Wealth Building Research Articles

Trauma-informed Financial Empowerment Programming Associated with Improved Financial Well-being

AbstractFinancial well-being and overall health are significantly linked, especially among those in poverty who have been exposed to violence and suffer from unaddressed trauma. Yet existing public assistance programs fail to address the presence or impact of trauma and adversity. Built specifically for families living in poverty who experience adversity, the Building Wealth and Health Network (the Network) provides a space for families to heal from the effects of trauma while also building social networks and economic security. The sample for this study was primarily Black (91%) women (92%) in Philadelphia with at least one child. A repeated measures linear regression model was performed via a Difference-in-Differences approach to test differences in financial well-being scores between two groups (full participation vs. low/no participation) at two time points (baseline vs 3 months, and baseline vs 6 months). We use this program as a field study to better understand the financial well-being of program participants who took part in fewer or more program sessions. Those who participated in more sessions reported greater increases in two measures of financial well-being at three months and six months post baseline, when compared to those with low or no participation.

Re-organizing for public value and reclaiming post-capitalist possibilities

This editorial introduces the Special Issue on public value, urging scholars to ask fundamental questions about what public value organizing entails. It proposes key conceptual dimensions to foster public value thinking, highlighting the contested nature of the concept and the subjective understanding of public value among different publics. Themes emerging from the contributions to the Special Issue include re-imagining the State’s role in post-capitalistic regimes, re-designing approaches to economic planning, and re-experiencing public value through transforming relationships between planners and the planned, practicing active citizenship endeavors, and integrating environmental concerns into processes and systems of valuation. Problematizing the neoliberal misrecognition of the State as a legitimate institution for wealth creation, this special issue showcases its key role in fostering post-capitalist possibilities. The articles offer evidence and inspiration regarding innovating the ways we plan, design, produce and account for public value by leveraging what we conceptualize as new collaborative governance possibilities. Overall, we call for establishing stronger connections between existing studies on alternative economic, political, and democratic organizing with scholarship on public policy, strategic public management, transformative social innovation and social movements. Four areas for future research on post-capitalist governance are also proposed: State-businesses relationships beyond capitalism; changing conceptions of value including the value of care; municipal approaches toward community wealth building; re-imagining new public institutions for more participatory democracy.

Study on modification of natural hydraulic lime historical building repair mortar

Qingdao boasts a wealth of historical buildings, yet they have sustained varying degrees of damage due to environmental erosion over decades. Traditional cement-based repair materials can exacerbate the damage to these structures and often fall short of the stringent requirements for historical building restoration projects. Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) offers excellent compatibility and breathability, making it suitable for restorative work on historical buildings. However, its low early strength and durability pose limitations in Qingdao's complex environment. Consequently, this study investigates the enhancement of NHL mortar using Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS/BFS) powder. Nine mix formulations were developed to investigate the impact of varying BFS contents on the physical properties and microstructure of the repair mortar. The results indicate that, compared to the reference sample, the modified mortar exhibits reduced water requirement for normal consistency, shorter setting time, lower water absorption, and decreased shrinkage. Regarding mechanical properties, the incorporation of BFS significantly enhances the mechanical strength of the repair mortar. When the proportion of BFS is 60 %, the flexural and compressive strength of the mortar samples increase by 304 % and 611 % at 28 days, respectively. Upon incorporating BFS, a pozzolanic reaction occurs in the alkaline environment, leading to the formation of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel. This gel fills the pores within the mortar, enhancing the densification of the system, which in turn improves the mechanical properties and microstructure of the repair mortar. SEM analysis corroborates these findings. XRD analysis confirms that BFS does not introduce harmful substances.

