Coastal Issues

Previous research using national‐level time‐series data has shown a breakdown in the poverty/growth nexus during the 1980s and a rehabilitation during the 1990s. This article uses census division‐level data with controls for demographic and structural variables to demonstrate that poverty rates were more responsive to macroeconomic conditions during the 1980s than prior results have shown and that conclusions regarding the rehabilitation of the relationship during the 1990s are sensitive to the time period chosen. (JEL E32, I32)

IntroductionThe primary purpose of this project is to identify the modifiable individual, social and environmental factors associated with stress and to investigate and quantify the effect of persistent stress on chronic disease in a marginalized, primarily minority, urban community.MethodsThis study leveraged data collected as part of Temple Health: Block-By-Block, a longitudinal cohort study conducted over five years in an underserved community. Through in-home visits, 385 subjects completed a Visit 5 Social & Environmental Assessment which measured individual, social, neighborhood, and environmental factors as reported through each participant’s perspectives. A Perceived Stress Scale and a Cumulative Chronic Disease Index was also completed during this visit.ResultsFive of sixteen modifiable risk factors were identified as significant, independent predictors of stress, including general health, employment status, difficulties in paying for basics, home ownership and overall neighborhood quality. These health determinants combined with stress scores significantly predicted chronic disease burden.ConclusionsThis study provides unique, individualized evidence regarding the impact of social determinants of health on levels of stress among community residents, and suggests that stress is an intervening factor in the path to chronic disease. While addressing social determinants of health must be a priority, this study indicates that actionable behavioral and pharmacologic interventions to reduce stress may provide more immediate improvements in prevention and reduction of chronic disease in diverse urban communities.

This article provides an overview of the World Cities Project (WCP), our rationale for it, our framework for comparative analysis, and an overview of current studies in progress. The WCP uses New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo as a laboratory in which to study urban health, particularly the evolution and current organization of public health infrastructure, as well as the health status and quality of life in these cities. Comparing world cities in wealthier nations is important because of (1) global trends in urbanization, emerging health risks, and population aging; (2) the dominant influence of these cities on "megacities" of developing nations; and (3) the existence of data and scholarship about these world cities, which provides a foundation for comparing their health systems and health. We argue that, in contrast to nation-states, world cities provide opportunities for more refined comparisons and cross-national learning. To provide a framework for WCP, we define an urban core for each city and examine the similarities and differences among them. Our current studies shed light on inequalities in health care use and health status, the importance of neighborhoods in protecting population health, and quality of life in diverse urban communities.

The goal of the elementary and early childhood education program at Penn State Berks is to develop teachers who have the skills and dispositions to teach in any school community, but especially to successfully teach in diverse urban communities. The chapter describes the courses and experiences of preservice teachers throughout a 4-year program that are designed to facilitate culturally responsive teaching and learning. The university partners with a professional development school (PDS) in an urban and impoverished community which provides opportunities to promote an understanding of the multicultural competence required of teachers to prosper no matter where they are employed.

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Interpretive restraint is the purposeful withholding of symbolic meaning for traditional ritual performance. Within a multicultural urban community, interpretive restraint often is an essential precondition for promoting cooperative action from community segments who otherwise would be alienated. The annual Bok Kai Festival at Marysville, California, was begun by Chinese immigrants over a century ago. By 1990, the multicultural community participated and sustained these orthodox Chinese folk religious rituals, which were publicly presented as historic civic festival activities. The article argues that because of an effective interpretive restraint on the traditional religious symbolism, this diverse urban community, Chinese and non-Chinese alike, can celebrate harmoniously together in this local tradition.

