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1
Becker, Emily Jane. "Beyond Fruit: Examining Community in a Community Orchard." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2628.
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The Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard, located in Portland, Oregon in an affordable housing neighborhood, is a site of alternative food provisioning in which a group of people, organized by two nonprofits, work together to manage fruit and nut producing plants. Through conversations with volunteers who participate regularly and participant observation, this study explores the questions: What does community mean in the context of a community orchard? In what ways does partnering with a nonprofit from outside the neighborhood influence community and the way the project is operationalized?
This thesis situates community orchards within the literature on alternative food networks (AFN) and highlights three key findings drawing on literature about community development and race in AFNs. First, neighbors and non-neighbors who participate in the project propose different definitions of community. Second, neighbor involvement is limited by a number of factors, including neighborhood divisions and organizational challenges. Notably, orchard participants do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the neighborhood, putting this project at risk of creating a white space in a majority people of color neighborhood and reproducing inequality rather than fighting against it. Finally, this research complicates the notion of community in alternative food networks and demonstrates how collaborating with an organization from outside the neighborhood impacted the community through increasing non-neighbor participation and through their communications, aesthetics, decision making, and inattention to racial dynamics in the neighborhood and orchard.
2
Wallpe, Courtenay Silvergleid. "Engaging a Systems Approach to Evaluate Domestic Violence Intervention with Abusive Men: Reassessing the Role of Community." PDXScholar, 2010. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/439.
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The domestic violence movement has had remarkable success illuminating the scope, prevalence and consequences of battering, but has been more limited in its ability to successfully intervene and prevent abuse of women by their intimate male partners. Surprisingly, there has been little research directed at understanding why intervention strategies with perpetrators are only minimally effective. Studies have focused on assessing the degree to which and for whom individual components such as arrest, prosecution and psycho-educational programs for abusive men are successful, but few explorations have attempted to describe limitations and challenges to the domestic violence intervention 'system as a whole'. Employing a systems approach, a process-oriented evaluation of the domestic violence intervention system in Portland, Oregon was conducted. Ten focus groups were facilitated with key stakeholders in the coordinated community response. Participants included police and probation officers, victim advocates, victim/survivors, batterer intervention program providers, and batterer intervention program participants. The focus group discussions were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory and emergent themes were identified. Based on stakeholder testimony, it appears as though seven interacting features may limit the effectiveness of domestic violence intervention strategies with abusive men: 1) attempting to simultaneously punish and rehabilitate perpetrators, 2) dominance of a "one size fits all" approach, 3) insufficient accountability within the system for abusive men, 4) rampant victim blaming, 5) barriers to effective collaboration, 6) confusion created by complex domestic violence dynamics, and 7) reactivity instead of activism and prevention. These and other findings are discussed in light of their capacity to illuminate fundamental tensions associated with relying so heavily on the criminal justice system to intervene in domestic violence (e.g., the contradictions that surface when attempting to protect and empower victims, the difficulty of balancing consistency with an individually tailored response when sanctioning perpetrators). Despite these and other challenges, complete dismissal of the criminal justice system's role in holding abusive men accountable seems unwise. Instead, it will be important for movement activists, practitioners, and researchers to critically reflect upon its limitations and work to redress and refine its use, while simultaneously developing new strategies that engage a wider range of community resources.
3
Patka, Mazna. "Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities in Faith Communities: Perspectives of Catholic Religious Leaders." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1632.
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Community psychology is concerned with the relationship between individuals and social systems in community contexts, but the field has under-explored the role of religious organizations in the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Worldwide, most people identify with a religion, and congregations serve as important mediating structure that creates a sense of community and provides linkages between individuals and society. There may be significant benefits to religious participation, including greater life satisfaction, health, and quality of life. Such benefits may be especially important to individuals with intellectual disability who generally experience poorer outcomes. However, we know very little about the inclusion of persons with intellectual disability in faith communities, particularly from the perspective of faith leaders who play pivotal roles in transmitting values and making decisions for their community.
The present dissertation aimed to address gaps in knowledge about how religious leaders make meaning of intellectual disabilities and their perspectives toward individuals with intellectual disabilities. Catholic priests, parochial vicars, and deacons were interviewed to address three overarching research questions, viz. (a) What types of experiences, in and outside of faith communities, do religious leaders have with individuals with intellectual disabilities?; (b) What are the beliefs of religious leaders toward the involvement of individuals with intellectual disabilities within faith communities?; and (c) How does religion inform the understanding of intellectual disabilities among religious leaders?
Participation was limited to religious leaders who are part of the U.S. Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Portland, Oregon. Participation was only sought from religious leaders who are assigned to parishes that either host adaptive liturgies or were identified as having at least one parishioner with developmental disabilities participating in the mainstream mass. A total of 12 religious leaders (pastors, parochial vicars, and deacons) participated in the present study. Semi-structured interviews illuminated the perspectives of religious leaders toward individuals with intellectual disabilities such as the type of involvement individuals with intellectual disabilities are encouraged to engage in within the congregation. Additionally, participants were also asked about how they made meaning of intellectual disabilities.
Using grounded theory analysis, I identified five models of intellectual disability that organize the complex relationships among the focal research questions. These five models include (1) Close to God, (2) Conformity, (3) Unfortunate Innocent Children, (4) Deficient, and (5) Human Diversity. Among the five models, Human Diversity viewed intellectual disability as a natural part of human variation while the rest focused on negative or positive stereotypes of intellectual disabilities. Each model yields a different definition which results in varying determinations of the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. However, each definition is one dimensional and bound in culture. Most of these models suggest that the construction and categorization of intellectual disability may perpetuate inequality. Additional research is needed to explore the boundaries of models of intellectual disabilities constructed within a religious context. The present dissertation is one step in exploring meanings of intellectual disabilities and factors that impact their participation in faith communities
4
Ulrich, Nicolette. "Community Cultivators: Community Gardens and Refugees in Portland, Oregon." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23728.
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This thesis explores the relationship between community gardens in Portland, Oregon, and the refugee integration process. Using interviews and observations of a community garden in southeast Portland, the research explores the actors and organizations working with refugees in community gardens all over the city. The most prominent actors in the community garden networks are referred to as Community Cultivators. These individuals are refugees and also strongly tied to organizations and institutions in Portland. It is through these social networks that Community Cultivators are able to build bridges between their refugee communities and Portland-based organizations, fostering integration. This research also explores how integration happens in the community gardens in Portland and why community gardens are able to foster these relationships. The foundational framework used in this research is Alison Ager and Alistar Strang’s (2008) Indicators of Integration, which is adapted for the unique process of refugee integration through community gardens engagement.
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Billings, Jr David Ross. "White Space, Black Space: Community Gardens in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4550.
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Community gardens have been the focus of social science research in the United States for several decades and the benefits associated with these alternative food spaces has been well documented. More recently, scholars have begun to argue that these benefits are inequitably distributed across society. Largely as a result of the whiteness of these spaces, people of color are less represented in community and benefit less from their presence. Portland, Oregon is recognized as a leader in sustainability, with its abundance of community gardens and urban agriculture. It is also one of the whitest urban cities in the United States. People of color have faced a legacy of oppression and marginalization in Portland, and this is especially true for the black community. Through conducting 17 in-depth interviews and spending an extensive amount of time observing community gardens in Portland, this research aims to explore how the whiteness of these spaces functions to marginalize black individuals and contributes to the ongoing oppression of the black community. This research also demonstrates how the black community in Portland engages community gardening in an effort to resist these and broader effects of structural racism.
6
Ball, Rebecca Elizabeth. "Portland's Independent Music Scene: The Formation of Community Identities and Alternative Urban Cultural Landscapes." PDXScholar, 2010. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/126.
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Portland has a rich, active, and fluid music culture which is constantly being (re)created and (re)defined by a loose network of local musicians who write, record, produce, promote, distribute, and perform their music locally (and sometimes regionally, nationally, and internationally) and local residents, or audiences, who engage in local musical practices. Independent ("indie") local music making in Portland, which is embedded in DIY (do it yourself) values, creates alternative cultural places and landscapes in the city and is one medium through which some people represent themselves in the community. These residents not only perform, consume, promote, and distribute local music, they also (re)create places to host musical expressions. They have built alternative and democratic cultural landscapes, or culturescapes, in the city. Involved Portlanders strive to make live music performances accessible and affordable to all people, demonstrating through musical practices that the city is a shared space and represents a diversity of people, thoughts, values, and cultural preferences. Using theoretical tools from critical research about the economic, spatial, and social role of cultures in cities, particularly music, and ethnographic research of the Portland music scene, including participant observations and in-depth interviews with Portland musicians and other involved residents, this research takes a critical approach to examining ways in which manifestations of independent music are democratic cultural experiences that influence the city's cultural identity and are a medium through which a loosely defined group of Portlanders represent their cultural values and right to the city. In particular, it focuses on how local musical practices, especially live performances, (re)create alternative spaces within the city for musical expressions and influence the city's cultural landscapes, as well as differences between DIY independent music in Portland and its commodified forms and musicians and products produced by global music industry.
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Copp, Sara Rose. "Community level impacts associated with the invasion of English ivy (Hedera spp.) in Forest Park: a look at the impacts of ivy on community composition and soil moisture." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2024.
