Search

Information about several papers discussed at a session on currents from Chicago, Illinois and the impact of U.S. sociology around the world, that were given before the American Sociological Association, are presented. The papers presented ventures into the history of sociology and emphasizes its effort as a discipline to confront the realities of war and peace, poverty and wealth, nationalism and imperialism, dominance and subornation and to define the role of sociology and sociologists in the face of these realities.

This White Paper presents the Consensus Statements derived from a Special Issues Board (SIB) held in Chicago, IL, in October 2010. The SIB was convened to address the question of whether there is a need for both aerosol and aqueous intranasal steroids (INSs) in the treatment of allergic rhinitis (AR). The faculty reviewed the published record of efficacy and safety of aerosol and aqueous INSs, as well as patient and physician satisfaction and preferences for currently available INSs, and burden of disease. Agreement on unmet needs also included the practice experience of the faculty and their colleagues. The body of evidence indicates that INSs are equally effective and well tolerated for most patients. However, differences exist among current aqueous formulations as well as between these products and their aerosol antecedents, based on the properties of the nasal spray. Aerosol formulations, although no longer available, may be preferred for some patients with specific pathophysiology and may be preferred by some patients based on sensory perception. There are good reasons to expand the currently available options of INSs by having both aerosol and aqueous formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the contradictions of "Chicago Daily Socialist," a newspaper maintained by socialists in Chicago, Illinois from October 1906 to December 1912. It states that while strong influence was exerted by the Socialist party and readers on the editorial stance of the daily, its management was never controlled by them. It says that in 1906, when the daily started publication, the Czech socialist "Spravedlnost" and the German anarchist "Arbeiter-Zeitung" were published in Chicago. It mentions that for most of the daily's existence, it boasted itself for not only defending and representing the working class' interests, but for being written, published, and financed by the workers themselves.

This paper discusses the history of the Polish book collection at the Chicago Public Library (CPL) from the time the Foreign Language Section (FOL) in the main library was established, until the present. The author has used both primary and secondary sources. Many of them are archival materials still unpublished (FOL Annual Report Bulletin from the Office of the Librarian, etc.) and stored in the Special Collections and Preservation Division at the Harold Washington Library Center (HWLC) in Chicago. The names of many dedicated librarians who have worked and are working now at FOL are provided. The article tries to answer the question: How did they help new immigrants to adjust to the American way of life? A considerable part of this paper is devoted to the programming aimed at Chicago's Polish community. These programs took place at CPL from its beginning, but more were scheduled in the 1970s and the 1980s, when American libraries begin to promote multiculturalism and diversity. The establishment of the Polish American Services Committee (PASC) in 1995, which was organized and continues to function to the present time, is also covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on "Call for Papers" for the next annual meeting of the Convention Committee of the American Association on Mental Deficiency to be held in Chicago, Illinois. To enlist participation in the section programs is one of the purpose of the "Call for Papers." The responsibility of a section committee with a section chairman who is also a vice-president of the Association is the plans for he programs of each of the five sections.

This article analyses the narratives and counter-narratives which characterised the struggle between the Chicago Public School Board (CPS) and the Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU) preceding the 2019 Chicago teachers' strike. This was an extraordinary event which has received little scholarly attention. The paper explores the types and uses of the discourses put forward in the struggle through the lens of Nancy Fraser's 'politics of needs interpretation'. Fraser's framework was conceived and is typically applied to social welfare policy, so this paper provides a new perspective and understanding of its theoretical application in its examination of competing educational claims. Analysing key CPS and CTU texts which are in the public domain, I argue that different actors in the struggle competed for ownership of an expert discourse on student need in Chicago. The paper draws attention to the way a teachers' union consciously used social movement framing to foreground an inclusive view of the working class. The CTU's refusal to accept the dominant conceptualisation of education as performativity was an assertion of teacher professionalism. Placing the social reproductive needs of their students and families at the centre of their demands for better education provision in Chicago was a radical reimagining of education. In conclusion, Fraser's theory is found to be a helpful tool when considering who has the legitimate authority to determine education needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the progress in pharmaceutical and epidemiological tools for combating HIV spread, HIV stigma remains a significant social barrier impeding treatment and prevention efforts, potentially reducing the effectiveness of interventions to reduce HIV transmission. