Street Smarts Research Articles

Blending Journalism and Communication Studies

Much opinion has flowed in precisely the opposite direction, of course. The forced marriage of once-independent journalism and speech departments at many universities has inspired dark and mournful tales of decline. Journalism’s defenders argue that their profession inevitably loses its distinctive identity when combined with other forms of communication or media studies. Sometimes the profession’s defenders declare that any combination of journalism—whether speech communication or media studies or strategic communication— amounts to a profanation, a betrayal of the sacred trust upon which their craft was founded. At least once or twice, formerly combined departments have been granted divorces, in the name of restoring the purity of journalism education. Such debates are not entirely new, of course. Thirty years ago, the increasing application of social science methods to media studies provoked stylized debates between the “communicologists” and the “green eye-shades,” in which the theoretical knowledge (and cultural authority) of the Ph.D. was imagined to be displacing the street smarts of the former newsroom professionals.

The often-neglected term in the entrepreneurial equation–the purchase order

Many entrepreneurs are enthralled with their company's technologies, products and potential markets. Invariably these emerging ventures present bedazzling business plans with industry-wise vernacular, detailed market research, and sophisticated financial spreadsheets. They often flaunt their “optimized business models.” Investors, however, typically want to know when and how the sales will start meeting the Plan. “Whereʼs the purchase order?” is the refrain. In this article, our “Practitionerʼs Corner” associate editor Joe Levangie collaborates with a long-time colleague, Deaver Brown, to address how businesses should “make sales happen.” Levangie warns that Brownʼs elitist education (Choate, Harvard College, Harvard Business School) should not be interpreted as a lack of “street smarts”; Brownʼs more entrepreneurially friendly credentials include winning Golden Gloves boxing medals and selling Fuller Brush products door-to-door! To ascertain how the entrepreneur can wrest an order from a prospective customer, read on.

The Structuring of Invisibility Among the Hidden Homeless: The Politics of Space, Stigma, and Identity Construction

This ethnographic portrayal relies on participant observations at two supplemental support programs for youth without homes, narratives collected through in-depth interviews with educators and case managers, and focus group interviews with youth participants to explore the discursive (re)production of invisibility among youth without homes. Structuration theory is used to frame macro and micro forces coalescing to enable and constrain processes of invisibility among the hidden homeless. Analysis reveals how invisibility shapes (and is shaped by) processes of stigmatization, “street smarts” as enacted by youth, and “Mayberry” and “not in my backyard” community discourses, and how the disappearance of youth without homes simultaneously serves and undermines various stakeholders.

Street Smarts and Urban Myths: Women, Sex Work, and the Role of Storytelling in Risk Reduction and Rationalization

Storytelling has a strong tradition in inner-city American communities. In this article, we examine patterns of storytelling among a sample of drug-using women from New York City who engage in street-based sex work. We consider two particular formats of storytelling for analysis: "street smarts" and "urban myths." Street smarts are stories of survival, and urban myths are compilations of street legends spread by word of mouth. The narratives are filled with tales of extreme risk across situations. The women used the stories to delineate the boundaries of risk as well as to rationalize risks they deemed to be inevitable but temporary in their lives. Few of the women capitalized on the greater instructive quality of the stories toward increased risk reduction, which may relate to the women's distance from an identity of "sex worker." If properly harnessed, the strength of storytelling suggests new avenues for risk-reduction interventions.

