This paper reflects on the experience of the 1999-2002 minority pipeline program (MPP) at the University of California, Riverside. With support from the American Economic Association, the MPP identified students of color interested in economics, let them explore economic issues affecting minority communities, and encouraged them to consider…

The conceptual and theoretical implications of employing different functional models of social change at the community level are outlined in this paper. While no new theoretical or methodological ground is broken, a class of models is recommended that appear infrequently in sociological literature, yet are well suited for representing social…

The concepts of "learning community" and "community of practice" may hold value to researchers, but questions exist as to how well they help in organizing and clarifying the type of critical thinking involved in investigative work. This paper approaches the problem from two directions. One is to deconstruct the two concepts…

Following a series of events which had made pornography a controversial issue in the community, a public opinion survey of 350 adults was conducted in Lexington, Kentucky. Respondents were asked about the recent events, their perceptions of "sex" in different media and how it should be regulated, their views on pornography in general and…

The phenomenological methods used to analyze the unique characteristics contributing to the stability of a small mid-western rural town may be useful tools for community researchers, providing an inexpensive, non-technical, humanistic-interpretive research approach. General concepts associated with community success were formulated through direct…

The purpose of this research was to study a school district in a small American city to understand who controls school curriculum in the local community. The research approach used was reputational analysis, a survey method whereby the reputed influence of leaders is measured rather than taken for granted. Also used was a technique developed by…

This systems theory study dealt with communication in community consensus building. Elected officials, community leaders, and a sample of citizens in three rural Wisconsin communities were interviewed about community problems. One community served as a control group; the other two communities received feedback reports based on the survey results.…

Several extensive studies were carried out to determine deficiencies in community resources which hinder the elderly population in their desire to live independently. The first study delineated the perceived needs of the population and presented an overview of currently available resources. The needs found greatly exceeded the available resources.…

This paper examines the power and energy needs of a small-to-medium sized (35,000), one industry, midwestern community and how that community overcame the communication obstacles which prevented fulfillment of its energy needs. The paper outlines the background on the communication situation being described, then provides a chronology of the key…

Once a librarian has made the decision to conduct a study of the economic community, several interrelated questions must be addressed: What is meant by the term "economic community" and what is known about it? What will be the objectives of the survey? Which businesses, industries, and services should be included? Who will conduct the…

The community should be seen as an essential focus for communication study since it (1) illustrates and tests the instrumental nature of human communication, (2) illustrates the delicate interplay of private and public communication, and (3) provides a unique context in which all human interactive units exert communication influence…

The purpose of this study was to test House's and Mason's hypothesis (1975) that only a weak relationship exists between political alienation and traditional demographic definitions of social position. Such demographic variables include age, sex, socioeconomic status, length of residency in the community, and occupational prestige. Data was…

This paper describes two activities used in a course that implemented the "Foxfire" approach for studying the local community of Rock Hill, South Carolina. The first activity, a unit on the family, encouraged discussion of students' families, presented poems exploring the details of family experience, and provided the opportunity for…

Recent developments in the social policy literature suggest a growing overlap in community and social policy interests and methods. This combination of community and policy interests is illustrated by tracing successive steps of the Illinois Residential Life Survey in order to support programming decisions about community mental health in a…

The Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, recognizing that the community is dramatically affected by school closings, adopted a policy for dealing with declining enrollment that requires involvement of local school communities in examining the problem, helping to find solutions, and planning for the future. When a school's population falls…