Main Street Messenger, Winter 2006

News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center, Main Street Iowa, and the Iowa Department of Economic Development Community Development Division.

Ecologies of Value in a Wall Street Trading Room

Our task in this paper is to analyze the organization of trading in the era of quantitative finance. To do so, we conduct an ethnography of arbitrage, the trading strategy that best exemplifies finance in the wake of the quantitative revolution. In contrast to value and momentum investing, we argue, arbitrage involves an art of association-the construction of equivalence (comparability) of properties across different assets. In place of essential or relational characteristics, the peculiar valuation that takes place in arbitrage is based on an operation that makes something the measure of something else-associating securities to each other. The process of recognizing opportunities and the practices of making novel associations are shaped by the specific socio-spatial and socio-technical configurations of the trading room. Calculation is distributed across persons and instruments as the trading room organizes interaction among diverse principles of valuation.

The street and children’s informal economy in Cape Verde

Since the 1990s Cape Verde has undergone dramatic economic and political transformations that have brought about growing social class distinction. The two main towns (Praia and Mindelo) have grown rapidly in the last decades and their urban structure today reflects the increasing polarisation of the population. Middle and upper class families occupy the older parts of town and the recently built planned areas, while spontaneous neighbourhoods spread without planning on the less valuable land. It is in these latter areas that most social issues associated with childhood and youth have become highly visible in the last decade. In this article I will focus on children’s reasons for going to live on the streets of Mindelo, arguing that it is in terms of autonomous mobility within a non-heterogeneous and profoundly divided urban and social space that we can better understand what is commonly defined as the phenomenon of street children.

Clients of sex workers in Switzerland: it makes sense to counsel and propose rapid test for HIV on the street, a preliminary report.

BACKGROUND: Clients of street sex workers may be at higher risk for HIV infection than the general population. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge regarding HIV testing of clients of sex workers in developed countries. METHOD: This pilot study assessed the feasibility and acceptance of rapid HIV testing by the clients of street-based sex workers in Lausanne, Switzerland. For 5 evenings, clients in cars were stopped by trained field staff for face-to-face interviews focusing on sex-related HIV risk behaviors and HIV testing history. The clients were then offered a free anonymous rapid HIV test in a bus parked nearby. Rapid HIV testing and counselling were performed by experienced nurse practitioners. Clients with reactive tests were offered confirmatory testing, medical evaluation, and care in our HIV clinic. RESULT: We intercepted 144 men, 112 (77.8%) agreed to be interviewed. Among them, 50 (46.6%) had never been tested for HIV. A total of 31 (27.7%) rapid HIV tests were performed, 16 (51.6%) in clients who had not previously been tested. None were reactive. Initially, 19 (16.9%) additional clients agreed to HIV testing but later declined due to the 40-minute queue for testing. CONCLUSION: This pilot study showed that rapid HIV testing in the red light district of Lausanne was feasible, and that the clients of sex workers accepted testing at an unexpectedly high rate. This setting seems particularly appropriate for targeted HIV screening, since more than 40% of the clients had not previously been tested for HIV even though they engaged in sex-related HIV risk behaviour.

Main Street Messenger, Spring 2007

News from Main Street Iowa and the Iowa Downtown Resource Center

Main Street Messenger, Fall 2007

News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center and Main Street Iowa

Main Street Messenger, Winter 2008

News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center

Main Street Messenger, Spring 2009

Downtown Revitalization News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center.

How to recognize opportunities: Heterarchical search in a Wall Street trading room

Our task in this paper is to analyze the organization of trading in the era of quantitativefinance. To do so, we conduct an ethnography of arbitrage, the trading strategy that bestexemplifies finance in the wake of the quantitative revolution. In contrast to value andmomentum investing, we argue, arbitrage involves an art of association - the constructionof equivalence (comparability) of properties across different assets. In place of essentialor relationa l characteristics, the peculiar valuation that takes place in arbitrage is based on an operation that makes something the measure of something else - associating securities to each other. The process of recognizing opportunities and the practices of making novel associations are shaped by the specific socio-spatial and socio-technical configurations of the trading room. Calculation is distributed across persons and instruments as the trading room organizes interaction among diverse principles of valuation.

Main Street Messenger, 2009, Vol. 2

News from Main Street Iowa and the Iowa Downtown Resource Center.

Main Street Messenger, 2009, Vol. 3

News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center and Main Street Iowa office.

Main Street Messenger, February 2011, Vol, 1

Main Street Messenger is a newsletter about the happenings that area going on in towns across Iowa. From shows to the start fair information this newsletter has many great informational pieces about Iowa towns.

Main Street Messenger, 2011 Vol. 2

Main Street Iowa News from the Iowa Downtown Resource Center of the Iowa Department of Economic Development