The Influence of HOPE VI Public Housing on Public Schools

In the United States, public school enrollment is typically organized by neighborhood boundaries. This dissertation examines whether the federally funded HOPE VI program influenced performance in neighborhood public schools. In effect since 1992, HOPE VI has sought to revitalize distressed public housing using the New Urbanism model of mixed income communities. There are 165 such HOPE VI projects nationwide. Despite nearly two decades of the program’s implementation, the literature on its connection to public school performance is thin. My dissertation aims to narrow this research gap. There are three principal research questions: (1) Following HOPE VI, was there a change in socioeconomic status (SES) in the neighborhood public school? The hypothesis is that low SES (measured as the proportion of students qualifying for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program) would reduce. (2) Following HOPE VI, did the performance of neighborhood public schools change? The hypothesis is that the school performance, measured by the proportion of 5th grade students proficient in state wide math and reading tests, would increase. (3) What factors relate to the performance of public schools in HOPE VI communities? The focus is on non-school, neighborhood factors that influence the public school performance. For answering the first two questions, I used t-tests and regression models to test the hypotheses. The analysis shows that there is no statistically significant change in SES following HOPE VI. However, there are statistically significant increases in performance for reading and math proficiency. The results are interesting in indicating that HOPE VI neighborhood improvement may have some relationship with improving school performance. To answer the third question, I conducted a case study analysis of two HOPE VI neighborhood public schools, one which improved significantly (in Philadelphia) and one which declined the most (in Washington DC). The analysis revealed three insights into neighborhood factors for improved school performance: (i) a strong local community organization; (ii) local community’s commitment (including the middle income families) to send children to the public school; and (iii) ties between housing and education officials to implement the federal housing program. In essence, the study reveals how housing policy is de facto education policy.

What next for unions in Central and Eastern Europe? Invisibility, departure and the transformation of industrial relations

This article examines union revitalization in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on two countries: Hungary and Latvia. Trade unions have not only had to cope with a declining membership base, but have also had to respond to austerity programmes and government cuts in public sector employment. We argue that the inability of unions to provide a strong voice for alternative policies to the current neoliberal orthodoxy has been driven by a declining membership base, but also by weakened social dialogue mechanisms, limited industrial representation and an ageing membership profile, exacerbated by net outward migration in recent years. However, we find that unions in Latvia and Hungary have responded differently to these issues.

Abad y señor de Rute. Don Juan de Córdoba y la repoblación de la banda morisca cordobesa

Study on the foundation of the new village of Rute close to the former border with the Muslim kingdom of Granada and the repopulation project and economic revitalization in the Sixteenth century by the dean don Juan Fernández de Córdoba, abbot and lord of Rute.

Repensar=Reutilizar. o abandono como oportunidade. Fábrica Robinson: o instante na construção de um tempo provisório