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Invasive species degrade ecosystems by altering natural processes and decreasing the abundance and diversity of native flora. Communities with major fluctuations in resource supply allow invasive species to exploit limiting resources making the community prone to invasion. In the Pacific Northwest, urban forests characterized with limited light and seasonally limited soil moisture are being dominated by nonnative English ivy (Hedera spp). Three observational studies were conducted in the Southern end of Forest Park within the Balch Creek Subwatershed in Portland, Oregon in order to understand 1) how English ivy changes over three growing seasons, 2) how the native understory composition responds to English ivy, 3) if the dominance of English ivy reduces soil moisture to neighboring plants, 4) how English ivy and two co-occurring native herbs (Hydrophyllum tenuipes and Vancouveria hexandra) physiologically respond to seasonal changes in soil moisture. Percent cover of the understory community was collected in both 2010 and 2013 growing seasons in 54 plots in order to understand the change in cover over time. Community response and the relationship with soil moisture was analyzed using percent cover of the understory community and associated environmental variables including soil moisture collected in 128 plots during the 2013 field season. Finally, 15 plots with co-occurring Hedera spp, H. tenuipes and V. hexandra were sampled for stomatal conductance, leaf water potential, and associated environmental variables. Results show ivy cover increases on average 14% between 2010 and 2013 while native understory cover increased on average < 1%. Once ivy forms dense cover over 44% there is a reduction of native richness, diversity and herb cover while also an increase in available soil moisture and deciduous canopy cover. There were disparate impacts to different functional groups and between species. As functional group, the herbaceous community was the most impacted by ivy invasion. The shrubs and fern community had a variable response to ivy invasion. Many of the fern and shrub species least impacted by ivy also had associations with high soil moisture and deciduous canopy cover. Finally, data suggests that ivy does not take advantage of seasonally limiting soil moisture to invade the understory community. This study indicates that English ivy is both efficient at water use and may have the ability to obtain water from distant locations throughout the forest. Once established, ivy has the ability to alter the community composition. Ivy removal and habitat restoration are essential in order to maintain and enhance biodiversity in Forest Park.
8
Gibbs, Andrew Daniel. "Understanding the Impacts of Urbanization on the Avian Community of Portland Oregon and Evaluation of the Portland Oregon Backyard Habitat Certification Program." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4386.
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Over fifty percent of humans live in cities. The environmental cost of this is massive, as is the potential for utilizing privately held yards as an integral part of conservation in urban areas. The Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP) in Portland, Oregon, was established to reduce invasive plants, support wildlife, and promote conservation. The program involves > 3000 yards certified at three tiers. While onsite inspections are required to verify compliance, there has never been an assessment of the value of these yards to wildlife. Chapter 1 examined the relationships between the urban landscape and bird distributions outside of yards. Chapter 2 evaluated the ability of the program to separate yards by assessing differences in vegetation structure and composition. Chapter 3 tested if avian abundance, richness and diversity in yards are a product of responses to yard or landscape vegetation structure. Avian data was collected at 146 yards and 73 random locations in 2013 and 2014. Public landscape data was used to collect yard data in the field. Avian abundance, richness, and diversity were affected negatively by urbanization (especially impervious surface) and population density, but positively by tree cover. The BHCP was effective at distinguishing platinum yards from others, but overlap was relatively high among gold, silver and uncertified yards. Avian abundance, richness and diversity within yards was less affected by yard vegetation than the structure of habitat in the surrounding landscape. Species responded individualistically to yard vegetation and the urban landscape, and response was a continuum of tolerance to urbanization. Ultimately, the ability of yards to support wildlife will depend on wide scale neighborhood participation.
9
White, Martin. "The Portland Learning Community : a history." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3574.
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This thesis recounts the history of the Portland Learning Community, an experimental institution of higher education founded in 1970 by a group consisting mostly of former faculty and students at Reed College. The Learning Community was funded by the Carnegie Corporation and affiliated with Antioch College.
10
Howsley-Glover, Kelly Ann. "Neighborhood Commercial Corridor Change: Portland, Oregon 1990-2010." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1409.
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Commercial corridors in neighborhoods experiencing change have been relegated to a footnote in research on residential phenomena. It is taken for granted that the process of change experience by businesses within these neighborhoods mirrors that of the residential change. This assumption is often predicated on the underlying model of invasion succession, suggesting that inmovers displace native populations, whether they are residents or businesses. Analyzing time series data on neighborhood commercial corridor change, research attempted to first test data against the invasion succession model to see if it is an effective framework for analysis. Second, through comparison of case study areas and data along the aggregated corridor, insights are advanced to spur development of a valid model for examining neighborhood commercial corridor change as a unique process with regular spatio-temporal patterns. This framework, it is suggested, is the first step towards understanding the impact of external forces, including social actors, on the neighborhood commercial landscape.
11
Williams, EmmaJean. "Implementing Community Policing: a Documentation and Assessment of Organizational Change." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1156.
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Four research questions guided this documentation and assessment of the Portland Police Bureau's conversion to community policing. These questions generated a description of the events and circumstances that created the perceived need for change in the Bureau's role and function; a search for justification for selecting community policing as an alternative policing approach; a comparative analysis of past attempts to implement innovative change of a similar dimension in police organizations; and an assessment of the process by which the Bureau implemented this new policing strategy. The findings indicate that the prominent factors driving this change are first, the limitations of conventional policing tactics against emerging new patterns of crime and disorder; second, an intensification of public interest in quality-of-life issues; and third, an increase in the numbers of progressive police officers that are influencing change in the traditional police culture. The process by which the Bureau effected changes in its organizational structure and design to accommodate community policing strategies was assessed using theoretical guidelines abstracted from the organizational change literature. This assessment led to a hypothesis that innovative change which is incongruent with organizational traditions and culture must be implemented organization-wide, in an "all-or-none" fashion, to maximize the probability that the change will become institutionalized. The Bureau's inadvertent adherence to most of the guidelines suggests that a pattern may exist to guide the implementation of innovative organizational change. It was also found that the traditional bureaucratic policing structure has been relaxed, but remains quasi-bureaucratic in character, as a function of retaining the traditional military rank structure.
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Oliver, Kathleen Joan. "Behavioral and Community Impacts of the Portland Needle Exchange Program." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1176.
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Research questions were: 1: Will Drug Injectors Use An Exchange In A StateWhere Syringes Are Legal? 2: Will Drug Injectors Using An Exchange Decrease Risky Behavior? 3: Will Frequent Clients Change Risk Behaviors More Than Infrequent Clients? 4: Will Drug Injectors Using An Exchange Change Risk Behaviors More Than A Comparison Group Not Using An Exchange? 5: Does An Exchange Have An Impact On The Number Of Discarded Syringes On The Streets? 6: Is There A Difference In The Rate Of Spread Of HIV Infection Among Users And Non-Users Of The Exchange. Drug injectors will use needle exchange programs, even in a state where syringes are legal. During the first four years, nearly 2,000 drug injectors made approximately 16,000 visits to the Exchange. Clients of the Exchange reduced risky behavior from intake to six months. Change lasted over time: at twelve months, change in behaviors continued to be significant. Frequent users of the Exchange were better on two variables than infrequent users: they borrowed syringes less, and were less likely to use a syringe and throw it away. Drug injectors using the Exchange were compared to those not using the Exchange, but using a bleach/outreach project. Clients of both projects reduced risky behaviors, with Exchange clients better on two variables: re-using syringes without cleaning, and throwing away used syringes. The two projects attracted different drug injectors, and should be viewed as complementary rather than competing AIDS prevention strategies. The impact of the Exchange on the community was evaluated by the change in the number of discarded syringes found on the streets. The number of syringes found per month decreased from 5.14 before the Exchange opened to 1.9 after it began -- a significant side benefit. The data presented here support the growing evidence that needle exchange programs produce behavioral risk reductions, and that the number of potentially infected syringes in public places can be reduced.
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Moose, Charles. "The Theory and Practice of Community Policing: An Evaluation of the Iris Court Demonstration Project." PDXScholar, 1993. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1331.
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This dissertation deals both with the theory and practice of community policing in the United States and elsewhere while focusing on a specific community policing project in Portland, Oregon. It discusses the history of police work in America, as well as that of the Portland Police Bureau. It also explicates the various meanings of "community policing," along with the problems and issues that have surfaced as the community policing movement has evolved. The research reported here was based on a project conducted by the Portland Police Bureau and numerous supporting agencies. The project was inaugurated in May 1990 with the following goals: improve quality of life of the residents, reduce the fear of crime, and reduce the levels of actual crime. Iris Court is a public housing complex owned and operated by the Housing Authority of Portland. It was recommended as a demonstration site for community policing because of past and ongoing problems of crime in and around it. The Portland City Council had mandated that community policing become the policing style in Portland, and the demonstration project was intended to test various community policing strategies. The tenants were surveyed prior to the implementation of the community policing strategies. The Metro-Life Enhancement Team was formed, an action plan was developed, most of the action plan items were implemented, and the tenants were resurveyed one year later. The evaluation of the project was conducted to assess whether community policing had a measurable effect on public safety. The dependent variables were quality of life, fear of crime, and actual crime. Various community policing strategies would be judged to have been successful if reported crime declined, the fear of crime was reduced, and the quality of life improved. The data show that the project was at least moderately successful. Reported crime declined, fear of crime was reduced, and there were indications that the quality of life was improved. The most striking finding was a 55% decrease in reported crime during the study period. This study suggests that community policing strategies of partnership, empowerment, problem solving, accountability, and service orientation can be successful.
