North American Social Report
North American Social Report

Author: Alex C. Michalos

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 940098975X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It would have been nice to have been able to write this book with the style of Mailer, the wit of Shaw, the breadth of Myrdal and the zeal of Nader. It would also have been miraculous. Rest assured there are no miracles here. On the contrary, the work in your hands undoubtedly bears all the marks of imperfect human design. It's too long for one book, but probably too short for the story to be told. It's not the sort of book one can hope to fmish, even in five volumes. There is always one more table one might squeeze in, one more column or row, an illustrative chart or figure, another important refer ence to check, something dangling here or there that nags one to fiddle with it, wrap it up, tie it down, and so on. All one can do, I think, is put up with the nagging and press on. I can't imagine anyone making so many factual claims and evaluative judgments, and putting together so many numbers in so many different areas without making dozens of mistakes. I can't imagine anyone working with national statistics and not having plenty of mistakes made for him. As I look back on it now, it's hard to imagine anyone being naive enough (bold enough has a better ring to it) to take on the task of writing a book like this in the first place. Of course, I had Myrdal's great An American Dilemma to encourage me.

Communities in Action
Communities in Action

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 0309452961

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Black Identities
Black Identities

Author: Mary C. WATERS

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 9780674044944

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is generally considered to be a great success. Mary Waters, however, tells a very different story. She finds that the values that gain first-generation immigrants initial success--a willingness to work hard, a lack of attention to racism, a desire for education, an incentive to save--are undermined by the realities of life and race relations in the United States. Contrary to long-held beliefs, Waters finds, those who resist Americanization are most likely to succeed economically, especially in the second generation.

U.S. Health in International Perspective
U.S. Health in International Perspective

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-04-12

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0309264146

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

The Human Network
The Human Network

Author: Matthew O. Jackson

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2020-02-04

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1101972963

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Here is a fresh, intriguing, and, above all, authoritative book about how our sometimes hidden positions in various social structures—our human networks—shape how we think and behave, and inform our very outlook on life. Inequality, social immobility, and political polarization are only a few crucial phenomena driven by the inevitability of social structures. Social structures determine who has power and influence, account for why people fail to assimilate basic facts, and enlarge our understanding of patterns of contagion—from the spread of disease to financial crises. Despite their primary role in shaping our lives, human networks are often overlooked when we try to account for our most important political and economic practices. Matthew O. Jackson brilliantly illuminates the complexity of the social networks in which we are—often unwittingly—positioned and aims to facilitate a deeper appreciation of why we are who we are. Ranging across disciplines—psychology, behavioral economics, sociology, and business—and rich with historical analogies and anecdotes, The Human Network provides a galvanizing account of what can drive success or failure in life.

The Myth of the North American City
The Myth of the North American City

Author: Michael Goldberg

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0774843292

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The continuing tendency to "continentalize" Canadian issues has been particularly marked in the area of urban studies where United States-based research findings, methodologies, and attitudes have held sway. In this book, Goldberg and Mercer demonstrate that the label "North American City" as widely used is inappropriate and misleading in discussion of the distinctive Canadian urban environment. Examining such elements of the cultural context as mass values, social and demographic structures, the economy, and political institutions, they reveal salient differences between Canada and the United States.

How Good Policies and Business Ethics Enhance Good Quality of Life
How Good Policies and Business Ethics Enhance Good Quality of Life

Author: Alex C. Michalos

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-06-14

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 3319507249

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume provides bridges from the social sciences to business ethics and from the latter to the quality of life, by connecting the research themes of quality of life, social sciences, including public policy-making, and business ethics or corporate responsibility. It builds on the premise that public policy making is essentially a species of good decision making, as explained in the first volume. It shows that, because most developed countries function as market economies whose governments depend on taxation to pay for their services and because a large proportion of government revenue comes from well-regulated, responsible corporations, the quality of people’s lives is highly dependent upon good public policies, taxation and business ethics. The volume presents and examines ethical/moral problems arising in market economies since the first century BCE, including the first appearance of the business case for business ethics, fourteen arguments concerning the neglect of business ethics, business ethics issues for the 1990s and beyond, the loyal agent’s argument, advertising, the importance of trust, public opinion polling, public program evaluation, and a critique of the relatively new monster of super-capitalism. In addition, it deals with connections among the concepts of efficiency, morality, and rationality related to decision making in general and public policy making in particular. Finally, it explains relationships between outcomes measurement and performance indicators in general and performance-based management in public administration, the taxation of net wealth and financial transactions.

Handbook of Quality-of-Life Research
Handbook of Quality-of-Life Research

Author: M. Joseph Sirgy

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2001-11-30

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9781402001727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This handbook provides students of quality-of-life (QOL) research with an understanding of how QOL research can be conducted from an ethical marketing perspective - a perspective based on positive social change. The handbook covers theoretical, philosophical, and measurement issues in QOL research. The handbook also approaches selected QOL studies in relation to various populations in various life domains. The marketing approach is highly pragmatic because it allows social and behavioral scientists from any discipline to apply marketing concepts to plan social change and assess the impact of intervention strategies on the QOL of targeted populations.