Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Today’s communities have been greatly affected by the Internet. All fundamental aspects of our business, political, and social communities have been influenced in some way or another, and even dramatically transformed by this recent technology. Concerning past technologies, it was believed that the introduction of the telephone, and later the television, would cause the community and community ties to slowly diminish. Community was considered to be lost from its original environment, the familiar place - the local village or neighborhood. Then came the argument that community could be regained in the environment of shared space, mostly work or voluntary groups. Now with the recent introduction of the Internet, there has been the evolving belief that the community can be regained through the digital environment of cyberspace. More specifically, an increased number of religious individuals are forming their own virtual communities, for religious purposes. This study explores Internet users and non-users, and specifically those of religious faith, who are seeking a renewed sense of community and stronger community ties via the Internet. The analysis is based on data from the Pew Internet Project, “The Internet and American Life,” which includes 2000 American households. This empirical research explores the impact of the Internet on community ties and religious communities. The findings indicate that the Internet may lead to a renewed community, and that individuals can use the Internet not only for their social and economic needs, but also their spiritual needs.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Active participation in community organizations and cultural events is a strong indicator of resident’s sense of belonging to the community and integration into local storytelling network. The communication infrastructure theory (CIT) provides a useful framework to understand the contextual effects of resident’s participation in community-based cultural events as a part of larger communication environments in the community-building process and civic engagement. This study examines the processes that two community-based events, the Fiestas Patrias and the Korean Festival, undertake in order to play key roles in local storytelling networks that are associated with establishing and strengthening the connections between community residents and local organizations and, as a result, increasing a member’s integration into the community, a necessary step to increasing the civic engagement. I will look at 1) which cultural practices help local events become an integral part of the storytelling network and, as a result, 2) how storytelling roles as undertaken by community organizations and cultural events affect community members’ civic engagement and sense of belonging to their neighborhoods in regard to the CIT perspective. Linear regression analyses of surveys conducted with community participants illustrate that active participation in local events enhance a sense of belonging and engagement in their community by connecting them to other residents through meso level local storytelling networks. It is congruent with the CIT that community-based local events as local storytelling agents bridge the geo-ethnic immigrant communities and local community media and organizations and, as a result, reinforce community engagement in the neighborhood.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention operating system provides manuals, tools, training, and technical assistance to activate communities to use advances in prevention science to plan and implement community prevention services to reduce adolescent substance use, delinquency, and related health and behavior problems. CTC is designed to reduce levels of adolescent delinquency and substance use through the selection and use of effective preventive interventions tailored to a community’s specific profile of risk and protection. This presentation describes the rationale, intervention, aims, and design of the first group-randomized controlled community trial of the Communities That Care system, called the Community Youth Development Study.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In recent years, local groups in Oakland, California, have pioneered new and innovative models for organizing multi-racial and labor-community alliances, and for combining grassroots activism with urban planning and policy development. In this panel, leading local participants and researchers discuss the ways in which Oaklanders are currently remaking urban community.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The linkage between the Internet and the community has been the subject of considerable research in the last decade. Scholars have been particularly interested in the effects of the Internet on the community. Adopting a techno-deterministic frame, lot of the early work on the Internet conceptualized the medium as the cause of the decline in community participation. This paper offers an alternative position. Based on social shaping of technology and channel complementarity theories, it proposes that community participation will be positively related with community-based Internet use. In addition, it posits that satisfaction with the community will emerge as a positive predictor.