Author Archives: wmcvt

Hogra and Youth Inclusion in the MENA region

“Hogra” and youth exclusion in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) Hogra is a word used in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to describe the anger, rage and humiliation experienced by individuals and communities that have been deprived of … Continue reading

Posted in Nada Berrada, Posts | Leave a comment

A Latent Resilience Capacity: Public Libraries and Community Emergency Response

Despite recent shifts toward a more community-collaborative approach to emergency management, little attention has been given to the role social and local groups, including, particularly, faith-based organizations as well as public libraries play in current disaster preparedness and response processes. … Continue reading

Posted in Michal Linder-Zarankin, Posts | Leave a comment

The Land-Crisis Nexus: Commodification of Nature as a Means of Crisis Management

  With all frontiers now closed, we might ask if the capitalist world-economy today confronts a situation at all similar to that faced by feudalism some seven centuries earlier. Like feudalism, capitalism appears to be approaching the limits to growth … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Vera Smirnova | Leave a comment

Understanding The Green Economy

The concept of sustainable development was first widely embraced by the international community in 1992 at the United Nations (UN) conference on the environment and development—the Rio Earth Summit. Sixteen years later, in 2008, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Vanessa Guerra M | Leave a comment

The Effects of Greenbelt Policy in Seoul, Korea

A greenbelt usually refers to a band drawn fairly tightly around a city or urban region that planners intend to be permanent, or at least very difficult to change (Jabareen, 2006). These areas are designed as buffers to protect open … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Yehyun An | Leave a comment

Good Government, Community and Policing: Police Brutality and Civic Peace

Public trust in American political institutions is vital to the country’s civic health.  Today, however, the citizenry’s confidence in our governments at all levels seems to be weakening and very public incidents of  police brutality are one important factor eroding … Continue reading

Posted in Mary K. Ryan, Posts | Leave a comment

Why Motivations Matter in Addressing Discriminatory Hiring Practices

Anti-discrimination employment practices can be justified in several ways. First, there is the justice argument. Inherited systems of unequal schools, unfair housing and exclusionary network-based hiring practices have created a pervasive legacy of discrimination that often makes economic justice impossible. … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Sarah Halvorson-Fried | Leave a comment

Exploring the Sociological Agenda – Or, What Do I Want to Do in Sociology?

Before coming to Virginia Tech in August 2013, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Sociology at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.  I would not say that I fell in love with this discipline immediately as some of my … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Sofia Rukhin | Leave a comment

The Global Land-grant University – A Reflection of Market or Mission?

Virginia Tech and several of its peer institutions are increasingly using the term “global land-grant” university as a means to describe and to garner support for their emergent international influence and presence.   Virginia Tech’s twenty-one page strategic plan references the … Continue reading

Posted in Mary Beth Dunkenberger, Posts | Leave a comment

Re-Framing Social Change: What questions should guide today’s NGO Leaders and social entrepreneurs?

Popular mythology concerning them notwithstanding, any effort to come to grips with the purposes and desired outcomes of today’s nonprofit and nongovernmental (NGO) organizations requires a thorough examination of the complexity of the problems they face, the social systems in … Continue reading

Posted in Posts, Sarah Hanks | Leave a comment