Affluent Communities Research Articles

Analyzing the Relationship Between Cultural Diversity, Social Capital, and Community Resilience in Jakarta, Indonesia

In Jakarta, Indonesia, this study explores the complex interrelationships among social capital, cultural diversity, and community resilience. Participants from a varied sample of 500 people, spanning a range of socioeconomic classes, and nationalities, shared their perspectives on social capital, cultural diversity, and community resilience. The results show a culturally diversified and affluent community where people feel they have strong social ties and are resilient. Indicators of community resilience, social capital, and cultural variety all show favorable connections according to statistical analysis. Regression analyses highlight the important roles that cultural variety, social capital that bonds, bridges, and links, and environmental, social, and economic resilience play in enhancing the overall resilience of Jakarta's communities. The sample's diversity in terms of demographics improves the findings' external validity. This research offers significant perspectives for practitioners and policymakers that aim to promote resilience in urban environments with various cultural backgrounds.

‘It does happen here’

In predominantly white and affluent communities, it is a common belief that race and racism are irrelevant because there is little to no racial diversity in these communities. Elyse Hambacher and Denise Desrosiers describe how a New Hampshire school district in a mostly white community navigates teaching and leading for social justice despite divisive concepts legislation and acrimonious debates about racism and other forms of injustice. They offer four practices the district employs to continue to promote inclusivity and social justice in contentious times.

Higher Levels of Income and Education are Associated with More Specialized Sport Participation Behaviors: Results from a Representative Sample of Youth Sport Parents from the United States.

While previous studies have examined the impact of family socioeconomic characteristics on a child's sport specialization behaviors, this research has been limited to affluent communities with limited sociodemographic diversity. The purpose of this study was to examine associations of parent income and education with child sport specialization behaviors among a nationally representative sample of youth sport parents in the United States. Cross-sectional. Parents of youth athletes in the United States (n=236, age: 39.2±8.1 years, 57.2% female) were recruited to complete an online questionnaire by Qualtrics Online Samples (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) using a combination of actively managed, double-opt-in market research panels. The questionnaire used for this study consisted of: 1) parent demographics (including parent age, race/ethnicity, biological sex, gender identity, household income, and educational status), and 2) child sport participation characteristics and sport specialization behaviors. Parents who reported an annual household income of $75,001 or more were more likely than parents making less than $75,000 to report that their child participated on an organized club team (OR [95%CI]: 1.94 [1.15-3.27]), participated on multiple organized teams at the same time (OR [95%CI]: 1.85 [1.10-3.11]), or specialized in a single sport (OR [95%CI]: 2.45 [1.45-4.14]). Parents who reported receiving a Bachelor's degree or higher were more likely than parents who did not to report that their child participated on an organized club team (OR [95%CI]: 3.04 [1.78-5.18]), participated on multiple organized teams at the same time (OR [95%CI]: 2.42 [1.43-4.10]), or specialized in a single sport (OR [95%CI]: 1.94 [1.15-3.26]). Thes results suggest that in the modern youth sport culture, family resources may serve as a major determining factor in the type of experiences available for a youth athlete. III.

‘Grew Up with a Silver Spoon in My Mouth, But it Ended Up the Nose’: The Stigma and Labelling of Injection Drug Use in an Affluent Beachside Community

Criminological scholarship has long grappled with the roles that stigma and labelling play in drug use in disadvantaged communities. While stigma leads to marginalisation, less is known about the way stigma impacts the structurally advantaged, or those from communities of relative affluence. Our research involved fieldwork and 18 qualitative interviews with people who inject drugs in the affluent coastal community of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We find that even when people occupy the ‘ideal’ class position, internalised stigma was present, but did not readily translate into labels involving a criminal self-concept. We also found that while the capacity to resist crime-related labelling processes and other forms of state intervention were limited by social positionality, some participants still had to contend with intersecting forms of gendered and racialized stigma. However, for white male participants, their status and that of the area were experienced as protective of their criminalisation, actively limiting criminal labelling processes.

