7 posts · 1,626 views
Christopher Leo
7 posts
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- February 18, 2010
- 02:49 PM
- 74 views
CASE STUDIES CAN PRODUCE THEORETICAL ADVANCES: HERE'S AN EXAMPLE
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
Case studies have unjustifiably acquired a reputation for being semi-anecdotal investigations of the small details of individual circumstances, research that is incapable of generating significant empirical or theoretical advances in knowledge. It is argued that the case study is, at best, a preliminary step, in that it may generate hypotheses that can later be tested using such “more reliable” methods as standardized questionnaires or statistical data. In the study of politics, however, that sequence of research initiatives may well work better in reverse.... Read more »
Leo, C. (2006) Deep Federalism: Respecting Community Difference in National Policy. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 39(03). DOI: 10.1017/S0008423906060240
- February 2, 2010
- 03:40 PM
- 64 views
Does mixed-income housing ameliorate poverty?
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
One of the most troubling problems of North American cities is the isolation of the poor and racialized minorities in ghetto neighbourhoods. Mixed-income neighbourhoods offer a possible remedy, but in place of careful analysis of the benefits they can and can't provide, too often we argue fruitlessly from inadequately-researched, ideologically fixed positions. Some recent research takes a step forward.... Read more »
Joseph, M., Chaskin, R., & Webber, H. (2007) The Theoretical Basis for Addressing Poverty Through Mixed-Income Development. Urban Affairs Review, 42(3), 369-409. DOI: 10.1177/1078087406294043
- January 30, 2010
- 04:40 PM
- 61 views
DOES MIXED-INCOME HOUSING AMELIORIATE POVERTY?
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
One of the most troubling features of the way North American cities have developed in the past quarter century is social isolation, as our own desires and the dynamics of the real estate business sort us into spaces exclusive to ever-narrower slices of humanity. Separate spaces for people of different incomes, places reserved exclusively for the elderly, spaces from which children are barred, and more.
There is much to worry about in this trend, but most worrisome of all is the social isolation of the poor - the formation of neighbourhoods largely or wholly populated by people who live there only because they cannot afford to live elsewhere; ghettos, defined by poverty and often race, and marked by deteriorating public services and facilities, as well as limited opportunities for jobs, recreation and education.
Small wonder then that policy-makers have devoted thought and effort to attempts to recapture the social diversity that once was an essential feature of cities and that, even today, is a big part of what we mean by the word "urbanity". In part this has been done by dispersal programs whereby residents of low-income neighbourhoods are offered an opportunity to collect rent subsidies and use them to move to other neighbourhoods.... Read more »
Joseph, M., Chaskin, R., & Webber, H. (2007) The Theoretical Basis for Addressing Poverty Through Mixed-Income Development. Urban Affairs Review, 42(3), 369-409. DOI: 10.1177/1078087406294043
- December 1, 2009
- 08:01 AM
- 134 views
LOCAL POLITICIANS CAN'T CONTROL SPRAWL. SO WHY IS IT THEIR JOB ALONE?
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
Few things are more important than the way we use our land, and yet, in North America, few things are more neglected. Among my urbanist colleagues, there are precious few who think that urban sprawl is a good thing, and even fewer who believe anything can be done about it. Why?... Read more »
LEO, C. (1998) REGIONAL GROWTH MANAGEMENT REGIME: The Case of Portland, Oregon. Journal of Urban Affairs, 20(4), 363-394. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9906.1998.tb00428.x
- July 9, 2009
- 01:33 PM
- 360 views
RAPID TRANSIT: COST OR OPPORTUNITY? IT’S UP TO US
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
With Jonah Levine
It’s taken Winnipeg a generation to get around to building the first leg of a rapid transit system. You might think that settles the matter, and that now we are down to inconsequential details. On closer examination, however, it becomes clear that many important decisions remain, decisions that could make the difference between a successful rapid transit system and a white elephant.... Read more »
John Renne and Peter Newman. (2002) Facilitating the Financing and Development of 'Smart Growth'. Transportation Quarterluy, 56(2), 23-32.
- June 24, 2009
- 09:10 AM
- 462 views
ETHICS GUIDELINES: LETTING THE POWERFUL OFF THE HOOK, HANGING SUBORDINATES OUT TO DRY
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
I'm an ethics bureaucrat - a lowly one at the moment, a member of my departmental ethics committee. I don't like the job, but I stick with it because it keeps me in touch with a system that has to change. The better I understand the system, the better my chances of helping to bring about a change.
In fact, the system changes all the time, sometimes for the better, but mostly for the worse. The most frequent changes for the worse come, not from Canada's Tri-Council Guidelines, which I criticized in an earlier blog entry and a research paper, but from overzealous local ethics bureaucrats. The other day an ethics application crossed my desk and I spotted a change that I believe originated locally.... Read more »
James Weinstein. (2007) Institutional Review Boards and the Constitution. Northwestern University Law Review, 101(2), 493-562.
- May 19, 2009
- 03:26 PM
- 471 views
IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DIVIDING ABORIGINAL PEOPLE? CAN IT STOP?
by Christopher Leo in Christopher Leo
I'll be at the Canadian Political Science Association conference in Ottawa next week delivering a paper originally entitled "Building cohesion, aggravating division", with an even more obscure, academic-sounding subtitle. But I've changed the title and the new one is the one I'm using for this blog entry. My article grows out of studies I did recently in Winnipeg of aboriginal policy and policy regarding immigration and settlement. Originally, these studies had nothing to do with each other, but when they were finished, I was struck by the contrast between them.... Read more »
Christopher Leo. (2006) Deep Federalism: Respecting Community Difference in National Policy. Canadian Journal of Political Science 39:3, 2006, 481-506., 39(3), 481-506.
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