Presentation Draft

Here is a link to my Prezi. It's still a work in progress, and it is far from finished. The way that I am planning on setting up my presentation is to have my key talking points on the Prezi and then more in depth notes here on the blog. If someone has a better method I would appreciate hearing it. I just don't want to clutter up the presentation.
http://www.prezi.com/hwcou_5iomle/

The Twenty-First-Century Gold Coast and Slum

According to the text and the examples that Sampson has given, the 21st- neighborhoods will most likely vary; some will be like the example used in the segment on 60 minutes where there were models of rich and lower income housing mingled together.
There will be others that are more segregated, all black or all white, where there is both a spacial separation and class distinction between surrounding neighborhoods.

Our neighborhoods are most certainly tied to the past, it has shown to be quite the task to change the perception of rougher neighborhoods, but the effort by local communities and governments in many cases seem to be there. Sampson used the examples of the Cabrini-Green housing project and also "death corner to illustrate this. Local government wanted to clean up the area and so they evicted over  4000 people from the housing project and destroyed the building that seemed to be the epicenter of the crime and decay of the area. Most of those people relocated to similar neighborhoods where they found themselves in in some cases similar circumstances.

It is interesting and difficult to speculate as to what the 22nd- century neighborhood will look like. Sampson, mentions programs such as the Harlem Children's Zone that are designed to positively shape the youth in challenged or decaying communities but doesn't express much optimism in their sustainability on a large scale. On the other hand, one of his main points from the whole book is collective efficacy, and how people come together as a community to build the community sustain each other. In the end of the chapter, he makes the statement that people are ultimately self serving and our motives usually come back to providing or gaining for ourselves, and that includes going from governments down to individuals.

Community, in my opinion is not dying. It is trying to thrive but we keep getting in its way with our own selfish motives, which makes it in a sense bumble along. Like a said previously, efforts are there to improve neighborhoods and strengthen communities but self interested motivations whether they be political or economical continually get in our way of building each other up.

Aftermath

This was a very interesting chapter. I was beginning to wonder when Sampson was going to dive more into violence in Chicago. Sure, he has mentioned it in previous chapters and has used some brief examples but this chapter seems to focus in greater detail about the problem of Violence in the south side of Chicago. When I was there in the beginning of the semester for a work training, I heard a great deal from some local fiends about crime and some of the neighborhoods that they had found themselves in on numerous occasions, sometimes on accident and some times on purpose (for some stupid reason) I, myself, did not have any interest in exploring some of those parts that they had told me about but they are some of the same neighborhoods that Sampson has discussed throughout the book.
Anyways, I agree with Sampson and his findings when he is talking about the correlation between raising foreclosure rates and crime rates. He also, pointed out that mixed neighborhoods seemed to feel the impact of raising crime rates and foreclosure rates more than that of some of the higher en housing (downtown Chicago and northern Chicago) What I found very interesting was when he was talking about community based organizations and how they helped not only lower crime rates but also emperical data suggested that those same organizations helped moderating the toll of the economic crisis and the more organizations a community had the lower the foreclosure rates were and ending one of the segments by stating, "Community-based prevention is apparently not just for crime."
The next question, was very interesting. "Why does violence unhinge some communities and draw others together?" Sampson seems to answer this in the same segment and I would tend to agree with him. There seemed to be two contributing factors that determined weather a community fused together and "took back their communities and those that seemed to break apart and concede to the violence and crime.
1. He says that those communities that measured higher in collective efficacy in the PHDCN surveys were those that seemed to hold things together better.
2. The amount of community based organizations and non profit organizations that were based in the community.
I am sure that there are many other contributing factors that determine how a community and a neighborhood react to crime, violence and tragedy; but from what Sampson eludes to many times in the chapter, collective efficacy and the involvement of a communities citizens is crucial to its success or detriment.

I am still plugging along, researching more about globalization. I have found some fantastic videos on the subject that have really helped me understand more on the subject. I found one video where President Obama discusses the countries economic challenges and opportunities in regards to the futreu of America's economic future. It is a campaign speech but the information on globalization is interesting. President Obama on Globalization

There is also another fantastic video by Thomas Freidman talking about the evolution and globalization at Williams College in 2006. It is a long video but it is also very very interesting. I highly recommend watching it. The World is Flat: Thomas Friedman.