Laws of Succession Ordinances by the Religious Leadership of Sephardi and Moroccan Jewish Communities and Their Economic, Social and Gender Implications

This paper discusses the innovativeness of the Inheritance Ordinance introduced in Toledo during the 12th century and later reintroduced in Fez in Morocco following the expulsion of Jewish communities from Spain and Portugal. Community leaders in Toledo, and after the expulsion also in Fes, transformed the laws of succession established in biblical times by granting women equal rights on matters of inheritance by marriage. The ordinance also granted unmarried daughters the right to inherit alongside their brothers despite the fact that, according to biblical law, daughters do not inherit when there are sons. Inheritance ordinances had significant social, financial and gendered implications on Jewish lives in many communities. The study will show that leaders of Sephardi Jewish communities were nothing less than advanced in their innovative and unprecedented ordinances related to women’s inheritance. Their innovativeness followed a number of preliminary conditions which enabled it. First and foremost was the authority vested in these Jewish leaders by the monarchy in various parts of Spain and Portugal. The laws of the kingdom in these countries granted women equal rights in succession laws. So as to avoid significant differences and reduce legislative gaps, ordinances were issued to correspond with national realities. Spain had been the world’s center of Jewish Halacha following the period of the Geonim—the heads of the ancient Talmudic academies of Babylonia and its sages—, and the Sephardic sages felt that their position allowed them to make bold decisions. The most innovative Jewish ordinance issued in this regard back in the 12th century was the Tulitula ordinance, originating from the city of Toledo, home to one of the largest and most affluent Jewish communities of the time. The regulation granted wives rights over their husbands’ inheritance regarding property established during their joint lives, as well as property which she had brought with her to the marriage. Following the Expulsion of Jews from Spain, the expelled sages, arriving in Morocco, reinstated the Tulitula ordinance in the newly established community of the city of Fez, further improving women’s position beyond the provisions of the original regulation. The new circumstances following the expulsion resulted in many Jewish communities in Morocco adopting the new version of the regulation. As they had been forced to wander from place to place, the expelled communities encountered severe problems involving family law. The ordinances spread throughout nearly all Jewish communities in Morocco. In the 19th century, a number of changes were introduced to the Fez ordinances, which in practice diminished women’s inheritance rights. However, the essence of the original ordinance was ultimately assimilated into Rabbinical and Supreme Court rulings of the State of Israel, due to its suitability to Israel’s modern inheritance laws and to the legislation of the Women’s Equal Rights Law in 1951. The leadership of Spanish sages and community leaders in various countries and of rabbinical judges in Fez, Morocco, had been both charismatic and rational and included modern components for coping with social change and new realities under the Kingdoms of Spain as well as following the expulsion.

The Most Vulnerable User: Examining the Role of Income, Race, and the Built Environment on Pedestrian Injuries and Deaths

This study examined the incidence of injurious and fatal pedestrian crashes for lower-income and affluent communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties, FL, finding notable differences in the environmental risk factors for these populations. In lower-income areas, pedestrian deaths and injuries increased with traffic volumes, multilane streets, and restaurants and shopping centers. They decreased with the presence of raised medians, which can serve as a refuge island for crossing pedestrians. These variables all suggest that, at least in lower-income areas, pedestrian death and injury was associated with difficulties safely accessing household-supporting destinations. For affluent areas, the factors associated with increased pedestrian death and injury were those relating to recreation and nightlife—specifically, bars and clubs, hotels, and restaurants. Neither traffic volumes nor multilane roads proved to be meaningfully related to increased pedestrian death or injury in affluent areas. Perhaps most notably, higher concentrations of Black populations were strongly related to increased pedestrian death and injury, even after accounting for differences in income. Considered as a whole, these results suggest that pedestrian crash risk, like much else in U.S. society, is strongly intertwined with broader issues of racial and income inequality. Attempts to address the safety of the transportation system’s most vulnerable users need to move beyond asserting that any pedestrian project constitutes a safety enhancement, and to begin to more meaningfully account for social vulnerabilities associated with race and income.

Adivasi migrant labour and agrarian capitalism in southern India

AbstractThis paper looks at a case of rural‐to‐rural movement of agrarian capital in southern India and the ways in which capital–labour relations are reworked to maintain oppressive forms of exploitation. Faced with an agrarian crisis, capitalist farmers from affluent communities of Wayanad, Kerala, take large tracts of land for lease in the neighbouring state of Karnataka and grow ginger based on price speculation. Landless Adivasis from Wayanad have served as labourers on these ginger farmlands for the past three decades. Recently, farmers have shifted to employing labourers from a Scheduled Caste (SC) from Karnataka. The change happened not just because of the lower wages the SC labourers were willing to work for but also because of the farmers' inclination to move away from Adivasis who have been resisting the poor working conditions on the farm. The story resonates with the broader dynamics of agrarian–labour relations amidst capitalist expansion and highlights the centrality of socio‐political factors at play.

