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.

Collective Efficacy Theory

I enjoyed reading this chapter, it does seem to be a complex subject and as I have gone through and planned how I will be wording this post I have caught myself wondering how strong of a grasp that I have on the subject. Sampson's collective efficacy theory is described as social cohesion and shared expectations of control. So essentially there should be desirable shared norms and rules within a community and the establishment of these norms will give people perspective of a degree of trust and shared expectations that exist in that community regardless of their involvement, giving people a mutual perspective on their community.

I found an article in The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquenc, written by Lorraine Mazerolle, Rebecca Wickes, and James McBroom, titled Community Variations in Violence: The Role of Social Ties and Collective Efficacy in Comparative Context. It was published in 2009 and the study contains a survey performed of nearly 2,859 people from 82 different communities In Brisbane Australia
The authors embrace Sampson's theory of collective efficacy and "how contemporary communities can function and prosper with minimal crime problems yet without the types of social ties that have, in years gone by, served as the foundation to civic society." They recommend having a measure of social relationships and community based crime prevention programs.

Sampson sent out surveys with the following questions and this is how I feel that my neighborhood would respond.

Children Skipping School: I can honestly say that I think that my neighbors and people in the area would not hesitate to ask what kids would be up to. I could also see neighbors not letting kids "hanging around on a corner" without finding out what they might be up to.

Graffiti: Kids were spotted spraying graffiti on a building, I don't think that there would be a bit of hesitation to intervene or call the police.

Disrespect: This one is tricky, there is so much disrespect in society today. One of the traits that this current (youth) generation possesses is a sense of entitlement for no apparent reason. They seem to feel that they deserve stuff and along with that they lack respect for others. (I will call that my crotchety old man moment) Although, I think most would disapprove I think few would take an active approach. I live in a neighborhood where most people are pretty passive and unfortunately I don't know if just disrespect would be enough to get people out of their comfort zone and say something.

Fight: I would assume that most people in my neighborhood would call the police and not intervene personally. I also think that it would be a situational thing, if it were two youth going at it then I think that the police would be called to intervene but if it were someone picking on a weaker kid or an elderly person then I think that would be enough to get someone involved.

Fire/Budget Cuts: I live in a pretty generous neighborhood and I can see people in the community coming to the aid of a less fortunate person or organization. I have seen my community active in raising funds for a cause. I know that for myself personally, I would expect to see that and also be involved.

Broken Windows

I found this chapter very interesting, it took me quite a bit longer to read than the previous ones but I found it extremely informative. When I read the quote by Ralph Ellison "When they approach me they only see my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination- indeed, anything and everything except me."
 I thought for sure that this chapter was going to be a one sided argument of how people are products of their environment and circumstance. I found that as I read that Sampson really only agrees with a small part of the "Broken Windows" theory. While Wilson and Keller argue that incivilities like graffiti and public drinking attract predatory crime because it shows that neighbors are unwilling to confront strangers or call the police giving predatory criminals the green light to go about causing harm, essentially creating an environment where crime causes crime and it becomes contagious.

From my understanding, Sampson was more concerned with the perception of disorder, I found it fascinating the idea that signs of disorders in one area would not be noticed in another area it basically comes down to context.

It was fascinating but something that I wouldn't consider to be a new idea  that perceived disorder  increases with increased ratios of black or immigrant within a neighborhood Sampson's research reveals that blacks and immigrants also have perceived higher levels of disorder in their neighborhoods. I would be lying if that had not already been a perception of mine. I have worked in a lot of major cities which include: Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Diego and of course Las Vegas. I have been to plenty of neighborhoods and had the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life and in some of the neighborhoods where I felt a bit less safe I was often the minority. At the same time, I have met some of the friendliest and kind people in those same neighborhoods but even they were quick to give advice on where and where not to go in those neighborhoods and of course when. 
The article that I found was written by Albert Hunter from Northwestern University and is titled: Symbols of Incivility: Social Disorder and Fear of Crime in Urban Neighborhoods. There were a lot of similarities between Hunter and Sampson. They are both using Chicago neighborhoods as the focus of their study and they both talk a lot about perception. one thing that I do like that Hunter talks about is that It is not necessarily the state to maintain social order. Although police perform a valuable service and function, it is not them that are going to change a neighborhood. Hunter argues that wholesome interaction will make that change. 
Here is the article if you are interested in reading it. 
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/82421.pdf

Poverty Traps

After reading the New York Times article, I felt a bit overwhelmed for J.R. I respect how he saw a problem and he decided to do something about it to the best of his ability. He and Sampson have very different approaches on how to help a community or neighborhood but both can make a large impact. What I kept thinking about after I read the article was that J.R.'s work might seem like a small drop in the bucket in respect to the magnitude of the poverty problem itself but if you look at it on a personal level, think about the families or the individuals that he could have helped. His small acts could help change their immediate surroundings and even their world. He could even help build some momentum, just like bad deeds or bad habits I think good deeds or acts can be contagious. Other people could see his efforts and follow suit. On the other hand an individual like Sampson can have an extremely large impact on these "poverty traps" his use of the bucket loads of data and studies of other communities and of course his potential to find larger resources to attack a much bigger problem than a single neighborhood. I would agree with Sampson that "poverty traps" are a real issue in inner cities and that eliminating those housing projects and stopping inner city decay is a monumental task and a seemingly insurmountable challenge. It's tough to change the momentum of an entire community. People are for the most part a product of their environment and circumstance.