The Human Side: Only the Brainiest Succeed

When ask successful corporate executives how they got where they are, a common answer is, I was lucky-I was in the right place at the right time or, I was working with someone who took me under his wing or, My project hit the market before the competition and was a hero. Is success just a matter of luck? No question, luck always plays a role. But in the words of Louis Pasteur, the great French biologist, fortune favors the prepared mind. Corporate climbers most likely to succeed make the best use of their brains and personality. have discussed personality types in some of my other writings. In this article, shall focus on the kinds of brains demonstrated by successful people in research and technology organizations. is no lack of advice about how to succeed in business. However, while some advice for managers hasn't changed much since first worked with companies like IBM, AT&T and HP more than a generation ago, there are differences in the kind of intellectual abilities you need to get ahead today. In fact, during the past decade psychologists have fundamentally revised our understanding of intelligence. Different Kinds of Intelligence For most of the 20th century, meant IQ, measured by tests that focused on memory, logic and analysis. However, the work of psychologists Howard Gardner at Harvard, Robert Sternberg at Yale and Daniel Goleman describes other kinds of that make a difference to a manager's effectiveness. Goleman popularized the concept of emotional as having to do with self-control, self-understanding and empathy. Sternberg contrasted analytic with practical intelligence, or street smarts, and creative intelligence, which includes imagination and aesthetic sensibility. Analytic intelligence-the kind that gets you high scores on the SAT or graduate record exam-used to be the major ticket to higher education and the academic credentials essential to getting hired and moving up in a technology company. Of course, street smarts were always useful for knowing whom to trust and whom to butter up. No one prospers without knowing how to manage the boss. But most promotions depend on analytic, problem-solving skills. In companies worked with, like Bell Labs and the MITRE corporation, members of the technical staff were measured and promoted essentially on technical competence. Recent research shows that many people with high IQs don't do so well anymore. Sternberg writes, There is a small but positive correlation between IQ and various kinds of measured success, but at the top, the relationship weakens. And people with extremely high IQs often don't achieve great success because they try to overcapitalize on their analytic intelligence (1). Why has analytic become less important? are various possible reasons. To make sense of complex information flows, people need pattern recognition skills and the creative ability to think up new concepts. As companies put a higher value on teamwork and customer relationships, interpersonal skills and emotional become more important. In the past, managers could intimidate subordinates and joke at their expense. In today's diverse workplace, insensitivity and verbal abuse are not tolerated, As the market demands continual innovation, creative intelligence-imagination and design capability-makes a difference. The Need for Leadership But more than any other factor, believe that what has changed the most is the need for leadership in organizations. To succeed in business, you need to have the brains as well as the personality that make you an effective leader. While leadership may call for decision-making, strategy, negotiation, and communication, intellectual abilities and emotional attitudes determine how well we learn and exercise these competencies. Why has leadership become so important? Traditional management was designed to fit relatively stable industrial bureaucracies. …

Designs of Deception: Concepts of Consciousness, Spirituality and Survival in Capoeira Angola in Salvador, Brazil

This paper addresses various questions concerning "consciousness" and related folk concepts through an examination of fundamental principles of capoeira angola. These include, for instance, ideas such as ginga, the sensing of the mind/body through specific movements; or energia, a type of psychic force believed to be engendered through engagement within a group or with an opponent; or mentalidade, the kind of "head" one develops in capoeira angola, referring in part to what we conceptualize as a "state of consciousness," and in this case a highly alert and perceptive state with other elements of psychic ties and influences. This mentalidade includes "street smarts" and a highly developed knowledge about the various ways deception can be used to "get what one needs" in life, in other words, these are tools for survival in a specific kind of environment. Such a discussion must include "race," and class in Brazil. Racial and class discrimination in Brazilian society is seldom expressed explicitly; indeed a rhetoric of "racial democracy" has been popularized in direct contradiction to the reality of a racial oppression that includes class. In this paper, I integrate related issues of "states of consciousness" that have developed in capoeira angola to the conditions of racial and class inequality, power and history that have been its nurturance. In the conclusions, I speculate that notions of consciousness are in the process of change as capoeira angola is being regimented, taken out of context and taught increasingly among middle‐class Brazilians and in such places as the United States.

