Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study examines the effect of charter towns on economic growth in the state of Michigan. Using a growth index, this study will attempt to determine if charter status has had any effect on growth within or around charter towns in Michigan.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This article explores whether American citizens’ rights are violated when excluded from official White House event based on the citizens’ speech. In particular, this paper examines an event which took place in April, 2005, where three citizens were excluded from a Social Security “town-hall” meeting because the vehicle they arrived in exhibited a bumper sticker critical of Bush administration policies. The key question examined is whether private individuals who volunteered at the event can be considered “state actors” thereby implicating the citizens’ First Amendment rights. The issue is highly relevant, especially in America, given the increasing importance and power in our society of private institutions and individuals and given that such private persons are generally not constrained by the Constitution. The paper also provides a good launching pad through which to discuss other countries treatment of freedom of expression and the differences between the First Amendment and its counterparts or lack thereof in other societies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The political impact of government laboratories on small towns has not been fully explored in the field of political science. This paper seeks to fill that void by exploring the political impact of the government laboratories.

Publication Type: Poster Sessions
Abstract: Student scientists learned how they could become involved in the town planning process while carrying out National and State Science Objectives by developing a plan to monitor water quality in their community using GIS software. Come see their mapped results.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the era of consumer capitalism, is there any such thing as music that is produced outside of the culture industry? The distinction between mass culture and local or independently made culture is central to musician’s evaluations of their craft and to sociologist’s analyses of music making. This paper questions the salience of this distinction. It is an ethnographic project on the music scene of a small college town that has lofty aims as the self-proclaimed “center of the musical universe.” Its thriving local scene is generated in large part by the financial and social capital of a group of local rock musicians and entrepreneurs who have gained national fame in the music industry. These men have invested their capital back into the local economy, tying their businesses to the city’s experiments in new urbanism. At the same time, other music businesses and organizations form to resist the monopoly these men have on the scene. I argue that the tension between local monopoly and local resistance generates important resources for rock musicians and young college alumni entering into culture industry professions. Yet at the same time, those who play other genres such as metal, hip-hop and Latin music are sidelined within the local economy. As cultural resources are becoming synonymous with economic resources, access to making local culture is a new indicator of existing social inequalities in urban spaces.