14
MacAodha, Patricia Louise. "Waitperson/customer interaction as an example of community." PDXScholar, 1991. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4330.
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This thesis draws from research done in a particular urban setting, and illustrates the foundations of a type of social structure called "respite community". "Respite community" is a specifically urban phenomenon which can be defined as temporal, ad hoc, face to face, an aggregate of people who seek temporary relief from social stresses and support through socialized interaction.
15
Roberts, Amy. "Internal-external locus of control and the life experiences of Soviet Pentecostal refugees in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 1991. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4189.
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The construct internal-external locus of control was utilized to examine the Soviet Pentecostal refugees' perception of life experiences in the United States as defined by three dimensions: social, economical, and political. Unlike the majority of immigration research, which focuses on structural variables, this research further addressed the concept of acculturation as a long term process of resettlement. Subjects completed an anonymous forced choice questionnaire consisting of the Rotter (1966) locus of control instrument scale. Pearson Product moment correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the strength of the relationships between the internal-external locus of control scores and five factor analyzed life experience categories. Positive and sometimes strong correlations could be found between the internal-external locus of control scores and the five life experience factors. All five hypotheses were confirmed by the results.
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Rizzari, Meredith R. "Re-imaging a neighborhood : the creation of the Alberta Arts District, Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2005. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4052.
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Art is often used as a catalyst to stimulate redevelopment and neighborhood change. This often occurs inadvertently as the presence of artists in certain communities can attract both public and private investment to revalorize economically depressed areas. Marginal neighborhoods in inner-urban areas offer inspiration and diversity to artists seeking lower-cost housing. Their presence effectively makes these marginal communities "safe" for middle-class residents looking to live in a funky, urban neighborhood. Ultimately, however, artists are eventually priced out of the communities they helped to create.
The Alberta district in northeast Portland, Oregon has used art to create an identity that distinguished it from other redeveloped neighborhoods throughout the city, having become known as the Alberta Arts District. The research presented in this thesis traces the history of the Alberta district from its roots as a thriving streetcar community through its years as a dilapidated, crime-ridden neighborhood, and into its current state as a vibrant arts district. I show how the commercial corridor along Alberta Street has evolved to reflect the changing demographic composition of the surrounding neighborhood. Additionally, housing in the surrounding residential neighborhood has experienced a dramatic increase in average sale price and an upfiltering of aesthetic appearance. Many are attracted to the Alberta district for its vibrancy and diversity, the people and businesses that contribute to the diverse atmosphere may disappear as real estate becomes increasingly more expensive.
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Collopy, Carolyn Emily. "Low-Income Homeownership in Portland's Albina Community: A Comparative Analysis of Housing Quality in Market-Rate and Subsidized Houses." PDXScholar, 2001. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2809.
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Housing embodies much more than just a physical commodity. In addition to being an investment, it is our shelter, right to privacy, connection to community, and access to recreation and necessities. Homeownership has long been hailed by social and housing advocates as an economic stabilizer for low to moderate-income neighborhoods. For low and moderate-income residents (households earning 50-100% of the median income), homeownership is possible in two forms: affordable market-rate housing created by the filtering down of houses until affordable to low and moderate-income households, or through subsidized homeownership programs which develop new housing and offer financial assistance for low and moderate-income households.
The purpose of this study was to detem1ine which of these two options, market-rate or subsidized, offer higher quality affordable housing to low and moderate-level income households. Through field observation and GIS analysis, the study compared the structural, block, neighborhood amenity, crime, and proximity to CBD characteristics of affordable market-rate and subsidized houses in Portland's Albina Community. The study samples were approximately 100 houses per sample; market-rate houses consisted of houses that sold during 2000 for $125,000 or less, and subsidized houses were selected from housing created by three local non-profit development agencies.
General characteristics of the two samples revealed subsidized houses were larger and more affordable per square foot than the market-rate houses in Albina. Descriptive statistics showed little overall difference between the two samples in structural, block, neighborhood amenity, and crime characteristics. However, distribution of the two samples varied widely, and consequently subsidized houses were 1 to 2 miles closer to the CBD than market-rate houses. While quality between the two types of affordable housing is currently comparable, the study suggests these trends may soon be threatened by future maintenance needs and neighborhood upgrading.
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Schwartz, Sara Laura. "Engaging Our Workforce: How Job Demands and Resources Contribute to Social Worker Burnout, Engagement and Intent to Leave." PDXScholar, 2007. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3090.
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Social worker stress and burnout are pervasive problems that harm workers, organizations, and clients. Past research has identified burnout, a psychological response to work stress, as an important predictor of intent to leave and ultimate turnover. An emerging body of research has examined work engagement, considered to be the opposite of burnout, as a predictor of retention. The problem of burnout and turnover within organizations employing social workers has been addressed in the literature for many years. This dissertation responded to a call in the literature for a greater emphasis on burnout prevention and enhancement of workforce engagement and retention. The three goals of the study were: (1) to measure levels of work engagement; (2) to examine the psychometric properties of two new instruments that measure burnout and engagement; and (3) to use the Job Demands-Resources model to test a hypothesized model of the unique relationships between job demands, resources, burnout, engagement and intent to leave.
Survey data were collected from 243 public child welfare workers employed with Oregon's Department of Human Services, Children, Adult and Families Division, Service Delivery Area 2 serving Multnomah County. Findings revealed that half of the workers were highly engaged and that engagement explained 18% of the variance of intent to remain employed. An alternative measure of burnout, the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, demonstrated good internal consistency, convergent validity with the MBI, and explained 26% of the variance of intent to leave. A series of path analyses indicated support for a partially-mediated model. The findings demonstrate that burnout and engagement mediate the effects that demands and resources have on intent to leave. Supervisor support exerted both direct and indirect effects on intent to leave.
The results support the inclusion of work engagement in burnout research, demonstrate the psychometric soundness of two new instruments to measure engagement and burnout, and support the applicability of the Job Demands Resources Model to a sample of social service workers employed in public child welfare. The findings indicate that job demands and resources play an important role in worker intent to leave. Research, education, policy, and practice implications are addressed.
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Antoine, Patricia Luann. "Battle for the boulevard." PDXScholar, 1992. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4248.
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This study explored the nature of community power and decision-making surrounding the renaming of Portland's Union Avenue in honor of the slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Employing an integrated theoretical framework based on G. William Domhoff's (1967) perspective of the compatibility of c. Wright Mills' Power Elite Model (1956) and Robert A. Dahl's Pluralist Model (1961) plus Claude s. Fischer's (1982) perspective on the nature of the urban social environment, this study attempted to provide insight into and understanding of the dynamics involved in the controversy that developed over the efforts to rename a street for Dr. King, the decision-making process, and the apparent motivations of the participants.
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Brown, Louisa Jenkins. "The dynamics of change among community development corporations in Inner North/Northeast Portland, 1987-2006." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/81.
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This project is a comparative case study of five Community Development Corporations (CDCs) that emerged in the seven central neighborhoods of Inner North/Northeast Portland, Oregon in the late 1980s. Of the five organizations that began at that time, only two exist currently. Analyzing how and why these organizations rose and fell, merged and failed, struggled and survived in a compressed time frame and geographic area will elucidate the different paths that each organization chose in a neighborhood that changed from derelict to gentrified. Drawing on the overlapping bodies of literature that cover low-income and affordable housing development, CDC structure and evolution, and neighborhood revitalization, this study will highlight issues of local government participation in the expansion of CDCs and a changing community context. The choices that organizations made, or were compelled to make, in response to these particularly local conditions contribute either to their fortitude or their demise. This case study is intended to fill in gaps in the existing CDC and gentrification literature and to contribute an understanding of survival strategies for CDCs in an intensely competitive environment.
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Griffith, Sarah Marie. "The Courts and the Making of a Chinese Immigrant Community in Portland, Oregon, 1850-1910." PDXScholar, 2003. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/76.
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This thesis studies the development of the Portland, Oregon Chinese immigrant community between 1850 and 1910. Chinese immigrants first arrived in Portland in the mid-1850s and quickly created businesses as well as social institutions they transplanted from China to the U.S. West. They also established intricate relationships among themselves and with members of the surrounding white community. County and state court records held at the Multnomah County Courthouse and National Archives in Seattle, Washington, reveal much about the Chinese immigrant community in Portland and provide a window into a society that left few written records. Through the analysis of hundreds of court cases held at the Multnomah County Courthouse in Portland, this thesis reconstructs four broad aspects of Portland's Chinese immigrant community. The first chapter discusses the arrival and establishment of Chinese immigrants in Portland. The second chapter discusses Chinese experience with white missionaries in the courts as both groups battled for custody rights to Chinese women and children. The third chapter looks at the case of United States v. John Wilson, which revealed how Chinese and whites had collaborated to establish one of the largest and most successful immigrant and opium smuggling rings on the West Coast. With the aim of profiting from Chinese exclusion, the white and Chinese operators of this ring bridged racial barriers that had, for decades, divided the two groups. In chapter four, finally, the thesis examines social conflict within the late nineteenth century Portland Chinese community. This chapter describes how internal conflicts in Portland Chinatown, stemming from traditional social associations transplanted from China, played as strong a role in shaping the Chinese community in Portland as did exclusion laws determined to end the entry of Chinese to the United States.
