Academic literature on the topic 'Political participation – Massachusetts – Somerville'

In 2006, the state of Massachusetts suffered a political debacle over the merits of Marshmallow Fluff, a beloved, locally made marshmallow paste. In an effort to combat childhood obesity, state Senator Jarrett Barrios proposed that Fluff be restricted in public schools. His fellow state legislator, Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, counter-proposed that the Fluffernutter (the fluff and peanut butter sandwich she and other locals grew up with) be named the official state sandwich. In the end, nostalgia trumped nutrition, revealing the cultural significance of this marshmallow treat. To generations of Massachusetts natives, Fluff symbolizes the innocence and irreverence of childhood. Furthermore, Fluff is an all-American icon: invented by an immigrant, it is the sole product of a family-owned company founded by returning WWI veterans. Since the political fallout, Fluff's populist heritage has been celebrated in an annual festival held in Somerville, Mass., birthplace of Fluff.

AUTHORITARIAN leaders and single-party régimes of all shades increasingly came under great pressures between 1990 and 1993 to liberalise and permit more participation in the political process. This transformation, which was part of what Samuel Huntington described as ‘the third wave of democratisation’,1 stemmed from sustained efforts by domestic political forces in African states, albeit assisted by a variety of demanded requirements from international financial institutions and industrialised countries, as well as by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. According to the US Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, the ‘new resolve to establish new attitudes, arrangements and structures’ came directly out of the exhaustion of the cold war.2 In other words, the promotion of democracy in Africa was part of the so-called peace dividend.3 Expectations for political evolution throughout the world were so high that some analysts predicted the emergence of ‘an international democratic order’.4 As Keith Somerville has observed: ‘Africa entered the 1990S in a mood of hope and expectation’.5

Abstract Baystate is the largest health system in Western Massachusetts with 4 hospitals, 3 Community Health Centers (CHCs) and a large primary care network. Baystate Medical Center (BMC) is in Springfield, Massachusetts. BMC and the CHCs were the first health care sites nationally to be recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as “Committed to Care Excellence” in the age friendly movement. Collaboration with a city-wide coalition of community-based organizations led to simultaneous recognition of Baystate as “age friendly” and recognition of the city as both dementia and age friendly. The 3 awards were presented at a Springfield senior center with media coverage and the participation of the mayor and other political leaders. This collaboration persists and the GWEP and coalition partners continue to participate in multiple joint educational and community outreach projects. As a result, the city coalition has added health care to its initial focus on housing and transportation.

Abstract In the United States, the first decades of the twenty-first century have been marked by a worsening fatal drug overdose epidemic leading life expectancy to decline for the first time in a century. Often termed deaths of despair, this development is attributed to declines in civic life, including lessening religious participation, wrought by long-term deindustrialization. Despite this, civil society has responded by contesting despair and the conditions hastening fatal overdose trends. This article examines faith-based community responses to the American overdose crisis through an extended case study of a church-led campaign in Massachusetts. In the summer of 2017, the state of Massachusetts released its fatal overdose numbers to the public: 2,069 people died of fatal overdose in 2016. In response, Trinity Church of Wrentham, Massachusetts, launched the #2069 campaign resulting in over 2,000 billboards and lawn signs emblazoned with #2069 displayed across the state. The memorial project fostered conversation, but also forged new community active in its work of social support, public health outreach and nonpartisan political engagement. The article considers the role of faith-based public health efforts and the potential for further interfaith and interracial collaboration on public health issues and the role of public religion in contesting conditions of despair.

Pickleball is reportedly the fastest growing sport in America, increasing in participation nearly 40% from 2019 to 2021 according to one measure. With this rapid growth, many municipalities have repurposed existing outdoor tennis courts for use as pickleball courts with little consideration for the increase in noise pollution that often accompanies the change. In contrast to tennis, pickleball employs a solid paddle and hard plastic balls, generating frequent and distinctive noise impulses while in play. Additionally, the speed of play is typically faster with more impulses occurring more often, and courts can be denser, with two active pickleball courts fitting in the space of one tennis court. This study examines the noise measurements and ensuing politics of a case in Falmouth, MA, where the repurposed tennis courts were located as close as 25 feet from the property line of abutting residents. Short-term and long-term measurements were taken over a full day of activity and were largely evaluated to the Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection (MADEP) Noise Policy. In periods of high activity, it was found that paddle-ball impulses generated levels exceeding the MADEP criteria about once every two seconds on abutting properties.

This article presents an in-depth case study of the Healthy Options for Prevention and Education Coalition’s Teens Tackle Tobacco initiative, a 3-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) project about the distribution of tobacco vendors and tobacco advertising in Worcester, Massachusetts. Using two theoretical frameworks, positive youth development (PYD) and social justice youth development (SJYD), the case reveals personal and community conditions that drove youth to get engaged in this project, how CBPR guided the group’s research and action strategy, and results of the work to date. Analysis of this case highlights factors that facilitate and pose barriers to active youth involvement in a long-term, tobacco-related community change initiative. Specifically, to affect oppressive community conditions, a blend of PYD’s focus on individual skill building, participation, and empowerment— joined with SJYD emphasis on community organizing and building youth’s self-awareness of how race, class, and other dimensions of power affect their lives on a daily basis—is needed.

