The paper examines current experiences with the use of participatory methodologies in low-income urban communities. It outlines the nature and development of participatory approaches and describes experiences, prospects and problems related to their use in an urban context. Three case examples from the UK, Sri Lanka, and India and South Africa demonstrate how innovative approaches are being use...

The Shark Reef Marine Reserve in Fiji is an ecotourism project designed to protect a small reef patch and its fauna while preserving the livelihood of local communities. It involves the local communities by using a participatory business planning approach to Marine Protected Area management, generating income through diver user fees, distributed to the local villages that have exchanged their t...

BACKGROUND Living in a community with lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality. However, few studies have examined associations between community socioeconomic characteristics and mortality among the First Nations population. DATA AND METHODS The 1991-to-2006 Census Mortality and Cancer Cohort follow-up, which tracked a 15% sample of Canadians aged 25 or older, included ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate whether neighbourhood characteristics are related to dietary patterns independently of individual level variables. DESIGN A cross sectional analysis of the relation between neighbourhood median household income and food and nutrient intakes, before and after adjustment for individual level variables. SETTING Four United States communities (Washington Co, MD; S...

Low-income populations, especially those belonging to minority groups, are among the most vulnerable groups before, during, and after a natural disaster. One of the factors that can be attributed to their vulnerability is the ineffectiveness of traditional risk communication systems in reaching this population. Many low-income populations are distrustful of government agencies and those who typ...

For many people, the corner store remains the main grocer, or the only source of sustenance in minority communities. This study examined the distribution of corner stores as a future reference point to provide healthy food access to predominantly African American communities that lack full service grocery stores. Business data was obtained from respective county by use of Standard Industrial Co...

Indemnificatory housing programs—a kind of state-backed urban low-end and nonmarket housing programs which used to be welfare—have now increasingly evolved to be the vehicle to promote capital accumulation. Most of these housing communities show peripherization with high rates of unemployment, low income, poverty, and social exclusion, which violates their sustainability. This paper examines th...

Spatial reasoning and numerical predictors of measurement performance were investigated in 4th graders from low-income and affluent communities. Predictors of 2 subtypes of measurement performance (spatial–conceptual and formula based) were assessed while controlling for verbal and spatial working memory. Consistent with prior findings, students from the affluent community outperformed students...