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Panchmatia, Neil A. "Living Between Worlds: Arrival and Adjustment Experiences of the Somali Community in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4078.
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Since the early 1990s Oregon has witnessed an economic and politically based influx of immigrants and refugees. Most refugees resettled in Oregon initially settled in the greater Portland metro area, and Portland currently ranks eleventh among cities around the country that resettle international refugees. This research focuses on the reception and resettlement experiences of one sub-group of refugees and immigrants: those from Somalia. In the Portland area, Somalis are a largely marginalized social group. They live on the peripheries of society and are often segregated (physically as well as culturally) in what is historically a racially and culturally homogenous state. To date, limited research has focused on the reception experiences and adjustment challenges of the local Somali community.
The intent of this descriptive case study is to explore and record the arrival and adjustment experiences and perspectives of Somali refugees and immigrants, so as to understand their journey of displacement and resettlement holistically. It investigates the context of their acclimatization into US society via the Portland urban area.
It, more specifically, explores the nature of the arrival and adjustment experiences of the community, as well as the factors influencing them. It attempts to understand how these factors and the overall experience of adjustment influence the negotiation and construction of individual and collective identity of the local Somalis. In understanding the overall experience of resettlement within the community, the study also explores how well the needs of the community are met when it comes to support services and other resources for adaptation.
Seventeen participants were interviewed from the community, and they indicated that the journey of adjustment is an on-going one that needs to be understood holistically while incorporating all the stages of exile: from displacement to resettlement. Identity formation and negotiation is a key process that emerged within the narratives, through which the experience of resettlement is maneuvered. Within the local community, identity informs the participation of Somalis within social networks, as well as the myriad social roles they take on as individuals, family members, and community members. This study finds some important similarities and differences in the experiences of the local Somalis with other local and national immigrant and refugee groups.
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Anderson, Erin Lorene. "Developing Key Sustainability Competencies through Real-World Learning Experiences: Evaluating Community Environmental Services." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2316.
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This study focuses on sustainability in higher education and the competencies essential to address sustainability issues. Because sustainability issues are complex, "wicked", and dynamic, sustainability education programs need to reflect the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the field. Graduates who are competent in sustainability research and problem solving will have the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to analyze a sustainability problem systemically and comprehensively, then will construct and implement interventions to reach optimal sustainability solutions. To prepare graduates, sustainability education programs should facilitate the development of key sustainability competencies (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011). Such programs provide an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates real-world sustainability issues through a combination of formal (guided by curriculum) and informal (not guided by curriculum) learning environments.
This study examines Community Environmental Services (CES), a research and service unit at Portland State University (PSU) that has been providing students informal learning opportunities connected to real-world projects. CES projects provide students opportunities to work with community partners addressing waste, recycling, and materials management issues. The intent of this research is to determine if CES provides students real-world learning opportunities not provided in traditional academic programs that facilitate the development of sustainability competencies, and positively influence students' employment opportunities post-graduation.
The findings from this research suggest that CES alumni believed they were proficient in each of the key sustainability competencies, which were developed equally through their experiences working at CES and their academic program. This study also found that CES alumni felt their experiences working at CES- including the development of professional skills and building a professional network- had more of an impact on future employment and career opportunities than their academic degree or other sources. The findings and insights from this research provide a model for sustainability education that can be replicated by other universities. A combination of formal sustainability curriculum integrated across campus, and informal real-world learning opportunities help facilitate student development of key sustainability competencies.
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Shields, Barbara E. "Exploring Sense of Place of Community Gardens in Portland." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/307.
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The study examines social and physical connections and images that define the sense of place of three community gardens managed by the City of Portland. Most research on community gardens focuses on social group connections and their impact on community revitalization and empowerment. Few studies consider the impact of physical and social connections to community gardens from the perspective of individual gardeners in constructing their sense of place. No studies have yet examined the relationship between spatial images, space connections, and empowerment feelings related to community gardens. This study is intended to initiate a discussion on the empowerment experience of individual gardeners and their images associated with community gardens in the context of sense of place. Thirty gardeners participated in the study. The use of the narrative photo storytelling method applied through de Certeau's practice of everyday life and narrative city approach enabled gardeners to express in their own terms connections to space and experience of empowerment achieved through community gardening. The study proposes the concept of the Natural Realm as the context for sense of place of Portland Community gardens. Natural Realm deemphasizes the human-centric view of nature. Community gardeners most commonly experience empowerment by perceiving community gardens as sacred places where people feel well because they can grow healthy food, practice green domesticity, and learn from nature in a beautiful setting. The study applies Rocha's ladder of empowerment to examine the relevance of individual and group action in fulfilling empowerment goals in the context of sense of place. Gardeners accomplish most of their empowerment goals through solitary efforts to maximize pleasurable activities and increase personal efficacy and satisfaction by optimizing physical and social connections in community gardens.
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Zinschlag, Bryan James. "Cultivating Common Ground? A Case Study of a Community Garden Organization in Northeast Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1828.
Full textAbstract:
When it comes to the topic of environmental sustainability, most of us will readily agree that we face a litany of local and global environmental threats in the twenty-first century. As such, we would largely agree that the need to address climate change and other issues is urgent. Where this agreement tends to end, however, is on the question of whether this urgency is so great that we need not address issues of inequality and environmental justice when organizing sustainability efforts. Some are convinced that, because sustainability efforts are "saving the world for everyone", so to speak, issues of environmental justice are secondary at best. On the other hand, "just sustainability" advocates argue that no such effort is truly sustainable unless it considers winners and losers from the onset. I will argue the latter and demonstrate the potential consequences of a sustainability effort that has failed thus far at engaging those who might benefit most from involvement. This study is an exploration of the City Soil Network (CSN), a community garden organization comprised of seventeen garden sites throughout Portland, Oregon. Thirteen of these sites are in Northeast Portland, an area with a history of racial and ethnic discrimination and both inequalities and boundaries that prevail across the same lines today. A significant number of these residents are food insecure or at risk of becoming food insecure. Furthermore, recent gentrification in Northeast Portland has disproportionately displaced African Americans and members of other historically marginalized communities. As such, these groups tend to view recent neighborhood changes as a new variation on a decades old theme of injustice. Previous research suggests that community gardens can play a role in addressing all of these problems to some degree. However, this body of research has yet to explicitly analyze the relationship between local historical context, gentrification, the conflicting rhetorics of environmental sustainability and environmental justice and outcomes for community garden organizations. This case study includes content analysis of organizational publications, participant observation from four of the CSN's garden sites in Northeast Portland. It also includes interviews with eleven members of the CSN, representing all three levels of involvement with the organization, and six interviews with representatives of community organizations that serve Northeast Portland in some capacity. This study finds that the CSN largely consists of members of a preexisting community of sustainable agriculture enthusiasts. As such, those involved tend not to live near their garden site(s) and are distinct in a number of ways from the diverse neighborhoods that surround many of the CSN's garden sites. The organization has made very few neighborhood-level outreach efforts thus far, and those that have been made have largely been unsuccessful. Understandings expressed by both groups of interviewees help to explain why this has been the case. They also compel me to introduce the potentially adverse impact of gentrification on understandings of neighborhood socioeconomic conditions into the just sustainability debate; we need to consider that unjust sustainability can be the result of not only a lack of concern for inequality, but also a simple lack of awareness of it. Interviewees also provide suggestions for how the CSN or other community garden organizations might be more successful in appealing to marginalized communities.
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Harris, Matthew. "Responsible Pet Ownership: Dog Parks and Demographic Change in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4151.
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Dog parks are the fastest growing type of park in U.S. cities; however, their increasing popularity has been met with increasing criticism of pets in public space. Dogs have shown to be a deep source of neighborhood conflict, and the provision of dog parks, or off-leash areas, is a seemingly intractable controversy for city officials. In 2003, Portland, Oregon established a network of 33 off-leash areas which remains the second largest both in count and per capita in the country. The purpose of my research is to understand the public debate over off leash dogs during the establishment of Portland's off-leash area network, and how dog parks relate to processes of demographic change. The analysis involved two phases. First, I conducted a thematic analysis of editorial perspectives published in the major local newspaper. Second, I conducted an exploratory spatial analysis of the distribution of Portland's off-leash areas and patterns of racial and economic change throughout the city from 2000 to 2015. Central to the debate are conflicting notions of responsible pet ownership. The notions of responsibility employed in the debate are primarily personal, yet the findings from my exploratory analysis of the relationship between dog parks and demographic change suggest a need to attend to notions of public responsibility. I recommend that future research, discussion, representations, and policy regarding dog parks consider the consequences of off-leash areas as amenities within the changing neighborhoods in which they exist.
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Kenck-Crispin, Douglas Jon. "Charles A. Moose: Race, Community Policing, and Portland's First African American Police Chief." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3412.
Full textAbstract:
In 1993, Charles Moose became Portland, Oregon's first black police chief. A nationally recognized student of the developing theories of community policing, Chief Moose's promotion was also hoped to help strengthen the diversity of the Portland Police Bureau. Ultimately, Portlanders were unable to look past Moose's public outbursts and demeanor and recognize his accomplishments. As a city, they missed an opportunity.