Research Project Bibliography

I was a little confused by this week's assignment. The assignment says that we need to start a bibliography or find sources for each of our possible research topics. I was under the impression that we should have decided on a research topic by now and should be making progress towards it. I found a topic that interests me and I think integrates my subjects of emphasis (business and spanish) that is the topic of globalization. 

In my last assignment, I gave an update of where I was in my project and I made the statement 

that I had been re reading the Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Freedman. I was asked to clarify why I was so keen on this source. I guess that I will just say that it is the first book that I've read that introduced me to the subject. Also, that the author, Thomas Friedman is a columnist for the New York Times and is regarded as an expert on the topic. The book is fairly easy to read, it takes a difficult subject and puts it in an understandable and comprehendible format. I have found numerous other sources that I will be using but I still like that one and I plan on using it. 

Storper, M., & Scott, A. J. (2003). Regions, globalization, development. Regional Studies, 37(6/7), 579-593. doi:10.1080/0034340032000108697

Regions, Globalizaiton, Development talks about other lesser considered regions when talking about globalization. It discusses in depth, latin american countries and how their regions have been effected. This could be an interesting article to help research how globalization has helped South American countries narrow the economic and social gap between the 3rd world countries and 1st world countries. 

Kellner, D. (2002). Theorizing globalization. Sociological Theory, 20(3), 285-305. doi:10.1111/0735-2751.00165

This article argues that the key to understanding globalization is that theorizing that globalizaiton is a technological revolution that has influenced the global restructuring of capitalism in which economies, technologies, politics, and cultural features are intertwined. 

Arnett, J. J. (2002). The psychology of globalization. The American Psychologist, 57(10), 774-783. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.57.10.774

This article discusses how globalization has changed how people view themselves and develop a bicultural identity. One that identifies with their country and the other is linked to the global culture. This could be an interesting angle to examine how latinos in either South American countries or Latino Americans 

I have a few more articles and sources that I have. I am in the process of developing my thesis statement and showing how globalization is effecting the economic development of South American countries. I think that I am on the right track (at least I hope that I am) I have found a topic that interests me and I think that it is a good one to integrate my areas of emphasis and also research more about how through advancements in technology we are developing into a global community. 

Leadership and the structure of elite connections

I found this chapter very interesting, and it was interesting to examine the community that I am in and to see the similarities between the communities in little old St. George and big city Chicago. What got my attention most of all was inter-institutional connections shown in figure 14.2 on page 341. (hopefully my description will jog your mind on which diagram it is) What I found interesting was that the way that the web diagram was set up with different parts of the community and such as: Law, education, politics, religion, community organizations, and so on. The diagram shows these different parts of the community and they are connected to arrows (which are proportional to the volume of the inter-institutional connections) What jumps off the page in the diagram is that all arrows point to politics and the volume of those connections compared to the non political connections, its almost not even comparable.
I guess another way of looking at this diagram is who relies on who to get things accomplished in the community.  It has also made me think back to 2008 and the presidential campaign for President Obama who rose to power through being a community organizer. Looking at figure 14.2, the 2 areas with the most connections by far were politics and community organizations. Those leaders in those organizations most certainly have power for either good or bad. Heck, one of them made it to be the leader of the free world.
My opinion is that in every community there are those that are leaders and there are those that are members of call it whatever you will: the good ol boys club, the social elite, business elite, cliques... and so on. Point is, those groups exist. I have the opinion that those groups exist for various reasons. Some people want to accomplish personal gain, and then some people want to build something, do something great in life and make the world a little better along the way. (that is the somewhat naive idealist in me talking) relationships and friendships are formed by people who are just looking for connections for further personal gain and potential power. Relationships are formed by powerful people I think because not many of those people became successful by themselves, It takes collaboration and teamwork to be successful and when they are looking for connections, people are generally attracted to like minded people or people with similar attributes.

Research for my project is going well, I decided on the topic of globalization, I find it to be a very interesting topic and understanding it could be very beneficial for me in my choice of career. I decided to read The Lexus and the Olive Tree again by Thomas Friedman again because it uses some very good real life examples of how Globalization has influenced our world. Also, the first time I read it it was in Spanish so I figure that maybe I will pick up on something that I may have missed the first time I read through it.