Esta investigação procura mostrar/problematizar programas que questionem a reutilização de lugares, através de uma proposta de projeto provisório de arquitetura, no panorama do Património Industrial, num processo de revitalização. O intuito é procurar modelos/ações que possam responder às transformações, partindo do problema do abandono, dos espaços pós-industriais. O objetivo principal consiste em criar um processo de aproximação à problemática da reutilização cujo processo de elaboração de projeto encontra nas suas formas de produção e operação um discurso que faz a síntese entre prática artística, posição curatorial e arquitetura, na elaboração de um programa para um lugar revitalizando-o. O objeto deste estudo faz parte de uma investigação de pesquisa por projeto e encontra lugar no conjunto arquitetónico da Fábrica Robinson, em Portalegre, cuja apropriação inicial de parte do Convento de S. Francisco dá hoje lugar ao Espaço Robinson. O reconhecimento deste conjunto, como lugar de encontro entre um passado recente e um futuro pendente, marcou a proposta projetual. Proposta de projeto temporário cujo conceito estabelece a viabilidade de apropriação como forma de atuação provisória, subjacente ao ato de reutilizar, criando novos programas de ocupação, promovendo novas ideias e definições de património e assim devolvendo o significado às estruturas industriais vazias. O que preservar e como conservar pode demarcar a importância de salvaguarda deste património e a previsão da sua transmissão para o futuro, fixada pela ideia de preservação. A Fábrica Robinson e a revitalização urbana deste espaço configura, hoje, uma nova oportunidade para estes conjuntos arquitetónicos, e a importância da sua salvaguarda, na valorização do Património Industrial. O trabalho pretende demonstrar a ordem de relação entre programa e lugar no debate interdisciplinar e a hipótese de concretização projetual que preencha um vazio temporalmente suspenso; ABSTRACT: Rethinking = Reuse: The abandonment as opportunity Robinson Factory: The instant in the construction of a provisory time This research aims to show architectural programs that question the reuse of places in the context of industrial heritage, through an architectural design, in a revitalization process. The aim is to look to models / actions that, starting with the abandonment problem, may answer to the post-industrial spaces transformations. The main goal is to create an approximation process to the problem of reuse, whose project design process finds in its production and operations forms a symbiosis between artistic practice, curatioral approach and architecture, in the development of a program to revitalize a place. The object of this study is part of a research project / research by design concerning the architectural complex Fábrica Robinson located in Portalegre, whose original appropriation of part of Convento de S. Francisco is today occupied by Espaço Robinson. The acknowledgment of this complex as a space placed in-between a recent past and a pending future marked the design proposed. A temporary design proposal whose concept establishes the validity of the temporary action, underlying to the act of reuse, creating new occupation programs, promoting new ideas and heritage definitions and thus given back meaning to the empry industrial structures. What to preserve and how to save may mark the importance of safeguarding this heritage and the prediction of its transmission to the future, set by the idea of preservation. The Fábrica Robinson and the urban regeneration of this area sets itself as a new opportunity to safeguard these architectural ensembles and enhance the value of the industrial heritage. This study intend to show the relationship between the program and a vacant place, through a temporary proposal, supported by the interdisciplinary debate and the hypothesis of design implementation that completes a void temporarily suspended.

A industrialização como criadora de conjuntos habitacionais para o operariado: o caso do Bairro da Empresa de Cimentos de Leiria: Maceira-Liz