Díaz, Junot. Island Born. Illustrated by Leo Espinosa, Dial Books for Young Readers, 2018.
 Island Born by Junot Díaz tells the story of a young girl named Lola, who learns about her heritage from her friends and family. Island Born is the first children's book by Dominican-American author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz, with illustrations by Leo Espinosa. Díaz has said that the story was inspired by his own experience of growing up as a Dominican child in America. Díaz effectively captures both the joys and adversities of life in a diverse urban community.
 The book begins with a refreshing bout of diversity, “Every kid in Lola’s school was from somewhere else ... hers was the school of faraway places.” When Lola’s teacher, Miss Obi, asks her students to draw a picture of the place they are from, Lola realizes she does not have any memories of the island where she was born. Miss Obi reassures Lola that there are other ways she can remember. She suggests Lola ask her friends and family to share their memories of the island. In doing so, Lola quickly learns about her family’s past, and the joys and struggles that are familiar to immigrant families.
 The images in this book harmonize with the text in a playful way that fully engages the reader in the story about the island. Colombian-born illustrator Leo Espinosa’s images celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the immigrant community through the depictions of Lola’s classmates, and neighbourhood friends on her journey through self-discovery. Espinosa colourfully, and vibrantly mirrors the island Lola comes from in a lively manner. The story, however, takes a somber twist when Lola learns about the dark history of her nation. Nonetheless, the serious messages continue to be presented in a cheerful kid friendly manner due to Diaz’s choice to depict a serious political leader as a legitimate monster who terrorized the people on the island.
 Multicultural representation in children’s literature is vital; however, it is something that is lacking in the majority of classrooms. Classrooms are rapidly becoming more diverse, and Island Born reaches to this. Children learn powerful lessons about who is valued or devalued in society through the literature they are exposed to. When children are unable to find reflections of themselves in classroom literature, they internalize that they are not a valued member of society. However, Island Born offers a glimpse, whether it be through a mirror or a window, into the life as an immigrant student. When students are able to see something of themselves represented in classroom literature, they are able to connect back to and value their identity, culture, and experiences.
 Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Kristin Robb
 Kristin is an After-Degree student in the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Alberta. Kristin has a passion for reading, and when she is not preoccupied with her studies you can find her volunteering in elementary school classrooms.

This study examines the impact of identity politics on social polarization during elections in urban Indonesian communities. Identity politics, which focuses on group affiliations based on ethnicity, religion, and other social identities, has gained significant prominence in recent electoral processes in Indonesia. This research seeks to understand how identity-based campaigns and political strategies influence social division and collective identity in urban settings. By analyzing the 2019 presidential election as a case study, the paper explores the ways in which political parties and candidates have leveraged religious, ethnic, and regional identities to mobilize voters. Through surveys and interviews with urban voters, the study reveals how such strategies contribute to increased polarization, affecting social cohesion and intergroup relations within diverse urban communities. The findings suggest that while identity politics may enhance political engagement among certain groups, it also exacerbates social cleavages, deepening mistrust and dividing communities along identity lines. The paper highlights the long-term implications of identity politics for the social fabric of urban Indonesia and discusses potential measures to mitigate polarization, emphasizing the importance of inclusive political discourse in maintaining national unity.

With population growth driving urban expansion in many cities in the United States, there is a need for a sustainable way to manage stormwater. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is considered an innovative way to handle stormwater because of its potential to provide multiple ecosystem services (ES) beyond flooding reduction. However, there is limited research regarding the society's perceived value for GSI practices' co-benefits. This study utilized stated-preference data obtained from a choice experiment in an online survey of 1159 South Carolina (SC) residents to estimate a monetary value for the ES provided by wet detention ponds— the most widely adopted stormwater practice in coastal counties of SC. The benefits examined are flooding reduction, water quality, wildlife habitat, recreation, and scenic beauty. The data were analyzed using a Mixed logit formulation. Considering the differences across the state, the model was estimated separately for five counties. Findings indicate that residents are willing to pay $13.8 to $37.8 annually for a 50% improvement in pollutant removal efficiency of ponds in addition to their current stormwater fee. Also, they are willing to pay $12.5 to $42.9 per year for the nearest pond to have buffer vegetation and wildlife. They are also likely to pay $5 to $22.5 for ponds to contribute to their neighborhood's scenic beauty. Furthermore, the results indicate that respondents from three counties are willing to pay $5.4 to $13.2 for a 50% improvement in flooding reduction, while those from two counties are likely to pay $3.9 to $4.9 for ponds to have recreational benefits. The findings of the study could help stormwater managers in designing their stormwater management programs, especially for better evaluation of stormwater utility fees.

The economic situation of families with children is largely contingent on five factors: the rate of employment; the level of wages; the number of earners in the family; and the size and the composition of the family, i.e., the number of children and whether the family is headed by one or two parents. Government income transfers can offset some of the consequences of the other four factors, but in the US such transfers have been modest. Except during the 1930s, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose steadily from the beginning of the twentieth century. Per capita real GDP increased by about two-thirds between World War II and 1974 but only by about one-fourth between 1974 and 1992. Families’ standard of living improved steadily between World War II and 1974 but later stagnated, with different consequences for different types of families. The rnid-1970s may be thought of as the post-World War II watershed in the economic situation of families. The slowdown in economic growth following the first world-wide oil shortage had significant consequences for family economic well-being. Family income inequality increased during the latter period, with shares in family income rising only for the highest quintile, declining for the three lowest, and remaining stable for the fourth (US Bureau of the Census, 1992). The economic situation of the poor also worsened during these years.