This thesis uses transcripts of speeches and policy papers to present some political history to the reader, but also letters to the mayor's office, letters to the editor and the like to consider the social history of 1990's Portland. Some specific touchpoints of Moose's administration are considered, including when he and his wife Sandy moved to the King Neighborhood, the Daniel Binns birthday party and the resulting march on Moose's home, his outburst at the City Council, and other examples of his legendary anger. Moose's role in gentrification, and the policies he created for the Portland Police Bureau to lead that charge will not be ignored. All the while, the context of Oregon's racist heritage is forefront in this paper.
By 1999, Charles Moose had left the bureau and accepted a job in Maryland. He was selected for many of the accomplishments that the Portland public had criticized him for. Ultimately, this study will show that Portland missed an opportunity to discuss how they wanted to be policed, and what philosophies they wanted their enforcers to personify.
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Hathaway, Zachary Lawrence. "Neighborhood Identity and Sustainability: A Comparison Study of Two Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/683.
Full textAbstract:
Anthropogenic impact on the environment, mainly resource depletion and pollution, is limiting the potential for future generations to have the same resources that previous generations have enjoyed. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of our time will be curtailing our own personal impacts on the environment. To do this, we must adopt more sustainable lifestyles at home. This research sought to understand how neighborhood identity affects sustainability at the household level. In the summer of 2012, residents of two neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon completed 314 self-report, web-based surveys. The neighborhoods selected for this research were demographically similar, but one projected a sustainable neighborhood identity and the other did not. Survey questions were designed to determine respondents: level of engagement in their neighborhood, attitudes towards the environment, and adherence to sustainable behaviors. Findings suggest that neighborhood engagement can influence household sustainability levels in Portland. This research also suggests that the city or region may have more effect on perceived household sustainability than the neighborhood does.
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Withers, Denissia Elizabeth. "Engaging Community Food Systems through Learning Garden Programs: Oregon Food Bank's Seed to Supper Program." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/609.
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The purpose of this study was to discover whether learning garden programs increase access to locally grown foods and successfully empower and include food insecure populations. This study examined the Oregon Food Bank's Seed to Supper program which situates garden-based learning in food insecure communities. Through a mixed-methods community-based research process, this study found that community building, learner empowerment and sustainability leadership in place-based learning garden programs increased access to locally grown foods for food insecure populations. When food insecure populations participated in these learning garden programs they often engaged in practices described in the literature as the "web of inclusion" (Helgesen, 1995). When food insecure populations were engaged in these practices, participation in food democracy and food justice increased. Additionally, participation in learning gardens led to sustainability leadership and increased access to food literacy, which led to greater community health and engaged, local community food systems.
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Broshot, Nancy Ellen. "The Effects of Urbanization and Human Disturbance Upon Plant Community Structure and Bird Species Richness, Diversity, and Abundance in a Natural Forested Area (Forest Park) in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 1999. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3962.
Full textAbstract:
The effects of urbanization and continual human disturbance on the plant and avian communities of Forest Park and forested lands surrounding Portland, Oregon, were studied. I examined characteristics of plant and avian communities at 25 sites, 24 which were in Forest Park and surrounding areas and one which was in the Ancient Forest Preserve (old-growth stand) northwest of Forest Park. Data were analyzed using multiple regression, ANOV A, and Bonferonni/Dunn. Seven variables were selected representing different urbanization gradients. An additional covariable coded for the old-growth stand, allowing it to be used as a control.
Many tree variables, especially those related to shade-tolerant species, were positively correlated with both the distance from downtown Portland and the number of houses in the surrounding area, and negatively correlated with the distance from the nearest forest edge; however, many shrub and herbaceous variables were negatively correlated with the distance from downtown Portland. Species diversity for herbaceous and shrub species was greater at more urban sites, but diversity of trees was lower at more urban sites. There were significantly more non-native species of plants in the city section. I found significantly fewer saplings and small trees, especially shade-tolerant species, in the section of Forest Park closest to downtown Portland, although tree mortality was positively correlated with distance from Portland.
Summer bird data revealed significant increases in the abundances of urban and edge species at more urban sites, with concomitant reductions in forest species. There were significantly more ground gleaning birds and short distance migratory species. I also found a significantly greater abundance of birds in the old-growth stand during the winter. This increase was positively correlated with the depth of snow in the nearby Cascade Mountains.
My results indicate that Forest Park is apparently progressing in a normal successional pattern with the exception of the city section. The reduction in shade tolerant saplings and small trees in the city section suggest that rate of succession has been slower at more urban sites. Avian data suggest that urbanization affects bird species abundance and guild composition in the more urban areas.
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Deppa, Emma. "Local Approaches to Regional Problems: Suburban Government Responses to Portland's Regional Housing Crisis." PDXScholar, 2016. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3045.
Full textAbstract:
The Portland metropolitan region has seen unprecedented growth in the last three decades, resulting in both economic expansion and considerable gentrification. While lauded for its commitment to sustainability and a "smart development" ethos, many questions remain for the city with respect to the needs of displaced residents and a burgeoning population of young professionals. This study examines how various levels of government implement growth management policies to accommodate these demographic changes, and aims to assess whether and how the consequences of growth, especially gentrification and displacement, are meaningfully addressed. Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff members and elected officials from city, county, and regional government structures across the Portland metropolitan area to investigate the "regional housing crisis." Inductive analysis of these data considers the implications of Portland's layered government structure for making equitable growth-related decisions.
Participants expressed a mismatch in what was expected of them--both from higher levels of government and their constituents--and their perceived capacity to do so. While government officials advocate the need for new development of affordable housing units, they see themselves as limited by a series of technical barriers in the stratified planning process, as well as an unequal distribution of influential power in public involvement processes. Findings are synthesized to offer policy recommendations and consider alternative government responses to public housing issues.
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Turner, Jennifer. "The View from the Table: An Analysis of Participant Reactions to Community-Based Dialogues on Food and Justice." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1092.
Full textAbstract:
While Portland, Oregon's sustainable food movement wins accolades for explicitly situating itself in opposition to the industrialized global food system, it often fails to address systems of oppression that are reproduced within the alternative agri-food movement itself. This demonstrated aversion towards the messy, complex, contingent nature of the social world reflects larger processes of "de-politicization" of the overall sustainability agenda, which leads to the favoring of technological and/or spatial solutions that may undermine the social equity and justice dimensions of the "triple bottom line." This thesis focuses on an action research project involving a series of community dialogues that provided participants with a common language and understanding necessary to interrogate issues of race and class in Portland's sustainable food movement while developing visions for possible futures. Dialogue participants may find new ways to communicate, learn, identify common goals and best practices, and potentially network, collaborate and/or co-produce transformative anti-oppression strategies that integrate into the sustainable food movement. By asking those vested in the sustainable food movement to interrogate dimensions of anti-oppression consciousness, the movement becomes fortified with voices better equipped to envision sustainability within a more political and contingent reality that recognizes conflicts of power, and less resembling an idyllic, utopian, and ultimately impossible sustainability. This thesis delivers some preliminary outcomes following the dialogue series by describing and reflecting on the series' implementation and processes, and reflecting on its impact on participants' anti-oppression consciousness in the context of food and sustainability, while discussing possibilities for future scholarship.
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Mercier, Amanda. "Trauma-Informed Research and Planning: Understanding Government and Urban Native Community Partnerships to Addressing Substance-Exposed Pregnancies in Portland, OR." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1803.
Full textAbstract:
In 2011, representatives from the Multnomah County Health Departments and several Native-serving organizations came together to address substance-exposed pregnancies among urban Native Americans in Portland, Oregon. From these partnerships, the Future Generations Collaborative was formed representing a significant shift toward community-led maternal child health research and planning. Additionally, the Future Generations Collaborative adopted a historical trauma-informed community based participatory research and planning process. This is particularly significant considering government agencies' role in colonization within Native communities. The purpose of this case study is to explore partnerships between government agencies and the Portland Native community within the Future Generations Collaborative. Given the profound influence of historical trauma in Native communities, this paper addresses how the partnerships between government agencies and the Portland Native community pose distinct opportunities, challenges, and implications.
Drawing from FGC members' lived experiences and an interdisciplinary body of research, I develop a theoretical model for explaining the government's role in creating and sustaining historical trauma within Native communities. This analysis provides critical context for examining the impact of historical trauma on the relationships between government agencies and the Portland Native community within the FGC. By entering methodological discussions of Native-specific community-based participatory research, this study also addresses how the use of a trauma-informed research and planning model affects the relationships between government agencies and the Portland Native community within the FGC.
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Korshgen, Joyce A. "Worker perceptions of the fast-food giant : interviews with and class comparisons of teenagers working at McDonalds." PDXScholar, 1987. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3716.
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This study examines the relationship between social class and adolescents conceptions of work. Four major areas of the adolescent's work experience are examined: (1) tasks and training, (2) relations with co-workers and managers, (3) organizational structure and change, and (4) family life and work. Forty female adolescent, nonmanagerial employees who worked part time at McDonald's franchise stores were interviewed.
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Weaver, Anne. "The Social Acceptance of Community Solar| A Portland Case Study." Thesis, Portland State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10600285.
Full textAbstract:
Community solar is a renewable energy practice that’s been adopted by multiple U.S. states and is being considered by many more, including the state of Oregon. A recent senate bill in Oregon, called the “Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan”, includes a provision that directs the Oregon Public Utility Commission to establish a community solar program for investor-owned utilities by late 2017. Thus, energy consumers in Portland will be offered participation in community solar projects in the near future. Community solar is a mechanism that allows ratepayers to experience both the costs and benefits of solar energy while also helping to offset the proportion of fossil-fuel generated electricity in utility grids, thus aiding climate change mitigation.