Deployment and development of community wealth building in Canadian mid-sized cities

Deployment and development of community wealth building in Canadian mid-sized cities

Do Financial Barrier Beliefs About Marriage Predict Building Wealth? Latent Growth Curves of Emerging Adults’ Financial Barrier Beliefs, Assets, and Debt

AbstractScholars have found that among emerging adults, financial barrier beliefs about marriage—like believing financial independence should be achieved prior to marriage—appear to be common. Despite the prevalence of beliefs about finances regarding marriage readiness, scholars have not established whether and how these financial barrier beliefs about marriage predict emerging adults’ debt and assets over time. Through the lens of marital paradigms theory, we sought to address this gap by examining whether and how the initial level and changes in financial barrier beliefs about marriage predict changes in young emerging adults’ debt and assets across four waves of data from 1,033 young U.S. emerging adults. We found that, on average, financial barrier beliefs about marriage increased, assets were relatively stable, and debt increased over the early years of emerging adulthood. We also found that increases in emerging adults’ agreement with financial barrier beliefs like ‘finances are a barrier to marriage’ over time were associated with a decrease in assets over time. However, neither the initial level nor changes in financial barrier beliefs about marriage predicted changes in debt over time. In short, our findings provide some evidence that beliefs like a certain amount of money should be saved before marriage, somewhat paradoxically, do not appear to help young emerging adults build their assets.

The Mortgage Piggy Bank: Building Wealth Through Amortization

The Mortgage Piggy Bank: Building Wealth Through Amortization

Organisations and Citizens Building Back Better? Climate Resilience, Social Justice & COVID-19 Recovery in Preston, UK

The impacts of COVID-19 on cities across the United Kingdom were significant and diverse, whilst ongoing climate-related, sustainability and social challenges were highlighted and sometimes amplified. Lessons from organisational and citizen experiences and their responses have the potential to improve local sustainability and resilience to global events; hence, they must be examined. We report findings from a project conducted in Preston (UK) exploring how COVID-19 recovery might accelerate organisation-led and citizen-led action for the wellbeing of people, places and the planet. The project used a settings approach to public health and combined qualitative research with conceptual development; the former involved online interviews and group dialogues with members of several local anchor institutions, whilst the latter examined synergy between community wealth building, Doughnut Economics and place-based climate action. We explore two themes—anchor institutions’ strategic priorities and plans; ‘building back better’, and its future sustainability implications. These revealed four cross-cutting aspects: wellbeing, tackling societal inequalities, collaborative working, and COVID-19 as a catalyst for transformative change. Informed by ‘Doughnut-Shaped Community Wealth Building’, organisations are encouraged to embed commitment to equitable and inclusive climate action; consolidate the co-operative approach developed during the pandemic at strategic, operational and grassroots levels; take a nuanced approach to future work policies and practices; work across anchor institutions to advocate collectively for supportive national-level policy to build a sustainable, wellbeing economy.

Evaluating Alexandria University heritage buildings: a question of preservation, awareness and management

PurposeHeritage buildings are a witness to previous civilizations and constitute important elements in transmitting cultural identity through generations. In 1938, Alexandria University was established; it was called the University of Farouk at the time. In 1952, the university was named “Alexandria University,” and since then, it has witnessed growth and expansion in several fields. The research aims to preserve the heritage of this academic institution. It seeks to document this wealth of buildings that tell the story of the second-earliest university in Egypt.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach was employed. A descriptive method was used to narrate the history of the university and the importance of its buildings. Within the quantitative approach, a questionnaire was chosen as the survey instrument for collecting the data within the research case study. The aim was to determine the awareness of students, staff and employees of the heritage importance of their faculty. Within the qualitative approach, several interviews were conducted with employees in the engineering departments of the university administrative building at Chatby and some of the selected faculties. The aim was to determine the methods used for the conservation of these buildings.FindingsAlexandria University has a heritage value not only in its great history but also through its heritage buildings. Raising the awarness of the university's affiliates of this heritage will lead to enhance the feelings of loyalty and belongings to the university. Therefore, preserving this heritage and properly managing it is crucial.Originality/valueUniversities have to recognize that their built heritage constitutes a unique expression that can create a distinctive sense of place. University heritage is crucial in defining and interpreting the university cultural identity. The institution must identify resources that will help build a new public image and contribute to develop a successful brand. Campus appearance is an important factor that has a significant impact on student feelings of loyalty and belonging.

