Interview with Roger Hart recounts discussions with the environmental psychologist on his childhood influences related to gardening and geography, his studies of children's understanding of the physical environment, and his current work involved with identifying ways to create environmental opportunities for children. Also notes his work with…

Explores an effort by Colgate University (New York) to enhance economic development in two low-income hamlets in New York through community-visioning programs. Describes the process of community visioning and shows how Colgate has been instrumental in its promotion. Argues that universities are better situated than governments or nonprofits to…

Discusses two areas central to the development mission of the University of Massachusetts (Lowell): (1) restructuring activities for a transformative effect on the regional economy while maintaining academic standards, and (2) who should be involved in these decisions. Reviews projects undertaken by the university under a community-outreach…

Presents a case study of the Campus Affiliates Program, a collaborative venture designed to revitalize the most severely impoverished sectors of New Orleans (Louisiana). Focuses on processes that created the program; organizing principles; obstacles encountered; and impacts of the program on faculty, students, staff, and institutions. (DSK)

Explores why service-learning students have only rarely been engaged directly as neighborhood organizers, then employs John Dewey's understanding of democracy to analyze one program which has succeeded in making widespread use of college students as front-line organizers. Describes how the complementarity between what students do at their…

Examines Detroit's economic development policy-making culture and assesses its impact on the formation of the community development corporation (CDC) network that dominated Empowerment Zone (EZ) planning in the initial stages. Analyzes the importance of distrust between City Hall, business interests, and community residents in consolidating CDC…

Examines the ritualistic nature of community art, distinguishing elements and qualities essential for it to effectively generate private, organic relationships in settings where public independent relationships prevail. Research on two community art projects indicates that community art provides a ritual framework for social interaction by…

High school, undergraduate, and graduate students conducted ethnographic research on the quality of older adults' environments through service learning and community development projects. Students gained understanding of elders' daily experiences as well as knowledge of research methods. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)

This paper examines the influence of community attachment on voluntary citizen participation in rural community improvement projects. We do so by modifying the original systemic model of community attachment (Kasarda and Janowitz 1974) and combining it with tenets of rational choice and social embeddedness theories. The modified model is then…

Shared values, capacity building and a powerful focus upon learning and leadership (at all levels) would be inter-related elements of many consultants' recipe for school and community regeneration. Add to that collective alignment around core purposes, enquiry processes and collaborative working norms, and you have a powerful combination of…

One of the Millennium Development Goals declared by the United Nations in 2000 was to reduce by half the population of people living in extreme poverty, by 2015. Adult education can and should contribute significantly to this development goal. Nevertheless it has hardly been explored so far in the national Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers. In…

Rural communities have fewer financial resources, making the community colleges located in these regions central to economic development. This chapter reviews the importance of recognizing the rural differential via policy changes and offers strategies to close the resource gap between rural and nonrural community colleges.

Education in schools that serve nationalities consisting of comparatively small populations is currently a focal topic in relation to academia and international organizations. The issue of cultural choice in the schools--whether the function of education in these schools is ultimately dissemination of modern mainstream culture or transmission of…

Community schools are organized around two common goals: helping students learn and succeed and strengthening families and communities. Full-service community schools extend these guiding principles. They are centers of their communities, providing high-quality after-school opportunities, comprehensive early childhood education, real-world…

There is evidence in recent Government policy in England of the emergence of a wider role for schools in relation to the neighbourhoods they serve. In particular, the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal in England sets the work of schools within the context of an overarching regeneration strategy. The study reported here, sponsored by the…