A Revolução Industrial consistiu num amplo conjunto de mudanças que ocorreu nos séculos XVIII e XIX na Europa, em que a grande metamorfose na sociedade sucedeu devido à substituição do trabalho manual pelo uso da máquina. Constituiu-se como fenómeno abrangente que congregou fatores demográficos, sociais, ideológicos, políticos e económicos. A busca de melhores condições de vida e de trabalho, foi fator decisivo para o aumento de população nos grandes núcleos urbanos, circunstância que determinou a procura de uma solução que resolvesse a questão do alojamento da classe trabalhadora. Surgiram assim teorias utópicas e sociais e também modelos urbanísticos dos quais se salientam: o Falanstério de Charles Fourier, Familistério de Jean-Baptiste Godin entre outros. Em Portugal, a industrialização ocorreu mais tarde que na restante Europa, assim como as evoluções e transformações associadas a esta. É neste contexto, que a partir do século XIX, o sector agrícola no país foi sendo gradualmente substituído pela indústria. O aumento da industrialização conduziu a um incremento da concentração de mão-de-obra próxima de grandes cidades industriais, ocorrência que fomentou o aparecimento dos primeiros núcleos habitacionais destinados à classe operária. A cidade sofreu, assim, alterações assinaladas por uma série de acontecimentos resultantes da Revolução Industrial, a par da falta de estratégias ligadas à questão da habitação para as classes desfavorecidas. É neste enquadramento que surge o Bairro do Pessoal da Empresa de Cimento de Leiria, Maceira-Liz. Este procurou responder às necessidades dos trabalhadores oferecendo-lhes boa qualidade de vida. Foi dotado de infraestruturas e equipamentos como a “Casa do Pessoal” ou a Cooperativa Abastecedora, entre outros, necessários ao bom funcionamento e permitindo uma maior sociabilidade entres os seus habitantes Desta forma, para demostrar a sua importância, introduz-se o Bairro do Pessoal da E.C.L no estudo do contexto internacional e nacional. Observam-se e criam-se relações com os modelos das cidades utópicas do século XIX e os conjuntos industriais em Portugal, detentores de alojamento destinado à classe trabalhadora, fazendo uma análise urbanística detalhada do Bairro do Pessoal de Maceira- Liz, uma “Utopia” construída segundo o espirito progressista do seu fundador Henrique Sommer.A partir do estudo dos fundamentos teórico-práticos, da forma de implantação e construção, bem como dos vários planos elaborados para este complexo - que demonstravam uma tentativa de inovar, através da construção de respostas às mudanças da sociedade e arquitetura em Portugal- poderá observar- -se que Maceira-Liz tinha alternativas para resolver a situação sócio- laboral dos operários e tentava resolver questões como a insalubridade da habitação operária da I República. O Bairro do Pessoal de E.C.L. ou Bairro de Maceira-Liz é um dos mais significativos exemplos de urbanismo do tipo fabril em Portugal, que permite fazer uma reflexão crítica e arquitetónica do papel que a arquitetura assume face à questão das diferenças sociais de classes, ao mesmo tempo que se propõe uma solução de revitalização do Bairro a fim de contribuir para a sua preservação e conservação da sua identidade; ABSTRACT: The Industrial Revolution consisted in a wide range of changes that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe, where the great metamorphosis in society succeeded due to the replacement of manual work by the use of machinery. It was established as a wide-ranging phenomenon which gathered demographic, social, ideological, political and economic factors. The search of better conditions of life and work was a decisive factor for the increase of population in major urban centers, a circumstance that led to the search for a solution to solve the question of working-class housing. Thus, utopian and social theories emerged, as also as urban models, of which we stand out: the Charles Fourier Phalanstery, Jean- Baptiste Godin Familistère and others. In Portugal, the industrialization occurred later than in the rest of Europe, as well as developments and changes associated with this. It is in this context that, starting in the nineteenth century, the agricultural sector in the country had been gradually replaced by the industry. The increased industrialization has led to an enlarged concentration of labor work close to major industrial cities, occurrence that fomented the appearance of the first housing units for the working class. So, the city suffered changes shown by a series of events resulting from the Industrial Revolution, together with the lack of strategies linked to the issue of housing for disadvantaged classes. It is in this context that comes the Neighborhood “Bairro do Pessoal da Empresa de Cimento de Leirio, Maceira – Liz”. This tried to respond to workers’ needs by offering them good quality of life. It was gifted with infrastructure and equipment as the “Staff Home” or the Cooperative Supplying, among others, needed for a proper functioning and allowing a greater sociability among its inhabitants. So, to demonstrate its importance, the Quarter of the Cement Company is introduced in the study of national and international context. Relationships with models of utopian cities in the nineteenth and the industrial plants in Portugal, owners of housing for the working class, are observed and created, making a detailed and urban analysis of the Quarter of the Cement Company, a “utopia “ built according to the progressive spirit of its founder Henry Sommer . From the study of the theoretical and practical fundamentals, the way of implementation and construction, as well as the various plans drawn up for this complex - which showed a determination to innovate by building responses to changes in society and architecture in Portugal - it can be founded that Maceira -Liz had alternatives to solve the socio- labor situation of the workers and tried to solve issues such as the unhealthiness of the working room of the First Republic. The Quarter of the Cement Company is one of the most significant examples of the industrial type urbanism in Portugal, which allows a critical and architectural reflection of the role that architecture assumes in what concerns the social class differences issues, while it is proposed a revitalization solution for the Neighborhood in order to contribute to the preservation and conservation of its identity