Attachments, Grievances, Resources, and Efficacy: The Determinants of Tenant Association Participation Among Public Housing Tenants*

ABSTRACT: This study uses data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality to examine variation in tenant association participation among public housing tenants in Boston and Los Angeles. Using logistic regression models we estimate the net effects of four sets of factors on the likelihood that a tenant has attended tenant association meetings: neighborhood attachments, grievances, resources and constraints, and feelings of efficacy. Results show that net of other factors, participation is greater among attached tenants who have resided in public housing longer and who have social ties to other people. Grievances also increase participation, but they do so indirectly by increasing peopleâs tendency to be more involved in their communities. With the exception of educationâs positive effect, resources and constraints are not important determinants of participation. Education and efficacy act like enablers increasing peopleâs ability to be involved in their communities. The implications of the findings for research and community organizing are explored by examining how three mechanisms account for the findings

Arredor do dereito á autodeterminación lingüística dos Pobos Orixinario de Arxentina

En este artículo se pone en evidencia la situación de los Pueblos Originarios de América Latina atendiendo especialmente a la defensa de su derecho a la Autodeterminación Lingüística. Prestando especial atención a los comunidades argentinas se propicia el respeto a la diversidad y el rescate de la memoria hisórica. Se acercan datos socio-ambientales (poblacionales, lingüísticos y educativos) concretos y los reclamos de las comunidades.Fil: Hachen, Rodolfo Raul. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes; Argentin

Dynamics of history-dependent perceptual judgment

Identical physical inputs do not always evoke identical percepts. To investigate the role of stimulus history in tactile perception, we designed a task in which rats had to judge each vibrissal vibration, in a long series, as strong or weak depending on its mean speed. After a low-speed stimulus (trial n − 1), rats were more likely to report the next stimulus (trial n) as strong, and after a high-speed stimulus, they were more likely to report the next stimulus as weak, a repulsive effect that did not depend on choice or reward on trial n − 1. This effect could be tracked over several preceding trials (i.e., n − 2 and earlier) and was characterized by an exponential decay function, reflecting a trial-by-trial incorporation of sensory history. Surprisingly, the influence of trial n − 1 strengthened as the time interval between n − 1 and n grew. Human subjects receiving fingertip vibrations showed these same key findings. We are able to account for the repulsive stimulus history effect, and its detailed time scale, through a single-parameter model, wherein each new stimulus gradually updates the subject’s decision criterion. This model points to mechanisms underlying how the past affects the ongoing subjective experience