National and Local Profiles of Cultural Support [.pdf]
http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/culture_policy_profiles.pdf
This report was conducted by the American for the Arts group and the the Ohio State University Department of Arts Policy and Administration based on the premise that policy makers need good information in order to make effective decisions about resource allocations for culture, and that cultural advocates need reliable data to make a compelling, grounded case for support. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the report documents (with the assistance of local and national data) how the nonprofit cultural sector is sustained in the United States. Specifically, the study was conducted between 1999 and 2001 and looked at local arts agency research partners in ten communities around the US, including Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. The 14-page report contains several interesting findings, including a general trend that indicates that monies raised through admissions constitute the largest single source of revenue and that at times there is unexpected support from non-arts agencies, such as the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department. While the report indicates that a great deal of sustained research into the funding of the arts and cultural activities in the US needs to be done, this document is clearly a step in the right direction. [KMG]
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UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/csrc/
Established in 1969, the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA places a premium on "interdisciplinary and collaborative research that analyzes issues critical to the knowledge of Chicano and Latino communities in the United States." Visitors to their site will find information on their ongoing research projects, such as the Mexican-American Study Project, a 30-year longitudinal and inter-generational study of the Mexican-origin people. Scholars will find the section devoted to the Center's publications quite helpful, as it contains links to "Azatlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies" and a series of policy briefs addressing issues affecting the Latino community. For persons looking for more detailed scholarship within the field of Chicano studies, a link to the research center library is also provided. [KMG]
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Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
http://www.sage.wisc.edu/
Since the days when John Muir walked across its campus, there has been a keen interest in the environment at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment keeps this tradition alive through its different projects and publications. Perhaps the best part of the site is the Atlas of the Biosphere, which contains numerous maps documenting environmental phenomena across the globe, such as water resources, ecosystems, land use patterns, and human impact, at a variety of scales. The Atlas also contains the data sets that were used to generate these different thematic maps. Related material on the site includes several different global ecosystem and terrestrial hydrology models that have been created by the Center, and are made publicly available here for general review. Providing engaging scholarship and general information about the relationship between humankind and the environment makes the Center's work both timely and of great interest. [KMG]
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The Global News Networks and US Policymaking in Defense and Foreign Affairs [.pdf]
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/publications/GilboaE.pdf
As part of the publication series of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy (located within the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University), this 34-page paper examines the potential influence of global television news on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. Written by Eytan Gilboa, a professor at Bar-llan University, the paper finds that, while there is no evidence to support the "CNN effect" (which states that global television determines policy), extensive and omnipresent news coverage does present certain ethical dilemmas for politicians, officials, and journalists. Near the conclusion of his paper, Professor Gilboa concludes that "Successful coping with the challenges of global communication and efficient utilization of new and innovative media technologies require two sets of reforms in policymaking: first, in the training of leaders, high level policymakers, and diplomats; second in the planning and implementation of policies." Persons interested in the dynamic between expanding global media networks and the formation of policy responses and their subsequent implementation will find this paper quite helpful. [KMG]
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Columbia, Irvine, and The Woodlands: Planning Lessons from Three US New Towns of the 1960s and 1970s [.pdf]
http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/dl/117_forsyth02web.pdf
Published as part of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Working Paper series, this 34-page paper by Professor Ann Forsyth of the University of Minnesota examines three communities in the United States developed during the 1960s as responses to critics of urban sprawl. As Professor Forsyth states in her opening remarks about these communities, "They also represent a best case scenario for private sector development-they had big land areas, rich developers, cutting edge professionals, and visions that were held on to." Throughout the paper, Professor Forsyth relies on a mix of methodologies, including extended interviews, site observations, and census data. This work is probably most important for the effective way that it examines the connection between these attempts to address the seemingly endemic problems generated by urban sprawl and the current "smart growth" and New Urbanism movements within city and regional planning. [KMG]
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Intellimotion: California PATH's Quarterly Newsletter [.pdf]
http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Intellimotion/
The California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) researches methods for increasing highway safety, reducing congestion, and minimizing pollution and energy consumption. Intellimotion is one of its publications that highlights some of the current projects. Although it is labeled as a quarterly newsletter, Intellimotion is released on a very irregular basis. The 2002 issue covers several stories, including a project that makes vehicle navigation with the Global Positioning System extremely accurate. Another article looks at intelligent transportation systems and the issues regarding Bus Rapid Transit. Many past issues of Intellimotion are available on this Web site. This site is also reviewed in the October 25, 2002 NSDL MET Report. [CL]
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The National Women's Health Information Center
http://www.4woman.org/
Designed to provide women with authoritative and timely knowledge of a host of womens health issues, the National Womens Health Information Center site (sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services) offers a reliable and thorough overview of hundreds of topics and current news briefs. Health topics on the site (which range from abstinence to yellow fever) are alphabetically listed or can also be located by entering keywords. Visitors to the site can also sign up here to receive weekly health tips via email. Along with featuring information on health topics, other issues affecting women are well-represented here, including domestic violence awareness and body image. Also helpful is the fact that the site is also available in Spanish, which will be useful to Spanish-speaking persons and health professionals working with Spanish speakers. [KMG]
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Poverty, AIDS and Children's Schooling: A Targeting Dilemma [.pdf]
http://econ.worldbank.org/files/18719_wps2885.pdf
Written by Martha Ainsworth and Deon Filmer of the World Bank, this 44-page working paper examines the relationship between orphan status, household wealth, and child school enrollment. Drawing on data collected in the 1990s from 28 different countries within Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the authors conclude that there are such divergent patterns within the data, that broad generalizations are almost impossible. One interesting finding was that the gap in school enrollment between female and male orphans was not that much different than the gap between girls and boys with living parents. In conclusion, they offer multiple policy programs to alleviate the plight of orphans, stating that "Policymakers need to resist the temptation to advocate a single 'best practice' model for all countries regardless of the extent or source of orphan enrollment differentials." [KMG]
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