Etymologically, tourism is an industry and part of recreation and the way for sustainable resource management at the local level through community participation. Community-based tourism in Nepal is famously known as homestay tourism. It is an agglomeration of much authentic cultural and ecological richness within diversity to the tourist’s experience at the exact moment to the local’s participation and empowerment. Homestay is a very potential rural and historical site-based tourism enterprise. Tourism governance is not isolated discourse; it has many tangible and intangible transactions. It has been a positive backbone for the growth of environmental tourism around the globe by utilizing and empowering the local community. The primary data was collected for my research work for my MPhil thesis. The article aims to assess the socioeconomic, cultural, and participation contribution of community-based tourism in Nepal, based on the ethnographic narration analysis design. Moreover, community-based tourism is not an isolated subject so tourism is highly accountable to income elasticity and local empowerment with local resource marketing and distribution. Findings show that homestays should have an eco-friendly infrastructure for sustainable resource mobilization and homestay as community-based tourism is community lead activities for the sake of empowerment of the local, especially women.

Climate change will affect the composition of plant and animal communities in many habitats and geographic settings. This presents a dilemma for conservation programs – will the portfolio of protected lands we now have achieve a goal of conserving biodiversity in the future when the ecological communities occurring within them change? Climate change will significantly alter many plant communities, but the geophysical underpinnings of these landscapes, such as landform, elevation, soil, and geological properties, will largely remain the same. Studies show that extant landscapes with a diversity of geophysical characteristics support diverse plant and animal communities. Therefore, geophysically diverse landscapes will likely support diverse species assemblages in the future, although which species and communities will be present is not altogether clear. Following protocols advanced in studies spanning large regions, we developed a down-scaled, high spatial resolution measure of geophysical complexity based on Ecological Land Units (ELUs) and examined the relationship between plant species richness, ecological community richness, and ELU richness (number of different ELU types). We found that extant landscapes with high ELU richness had a greater variety of ecological community types and high species richness of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. We developed a spatial representation of diverse ELU landscapes to inform local conservation practitioners, such as land trusts, of potential conservation targets that will likely support diverse faunas and floras despite the impact of climate change.

The study examined perceived effects of sand dredging activities on livelihood diversification of artisanal fisher folks in Lagos State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select respondents for the study. Purposively, Eti-Osa, Ibeju-Lekki, Epe and Ikorodu local Government Areas (LGAs) were selected for intensive dredging activities. Registered artisanal fishermen in these LGAs were 310, 350, 380 and 320, respectively. Twenty percent of the population in each LGAs were selected using simple random sampling technique to arrive at 272 respondents interviewed for the study. An interview schedule guide was used to elicit information on respondents’ socio-economic characteristics, knowledge, livelihood diversification and perception of the sand dredging effect on fishing activities. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and independent sample t-test. The mean age of fisher folks was 37 ± 8 years, 92.1 % of them were males, 81.4 % were married and had households’ size ranging from 1 to 16 persons. Over 50 % of the respondents had no formal education. Monthly income of fisher folks in the study area ranged from ₦5, 000 to ₦60, 000 with a mean income of ₦22, 892 ± 13,564 and majority (92.9 %)were members of a social group. Respondents diversified most into off-farm activities such as commercial bike riding, security and technician services. Slightly above half (55.7 %) perceived sand dredging as having a negative effect on fishing activities. Results on inferential statistic revealed that a significant relationship existed between knowledge of sand dredging effect on fishing activities (r = 0.35), monthly income (r = −0.181) and social group (χ2= 2.886) and perceived effects of sand dredging on fishing activities. Deliberate policy drive to mitigate sand dredging practices is required to forestall the negative effect on livelihood diversification of the artisanal fisher folks. Consequently, the artisanal fishery contribution to total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment generation and total domestic fish production will be enhanced.

Juggling with two cultures: transnationalism and hybridity as cultural outcomes of immigration for Haitians in the United States

This study explores the concerns and experiences related to involuntary childlessness of infertile women living in a diverse cultural urban community in South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women seeking treatment for involuntary childlessness. Women were interviewed at the time of their first visit to an infertility clinic in a tertiary referral centre. All women verbalized intense emotions about their involuntary childlessness. In addition, a large number of women experienced negative social consequences including marital instability, stigmatization and abuse. These findings demonstrate that infertility can have a serious effect on both the psychological well-being and the social status of women in the developing world. Furthermore, the study provides insight into the cultural context of involuntary infertility in South Africa. The delivery of good infertility care in a community requires awareness of the implications of infertility and insight into the context in which these occur. Since many of the negative social implications of infertility are probably rooted in low status women in the developing world, effective intervention will ultimately require social, economical and political changes.