Conferences and Papers

Defining Community, Reexamining Society,
University of Michigan (1996)

Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations
and Voluntary Action (1996)

Urban Affairs Association Conference (1997 and 1998)

 

Various staff members from the SOC Project have written papers and have made various presentations throughout the project's existence. What follows is information regarding the different conferences at which papers were presented and a brief abstract of each paper.

Defining Community, Reexamining Society,
    University of Michigan (1996)

The University of Michigan - Flint sponsored a three-day interdisciplinary conference on community and society. The conference was titled "Defining Community, Reexamining Society." It was part of University of Michigan's (Flint) "Reinforcing Community Values Project." The conference was held September 19 - 21, 1996.

This three-day conference examined, reflected on, and responded to the growing crisis in American civic life - the erosion of community. Over one hundred scholars and practitioners joined the public to discuss problems in our communities. Consideration of ways to lessen the impact of these problems on our society, and collaboration on developing frameworks for ongoing action to address community issues was a corner stone of the conference. What follows are the papers which were presented at this conference and a brief abstract.

This paper describes the ongoing SOC Project that is designed to measure, study, and eventually improve the social fabric that exists in urban neighborhoods in the City of Lansing, Michigan. The goals of the project were presented.

This presentation was a case study of two of our blocks : Allison Street and Hillsdale Street. The authors sought to examine the affects of race on issues of connection in a high minority block (Hillsdale) as compared to a high majority block (Allison).  The poster session included such topics as the examination of the comfort levels of the different racial groups on their blocks, as well as the continued existence of racial segregation. A qualitative description of several blocks with varied proportions of minorities also provided. Interviews with residents on these blocks targeted their perceptions of sense of community, length of residence, and how the issues of race and class have affected their impressions of safety and comfort levels on their blocks. Many of the questions in the surveys as well as further interviews with these residents clearly dissipated many myths and stereotypes regarding high minority, particularly African-American blocks in urban settings.

The authors explored on an ongoing issue in urban settings: a lack of cohesion among neighbors and a need for individuals to be connected to their larger community. Although outside leadership may lead to improving conditions on certain blocks, it is believed that individual participation and empowerment on the block level is imperative in actual and sustaining results (Giles, 1993).  The authors' findings suggest that on blocks where residents are less likely to agree that they can resolve conflict when it arises on the block, they are more likely to be interested in assuming a leadership role on the block.

The objectives of this poster session was (1) to investigate "sense of community" as a form of social capital, (2) to determine the physical and social conditions which facilitate the "sense of community" in a neighborhood community, and (3) to explore the relationship between "sense of community" and community empowerment. Social capital is based on a social network, conditions in the poster session referred to the presence of the network and the strength of the networks between members of the community. Empowerment, in this poster session, connotes a process by which individuals gain mastery or control over their own lives and a democratic participation in the life of their community (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988).

Although it has been hypothesized that the social cohesion in communities is related to civic participation, a review of the literature revealed no studies that examined the relationship between the sense of community and voting behavior. This poster session was aimed at discovering if there is a relationship between voting and sense of community. The data about voters in Lansing is secondary data which was aggregated to the street level. The data was analyzed by multiple regression using six dimensions of sense of community. It was hypothesized that greater sense of community will be related to greater voter participation at the block level, especially in elections of local officials.

The presentation began by addressing the issues of levels of analysis and aggregation, and it was followed by a discussion of the variables used to differentiate blocks. It was noted that it is common to collect group level data by talking to individuals, however, there is some difficulty associated with the interpretation of these data at the group level ( Ostroff, 1993). The SOC Project attempted to address this issue through both the wording of our questions and an exploration of the data. Results of the scaled development were presented which included factor analyses at the individual level and a comparison of group means and variances across blocks. Also discussed was the appropriateness of aggregating individual level data to group level measures, and the risks of looking only at the individual level data.
 

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Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations
    and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), (1996)

The Silver Anniversary Conference for ARNOVA was held on November 7 - 9, 1996 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in New York City. SOC Project members were selected to present as a panel from Michigan State University. Our session was titled, "Social Capital in Neighborhood Communities."  This was followed by Edwin Gomez who presented on a path analysis model of sense of community. June Woo Kim then presented on causes of and variances in social capital. Juliette Mackin presented social fabric and its outcomes. Yu-hsi Lin presented direct and indirect factors contributing to the decline of voting behavior. Lastly, Thomas Crew presented (on behalf of Annalie Campos who was unable to attend) on social capital and recycling behavior. What follows are the brief abstracts of the papers

The objective of this paper was to investigate sense of community as a form of social capital at the smallest geographical level of urban community: the neighborhood block. Physical and social conditions which facilitate sense of community and community empowerment were explored.  Physical conditions on the block that were thought to contribute to sense of community were rated independently by two trained observers. These conditions included such factors as the presence of front porches, shared driveways and curbside mailboxes, the closeness of the houses and the width of the street, whether the street was dead end or a through street and the presence of nearby gathering places such as parks, schools, and convenience stores.  Social/organizational conditions included the existence of a neighborhood block watch, an organized neighborhood association, a community police officer assigned to the block, and the presence of a recognized leader on the block.

The decrease of social capital and a loss of sense of community in urban neighborhoods in recent years has been accompanied by a decline in civic participation by their residents. Although some studies have documented the relationship of sense of community and civic participation at the individual level (Davidson & Carter, 1989), there has been little study of this relationship at the community level. This paper reported the results of two studies using the neighborhood block as a unit to examine how sense of community relates to two aspects of civic participation: recycling and voting. For each study the hypothesis is that the greater the sense of community, the greater is the participation in recycling and voting.

It is critical to the enhancement of quality of life in urban areas that we have an understanding of what make some communities strong and viable. The social components of healthy communities impact the political and economic arenas and, as such, must be recognized as an important part of community development and revitalization efforts. Sense of community and a strong social fabric have been hypothesized to contribute to individuals' willingness to engage in civic participation and voluntary activities (Chavis & Wandersman, 1990). This study tested the impacts of a strong social fabric on:

• an individual's level of interest in working with neighbors to improve conditions on the block,
• an individual's degree of willingness to take on a leadership role on the block,
• whether or not an individual has volunteered to help others in the community during the previous month, and
• whether or not an individual has donated blood during the previous year.

Urban Affairs Association Conference (1997 and 1998)

This study looks at the relationship between actual and perceived crime in urban neighborhoods.  The residents'  perception of crime is somewhat reflection of the actual crime rate.  However, the discrepancy can be partially explained by sense of community and income.  Out of those two variables, sense of community might be more important in affecting the discrepancy between fear of crime and the actual crime rate.
 

This research deals with organizational aspects of block neighborhoods with a focus on leadership and participation.  Variables that are examined in this study that might be related to willingness to serve as a leader on the block or to work with with others include individual variables (e.g., age, race, gender), group-level variables (e.g., sense of community among residents) and contextual catalysts (e.g., different types of problems facing the community including crime).  It is also our interest to examine whether the exostence of viable leadership affects the environment of the neighborhood (e.g, through various community improvement activities or crime prevention activieis).

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