Angel, S. et al. (Eds.). (1983). Land for housing the poor. Singapore: Select Books. Antaöv. A. (2007). Democracy to become reality: Participatory planning through action research. Habitat International, 31(3-4), 333-344. Archer, D. (2009). Social capital and participatory slum upgrading in Bangkok, Thailand. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. Asian Coalition for Housing Right [ACHR]. (2012). Comprehensive site planning: Transform community to better living place for all. Bangkok: Author. Boonyabancha, S. (2005). BMK going to scale with “slums” and squatter upgrading in Thailand. Environment and Urbanization, 17(1), 21-46. Boonyabancha, S. (2009). Land for housing the poor—by the poor: Experience from the BMK nationwide slum upgrading programme in Thailand. Environment and Urbanization, 21(2), 1-21. Brydon-Miller, M. et al. (2003). Why action research? Action Research, 1(1), 9-28. Community Organizations Development Institute [CODI]. 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(2007). รายงานวิจัยการประเมินผลโครงการบ้านมั่นคง เรื่อง คนจนเมือง: การเปลี่ยนแปลงโลกทัศน์และทัศนคติที่มีต่อตนเองและสังคม [The urban poor: The changes of social perspective and self reflection]. Unpublished Final Report submitted to Community Organization Development Institute. Sang-arun, N. (2012). The right to the city: The housing rights movement of Bangbua community. Journal of Architecture/Planning Research and Studies, 9(1), 1-12. Sapu, S. & Usavagovitwong, N. (2007). คู่มือการออกแบบและวางผังชุมชนโครงการบ้านมั่นคง: กรณีการสร้างชุมชนในภาคตะวันออกฉียงเหนือ [Community planning and design manual for Baan Mankong program: A case study of northeastern province]. Bangkok, Thailand: Community Organization Development Institute. Seabrook, J. (1996). In the cities of the south: Scenes from a developing world. London: Verso. Spatig, L. et al. (2010). The power of process: A story of collaboration and community change. Community Development, 41(1), 3-20. The Crown Property Bureau. 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Abstract Objectives To identify strategies and tactics communities use to translate research into environmental health action. Methods We employed a qualitative case study design to explore public health action conducted by residents, organizers, and public health planners in two Massachusetts communities as part of a community based participatory (CBPR) research study. Data sources included key informant interviews (n = 24), reports and direct observation of research and community meetings (n = 10) and project meeting minutes from 2016–2021. Data were coded deductively drawing on the community organizing and implementation frameworks. Results In Boston Chinatown, partners drew broad participation from community-based organizations, residents, and municipal leaders, which resulted in air pollution mitigation efforts being embedded in the master planning process. In Somerville, partners focused on change at multiple levels, developer behavior, and separate from the funded research, local legislative efforts, and litigation. Conclusions CBPR affords communities the ability to environmental health efforts in a way that is locally meaningful, leveraging their respective strengths. External facilitation can support the continuity and sustainment of community led CBPR efforts.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1991.
Vita.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80).
by Daniel Anthony Acosta.
M.C.P.

Abstract Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, performed in 2016 at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, may have inspired A.R.T.’s Act II “experiment in disrupting the role of spectator as passive observer.” After the first act of Smith’s unique monologue performances drawn from actual interviews, facilitators separated audiences into small groups and asked them to share their own experiences with racial oppression and privilege. Following these Act II discussions, audiences returned to the theater for a moving Coda, but were they inspired to engage in political activism? Or was it just another talkback? This chapter argues that Act II was actually twenty-five minutes of immersive theater, bookended by an adamantly documentary form, and advertised as activism.

This chapter describes how early nineteenth-century Massachusetts, France, and Prussia were characterized by radically different political systems, institutional structures, and social worlds. It highlights France as a constitutional monarchy in which democratic rights were restricted to the upper echelon, whereas Prussia was an absolute monarchy where policy making was controlled by a powerful, centralized bureaucracy. Massachusetts, on the other hand, was a rapidly urbanizing and industrializing democracy in which political participation was widespread, and social mobility was a real possibility for many. The chapter details how Massachusetts became the first US state to regulate child labor in 1836, when it required children working in manufacturing establishments to attend school for at least three months a year. Although the democratic institutions structuring the early nineteenth-century Massachusetts policy field were robust, the field was in other respects undeveloped compared with the European states.

The 1912 Bread & Roses Strike paralyzed Lawrence's textile manufacturing industry for nine weeks in the dead of winter. Organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the strike is known for its multiethnic participation, the prominent role of women, and its challenge to the contemporary political climate, abysmal working conditions, and wage structure. Its successful resolution in March 1912 was a pivotal moment in early twentieth-century labor history. However, local officials suppressed this history for decades. This chapter explores the interpretive activities of two historical institutions, Lawrence Heritage State Park and Lawrence History Center, leading up to, during, and after the centennial anniversary in 2012 to place the strike in the city's recent collective memory.