For community solar to achieve market success in the residential sector of Portland, ratepayers of investor-owned utilities must socially accept this energy practice. The aim of this study was to forecast the potential social acceptance of community solar among Portland residents by measuring willingness to participate in these projects. Additionally, consumer characteristics, attitudes, awareness, and knowledge were captured to assess the influence of these factors on intent to enroll in community solar. The theory of planned behavior, as well as the social acceptance, diffusion of innovation, and dual-interest theories were frameworks used to inform the analysis of community solar adoption. These research objectives were addressed through a mixed-mode survey of Portland residents, using a stratified random sample of Portland neighborhoods to acquire a gradient of demographics. 330 questionnaires were completed, yielding a 34.2% response rate.
Descriptive statistics, binomial logistic regression models, and mean willingness to pay were the analyses conducted to measure the influence of project factors and demographic characteristics on likelihood of community solar participation. Roughly 60% of respondents exhibited interest in community solar enrollment. The logistic regression model revealed the percent change in utility bill (essentially the rate of return on the community solar investment) as a dramatically influential variable predicting willingness to participate. Community solar project scenarios also had a strong influence on willingness to participate: larger, cheaper, and distant projects were preferred over small and expensive local projects. Results indicate that community solar project features that accentuate affordability are most important to energy consumers. Additionally, demographic characteristics that were strongly correlated with willingness to enroll were politically liberal ideologies, higher incomes, current enrollment in green utility programs, and membership in an environmental organization. Thus, the market acceptance of community solar in Portland will potentially be broadened by emphasizing affordability over other features, such as community and locality.
Additionally, I explored attitudinal influences on interest in community solar by conducting exploratory factor analysis on attitudes towards energy, climate change, and solar barriers and subsequently conducting binomial logistic regression models. Results found that perceiving renewable energy as environmentally beneficial was positively correlated with intent to enroll in community solar, which supported the notion that environmental attitudes will lead to environmental behaviors. The logistic regression model also revealed a negative correlation between community solar interest and negative attitudes towards renewable energy. Perceptions of solar barriers were mild, indicating that lack of an enabling mechanism may be the reason solar continues to be underutilized in this region.
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Bowling, Emily Erin. "Coupled Pedagogy: A Study of Sustainability Education and Community-Based Learning in the Senior Capstone Program at Portland State University." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/260.
Full textAbstract:
Sustainability has emerged in mainstream higher education over the last few years, and the fields of community-based learning and sustainability education are closely linked through their emphases on active, experiential learning in place-based contexts. In order to create ecologically literate citizens to more adequately address environmental problems, there is a logical connection between teaching about sustainability and engaging students in the community, which can serve as a relevant forum to address sustainability issues. However, there is a problem in that educational programs and courses dealing directly with sustainability topics across the higher education landscape often do not emphasize or include experiential, community-based elements. Understanding this relationship is crucial to advance the field of sustainability with meaningful community engagement. This research investigated the pedagogical strategies and frameworks that are foundational in undergraduate capstone courses that include sustainability education and community-based learning. A sample of five community-based, interdisciplinary senior capstone courses at Portland State University was examined through semi-structured interviews with course instructors and syllabi review. Three broad themes emerged as common values among the instructors: connectedness and relationships, community and place, and diversity and inclusiveness. Reflection was a tool utilized universally by instructors to personalize the learning process, cultivate understanding of connectedness and relationships, and incorporate feelings into the learning process. Competencies and skills related to sustainability and those related to civic engagement were very similar; engagement in community is a sustainable practice. This study provides cogent support for the notion that achieving meaningful, transformative sustainability learning requires community-based learning.
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Ostrogorsky, Tanya Leigh. "An Exploratory Inquiry into Community Policing Using Focus Groups: Perspectives from Social Service Providers." PDXScholar, 1996. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5151.
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate Portland, Oregon's community policing policy by using focus groups to discuss the development and effectiveness over one year, Spring 1994 to Spring 1995. The group discussed included management level social service providers and was one piece of a large scale program evaluation. The collected data developed into six major categories: 1) personnel policies and institutional memory; 2) training; 3) consistency; 4) community involvement and responsibility; 5) partnerships or relationships, and 6) change over time. The most highly discussed issue was the discrepancy between the philosophy of the Bureau, community policing, and the way in which the Bureau moves personnel. Data analysis suggested that the level of confidence and support felt by social service providers has increased dramatically over one year. Although, the group participants still have many issues they would like to see resolved, all recognize this is a process that takes time. Generally, community policing has rooted itself and established a footing with the social service providers who are committed to assisting in the molding and development of community policing as well as providing resources to assist in that Journey.
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Hardyman, Rachel Ann. "Hawthorne Boulevard: Commercial Gentrification and the Creation of an Image." PDXScholar, 1992. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4056.
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Portland's Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard illustrates commercial gentrification in progress. Once a declining service district, "Hawthorne" is now one of the city's most popular shopping streets. Tracing and classifying businesses, using address listings from city directories, gives an accurate picture of changes since 1980. Three parallel trends can be distinguished in the makeup of the business mix: a shift from services to retailing; a move towards a regional, rather than a neighborhood, market area; and a cultural upgrading associated with the influx of increasingly expensive stores. Classification also aids in the definition of a tipping point at which revitalization became gentrification.
The actions of individual entrepreneurs in the revitalization process were complemented by the Hawthorne business association's participation in the Main Street program, a national project to improve declining retail districts. The program helped the Hawthorne district become more successful by encouraging physical improvements, special promotions and greater communication among merchants.
Hawthorne has experienced dramatic increases in the numbers of restaurants, gifts shops and clothing stores, and a decline in convenience and household goods. Its changing role and evolving image exemplify the national trend towards specialized, recreational retailing. The district has retained its longstanding reputation as a focus for used books and stereo equipment and, in spite of becoming a regional magnet, still reflects the character of its surrounding neighborhoods.
The commercial was accompanied by a shift in business orientation. The conspicuous consumption and high prices usually associated with gentrification are moderated by a large number of stores that advocate "political correctness" and promote recycling. Hawthorne is typified by the presence of alternative subcultural groups such as bohemians and gays. The district's continued accessibility to poorer sectors of society is apparent in the large number of stores se11ing secondhand goods. Coincident with its bohemian image, many stores have a strong feminist slant. Hawthorne as a whole serves as a focus for Portland's lesbian community. Hawthorne's multi-faceted image is created by the stores and their advertising, and by planned ventures of the business association.
The well-educated, low-income, female-focused nature of many stores reflect the character of neighborhood while drawing like-minded people from all over the city. Hawthorne's neighborhoods have a lower rate of owner occupancy, more non-family households, and a higher percentage of women than the city as a whole. The five census tracts adjacent to Hawthorne have above average education levels but lower household incomes than the city median.
The significance of gentrification lies in it being a manifestation of broader changes affecting society as a whole. Changes in gender divisions, the break-down of the traditional household, the evolution of lifestyle-based neighborhoods, and the increasing appeal of diverse central city neighborhoods are all creating new places and new forms of consumption. The Hawthorne district is an effective example of successful commercial revitalization and the creation of a gender-based commercial landscape.
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Goodling, Erin Katherine. "Grassroots Resistance in the Sustainable City: Portland Harbor Superfund Site Contamination, Cleanup, and Collective Action." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3613.
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How does progressive change happen in so-called sustainable cities? In this dissertation, I present findings from a three year-long ethnographic investigation of grassroots organizing in Portland, Oregon, a city at the leading edge of the green urbanism movement. This research centered on an extended case study of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition (PHCC). PHCC is an alliance of grassroots groups working to ensure that cleanup of the Portland Harbor Superfund Site benefits those who have been most impacted by pollution. In this dissertation, I develop three main empirical findings. First, despite depoliticized (sustainability) discourse permeating the harbor cleanup planning process, which excluded impacted communities from and minimized disparate impacts resulting from contamination and cleanup, there has not necessarily been a green growth machine operating in the way that we would expect. Instead, a classic status quo growth machine has indirectly pushed depoliticized sustainability discourse, and benefited from it at the expense of vulnerable residents -- even in a paradigmatic sustainable city. Second, in contrast to the "just green enough" strategies put forth in previous research, there are, in fact, grassroots groups who are demanding robust environmental improvements as part of broader social and environmental justice outcomes. PHCC takes an "oppositional community development" approach in attempting to transcend the green development-displacement dialectic. This approach has entailed being strategically confrontational some of the time, and engaging through more established participation channels at other times. Third, individual and collective historicized learning has played a key role in PHCC's efforts to re-politicize the cleanup planning process in three ways: it helped coalition members connect their personal experiences to the harbor; it helped coalition members build a political analysis of the cumulative and inter-generational ways that harbor pollution has impacted different groups; and a collectively produced historical narrative ultimately contributed to the coalition's moderate success in pushing public agencies to be more responsive to impacted communities.
More broadly, this research draws attention to the historical contingencies, organizing approaches, challenges, and transformations experienced by ordinary people coming together to fight for a more just sustainability. It suggests that in order to develop a fuller understanding of urban socio-ecological change processes--and to make meaningful contributions to change in an era of environmental crisis, extreme housing instability, racial violence, and other forms of oppression--scholars must pay attention to those working on the front lines of change, themselves, in broader historical context.