I would say that the most blighted neighborhood that I have ever seen was a neighborhood that I lived in as a missionary while serving in Peru. The first city that I lived in was called Chimbote which in it self was poverty stricken, there was not a lot of industry and that being the case there was not a lot of job options. I lived in a neighborhood called 21 de Abril, it was probably the second poorest/roughest neighborhoods in the city. Most of the houses were adobe brick with tin roofs. Violence was a real issue, I was robbed once, luckily I didn't have much to take and wasn't hurt. There was a few nights that I woke up to gun fire outside of my house. The city itself was very dirty, there was trash everywhere and not very many places to enjoy like a clean park or any place with maintained vegetation. What was encouraging was that the community leaders were making strong efforts to improve their neighborhoods. We assisted in multiple service projects that were intended to beautify 21 de Abril. There was a particular project that they had been working on for almost a year. They were building a soccer field and a small park, but they didn't have tractors or heavy machinery. They were building this soccer field with shovels and about 100 people with 5 gallon tin buckets. They would go work on the field all day every day, moving what seemed to be mountains of dirt just so that some day they would have a nice place to play futbol and their kids can play in a safe and comfortable environment. I was impressed with the resolve of the community to try and better their situation.

Place

My understanding of Sampson and his notion of "place" made most sense of when he stated that a neighborhood is not something as simple as a visible area but a neighborhood is more "kinds of people" which means to me that its more people with similar values and social similarities or similar circumstance. I think of the examples in my own life and where I've lived and who the people that I considered my neighbors. When my wife and I were first married 6 years ago this past summer, we got our first place together in a neighborhood not far from where I grew up. It was a little association housing community with roughly 90 houses. It was a cute little 1300 square Ft. house with a cute little yard, we thought that it was going to be a great place to start our lives together. The first day of moving in we were moving furniture, hanging pictures and everything else that I despise about moving and we heard a knock at the door. I answered it and it was the association president and his hello was something along the lines of "Hi, just so you know, this community is being made into a 55 and older community and we discourage younger families to move in here, so I hope that you don't feel like getting too comfortable for too long." That was not the warm welcome that we had expected, we ended up staying in that house for the next five years and we received multiple notes on cars and complaints about our kids playing in our yard. Out of those 90 homes in that little association I can probably name 4 people that I would have considered neighbors and those were the people that we knew from church. We considered them neighbors because we had a common bond with them and felt like we could rely on them. About a year ago when we moved to a new house on the other side of town on a street where we were surrounded by people in similar situations, young families that were in similar situations and even those that weren't in similar situations valued the things for the most part what we did: children, family, and work. We have lived in this house for a year now and we know our neighbors, we don't all go to the same church or have the same beliefs but we do have similar values ( previously mentioned). My wife and I were having this conversation about a year ago how we felt like we were finally in a real neighborhood and how in only 2 months we knew those around us better than the people that we lived by for the previous 5 years. So when Sampson spoke about Place and how real neighborhoods were "kinds of people" it made sense to me that I was finally part of a neighborhood and a community.

Ints 3900- First Blog Response

My name is Carson McKim, I am 30 years old, married for 6 years to a beautiful, and wonderful woman who is and will most likely be way out of my league and we have two beautiful children Lincoln and Nixin (a boy and a little girl). I was born up in Wyoming and my family moved to southern Utah when I was about eight or nine for my dad's new job and to of course get out of the snow. I grew up with a huge love of sports and the out doors, and as I have grown older the only thing that has changed is that my love for those things has grown immensely. I say that because most of the most important life lessons that I've learned and my work ethic came from both team and individual sports. I am majoring in integrated studies with an emphasis in business and spanish. My ultimate goal is to go on and get my masters degree. My goal is a lofty one, for me, at least. I want to go to Thunderbird and get a masters in international business management and then see what I can make out of myself with a multinational company. I've always enjoyed work and I am beginning to appreciate and enjoy school, I am not usually the smartest guy in class but I am still able to contribute where I can in discussions.

When I think about neighborhoods and communities, my first notion is to think of a group of people in a geographical setting, but as I got reading, I started thinking about how it could be much more than that. Neighborhoods and communities have just as much if not more to do with the things that people have in common such as values, beliefs, and social status. Religion and faith is a good example, are people more inclined to know their neighbor if they share the same values and beliefs as them? Most people I think are.