International Communities Work Group

Overview

The International Communities Work Group focuses on internationalizing the issues faced by local communities for the purpose of enhancing quality of life in communities in a variety of ways as well on fostering broader understanding of local issues.

Philosophy

Governments spend the largest portion of their public budget on services for community development—to enhance education, market infrastructure, rule of law, environmental protection, employment generation, police protection, transportation, public health, and social welfare. Cross national flows of development capital from the private sector, however, are considerably larger than official development assistance (foreign aid). Investment of private international capital is concentrated in a few middle-income countries. Some 140 of the 160 poorest countries in the world accounted for less than 5% of private investment in the year 2000. In essence, the majority of the world's population will continue to depend upon public sector resources (both domestic and international) for its community development livelihood. In the 21st century, countries and communities are struggling to sustain developmental achievements as poverty steadily increases and public sector investment continues to decline dramatically.

Sample Research Projects

Stephen Heyneman leads efforts to broaden and deepen research in the international arena with emphases on the former Soviet Union, Western Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, South and East Asia. It is often the case that researchers are unaware of the experiences outside of their own national communities. They focus on local problems exclusively, and this sometimes limits what they can understand about community development. For example, education researchers in the U.S. may confine their studies to school systems within the U.S. and other OECD countries, which represent 2 percent and 12 percent of the world's students respectively. With such samples they sometimes describe their theories, policies and practices in educational psychology, finance, community and parental involvement, and special education as if they had universal applicability. This concentration on local experience at the exclusion of worldwide experience can lead to distortions in policy advice and mistakes in strategy.

Doug Perkins was a co-investigator of the 2002-2003 Nashville Immigrant Community Assessment, an historic and interdisciplinary collaboration among the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, immigrant and refugee community representatives, local social service providers, and Metropolitan Government of Nashville-Davidson County. Some 18 percent of Nashville residents are foreign born, and this community has experienced a tripling of foreign-born residents from 1990 to 2000, particularly from Mexico, other Latin-American and Caribbean countries, the Middle East, Somalia, and Southeast Asia. In the future, the work group will engage the Nashville Task Force on Refugees & Immigrants, the Human Relations Commission, and other groups in action-research to assist local international communities.

Dr. Perkins also directed the 2007 CCS Field School in Guangxi, China, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Facoltà di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, and the Insitut für Psychologie, Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg, Germany, where he was selected to represent Vanderbilt University and Nashville in the Nashville-Magdeburg Sister Cities Program. He also was Keynote Speaker at the 2006 First International Conference on Community Psychology, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the 2003 National Congress on “Prevention in Schools and Communities: Development of Social Capital for Health Promotion and Prevention” in Padua, Italy, which has led to several international scholarly collaborations (see below). In 1998, he spent a sabbatical visiting and consulting with 6 different community programs in Australia and represented the U.S. as a Keynote Speaker at the International Symposium on Learning Communities, Regional Sustainability and the Learning Society, Launceston, Tasmania.

Additional members of this work group include: Joshua Bazuin, Brian Christens, Melinda Coston, D. J. Davis, Maury Nation, Issac Prilleltensky (University of Miami), Emily Prouty, Peter Redvers-Lee, Jill Robinson, Benjamin Siankam, Kelly Taylor-Richardson and Sarah VanHooser .

Sample Publications

Dallago, Lorenza (University of Padova, Italy), Douglas D. Perkins (Vanderbilt University, USA), Massimo Santinello (University of Padova), Will Boyce (Queen’s University, Canada), Michal Molcho (National University of Ireland), Antony Morgan (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, London, UK). (under review). "Adolescent place attachment, social capital, and perceived safety: A comparison of 13 countries." Special issue of American Journal of Community Psychology on international research.

Heyneman, S.P."International Uses of Education Technology: Threats and Opportunities," (co-authored with Katherine Taylor Haynes). In Adapting Technology for School Improvement: A Global Perspective, edited by Lars Mahlck & David Chapman Paris: International Institute of Educational Planning, pp. 55 - 81. 2004.

Nation, M., Vieno, A., Perkins, D.D., & Santinello, M. (in press). "Bullying in school and adolescent sense of empowerment: An analysis of relationships with parents, friends, and teachers." Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.

Partridge, W. L. "Asistencia Humanitaria a Poblaciones Desplazadas Internamente: Aplicaciones Futuras en Colombia," Memorias: Seminario de Divulgaci - n en Colombia de los Principios Rectores de los Desplazamientos Internos, Brookings Institution, Grupo de Apoyo a los Desplazados and U.S. Committee on Refugees. Pp. 187-200. Bogotá, Colombia. 1999.

Prilleltensky, I. "Applied Ethics in Mental Health in Cuba: Dilemmas and resources." (with Sanchez, L., Walsh Bowers, R., Rossiter, A.). Ethics and Behavior, 13, 243-260. 2002.

Vieno, A., Perkins, D.D., Smith, T.M., & Santinello, M. (2005). "Democratic school climate and sense of community in school: A multilevel analysis." American Journal of Community Psychology, 36, 327-341.