Dimensions of the Glass Ceiling in the Hospitality Industry

Studies about the glass ceiling, which describes the invisible barrier that asseems to restrict women and people of color from promotion to firms' top echelons, are primarily descriptive or anecdotal. Focusing specifically on women, this study surveyed 234 women executives in the hospitality industry. The study used factor analysis to discover the underlying dimensions that can support or hinder women's advancement to executive positions. Findings suggest that there are four dimensions comprising qualities essential to promotion, eight dimensions relating to women's personal strategies, and four dimensions relating to company strategies regarding advancing women's professional careers. The four essential qualities are: an appropriate personality, street smarts, political savvy, and intelligence (although the last factor has the weakest influence on promotions). Strategies that women have found effective for advancement include: being proactive in leadership and professional development, making sacrifices, developing support systems (including mentors), and being willing to make changes (including moving to new locations or employers). The corporate factors involve these four aspects: formal policies, such as identifying talented people and preparing people for promotion; maintaining an appropriate corporate culture (that is, one that accepts women as leaders); rejecting negative stereotypes; and supporting and encouraging women in their quest for promotion. While the components relating to advancing women can be identified, the hospitality industry offers many promotional paths-and the factors are weighted differently for each individual. That is, there are many paths to the top.

October Ritual

October Ritual Devorah Major (bio) Cave Canem: A Special Section 1 this year as last the sky a cloudless azure blue just like the fifty cent postcard said it would be breaking only when touched by land or sea the air again smells of the last days of summer just a tongue tip breeze to remind you of october instead of june when rumbles cut the afternoon in two and a shriek of silver gray bombers stab the wind tear the soft underbelly of the sky leaving spiral signatures of icy oil against the shadow of blue they proclaim themselves angels as they trumpet out the glory of war but school children who know the truth of battlefields cover their ears crouch under benches begin to cry 2. the nurse in labor and delivery smiles remembering how this afternoon her oldest son ran and spun unable to be still in the middle of the flag waving crowd [End Page 1005] she told us how the bombers swooped and swaggered across each other boldly as they looped each loop she placed her hand across her rounded midriff and realized that she would not mind if it held her third boy child 3. i listen to her story and see her laugh softly to herself notice that her auburn hair is a bit shorter but just as dark her olive face fuller but hands as long as the mother in albania who has just buried most of her family and now becomes a newspaper caption naming her ethnic and poor and alone 4. americans seem to be in favor of pure wars where our boys rarely get shot down and film footage only shows fireworks against the night’s black sky 5. a cluster of boys have been born in our row of houses five sons four years three homes they say it is a sign of war Devorah Major Devorah Major is author of An Open Weave, a novel, two books of poems, Traveling Women and street smarts, a book of poems for which she won the PEN Oakland 1996 Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also published in such periodicals and anthologies as Obsidian II, The Progressive, Black Scholar, Frontiers, Left Curve, Callaloo, and Pushcart XII. Copyright © 2000 Charles H. Rowell

Theory outside the academy: Street smarts and critical theory†

(1998). Theory outside the academy: Street smarts and critical theory. Consumption Markets & Culture: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 203-231.

Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular

Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular

Principles of Collaboration in School-University Partnerships

* If it is true that all understanding can be rendered as a story, then this story begins with Mary, Jackie, and Barbara, three fourth-grade teachers who have been teachers and touchstones for us since 1990 (Clarke, Davis, Rhodes, & Baker, 1996, 1997; Davis, Clarke, & Rhodes, 1994). These three remarkable teachers consistently achieve success with lowincome, urban minority students under difficult circumstances using dramatically different methods and materials. Mary, who believes that all troubles can be solved by reading and writing, is the epitome of a whole language, process-oriented teacher. Jackie, a bilingual teacher raised in Chicago, uses technology and street smarts in requiring that her students not back down from the realities that assail them. Barbara, calm and confident in her use of choral drill and leveled reading groups, seems to have stepped out of an episode of Leave it to Beaver. Initially, our fascination with them began as a variation on Stevick's riddle:

Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular.

Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular.