Maternal mortality in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic: time series and social inequities

ObjectiveThe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond morbidity and mortality from that disease. Increases in maternal mortality have also been described but have not been extensively studied to date....

Schoolyard Quality and Opportunities for Well-Being at School: A Citizen-Science Approach to System-Wide Measurement for Equity

ABSTRACT Schoolyards represent an important opportunity for physical activity, development and learning. However, there is minimal policy or accountability for their level or distribution. Through community partnership and citizen science, we built a system-wide picture of schoolyard quality across Ontario, using a validated, standardized tool. Quality was low with considerable variation. The top-scoring school scored 61 of a possible 88 points, the minimum was 14 (M = 35.3; SD = 9.9). Affluent schools and communities had slightly better playgrounds than poorer ones. Knowledge mobilization about how schoolyards impact health and shortcomings in existing resources raise possibilities for advocacy and policy work.

The moderating role of housing quality on concentrated poverty and asthma-related emergency department visits among Hispanics/Latinos

Background Rates of asthma-related emergency department visits have been shown to vary significantly by place (i.e. neighborhood) and race/ethnicity. The moderating factors of asthmatic events among Hispanic/Latino-specific populations are known to a much lesser degree. Objective To assess the extent to which housing moderates the effect of poverty on Hispanic/Latino-specific asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits at an ecological level. Methods Using data from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and the 2016–2017 U.S. Census, a cross-sectional ecological analysis at the census tract-level was conducted. Crosswalk files from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were used to associate zip codes to census tracts. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate rate ratios. Results The effect of poverty on asthma-related ED visits was significantly moderated by the median year of housing structures built. The effect of mid-level poverty (RR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.27, 1.95) and high-level poverty (RR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.22, 1.78) in comparison to low-level poverty, was significantly greater among census tracts with housing built prior to 1965 in comparison to census tract with housing built between 1965 and 2020. Conclusion Communities with older housing structures tend to be associated with increased Hispanic/Latino ED visits apart from affluent communities.

Analysing the contextual factors that promote and constrain policy learning in local government

Policy learning is an important part of the policy process that crosscuts multiple frameworks. However, policy learning is difficult to model and predict, and even less is known about the extent to which community characteristics affect policy learning. This article examines the contextual factors that promote and constrain policy learning in local government by identifying factors that promote learning. The central theory is that community characteristics, experience with a policy problem, and the type of subnational government will be important factors. We examine this in the context of primary data collected after Hurricane Harvey from open-ended interviews with 22 local government officials across Southeast Texas. Using a mixed methodology, we leverage the results of content analysis and Poisson regression. We find that cities with higher median incomes and larger populations are more likely to experience policy learning. Experience is not an important predictor of policy learning, suggesting possible maturation effects in the learning process. Given the long-term challenges posed by natural hazards and disasters, this puts smaller and less affluent communities at higher risk. If equitable risk and recovery is the goal of disaster policy, efforts must be made to either increase capacity or provide more resources to local governments with less capacity.

Evaluating the impact of proximity to reported toxic release facilities and flood events on chronic health outcomes in the city of Galena Park, Texas

Evidence has conclusively revealed that environmental justice communities experience poor environmental conditions compared to more affluent majority communities. However, there has been little research evaluating the health impacts of immediate proximity to industrial pursuits and flood events on a population compared to others living within the same community who are only marginally removed from these locations. This cross-sectional study (N = 130) utilized three approaches to assess health outcomes (1) the 12 item Short Form Health Survey, which creates a general physical component score, (2) self-reported noncancerous chronic conditions, and (3) self-reported diagnosis of twelve different cancers. Three risk levels were spatially created using a 5-scale ordinal score for each residential parcel based on the corresponding flood probability level and proximity to facilities which report to the United States Environmental Protection Agencies Toxic Release Inventory. Analysis revealed that general physical health scores were significantly lower (P-value < 0.001) in the medium and high-risk locations, Similarly chronic conditions witnessed a non-significant twofold increased risk in the highest-risk locations compared to the lowest (POR 1.91; 95 % CI 0.82–4.39) and a non-significant increased risk of cancer diagnosis (POR 1.51; 95 % CI 0.38–5.99). This research underscores the importance of place and health outcomes even within relatively geographically compact communities. Public health and urban planning interventions and designs should take into account fine grain approaches to respond to community needs while still being mindful of limited resources.