No Rest for the Weary: Measuring the Changing Distribution of Retirement Wealth in the United States

ABSTRACT Since 1992 wealth for the bottom 90 percent of households nearing retirement has fallen. The only source of wealth helping the bottom 90 percent is Social Security. Despite pro savings policies and generous tax breaks for savings, the share of the bottom 50 percent having any retirement account didn’t change in 20 years — 46 percent in 1992 and 47 percent in 2016. Even the middle class suffered; the share of the next 40 percent with retirement savings fell from 85 percent in 1992 to a low of 71 percent in 2016. Housing ownership increased a bit for the bottom 50 percent but fell among the middle class and upper middle class. Home equity for the working and middle class fell. Using SCF and HRS data over 20 years, we find the bulk of working-class wealth is government social insurance. Economists should not exclude social insurance from wealth calculations. We find social insurance is the most important source of wealth for most families. Government policies and institutions have failed wealth building for most American households with workers.

Wealth Building through Impact Investing: A Focus on Personal Finance

Wealth Building through Impact Investing: A Focus on Personal Finance

Gender and Risk-Taking in the Building of U.S. Retirement Wealth

AbstractThe growing weight being placed on self-directed retirement accounts within the United States retirement income policy framework, and the time inconsistency challenge of individuals, particularly women, tending to under-invest in retirement savings accounts motivated the current work. Using data from the United States Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances, for a period spanning from 1989 to 2019, 11 cross-sections of data, the paper investigated the role of gender in United States retirement risk-taking investment strategies of single (never married) individuals. The analysis documented increasing trends in the risk-taking of both single women and single men but recorded differences in the risk-taking profiles of the two groups, with single men taking more risk than single women in their retirement wealth building in most cross-sections, with the gender risk-taking gap dropping, nonetheless, algebraically in magnitude from 1989 to 2019.

Building community wealth through workers’ organisations: The challenges and benefits of co-operation through trade unions

This short paper reports on the formation of the Preston Cooperative Education Centre (PCEC), which was founded in 2021 as a union co-operative. Taking their inspiration from the Mondragón co‑operatives in the Basque Country, the PCEC founders believe that education and training are at the heart of any attempt to create a fairer and more equal society. The paper discusses the joint role that co-operatives and trade unions can play in community wealth building. It concludes with the author’s reflections on the benefits and challenges of promoting a union co-operative model.

Moving upstream: healthcare partnerships addressing social determinants of health through community wealth building

BackgroundHealthcare-based interventions addressing social needs such as food and housing generally fail to impact the upstream wealth and power inequities underlying those needs. However, a small number of US healthcare organizations have begun addressing these upstream inequities by partnering with community wealth building initiatives. These initiatives include community land trusts, resident-owned communities, and worker cooperatives, which provide local residents ownership and control over their housing and workplaces. While these partnerships represent a novel, upstream approach to the social determinants of health, no research has yet evaluated them.MethodsTo assess the current state and key aspects of healthcare-community wealth building partnerships, we conducted a multiple case study analysis using semi-structured interviews with thirty-eight key informants across ten partnerships identified through the Healthcare Anchor Network. To analyze the interviews, we used a two-stage coding process. First, we coded responses based on the phase of the intervention to which they corresponded: motivation, initiation, implementation, or evaluation. Then we assessed responses within each aspect for common themes and variation on salient topics.ResultsPartnerships were generally motivated by a combination of community needs, such as affordable housing and living wage jobs, and health system interests, such as workforce housing and supply chain resilience. Initiating projects required identifying external partners, educating leadership, and utilizing risk mitigation strategies to obtain health system buy-in. Implementation took various forms, with healthcare organizations providing financial capital in the form of grants and loans, social capital in the form of convening funders and other stakeholders, and/or capacity building support in the form of strategic planning or technical assistance resources. To evaluate projects, healthcare organizations used more process and community-level metrics rather than metrics based on individual health outcomes or returns on investment. Based on best practices from each partnership phase, we provide a roadmap for healthcare organizations to develop effective community wealth building partnerships.ConclusionsAssessing healthcare partnerships with community wealth building organizations yields key strategies healthcare organizations can use to develop more effective partnerships to address the upstream causes of poor health.