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Johnson, Pamela Christine. "Bicycle Level of Service: Where are the Gaps in Bicycle Flow Measures?" PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1975.
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Bicycle use is increasing in many parts of the U.S. Local and regional governments have set ambitious bicycle mode share goals as part of their strategy to curb greenhouse gas emissions and relieve traffic congestion. In particular, Portland, Oregon has set a 25% mode share goal for 2030 (PBOT 2010). Currently bicycle mode share in Portland is 6.1% of all trips. Other cities and regional planning organizations are also setting ambitious bicycle mode share goals and increasing bicycle facilities and programs to encourage bicycling. Increases in bicycle mode share are being encouraged to increase. However, cities with higher-than-average bicycle mode share are beginning to experience locations with bicycle traffic congestion, especially during peak commute hours. Today, there are no established methods are used to describe or measure bicycle traffic flows.
In the 1960s, the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) introduced Level of Service (LOS) measurements to describe traffic flow and capacity of motor vehicles on highways using an A-to-F grading system; "A" describes free flow traffic with no maneuvering constraints for the driver and an "F" grade corresponds to over capacity situations in which traffic flow breaks down or becomes "jammed". LOS metrics were expanded to highway and road facilities, operations and design. In the 1990s, the HCM introduced LOS measurements for transit, pedestrians, and bicycles. Today, there are many well established and emerging bicycle level of service (BLOS) methods that measure the stress, comfort and perception of safety of bicycle facilities. However, it was been assumed that bicycle traffic volumes are low and do not warrant the use of a LOS measure for bicycle capacity and traffic flow. There are few BLOS methods that take bicycle flow into consideration, except for in the case of separated bicycle and bicycle-pedestrian paths.
This thesis investigated the state of BLOS capacity methods that use bicycle volumes as a variable. The existing methods were applied to bicycle facility elements along a corridor that experiences high bicycle volumes in Portland, Oregon. Using data from the study corridor, BLOS was calculated and a sensitivity analysis was applied to each of the methods to determine how sensitive the models are to each of the variables used. An intercept survey was conducted to compare the BLOS capacity scores calculated for the corridor with the users' perception. In addition, 2030 bicycle mode share for the study corridor was estimated and the implications of increased future bicycle congestion were discussed. Gaps in the BLOS methods, limitations of the thesis study and future research were summarized.
In general, the existing methods for BLOS capacity are intended for separated paths; they are not appropriate for existing high traffic flow facilities. Most of the BLOS traffic flow methods that have been developed are most sensitive to bicycle volumes. Some of these models may be a good starting point to improve BLOS capacity and traffic flow measures for high bicycle volume locations. Without the tools to measure and evaluate the patterns of bicycle capacity and traffic flow, it will be difficult to monitor and mitigate bicycle congestion and to plan for efficient bicycle facilities in the future. This report concludes that it is now time to develop new BLOS capacity measures that address bicycle traffic flow.
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Mosher, Heather Irene. "Participatory Action Research with Dignity Village: An Action Tool for Empowerment Within a Homeless Community." PDXScholar, 2010. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/36.
Full textAbstract:
With homelessness continuing to rise over the past two decades, disenfranchised unhoused people have sparked a national movement to build for themselves democratically governed communities of affordable housing. Dignity Village, in Portland Oregon, is one of the longest running and most organized self-help housing communities in the nation. This paper presents a theoretical systems-based model of a developmental pathway out of homelessness in the U.S. that has as one of its key steps membership and participation in humane and dignified "self-help micro-housing"; communities such as Dignity Village. This research involved working collaboratively with Dignity Village on a participatory action research (PAR) project aimed at understanding and facilitating processes for mobilizing community and socio-political engagement. The research process involved a team of up to 24 co-researchers (nine attended meetings regularly) working once weekly over 15 months, with consultation from the broader Village community throughout. The research followed a systems approach to creating five action tools as multiple points of leverage to create long-term positive change within the community. One point of leverage utilized participatory video methodology to co-create a video action tool as an orientation video for newcomers, intended to build cooperative relationships and facilitate empowerment within the community. The impact of the research process was documented on multiple levels in the community using multiple data sources. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach to identify key themes and processes that influenced participation and empowerment in the community. The predominant themes suggested three paradoxical tensions that were creating barriers to change in the community. This PAR process attempted to create movement beyond these barriers. Findings suggested that four main changes occurred in the community during and after the research: a) an increase in collaborative participation, b) enhanced engagement and sense of community, c) an emergence of critical consciousness, and d) changes in the organizational leadership/power structure. These findings are critically examined and discussed with respect to the effectiveness of utilizing this PAR process to facilitate community empowerment. A portion of this dissertation (Results section) was created in video format to enhance report accessibility for community partners and other non-academic audiences.
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Hayashi, Miyako Jun-ko. "The Effects of Positive Illusions on Perceived Racism." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5088.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigated the effects of selfesteem, controllability, and optimism, the constructs inherent in positive illusions, on perceived racism. The perceived racism scale in this study was found to contain two dimensions, Equal Opportunity (EO) racism and Authority (AUT) racism. Thirty-seven AfricanAmerican, 64 Asian-American and 100 White-American students at Portland States University {101 females, 100 males and mean age of 25 years) served as subjects. The findings revealed that both African- and AsianAmerican students perceived a racist atmosphere from peer students {EO racism) significantly higher than did the White-American students. However, only AfricanAmerican students perceived greater racism from faculty members (AUT racism) than the White-American students. None of the illusions had an effect on perceived EO racism. However, all types of illusions (self-esteem, controllability and optimism) had a significant effect on perceived racism from faculty members {AUT racism). Higher perception of AUT racism was correlated with less self-esteem(~= -.089, R = .12), less controllability(~= -.319, R < .001), and less optimism (~ = -.144, R = .03). The results of this study support empirical evidence showing that the illusions, especially controllability, change individuals in how they perceive racism when the racism is practiced by authorities.
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Franks, Lynda. "Revisiting Invasion-Succession: Social Relations in a Gentrifying Neighborhood." PDXScholar, 2005. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2880.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the social relationships of different residents in a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon. It examines theoretical tenants in the social identity tradition to understand social change in terms of the impact of neighborhood change on the day-to-day interactions of individuals in a gentrifying neighborhood by exploring the ways in which different members of that neighborhood define and describe the terms “neighborhood”, “neighbor”, and “neighborly behavior”.
Intergroup neighboring research posits two outcomes of neighborhood change on interactions between old and new neighbors, one of conflict, the other of cooperation. The conflict perspective proposes that, in situations where new, higher income, better educated, socially dominant group members move into a previously lower-income, racially-mixed neighborhood, communication between old and new neighbors is limited by group differences in values and priorities.
Conversely, research in cooperative intergroup neighboring in times of change demonstrates that the different members can, under certain conditions, collectively act to address adverse changes to their shared environment. Conditions promoting between-group cooperation in a changing environment include a history of neighborhood political activism, an atypical ideological attraction to diversity, and the ability to articulate common interests and goals.
The thesis examines the applicability of these two perspectives through a qualitative case study of "neighboring" relations in a portion of King Neighborhood. It specifically seeks to understand how residents' stated perceptions and observed outcomes can be related to issues in class-classism, race-racism, and length of residence in the neighborhood or if other factors such as reasons for choosing this neighborhood, prior and recent experiences, and one's ideological/cultural worldview supersede economic-racial concerns.
The study found that the ‘different residents’ viewed neighborhood, in general, and their neighborhood and neighbors, in particular, through a variety of filters. While ‘race’ was mentioned in describing past interactions, respondents focused more on the broad, albeit mundane, factors of everyday life such as friendliness, approachability, and speaking rather than specific racial-ethnic or economic-class differences. These results are consistent with intergroup neighboring cohesion research showing that class and race are not readily important when neighborhood is viewed as a place of comfort, self-expression, or desired relaxation.
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Bell, Katherine Eleanor. "Identification and Characterization of Fine Particulate Matter Hot Spots on an Urban Arterial Corridor Integrating Probe Vehicle, Traffic and Land Use Data." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1535.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this study is to explore the use of integrated probe vehicle, traffic and land use data to identify and characterize fine particulate matter (PM[subscript 2.5]) hot spot locations on urban arterial corridors. In addition, a preliminary analysis is conducted to consider volatile organic compound (VOC) hot spot locations. A pollutant hot spot is defined as a location on a corridor in which the mean pollutant concentrations are consistently above the 85th percentile of pollutant concentrations when compared to all locations along the corridor. In order to collect data for this study, an electric vehicle was equipped with instruments designed to measure PM[subscript 2.5] and total VOC (TVOC) concentrations. Second-by-second measurements were performed for each pollutant from both the right and left sides of the vehicle. Detailed meteorological, traffic and land use data is also available for this research. The results of a statistical analysis, including multiple regression, are used to better understand which data sources are most valuable in estimating PM[subscript 2.5] hot spot locations consistent with empirical data; knowledge is gained as to which variables have the strongest statistical relationships with traffic emissions and pollutant levels at a corridor level. A preliminary analysis is also completed to consider which variables are statistically related to TVOC hot spot locations. This research highlights the importance of considering both consistency and magnitude of pollutant concentrations when identifying hot spot locations. An objective of this research is to develop a method to identify urban arterial hot spot locations that provides a balance of efficiency (in terms of capital expenses, time, resources, expertise requirements, etc.) and accuracy.
