User:Ekcy/sandbox

Community Development Article

For the Community development article on Wikipedia, there are numerous problems with how the article is presented. There are a lot of block quotes in the article. While block quotes can be useful sometimes, Wikipedia tends to encourage paraphrasing sources more. The article also does not cover how wide of a category this topic actually is. Despite how prevalent this topic is in each person's life (to varying degrees), the article does not cover the various definitions that this term possesses in a satisfactory manner. Not all facts are represented with a citation, and some of the citations are indeed broken. While some of the links can be fixed by redirecting to their respective Internet Archive links, I worry that some PDF documents may not be preserved. Additionally, one section of the talk page for the Community & Regional Development course suggests merger with the Community mobilization article, which another editor disagrees with.

Ultimately, I've learned that editing an article on Wikipedia will require a LOT of digging around sources to obtain the original material. Additionally, the term should be defined more so as to make it distinguishable from other "community" related articles.Ekcy (talk) 04:00, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Comparing to Asset-Based Community Development Article

The Asset-based community development article on Wikipedia is written well. The article makes use of the currently available sources. A lot of the information comes from community-development related articles, which support such tactics. However, there does not seem to be much criticism about this topic. While one of the PDF links on the article does not work (See: "What is Asset-based community development (ABCD)" link), most of the links do work.

This article goes for a somewhat different approach compared to the Community development article. It is not only briefer, but it also provides a clearer definition of what the term is. The ABCD article lacks a history section, but this article instead specifically defines what this term means. Additionally, this article has an "Ethics" section, which is relevant to understanding the advantages and disadvantages of Asset-based community development. I am also impressed by the .svg image file present in the document, which helps demonstrate how model works. Ekcy (talk) 04:14, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Two questions I had for the article are the following:

1. How else can Asset-based community development be critiqued?
2. What real world use-cases has this theory been applied to?

Overall, I like how the article provides a brief overview of what this term is. Ekcy (talk) 04:24, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Expanding on a Wikipedia Article

I wanted to expand on the article Urban Studies. I wanted to discuss how this field developed and how the history of urban areas play an important role in developing this research field. Describing the history of this field can explain how it started to cover a wide variety of topics. While the current article’s description of race is one part of this field’s development in the United States, it does not describe how other social issues play a role in this field.

The field is applicable to international cities differently. The article should at least note that this field is not US-specific. I would love to see someone else expand on how this field has developed in other nations, such as in the United Kingdom. This field also researches how international cities have been developing. Thus, mentioning the international aspects of this field is important, even though I will not be able to elaborate on this factor much.

To expand on this article, one would need to elaborate about how this topic works in relation with other academic fields. For instance, Stanford's webpage on Urban Studies specifically notes how it was historically founded from academic professors of different disciplines. Additionally, other colleges promote specific aspects of this field on their websites, which reveals the elements of this field that certain colleges promote more than others. For instance, the Tennessee State University website notes that this field draws from other social science fields, suggesting that there are more factors at play than just race.

Potential Sources

Below are a list of some articles that I wanted to refer to as sources:

• Brenner, Neil. Stereotypes, Archetypes, and Prototypes: Three Uses of Superlatives in Contemporary Urban Studies. City & Community. 2 (3): 205-216. Doi: 10.1111/1540-6040.00051
• Doyle, Barry M. A decade of urban history: Ashgate’s Historical Urban Studies series. Urban History. 36 (3): 498-512. Doi: 10.1017/S0963926809990149
• Harris, Richard; Smith, Michael E. The History In Urban Studies: A Comment. Journal of Urban Affairs. 33 (1): 99-105. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9906.2010.00547.x
• Paddison, Roman. (2001) Handbook of Urban Studies. London; Thousand Oaks, California. SAGE Publishing. ISBN: 9780803976955

External Links

• Stanford Urban Studies. "Program History". Stanford University. California: Stanford University.
• The University of Chicago: Department of History. Urban Studies. The University of Chicago. Illinois: The University of Chicago.
• Tennessee State University: College of Public Service. ‘’BS in Urban Studies. Tennessee State University. Tennessee: Tennessee State University.

Please let me know of any other references I should make use of. Additionally, please let me know if I formatted my sources incorrectly! Ekcy (talk) 00:34, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Urban Studies

Urban studies is a field of study in the social sciences that researches the history and current developments of urban areas. Researchers in this field have focused on researching how cities have grown and how they continuously change for the future. Events and relationships are analyzed with the city as the center of study, which cover broad academic areas of interest. This field can inform the development of urban planning policies that will shape how cities will develop in the future. The field originated primarily from the United Kingdom and the United States, and has spread to research how international cities apply this research.

History

The study of cities has changed dramatically from the 1800s over time, with new frames of analysis being applied to the development of urban areas. Urban history plays an important role in this field of study because it reveals the how cities have developed previously.

Overall, three different themes have influenced how researchers have and will continue to study urban areas:

1. Spatial structures: Reflects how how the city is physically organized
2. Processes that support spatial structure: Question how the city's structure operates
3. Normative Analysis: Construct opinions supported by facts to promote better urban planning methods

Scholars have also researched how cities outside of the United Kingdom and the United States have developed, but only to a limited degree. Urban history previously focused mostly on how European and American cities developed over time, instead of focusing on how non-European cities developed. Additional geographic areas researched in this field include South Africa, Australia,, Latin America, and India

Racial history in the United States

The racial segregation of urban residents in the United States has played an important role in developing this field. One program founded to research African-American urban residents, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, was founded in 1959 to study residential segregation and to support affected communities. More recently, studies related to race and urban life started to focus on ethnographic methods to study how individuals lived in relation to the city and their respective systems as a whole.

Areas of research

This field is transdisciplinary because it uses theories from a variety of academic fields and places them within an urban context. A wide variety of academic fields refer to the urban environment as a location studied, such as Environmental Studies, Economics, Geography, Public Health, and Sociology. However, scholars have researched elements that specifically constitute how the city operates, which include housing and transportation-related issues. In addition, researchers also study how residents interact within the city, such as how race and gender differences lead to social inequalities in urban areas.

Criticism

In the United States, race has heavily impacted where African-Americans live. Black Power movements, particularly the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, have criticized how the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies researched the African-American urban population but did not understand the community's needs.

Researchers also struggle with how terms are created and used both inside and outside the field. Even basic terms, such as how a city is defined, is challenging to do with precise terms, due to how the roles of cities change. Researchers must be careful in how they describe urban areas, as their work can be manipulated as positive elements for city boosters wanting to promote a specific city.