‘Beyond GDP’ in cities: Assessing alternative approaches to urban economic development

Crises spur reflection and re-evaluation of what matters and what is valued. The impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency are reigniting debates about the nature of economic development approaches and what they aim to achieve in urban settings. Addressing a substantive gap in contemporary debates by helping to navigate a burgeoning and diverse field, this paper provides a critical and comparative assessment of five leading agendas that have been positioned as alternative and progressive policy responses to urban economic change: inclusive growth; the wellbeing economy; community wealth building; doughnut economics; and the foundational economy. Taking an international perspective, the paper provides a comparative review of their stated visions, mechanisms for change, and the spatial scales through which they are led and implemented. Our argument is that these alternative approaches to urban economic development are shaping creative, innovative and progressive responses to longstanding urban problems within policy and practice communities but require on-going scrutiny and evaluation to realise their potential to meaningfully achieve transformative change.

Dutch architectural learning process of the Dutch East Indies

This research concentrates on the architectural process of Dutch architects in the Dutch East Indies, specifically Maclaine Pont, Thomas Karsten, and Wolff Schoemaker. The issue addressed by these three people is how they learned, particularly their reaction to the conditions and wealth of buildings in the Dutch East Indies, and what drove each of their architectures. This study employs a synchronic-diachronic analytic strategy as well as a historical interpretation strategy based on contextual evidence categories. It runs from 1900 to 1940. According to the study's findings, all three encounters through the same learning process, which includes the introduction phase, the exploration phase, and the architectural attitude phase. The architectural perspective was expressed at Maclaine Pont through the design of a tent structure system based on studies of Javanese pavilion roofs, whereas Karsten and Schoemaker referenced modern architecture. Karsten was fascinated by people's daily lives, whereas Schoemaker thought Frank Lloyd Wright's style was the most recent at the time.

The mental health and wellbeing impact of a Community Wealth Building programme in England: a difference-in-differences study

Wide differences in health exist between places in the UK, underscored by economic inequalities. Preston, an economically disadvantaged city in England, implemented a new approach to economic development, known as the Community Wealth Building programme. Public and non-profit organisations modified their procurement policies to support the development of local supply chains, improve employment conditions, and increase socially productive use of wealth and assets. We aimed to investigate the effect of this programme on population mental health and wellbeing. Difference-in-differences techniques compared trends in mental health outcomes in Preston, relative to matched control areas before (2011-15) and after (2016-19) the introduction of the programme. Outcomes were antidepressant prescribing, prevalence of depression, and mental health related hospital attendance rates using data provided by National Health Service Digital, the Quality and Outcomes Framework, and the Office for National Statistics. Additional analysis compared local authority measures of life satisfaction, median wages, and employment with synthetic counterfactuals created using Bayesian Structural Time Series. The introduction of the Community Wealth Building programme was associated with reductions in the prescribing of antidepressants (1·3 average daily quantities per person [95% CI 0·72-1·78) and prevalence of depression (2·4 per 1000 population [0·42-4·46]), relative to the control areas. The local population also experienced a 9% improvement in life satisfaction (95% credible interval 0-19·6%) and 11% increase in median wages (1·8-18·9%), relative to expected trends. Associations with employment and mental health related hospital attendance outcomes did not reach statistical significance. During the period in which the Community Wealth Building programme was introduced, there were fewer mental health problems than would have been expected compared with other similar areas, as life satisfaction and economic measures improved. This approach potentially provides an effective model for economic regeneration potentially leading to substantial health benefits. National Institute for Health Research.

Promoting Housing-Based Asset Building Programs in Healthcare.

