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Interdisciplinary project working with scholars from the University of North Carolina

Racialized Returns: Examining Racial Differences in the Consequences of Living in a Two-Parent Family

Alok Bhargava responds to Desmond Tutu's Comparison of Climate Change as Developed Countries' "Climate Apartheid" On the Poor

Challenges are real but manageable; better to focus on the well being of those who are here.

One survey is not enough to make a social truth

As marriage rates continue to fall, policies that try to steer people into marriage through financial incentives are only hurting children

CNN Op-Ed suggests taxes on super-rich and stronger social safety net could help ameliorate financial impact divorce has for many

Bloomberg News article examines family and employment impacts

We examine change across U.S. cohorts born between 1920 and 2000 in their probability of having had sex with same-sex partners in the last year and since age 18. Using data from the 1988–2018 General Social Surveys, we explore how trends differ by gender, race, and class background. We find steep increases across birth cohorts in the proportion of women who have had sex with both men and women since age 18, whereas increases for men are less steep. We suggest that the trends reflect an increasingly accepting social climate, and that women’s steeper trend is rooted in a long-term asymmetry in gender change, in which nonconformity to gender norms is more acceptable for women than men. We also find evidence that, among men, the increase in having had sex with both men and women was steeper for black than for white men, and for men of lower socioeconomic status; we speculate that the rise of mass incarceration among less privileged men may have influenced this trend.

Anticipated impacts from climate change act as stressors that motivate adaptation strategy development. And, while climate science projections extend from the global to regional scale, they can leave significant uncertainty at the local scale. In many jurisdictions, governance and environmental management professionals formulate and distribute information to guide climate change policy and preparation. In many rural or otherwise marginalized areas, however, relationships needed to promote clear understanding of impacts and to tackle cooperative adaptation planning alongside residents are lacking. This article discusses methods used by an interdisciplinary group of scientists to help a small community of rural coastal United States residents enhance their climate resilience. This was accomplished via participatory collaborative science and collaborative learning processes that facilitated relationships of trust among a broad group of stakeholders. Data gathered from our network and analyses of project activities show the benefits of collaboration across a social network representing the social-ecological system. The success of our efforts is evident in five ways: a) in localized application of climate and environmental knowledge, b) in building two-way knowledge across the local/nonlocal divide, c) in incorporating local community values, d) developing trust between residents, scientists, and environmental governance and management professionals, and e) in lessons learned transitioning from a learning to decision-making process. We strongly advocate those working with local groups on adaptation planning efforts begin with methods that help build knowledge, respect, trust, and capacity among residents.