Street smarts and critical theory: listening to the vernacular

Thomas McLaughlin argues that critical theory - raising serious, sustained questions about cultural practice and ideology - is practiced not only by an academic elite but also by savvy viewers of sitcoms and tv news, by Elvis fans and Trekkies, by labor organizers and school teachers, by the average person in the street. Like academic theorists, who are trained in a tradition of philosophical and political skepticism that challenges all orthodoxies, the vernacular theorists McLaughlin identifies display a lively and healthy alertness to contradiction and propaganda. They are not passive victims of ideology but active questioners of the belief systems that have power over their lives. Their theoretical work arises from the circumstances they confront on the job, in the family, in popular culture. And their questioning of established institutions, McLaughlin contends, is essential and healthy, for it clarifies the purpose and strategies of institutions and justifies the existence of cultural practices. Street Smarts and Critical Theory leads us through eye-opening explorations of social activism in the Southern Christian anti-pornography movement, fan critiques in the 'zine scene, New Age narratives of healing and transformation, the methodical manipulations of the advertising profession, and vernacular theory in the whole-language movement. Emphasizing that theory is itself a pervasive cultural practice, McLaughlin calls on academic institutions to recognize and develop the theoretical strategies that students bring into the classroom.

A performance balance for TRADES

In their new book, Street Smarts, professors Roy Smith and Ingo Walter draw a link between professional behaviour and shareholder value in financial markets. Now more than ever, they argue, in order to survive investment houses must generate codes of practice that balance the expectations of society and investors. In this excerpt, they outline the challenge to guiding and assessing the conduct of firms.

Learning street smarts for an urban setting.

Learning street smarts for an urban setting.

Barriers and aids in conducting research with older homeless individuals.

Field notes of a qualitative pilot study of older homeless people in Cincinnati identified several barriers and aids to the study of homeless elders. Identified research barriers were researcher's lack of contextual wisdom (street smarts), locating elders, substance abuse, attrition, victimization, credibility of informants, and xenophobia. Identified research aids were friendliness of certain elders, openness of the researcher, attractive incentives in exchange for interviews, and service providers' willingness to share experiences.

Consumers as service providers: the promise and challenge.

The importance of consumers in planning, providing and evaluating mental health services has received increasing recognition. Consumer participation as staff members on professional multidisciplinary teams describes one model of consumer involvement in providing services. This report gives the perspective of the professional leadership of such a team which employs two full-time "consumer advocates" (CAs). CAs have made significant and valuable contributions to the clinical work of the team by virtue of their street smarts, engagement skills, peer support, positive role modeling, fighting stigma, and education of co-workers. However, the CA/professional collaboration presented a number of challenging questions for ongoing discussion, including: 1) What is the role of the CA? 2) What are the boundaries between CAs and patients and the implications of these boundaries for the potential effectiveness of CAs? 3) What supervision should the CA have and with whom? 4) What is the impact of the CA's individual experience with mental illness on their work? Examples are presented of both the clinical contribution of CAs and how the importance of addressing the above questions became evident in the work of the team. We found that CAs were extremely important team members; however, an ongoing dialogue between consumers and professionals is essential to operationalize this important collaboration.

Book Review: Small Business Street Smarts: A Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Small Business in Australia

Book Review: Small Business Street Smarts: A Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Small Business in Australia

Street Smarts: How to Avoid Being a Victim

Journal Article Street Smarts: How to Avoid Being a Victim Get access Street Smarts: How to Avoid Being a Victim, ½″ videocassette/55 min/color/1992. Producer, J. Marc Group. Distributor, Video Publishing House, Inc., 930 N. National Parkway, Suite 505, Schaumburg, IL 60173. 800/824-8889. Sale (for schools & nonprofits) $250, 5-day rental $150, 2-day preview $50. Leader's guide included. 25-minute version also available at lower rates. Nevins Andrea, MPH, Nevins Andrea, MPH Audiovisual Editor Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar A.W.N. A.W.N. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar The Gerontologist, Volume 32, Issue 6, December 1992, Page 864, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/32.6.864a Published: 01 December 1992