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Tenty, Crystal Renee. "Sex Work and Moral Conflict: Enhancing the Quality of Public Discourse Using Photovoice Method." PDXScholar, 2009. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3005.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses an advocacy/participatory framework and moral conflict theory to examine the opposing ideas: and interests of parties involved in the issue of prostitution on 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon. It locates areas of contention within the larger dominant feminist discourse, which views sex work as either a form of violence and exploitation or as a form of legitimate free-contract labor. The thesis shows how the intractable moral conflict between these differing feminist theories and values can be mediated using participatory data collection techniques.
Ethnographic data was collected and analyzed from 11 women working in the sex industry in Portland, highlighting voices commonly left out of the conflict. Participants were given cameras and invited to photo-document their individual and community's needs and aspirations through the qualitative, arts-based research method, photovoice. An exhibit of these photographs was displayed as an art exhibit at several locations throughout the Portland area. Data collection methods also included a review of local media sources collected between September 2007 and April 2009, and field notes gathered from participatory and non-participatory observations at public town hall forums. Close analytic attention is given to the perspectives of those marginalized populations of sex workers excluded from the dialogue on issues that directly affect them.
This thesis demonstrates ways in which community-based, participatory research, such as the use of photovoice method, can empower marginalized individuals to affect change within their community. The exhibit of photovoice data was used to enhance communication among individuals and groups involved in an intractable moral conflict about sex work in Portland. This thesis argues that photovoice method has potential for increasing the quality of public discourse to manage moral conflicts or to discover resolutions suitable to the needs and desires of multiple stakeholders.
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Bello, Mark Richard. "Urban Regimes and Downtown Planning in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, 1972-1992." PDXScholar, 1993. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1196.
Full textAbstract:
Portland and Seattle are often considered to be divergent in character, partly because civic leadership in each city has a different vision. The adoption of contrasting downtown core plans, projects, and policies in each city allows us an opportunity to understand the nature of each city's regime. As defined by Elkin, an urban regime is the community's governing coalition, those who exercise public authority in a legal sense and those private actors able to act collectively and bring concerted influence to bear.
The time frame for this study begins with the first modern planning document, the 1972 City of Portland Downtown Plan. During this period, both central business districts were transformed, simultaneously losing some retail, commercial and industrial functions while gaining further control of regional economies.
Portland perfected the entrepreneurial urban regime. The linkage among the land use alliance (property owners, investors and private professionals); the bureaucracy; and politicians was established by the success of the 1972 Downtown Plan. There is little conflict in Portland. Systemic bias is masked by overly extensive citizen involvement processes; city subsidies and grants which influence activists' positions; and use of tax increment money to hire consultants who reinforce the business point of view.
Seattle never perfected the entrepreneurial regime. The business community was fractured into conservatives and progressive camps. Also, the bureaucracy was caught in the Mayoral-Council crossfire. There is great controversy in Seattle. The prodevelopment decisions are still made but activist groups can successfully make it to the ballot box.
Primary sources of information included planning studies; reports; memoranda; minutes of meetings; resolutions; budgets; and activists' printed materials. Participants in each city were interviewed. Secondary sources of information included articles, and census materials.
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Cuevas, Adolfo Gabriel. "Exploring Four Barriers Experienced by African Americans in Healthcare: Perceived Discrimination, Medical Mistrust, Race Discordance, and Poor Communication." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/615.
Full textAbstract:
For many health conditions, African Americans bear a disproportionate burden of disease, injury, death, and disability compared to European Americans. African Americans also use health services less frequently than do European Americans and this underuse of services contributes to health disparities in the United States. Studies have shown that some disparities are present not as a result of poor access to care, but, to a certain extent, as a result of the experiences patients have at their doctors' offices. It is, therefore, essential to understand African American patients' perspectives and experiences with healthcare providers. Past studies have shown that four barriers affect the quality of patient-provider relationships for African Americans: perceived discrimination, medical mistrust, race discordance, and poor communication. The studies, however, have not looked at how these barriers manifest when African Americans speak about their perspectives and experiences with health care providers. This project was a secondary data analysis of qualitative data provided by adult African American community members from Portland, Oregon with diabetes or hypertension or both, each of whom participated in one of 10 focus groups. The focus groups were conducted as part of a study that applied community based participatory research (CBPR) principles to understand patients' experiences with their doctors. Using a deductive approach, this analysis enhanced the understanding of how the barriers play a role in patient-provider relationships. Further, the analysis showed how the barriers are interrelated. In learning African American patients' experiences and perspectives on these four key barriers, the investigator proposes recommendations for healthcare providers as to how they can best deliver quality care for African Americans.
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Bryan, Joshua Joe. "Portland, Oregon's Long Hot Summers: Racial Unrest and Public Response, 1967-1969." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/995.
Full textAbstract:
The struggles for racial equality throughout northern cities during the late-1960s, while not nearly as prevalent within historical scholarship as those pertaining to the Deep South, have left an indelible mark on both the individuals and communities involved. Historians have until recently thought of the civil rights movement in the north as a violent betrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an inclusive and integrated society, as well as coinciding with the rise, and subsequent decline, of Black Power. But despite such suppositions, the experiences of northern cities immersed in the civil rights struggle were far more varied and nuanced.
The explosion of racial violence throughout American cities in the late-1960s bred fear among many in the white political establishment who viewed the cultural shifts inherent in racial equality as threatening to undermine their traditional racial dominance. Partially the result of feelings of increased powerlessness, and partially in an effort of self-preservation, many in the ranks of government and law enforcement worked to oppose the seismic changes underfoot. This thesis makes a concerted effort to examine and evaluate the role that race played in the Albina community of Portland, Oregon in the late-1960s, with a particular emphasis on the motivations, impact, and legacy of two racial disturbances that occurred there in the summers of 1967 and 1969. It asserts that while racial prejudice and bigotry were certainly prevalent among members of both the city's political and law enforcement community, and did play a significant role in the deterioration of their relationship with the black community, there were many other factors that also contributed to the police-community discord in late-1960s Albina. Moreover, it asserts that the reactions of the white and African-American communities to the disturbances were, contrary to conventional wisdom, not monolithic, but rather diverse and wide-ranging.
The goal of this narrative history is not merely to analyze the racial unrest and public response to the disturbances, but also to integrate and link the experiences of Portland's African-Americans into the broader dialogue of the civil rights movement of the late-1960s. In short, the study of late-1960s Portland allows us to reach a greater understanding of racial inequality in America during this period.
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Johnston, Katrina Leigh. "Public Space and Urban Life: A Spatial Ethnography of a Portland Plaza." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/624.
Full textAbstract:
The Urban Center Plaza at Portland State University is a high profile place situated in downtown Portland, Oregon. In some ways it is the ideal university plaza providing space for eating, conversing, or limited recreational activity. It is a place that has been studied before, but not in a more in-depth method incorporating quantitative and qualitative analyses. It is also a place that has gone through several stages of development and is the target of many opinions based on casual observations, at times due to these changes. This thesis focuses on an ethnography of place in this particular plaza in an effort to more thoroughly analyze how people use the space and how it came together to become the plaza known by Portlanders today. This is done through the use of random video observations, direct observations, and in-depth interviews with those who were involved in the creation of the plaza. Analysis of the video recordings includes pedestrian counts, behavioral maps, and common routes taken through the plaza. Direct observations provide more insight into the day-to-day activities of the plaza and the phenomenological perspective of the design elements. Interviews allow for a more complete timeline of events in order to assess the plaza properly. By combining these methods based on other plaza-based ethnographies, it is concluded that the plaza is a well-used and successful space and even suggest possible areas of improvement. Methods are also assessed for future use on other city parks and plazas, possibly in a comparative context.
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Grotbo, Jeremy. "The "ADaM Cube" : Categorizing Portland, Oregon's Urbanization Using GIS and Spatial Statistics." PDXScholar, 2016. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3002.
Full textAbstract:
Transportation availability and land use intensity demonstrate a strong relationship, with intense development concentrated near significant transportation investment. Transportation networks evolved in response to emergent transportation technologies and changing urban land uses. The irregular distribution of transportation systems reinforced patterns of land use development, shaping urban form. Understanding the relationships between transportation and the intensity of land uses allows urban geographers and city planners to explain the urbanization processes, as well as to identify areas historically susceptible to future development. The goal of this research is to develop a quantitative framework for the analysis of the development of urban form and its relationship to urban transportation systems. This research focuses on transportation accessibility, building density, and the structural massing as the basic metrics in the categorization of urban form. Portland, Oregon serves as the case study environment, while the research methodology examines the spatial and statistical relationship between these metrics for much of the city's urban area. Applying geographic information systems (GIS) and k-means cluster analysis, urban form metrics are compared within the ADaM (Accessibility, Density, and Massing) cube, a model demonstrating comparative relationships, as well as the geographic distribution and patterns of urban form in Portland, Oregon's neighborhoods. A finalized urban form catalog describes existing urban environments, but also indicates areas of impending transition, places having the strong potential for reorganization with respect to higher levels of transportation accessibility. The ADaM Cube is a tool for characterizing Portland's existing urban form, and describing the vulnerabilities of urban neighborhoods to the pressure of redevelopment.