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How a Nonprofitness Orientation Influences Collective Civic Action: The Effects of Civic Engagement and Political Participation
No full textThis research addresses the question of how the institutional frame of “nonprofitness” shapes the civic activities pursued by community-based nonprofit organizations (CBOs). Specifically, we study how an organizational commitment and orientation to traditional nonprofit values affect activities that foster collective civic action. We draw on the theoretical frame of institutionalism to examine the role of CBOs as organizational actors that foster civic health through their collective civic action. Our research employs a structural equation model to test associations among several constructs, highlighting the interaction of key variables and activities. Based on our analysis of original survey data, we argue that nonprofits develop a civic capacity through the praxis of nonprofit values, civic health activities, and collective civic action. Our findings extend existing research through new measurement tools that capture the institutional orientation of community-based nonprofits that shapes the nature of their involvement in civil society and collective civic action
Reconceptualizing Measures of Black–White Disparity in Infant Mortality in U.S. Counties
No full textThe magnitude of Black–White differences in infant mortality rates varies considerably across U.S. counties. Many prior studies of racial disparities in infant mortality rely on rate ratios (RRs) and rate differences (RDs) to measure relative and absolute inequalities in the risk of infant mortality between Black and White infants. In this paper, I draw on linked birth and death records from 2004 to 2013 to systematically evaluate RRs and RDs as tools for assessing variation in Black–White disparities in infant mortality across U.S. counties. I present evidence that both metrics have limitations in identifying counties that can serve as a model for, or target of, institutional interventions. For example, rather than reflecting an advantaged position for Black infants, counties with the lowest RRs tend to be places with high White infant mortality rates. I then introduce a new approach to measuring relative and absolute inequalities in infant mortality and evaluate the utility of these new metrics compared to conventional approaches
Emergency Water Station 3.0 Final Project Report
Get PDFThe South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC) tasked our team, The Emergency Water Station 3.0 (3WS), with designing and implementing an emergency water station for migrants and refugees crossing the border between Mexico and Texas. The objectives of this project are to design, build, and test a prototype that can safely provide water to these migrants and refugees while communicating the water amount within the station back to the STHRC without hindrance due to weather or remote location. The following report outlines the features of our complete design, and details the primary functions of the main three subsystems that comprise the design. These subsystems include: the base structure, which holds the water and electronics/communication equipment, the electronics/communication system, which tallies and transmits water jug data to the STHRC, and the power system, which charges the station batteries and powers the electronic components. The final design is evaluated against the project constraints and requirements via subsystem and complete prototype testing.
The design constraints of our project include the allotted time, two full semesters, and a budget of 1200, our team spent exactly 5 per month. Furthermore, we required that the primary components of the electronics/communications subsystem be at least IP55 compliant, as outlined by IEC Code 60529, which contributes to the weather resistance of our design. Each of these components is at least IP55 rated, some being up to IP68 compliant, which adds additional durability to adverse weather which is another requirement. The station must withstand an operational temperature of 20°F - 140°F, and a maximum wind speed of up to 40mph. Based on FEA simulations (seen in Section 3.8) and field tests, the wind speed requirement is satisfied. Although the components that make up our design are all capable of operating within the temperature range, our team was unable to directly test and prove this, as renting time in a 30’ tall thermal testing chamber is infeasible. The station also satisfies the requirement to report the total number of one gallon water jugs stored within the device at least once per day, to an accuracy of ±1 gallon jug. Furthermore, the station is required to be visible at night from at least one mile away, which was satisfied by attaching an LED strip to the top of our 25ft flagpole. Lastly, we detail two optional features which were not implemented in the final design: a phone charging system and additional storage compartments for items such as protein powder.