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to defining and estimating HIV stigmatization through the structure of sexual relations, as opposed to attitudes. We conceptualize structural stigma as arising from two mechanisms: (1) a reduced propensity towards HIV serodiscordant partnerships (exclusion); and (2) a reduced propensity towards partnerships with seroconcordant individuals who themselves have serodiscordant partnerships (ostracism). Both mechanisms can be assessed from observed partnership network data using exponential family random graph models (ERGMs). We demonstrate our approach on a sexual contact network of black men who have sex with men in the South Side of Chicago. We find a tendency for serodiscordant sexual relationships to be suppressed in the network (θ = −0.69, p <.05), as well as a suppressive tendency for HIV negative YBMSM to have sex with other HIV negative people in serodiscordant relationships (θ = −0.96, p <.05) suggesting that structural HIV stigma is present in this network. Potential relationships with attitudinal stigma and implications for epidemiological strategies for reducing HIV stigma are discussed. • HIV stigma is present structurally in a network of men who have sex with men. • One's network position co-varies with one's beliefs about HIV transmission. • The success of HIV destigmatization campaigns can be tracked through network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of selling homes on contract—typically on onerous terms and comparatively riskier for the buyer than traditional mortgage financing—was commonplace in the US postwar era when Black households were systematically cut off from mainstream mortgage financing. Assumed to be relegated to an era of de jure segregation after the passage of fair housing legislation, contract selling has reemerged since 2008. By forensically recreating the ownership and financing histories for 515 properties in Cook County, Illinois that were sold on contract between 2011 and 2015 and a close reading of recorded land contracts, the paper connects these properties to the foreclosure crisis after 2008, and to two earlier periods of subprime lending, in the early 2000s and late 1990s. The paper uses this historical property analysis to deepen understanding of class-monopoly rent as a recursive capitalist objective within racialized property markets. In the simplest terms, class-monopoly rent is the portion of rent that owners secure through establishing and maintaining barriers to access to property. The paper describes three processes that produce racialized class-monopoly markets. First, the continued production of "group-differentiated vulnerability" to precarious housing is a premise and a product of the process of racialized uneven development. Second, the role of the state in the management of financial risk intensifies risks for communities made vulnerable by previous rounds of racial and class dispossession. Third, these two processes structure urban space so that the land contract serves as a tractable legal tool in creating and consolidating racialized class-monopoly market spaces. The result is the proliferation of racially-contingent forms of unstable housing tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the lives of two light-skinned brothers raised in a Black neighborhood in 1960s-70s Chicago, highlighting the impact of social and economic factors on individual trajectories. The research then segues into the concept of "systemic poverty" recognizing that 10-20% of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are in poverty creating concerns of disparities in education, health, housing, hiring practices, possible voter suppression, wealth gaps, media representation, environmental, employment, and criminal justice. Using grounded theory, the research develops a model based on the causes and effects of systemic poverty, critiques the logical flaws of systemic racism, and calls for greater recognition and support for poor Americans of all races, as well as a national conversation on poverty and inequality that includes all marginalized communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a Chicago-based alternative medium covered the 2019 Chicago's mayoral race. The study uses critical discourse analysis and the theory of Black feminism to argue for the need to examine the multiple identities of Black women and how such identities determine their representation in socio-cultural and political spaces. The findings from this study show that agency is a major part of media coverage and that the identities of Black women are better represented when the women are portrayed as agents in their own stories. These findings provide an alternative narrative to the discourse of Black womanhood which has been racialized and perverted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Gentrification precedes and follows the opening of new parks in Los Angeles. • Gentrification precedes the opening of new parks in Chicago. • Gentrification precedes and follows the opening of non-regional parks in Los Angeles. • Stronger evidence of gentrification preceding greening farther from downtown in Los Angeles. • Gentrification follows greening close to downtown but not farther away in Los Angeles. The health benefits of green space have led to calls for equitable access to parks. When new green spaces are built in low-income communities, however, gentrification often ensues. The "green gentrification" literature has paid little attention to gentrification that might occur before greening. In this paper, we explore whether and under which circumstances gentrification might precede and follow greening, a process known as the "green gentrification cycle." Focusing on Los Angeles and Chicago, we build hedonic models focused on single-family homes sold in 2010–2021 and run post-hoc pairwise comparison tests to assess price changes over time for homes within a half-mile of new parks (treatment) and farther (control). When considering all new parks, we find that gentrification is associated with subsequent greening and, to some extent, that greening is associated with ensuing gentrification in Los Angeles. In Chicago, gentrification is associated with subsequent greening, but new parks are not associated with ensuing gentrification. Models distinguishing larger regional from smaller non-regional parks show evidence of gentrification before and after non-regional parks were built in Los Angeles, but not for regional parks. In Los Angeles, we identify stronger evidence of gentrification