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Hyperlocal relationships are internet-enabled interactions in a common locale. They are opening new frontiers for geographically based, community-oriented, and civically engaged action. However, the influences of virtual interactions over procedural aspects of sustainability projects are not fully theorized. To fill this gap, we examine whether anticipating the use of social media re-shapes how the community voice method (CVM) intervenes in deliberative spaces associated with waterway sustainability in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA). CVM is a video-based participatory research approach designed to foster inclusive and community-focused planning. Like most visual methods, it originated before the wide availability of interactive web 2.0 technologies. Our working hypothesis is that the intention to engage the public through online fora creates a new group of stakeholders who are poorly understood. As a result of analyzing field notes, audio-visual recordings of participants, and other documents, we find that anticipating the use of social media shapes all aspects of participation, including: awareness of context, group dynamics, interventions, outcomes of concern. Concern for the opinions and perspectives of hyperlocal participants re-shapes recommendations about how to align research projects with community needs and planning deliberation. Social media is an important outlet for the work, but changed the placement of video products in relation to waterway sustainability plans, especially with respect to environmental justice. We conclude by proposing a framework for hyperlocal sustainability research that appropriately emphasizes justice.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) addresses the economic needs of low-income families, but its annual distribution in one lump-sum limits recipients’ ability to handle financial emergencies that arise throughout the year. We examine the relationship between an advanced periodic payment of the EITC and recipients’ wellbeing. We compare the perceived financial stress of recipients receiving a traditional lump-sum payment to a group that received four advanced payments spread throughout the year. Periodic payment recipients experienced significantly lower levels of perceived financial stress. This relationship was partly mediated by less need to borrow money, lower levels of food insecurity, and fewer unpaid bills. Therefore, periodic payments may enhance the positive association between the EITC and the financial wellbeing of families.

Rising inequality and the lingering effects of the most recent economic recession continue to engender negative perceptions of access to opportunity in the United States. While prior research has established the importance of geography in understanding opportunity in metropolitan areas, little attention has been given to the spatial distribution of opportunity outside urban areas or its temporal variation. This article builds on existing frameworks for measuring opportunity to calculate a multidimensional opportunity index for counties in the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia for the years 2000 and 2010. We use exploratory spatial data analysis techniques to map and critically examine the geography of opportunity at both time periods across regions and three distinct county typologies with an emphasis on identifying clusters of high and low opportunity. We find that opportunity decreased on average for all counties from 2000 to 2010 as did its standard deviation, consistent with arguments that opportunity in the U.S. has both declined and converged. While the opportunity index remains highest in metropolitan and urban counties, nonmetropolitan and rural areas fared well with respect to the spatial clustering of high opportunity counties. Clusters of high opportunity counties shifted from the Northeast to Midwest regions, while clusters of low opportunity counties in traditional strongholds of persistent poverty like Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and Lower Rio Grande Valley have become more fragmented.