Mobility and Division

This is an interesting chapter, Sampson is discussing mobility and how the many different ways that people migrate in, out, and within neighborhoods. He of course does discuss or mention on a couple different occasions the "racial and ethnic hierarchy". This hierarchy unfortunately exists and apparently has a lot to say about why people move in and out of neighborhoods.

 From what I can gather from this chapter and comparing that to what I have learned and observed about people throughout my life (which at times I question how much I really know about the world and its people) I think that people for the most part are constantly trying to improve their situation. There is always a desire for more or something different; after all, isn't the grass always greener on the other side of the fence? There is also the race factor, Sampson discusses the "white and latino flight" Apparently, whites and latinos are more susceptible to move neighborhoods partially based on the racial composition of that neighborhood.

There does seem to be a strong correlation between average income and moving neighborhoods. Sampson surveyed people who moved and compared their new income vs income of their place of origin. The outcome is a substantial gain for those moving: Whites gained the most, latinos second and African Americans third.

This chapter got my attention, I am studying business and Spanish and while studying the Spanish language I also study latino culture. It has been interesting to see the evolution of the ethnic and racial hierarchy and to see the gains that latinos have made over the years. Even though I do find it tragic that there is vast inequality in our nation it is good to see that with progress of technology and communication the playing field is being leveled out to some degree.

As far as change goes, Sampson states towards the end of the chapter that "the racial and economic hierarchy of  neighborhoods is highly durable" I would tend to agree with him, I'm sure that there are circumstances that people moving in or out of a neighborhood can affect that neighborhood, lets face it, I think that most of us have either had a neighbor that has affected us in a positive or negative way before but as to transform a community that they are leaving or entering? I would say that not many have such a large impact on a large group of people.

Areas of emphasis

I am studying integrated studies and my areas of emphasis are business and Spanish. My hopes and aspirations are to go on and pursue a masters degree in international business. I have always been fond of learning about other cultures outside of my own and I had the opportunity to learn more about south America when I served a church mission in Peru. I enjoyed it so much and when I came home I had the chance to move back down to Honduras to help in setting up an orphanage with an organization called Amigos of Honduras. I was there for around 6 months but I loved learning more about south American cultures.
The world seems to be getting smaller and smaller with advances in technology in 2 areas: transportation and communication. Globalization plays a large part in today global economy and in my areas of emphasis it plays a large part in what I am studying. To be successful in the global community it is important to learn about and understand different cultures and how they communicate.

For any business to be successful, all parties involved need to know how to communicate effectively with one another. This does include writing style and proper document construction, Retha Kilpatrick takes a survey of a hundred major international businesses and discusses the communication practices that each business uses and how they differ from language to language.
Kilpatrick, Retha H. "International Business Communication Practices." Journal of Business Communication 21.4 (1984): 33-44. Print.

Continuing with the communication aspect of business, it is important to know cultures of the people that you are communicating with, especially if you want to avoid possibly offending them or turning them off from your business.
Rosenbloom, B. "Communication in International Business-to-Business Marketing Channels does Culture Matter?" Industrial Marketing Management 32.4 (2003): 309-15. Print.

In my spanish classes there always seems to be one common factor. No matter what subject it seems like we keep revisiting the topic of globalization, I even took a class that focused solely on that. We studied a book called The Lexus and the Olive Tree, its topic is globalization and how the world through technology has become increasingly smaller. I found some articles on different perspectives of globalization from the latin american point of view.
Ronaldo Munck. "Globalization." Latin American Perspectives29.6 (2002): 24. Print.

There are many different opinions over globalization, some think that it is the root of all evil and what ultimately caused the financial collapse while others look at is as a way for developing countries to get a leg up and gain some much needed momentum in todays global economy but no matter what your opinion is on the matter the one thing that Moises Naim discusses is that it is here to stay.
Moisés Naím. "Globalization." Foreign Policy.171 (2009): 28. Print.

I think that my two topics can be integrated very easily and in a way I am still studying community, and how we communicate with each other.