preceding greening farther from downtown than closer to downtown, and signals of gentrification after greening near downtown but not farther away. Models focusing on new parks built near transit stations show inconclusive results. Despite methodological limitations (e.g., examining a single measure of gentrification and different park types together), our findings shed light on the complex spatiotemporal relationships between greening and gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Oikos: Lithuanian Migration & Diaspora Studies is the property of Lithuanian Emigration Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban energy demand aggregation (UEDA) is a key aspect of urban sustainability, as it can help to improve the energy efficiency of urban systems and reduce their environmental impacts. However, UEDA is a challenging task, as it involves aggregating heterogeneous and diverse energy demands of individual buildings into a collective demand at a given spatial scale. This paper proposes a novel entropy-based method for UEDA that quantifies the information loss or distortion resulting from this aggregation process. The method also identifies the optimal spatial scale for UEDA that minimizes information loss or distortion, and evaluates the quality and reliability of UEDA results using entropy-based metrics. We apply the method to a case study of Chicago, where we estimate and analyze the energy demand of buildings at 10 spatial scales, ranging from 1.5 km to 15 km, and for different types of energy sources. We calculate the entropy for each spatial scale and energy source, and compare it with building characteristics and ZIP codes. We also assess the quality and reliability of UEDA results using entropy-based metrics, such as information gain ratio and normalized mutual information. Our results show that different spatial scales reveal different patterns and relationships of energy demand, and that choosing an appropriate scale can enhance the accuracy and efficiency of UEDA. Our results also show that there is an optimal spatial scale for UEDA that balances information preservation and reduction, and that this scale may vary depending on the type of energy source and the urban context. Our findings contribute to the field of UEDA and urban sustainability by developing a novel perspective on urban energy dynamics, revealing the complexity and diversity of urban systems, such as population, land use, transportation, and energy demand. • Introduced an entropy-based approach for urban energy demand analysis. • Optimized spatial scales in energy planning for urban sustainability. • Examined energy consumption patterns across diverse urban scales. • Explored policy implications for efficient urban energy management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the discussion about what to do about dying main streets has focused on use flexibility. This paper focuses on quantity and coverage – how many and where should main streets be located? The current physical spread of traditional main streets is a product of an earlier age when miles of storefronts were surrounded by high-density neighbourhoods. Not enough attention is paid to the need for ‘smart shrinkage’ – i.e. the need to drastically reduce the amount of land given over – i.e. zoned – as commercial space. Focusing on struggling commercial corridors in one large American city, Chicago, I lay out the factors to consider in deciding priority areas, including population, business, and street characteristics, and include suggestions about what planners and urbanists should aim for in the next decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do art and community spaces look like when no one can use them to gather? Academic research into neighbourhoods and urban art scenes have focused on the power of such spaces to bring people together. Using the framework of Oldenburg’s notion of ‘third places’, sociologists have recognized the importance of places like art galleries, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and anywhere else people gather in providing a physical site of orientation outside work and the home for people to be together and communities to amalgamate. While there have always been critiques of such places and their role in urban space, e.g. their part in gentrification and potential displacement, positive accounts of their role in neighbourhood life have typically focused on their ability to draw people together, so a situation like the current pandemic – when such gatherings are forestalled – raises an obvious question about their current utility. Using two case studies on the South Side of Chicago, this paper leverages interview data with merchants involved with socially engaged commercial spaces to examine some of the ways that community spaces in Chicago shifted in light of the pandemic. The article concludes with policy and theoretical considerations based on these case studies, extrapolating lessons beyond the South Side of Chicago. Specifically, it suggests that in addition to offering limited versions of their traditional facilitation of physical co-presence, art and community third places can also leverage their importance in social networks to help distribute information and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority students and students with disabilities are disciplined disproportionately from their peers. Discipline has led to many negative consequences in the lives of youth in the United States, including the school-to-prison pipeline. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance encouraging school districts to develop policies that seek alternatives to exclusionary penalties. Some states, including the State of Illinois, have been proactive in revamping the state's discipline. In this paper, we will examine how the states are responding to the school-to-prison pipeline and the other negative effects of exclusions and suspensions. Additionally, this paper will examine the implementation of Illinois Senate Bill 100, from an administrator's point of view, to make recommendations for disciplinary strategies and possible policy revisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]