Short Research Article: Do demographic, socioeconomic and clinical characteristics influence the number of psychological intervention sessions attended by young people in need of mental health care?

A cohort study using secondary data assessed associations between baseline characteristics and psychological sessions attended in young persons discharged from a Children and Young People's Mental Health Service in 2019. There were 584 persons who attended a median of seven sessions. On multivariable regression analysis, males attended fewer sessions than females, young people from more affluent communities attended more sessions than those from poorer communities and those presenting with eating disorders and self-harm in particular attended more sessions than those with anxiety. Addressing why these associations occur may improve mental health care in young persons.

Injection drug use in an affluent beachside community in Sydney: An exploratory qualitative study.

Social research on injection drug use has focussed on marginalised groups and communities, leaving a large gap in the field's understanding of how it is experienced in other settings, including in relatively affluent communities. This research is based on fieldwork and 18 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted in suburban beach-side communities in Sydney collectively known as the Northern Beaches. Participants did not experience stigmatisation by local health services as the norm or as a deterrent to access. Drug acquisition on the Northern Beaches occurred among closed networks of friends and acquaintances, and injecting use rarely occurred in public settings. Police contact was minimal, resulting in lower levels of criminalisation. Unlike many of the participants featured in the literature, our study participants grew up in middle and upper middle-class households, typically experiencing comfortable childhoods with little to no exposure to injection drug use. In this setting injection drug use operates covertly within the normal rhythms of middle-class life, hidden in amongst the bustle of cafés and shopping centres, and through the friendliness of neighbourhood driveway and doorstep interactions. Drug use is described as common in the area, with injecting behaviours stigmatised in ways that set it against the 'good' families and neighbourhoods of this beach-side enclave. In contrast to much of the Australian qualitative literature which frames injection drug use as a means of psychological relief or a subcultural norm, our participants described injecting as motivated by the desire to enhance pleasure and social connection.

The KidScope Study: An Analysis of a Community Paediatric Clinic Set in a Disadvantaged Area of Ireland

The most critical period of human development is from conception to age six years when important brain structures develop. These structures influence child development, well-being, learning, and behaviours that follow. Research shows children from economically disadvantaged areas have poorer developmental, health, and lifelong outcomes. A considerable proportion of developmental delay is avoidable and early detection and intervention can improve child, family, and community outcomes. Ireland’s disjointed early intervention system sees children from more affluent communities access services faster through paid private assessment and intervention. KidScope is the only community paediatric clinic in Ireland to offer assessment and onward referral from birth to six years within a disadvantaged area. The clinic intercepts the gap within the early intervention system and breaks the cycle of intergenerational poverty by disrupting the impact exclusion to healthcare has on vulnerable children and families. We aim to evaluate KidScope in order to contribute to the evidence on addressing avoidable developmental delay in disadvantaged areas through early detection and timely referral to services. Findings to date highlight the challenges vulnerable families face when accessing paediatric healthcare, the healthcare needs of children experiencing adversity, and how community paediatric clinics identify and support developmental delay.

Multiple sexual partnership among adolescent boys and young men in Ghana: analysis of the 2003–2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey

BackgroundMultiple sexual partnership (MSP) is a major cause of HIV/AIDS epidemic and unplanned pregnancies in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigate how individual, household, interpersonal, community and structural factors correlate with multiple sexual partnership of adolescent boys and young men in Ghana.MethodsWe pooled secondary data from the 2003, 2008 and 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (GDHS). Analytic sample of 1422 males aged 15–24 years who are sexually active and never married were used for the study. The outcome variable for the study was two or more sexual partners in the last 12 months preceding the survey. Five models were fitted using multilevel mixed effects logistic regression to identify predictors of multiple sexual partners. Results were presented using adjusted odds ratios (ORadj) with its corresponding 95% confidence interval.ResultsThe pooled data prevalence of multiple sexual partnership was 28.1%, with 18.7%, 30.0% and 33.3% of adolescent boys and young men involved in multiple sexual partnerships in 2003, 2008 and 2014, respectively. Results of the study showed that young men aged 20–24 years [ORadj = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.01–1.91], being from household with richest wealth index [ORadj = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.01–3.06] and those with secondary/higher education [ORadj = 2.94, 95% CI = 1.44–6.06] were more likely to have multiple sexual partners. On the other hand, those who delayed their first sex [ORadj = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.29–0.70] and those currently using modern contraceptive methods [ORadj = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.28–0.50] were less likely to have multiple sexual partners.ConclusionThe findings provide support for the social ecological argument that sexual health behaviours are influenced by individual, interpersonal, community and contextual characteristics. Future policies and interventions seeking to address the increasing prevalence of multiple sexual partnerships among adolescent boys and young men should take into consideration family planning programmes and sexual education in affluent communities, secondary and higher institutions.

