitioners. Finally, insights delineate key recommendations for improving PBI-academic collaborations, including countering academic exploitation by plugging into PBIs’ mission and respecting PBI expertise.

Im Oktober 2020 führten Proteste gegen die manipulierten Parlamentswahlen in Kirgistan zum Rücktritt von Präsident Sooronbaj Dscheenbekow. Im Januar 2021 wurde der ehemalige Parlamentsabgeordnete Sadyr Dschaparow nach einem erdrutschartigen Wahlsieg neuer Präsident. Die Ergebnisse des parallel durchgeführten Referendums bestätigen zudem die breite Zustimmung für ein präsidiales Regierungssystem in der kirgisischen Bevölkerung. Der Artikel beurteilt die jüngsten Entwicklungen und versucht, die wichtigsten Chancen und Gefahren herauszuarbeiten, die sich aus den Abstimmungsergebnissen für die Entwicklung und Stabilität Kirgistans ergeben.

First paragraphs: One of the quiet impacts of the interruption of federal services in the U.S. — both the ongoing sequestration and the fall 2013 shutdown — was a tragic loss of local-level economic data. This critically threatens our ability to measure the success of community-based foods initiatives. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has enjoyed a deservedly solid reputation for publishing impartial data sets. Its Local Area Personal Income Statistics (LAPI), in particular, have offered essential measures of local economic activity. Few nations have comparable data. Yet on November 21, 2013, BEA (2013b) announced that it had suspended publication of several critical local data sets. No longer will BEA report detailed data on farm income and expenses for counties across the U.S. It has stopped reporting transfer payments (such as SNAP benefits) at the county level. BEA will no longer publish local area employment data by industry, nor detailed local summaries of employee compensation or earnings. Gone are its compilations of data covering BEA economic areas (regions defined by economic trade rather than strictly political boundaries). The BEA has also eliminated its Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II) product — an essential tool for gauging economic impacts of local development plans....

First paragraphs: Often in my travels as a consultant and speaker, I am asked, "How do we grow new farmers?" Every time I hear this question, I draw a quick breath. This is truly a remarkable question to hear in America, which prides itself on "feeding the world." If the most productive agricultural engine on the planet does not know how to grow new farmers, who does? To answer this question, one needs to go back 50 years. A 1962 report by the Committee for Economic Development, a Wall Street think tank, concluded that the problem with U.S. agriculture was that it employed too many people. These human resources could be better allocated, the CED argued, by moving people off the farm, to be replaced by larger equipment....