Overall, the Emergency Water Station team has designed, constructed, and implemented a fully functioning prototype. All of our constraints and requirements were met, with the exception of additional lab and field testing for the operational temperature requirement. There are no predicted changes that will be made in the future, but improvements can always be made
The Judicialization of Indigenous Territories in Brazil: Judicial Power and the Obstacles to Demarcation
Get PDFGendered Geographies of Care: Women as Health Workers in an Indigenous Health Project in the Peruvian Amazon
Get PDFThis article examines how women as primary gatekeepers for well being became involved as health promoters in a local indigenous health care project in the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios, Peru. Here, I provide a case study of the processes and transitions that the project underwent from its inception to its eventual inclusion of indigenous women health promoters into its programs among indigenous communities from the mid 1980’s through the early 1990’s, at a time when western primary health care was even less accessible then it is today. The article begins with an overview of Madre de Dios and a general discussion of the links between health and gender. It then calls attention to women’s invisibility in daily primary healthcare and examines how and why women were initially neglected in health care delivery strategies while examining the progression and extent of their involvement, their role in health resource management, and the difficulties they faced as leaders vis-à-vis broader political structures such as the native federation and local government. Overall, the project succeeded in broadening the definition of health to include ideas of well-being, ‘living well’ and conservation as a set of relationships with the environment and its care - areas in which women undeniably hold key positions. In examining geographical natural resource maps by charting ideological and gender-based practices upon it, this article discusses a gender balanced approach to processes legitimizing indigenous healthcare practices. This research suggests that the overlooking of women’s roles in community health is embedded in local and global gendered politics of health care that tend to ignore that care practices are embedded in daily social relations. Furthermore, the problems that the omission of women as health promoters raises offers a general critique of the indigenous health agent approach to healthcare in Amazonia
Infant Health Outcomes in Mega-Fire Affected Communities
No full textWe undertake a nationwide US study to estimate how mega-fires (defined as wildfires \u3e100,000 acres in size) affect short-term infant health outcomes in communities located within the flame zone. This is the first study to look exclusively at mega-fires, which have unique characteristics compared to smaller wildfire events and are becoming more frequent in the US. We find that pregnant mothers in affected counties experience 0.8 percentage point greater instances of low birth weight and 1.2 percentage point greater instances of prematurity. The low birth weight finding is equivalent to what would be expected if a mother smoked approximately 6.2 cigarettes per day during pregnancy. Importantly, impacts are potentially non-linearly increasing in mega-fire size. Improved benefit-cost analyses are needed to account for mega-fire indirect impacts when making wildfire control and suppression decisions
“Quando eu crescer, quero ser um fotógrafo”: caminhos da produção audiovisual de Kamikia Kisêdjê
No full text“Cuando crezca, quiero ser fotógrafo”: caminos de la producción audiovisual de Kamikia Kisêdjê
No full textDisease, Extinction, and Emergences in T.C. Boyle’s Friend of Earth and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
Get PDFIn this essay, we address Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth (2000) and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003) as climate fiction that plays out equally devastating yet realistic futuristic scenarios. In creative thought experiments, science fiction helps us to recognize humans as a collective force, a force that conquers, shapes, destroys, and rebuilds the planet in pre- and post-apocalyptic bouts not unlike the pre- and post-pandemic times we are now experiencing. Our focus on these two science fiction novels is on the intersectionality of emergent environments, extinctions, and diseases within the framework of climate change
Organizational and Environmental Factors Associated with Local Multihospital Systems: Precipitants for Coordination?
No full textBackground: Local multihospital systems (LMSs) commonly struggle to effectively coordinate across system members. Although a recent taxonomy of LMSs found the majority of systems to display lower levels of differentiation, integration, and coordination, some categories of LMS forms exhibited higher levels of integration and coordination.
Purpose: This study examines organizational and environmental factors associated with LMS forms displaying higher levels of integration and coordination.
Methodology/approach: Applying a multitheoretical framework and drawing from sources including the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, Intellimed databases, and primary data collected from LMS communications, descriptive and multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between LMS forms and varied organizational and environmental characteristics among LMSs in Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Results: The results of analysis of variance, Games-Howell, and Fisher\u27s exact tests identified significant relationships between each of the five LMS categories and varying market, competitive, organizational, and operational factors. A multinomial logistic regression analysis also distinguished the three most common LMS forms according to organizational and environmental factors.
Conclusion: Recognizing the varied degrees of integration and coordination across LMSs today, the results point to several factors that may explain such variation, including market size and resources, local competitors and their forms, organizational size and ownership, patient complexity, and regulatory restrictions.
Practice implications: With the continued promotion and development of innovative health care reform models and with the progressing expansion of care into outpatient sites and diverse settings, LMSs will continue to face greater pressure to integrate and coordinate services throughout the continuum of care across system components and service locations. Navigating the challenges of effective coordination requires administrators and policymakers to be cognizant of the organizational and environmental factors that may hinder or fuel coordination efforts across system components in local markets