Journeys to Crime: Assessing the Effects of a Light Rail Line on Crime in the Neighborhoods

The implementation of new transit lines is sometimes dogged by concerns that such lines may increase crime rates in station neighborhoods. Affluent communities have often complained that transit lines transport crime to the suburbs. This study focuses on the Green Line transit system in Los Angeles and examines its effects on crime in the adjacent areas. The Green Line light rail system passes through some high-crime, inner-city neighborhoods and terminates at its western end in affluent suburban communities. The study examines neighborhood level and municipality-wide crime trends for five years before and five years after the inception of the line. A piecewise regression model is developed to evaluate the impact of the opening of the line in the station neighborhoods. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis is also utilized to identify spatial shifts in crime hot spots for the municipalities abutting the Green Line. The study finds little evidence that the transit line has had significant impacts on crime trends or crime dislocation in the station neighborhoods, nor has the line transported crime from the inner city to the suburbs.

Why do lower-income areas experience worse road safety outcomes? Examining the role of the built environment in Orange County, Florida

Lower-income areas experience an increased incidence of traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths than more affluent ones. Researchers tend to blame these outcomes on differences in car ownership, with lower-income households expected to use vulnerable active modes at higher rates, as well as being more likely to drive older vehicles with fewer safety features. While these explanations seem plausible enough, they likely fail to provide a complete picture of the problem. This study examines the role of the built environment in road safety outcomes for lower- and higher-income block groups in Orange County, Florida. It finds that the hazard posed by urban arterials is three times greater for lower-income environments than for more affluent communities. Sidewalk buffers, ordinarily regarded as a pedestrian amenity, were associated with crash increases in affluent areas but not lower-income ones. Areas with concentrations of black residents were found to be increased risk, even after accounting for differences in income. Considered as a whole, the risk factors for lower-income and high-income populations are not the same. This article examines the underlying reasons that lead to these outcomes and discusses the need to better account for the manner in which design may uniquely affect the safety of different demographic cohorts.

Transnational migration, local specificities and reconfiguring eldercare through ‘market transfer’ in Kerala, India

ABSTRACT Select research has indicated that widespread migration is catalysing the novel reimagining of eldercare and transformative changes in the local eldercare economy in the Global South. Yet research on ageing and migration from the South has largely focused on transnational care practices of providing emotional support and economic remittances. Drawing on ethnographic research among the privileged and affluent community of Syrian Christians of Kerala, India, I argue for a diverse and complex Southern reconfiguration of eldercare at the intersection of migration, which also includes ‘market transfer’ of proximate care services as reciprocal filial care. Further, the paper illuminates how specificities of migration, ageing and care are locally nuanced and shape diverse transnational care practices. In turn, transnational care strategies employed by the migrants to overcome distances transform the local eldercare economy and (re)produce class-stratified eldercare spaces. Through the study of a privileged community, the paper highlights the increasing marketisation of the eldercare landscape in the sending countries of the South and contributes to furthering diversified understandings of the ageing-migration nexus.

Lead contamination of drinking water is an EJ issue

Lead exposures are not distributed evenly, including from US public drinking water. Lead contamination of drinking water is disproportionately reported or uncovered in low income and minority communities. Risk factors include distressed municipalities and rural areas; a history of underinvestment in public infrastructure, including water infrastructure; and old and poorly maintained housing stock combined with high rates of rental housing. Even within average or affluent communities, low income and minority neighborhoods exhibit higher rates of lead contamination of drinking water with disparities in lead pipe removal. The proposed massive US investment in infrastructure improvements is insufficient to equalize those inequities.