Wealth building programs remain underutilized, and Medical Financial Partnerships serve as a potential solution. We aimed to assess the reach and adoption of an underutilized asset building program, Family Self Sufficiency, with a national uptake of 3%, when integrated into a healthcare system. First, a hospital-affiliated "known provider" introduced Family Self Sufficiency to clinic patients. Second, hospital staff unknown to families conducted outreach to clinic patients. For both pilots, we tracked eligibility, interest, and enrollment rates. We evaluated the pilots using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework in addition to reviewing the qualitative feedback from the staff who introduced the program. The reach of each pilot varied: the first pilot (n = 17) had an enrollment rate of 18%, whereas the second pilot (n = 69) had an enrollment rate of 1%. Adoption factors included prior relationship with the family and barriers to understanding the program families. However, adoption was limited by bandwidth of family to complete paperwork, staff to do outreach, and timing of the outreach to maximize benefit. Increasing uptake of underutilized asset building programs could be part of the solution to building wealth for families with low incomes. Healthcare partnerships may be an approach to increase reach and adoption by eligible populations. Areas to consider for successful future implementation include: (1) timeline of outreach, (2) families' relationship with individuals performing outreach, and (3) current bandwidth of the family. Systematic implementation trials are needed to study these outcomes in more detail.

Effectiveness of interventions to reduce child marriage and teen pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of quantitative evidence.

Child marriage and teen pregnancy have negative health, social and development consequences. Highest rates of child marriage occur in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and 40% of women in Western and Central Africa got married before the age of 18. This systematic review was aimed to fill a gap in evidence of effectiveness to reduce teen pregnancy and child marriage in SSA. We considered studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa that reported on the effect of interventions on child marriage and teen pregnancy among adolescent girls for inclusion. We searched major databses and grey literature sources. We included 30 articles in this review. We categorized the interventions reported in the review into five general categories: (a) Interventions aimed to build educational assets, (b) Interventions aimed to build life skills and health assets, (c) Wealth building interventions, and (d) Community dialogue. Only few interventions were consistently effective across the studies included in the review. The provision of scholarship and systematically implemented community dialogues are consistently effective across settings. Program designers aiming to empower adolescent girls should address environmental factors, including financial barriers and community norms. Future researchers should consider designing rigorous effectiveness and cost effectiveness studies to ensure sustainability. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42022327397.

Whatever happened to municipal radicalism?

AbstractWhat can the municipal state do to radically transform urban economies? Local government in countries such as the UK has been historically tasked with delivering public services; rarely extending its remit to economic development, let alone community‐led forms promoting economic democracy, at least not since 1980s municipal socialism. But times are changing, and the UK case provides some telling examples of what is now possible. Community wealth building, cooperative development and foundational economy approaches are fast gaining traction in municipalities across the UK, through emergent public‐common‐philanthropic partnerships with progressive think tanks, cooperative development agencies, community enterprises, foundations and charitable trusts. This article explores complexifying relations between the state, the cooperative movement and the non‐profit industrial complex in the pursuit of sustainable and generative economic development as playing out differently in urban policy experiments in the English cities of Preston and Plymouth. The article contributes to current debates on local state restructuring, municipal statecraft and urban entrepreneurialism by critically comparing these place‐based variegations of municipal‐cooperative development with previous waves, and with more financialised and extractivist forms of statecraft, drawing out implications for praxis.

Toward a New Project for Equality and Justice—In Housing, and Beyond: A Rejoinder

I offer a rejoinder to the five responses to my article, “Beyond Opportunity Hoarding,” generously provided by Professors Bates, Dawkins, Ellen, Greenlee, and Lens. I argue it is imperative we face soberly three central problematics looming over the current debate: a) the enormity and profoundness of America's urban problems; b) the failure of the Opportunity Project to address these problems; and c) the reasons for this failure. I conclude by reiterating the need for an alternative strategy (or a new Project) to advance equality and justice, one built around a robust and large-scale program of Community Wealth Building. I discuss Community Wealth Building's appropriateness as an area of inquiry and engagement for housing researchers and practitioners, and I consider the challenges confronting its feasibility in light of several salient (and hopeful) political and social developments unfolding in contemporary urban America.