This paper reports on an ethnographic study of administrators, faculty, parents and community members in one remote Michigan school district. The purpose of the study is to describe and explain how Michigan's educational reform perspective--arguably similar to the education reform perspectives of many states--encountered the educational…

This study examines coping behaviors and felt experiences of homeless adults in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Data from in-depth interviews with 55 homeless adults reveal 5 general coping pattern groups: shelter users, campers, couch hoppers, mixed users, and circumstantial homeless. Homeless adults within each group experienced similar levels of…

Although Detroit is not a centre of global finance, and plays a declining role in global production, it nevertheless participates in the present remediation of the relationship between cities and the globe. Manoeuvring to reposition the city as the global hub of mobility technology, metropolitan Detroit's neoliberal leadership advances particular…

A new measure of community well-being is developed based on the notion that community residents perceive the quality-of-life (QOL) impact of community services and conditions in various life domains (e.g., family, social, leisure, health, financial, cultural, consumer, work, spiritual, and environmental domains). These perceptions influence…

This article presents the unique approach to university-community partnerships developed and practiced at Michigan State University (MSU). We have established a model of campus-community partnerships that builds a wide-reaching system of networks connecting the university to communities. Our approach is "developmental",…

This study chronicles the historical divisions of race and class between Detroit and its suburban neighbor as an explanation for current tensions in the communities and schools. This analysis poses implications for educational apartheid and stark disparities between urban and suburban boundaries and consequent discomfort among practitioners when…

Restructuring of schools by means of revising the school calendar from the traditional 9-month calendar to a year-round calendar is one reform idea proposed to meet the diverse abilities and needs of students. Considering the sweeping changes influenced by No Child Left Behind and the trend toward excellence in education, this research focused…

Social capital is a person or group's sympathy for others. The social capital paradigm includes social capital, networks, socio-emotional goods, attachment values, institutions, and power. This paper describes how social capital is used within Latino communities in the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area of Michigan. It describes migration, housing,…