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Commentary on the papers of the special issue identifies and discusses four themes: 1) strategies to bridge the gap between science and practice, 2) sources of community science questions of interest, 3) choice and quality of methods, and 4) epistemology and useful language for community science. The commentary identifies some limitations in the models proposed by the special issue authors, and proposes renewed attention to ecology, context and process in community change initiatives, calling for a common set of community level measures as one strategy to advance a community centered science agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: How do learning communities influence academic performance in Introductory Psychology? Method: The present research examines the relationship between participation in first-year students learning communities and academic performance across a variety of course requirements (midterms, finals, papers, and class participation) in introductory psychology and, for comparison, sociology courses. Results: Students who took Introductory Psychology as part of a first-year-student learning community outperformed their peers (who took the same course without a learning community) on the first exam of the semester and were less likely to miss assignments but otherwise showed no significant differences on the other course assignments; introductory sociology students part of these communities showed even greater differences in performance that lasted through the end of the semester. Conclusion: First-year students learning communities offers significant albeit limited benefits for student performance in introductory courses in the social sciences. Teaching Implications: Short of institutional efforts to enact programming for first-year learning communities, introductory psychology instructors can attempt to simulate the experience of such communities by promoting a sense of belonging via extra-curricular service or discipline-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural patterns in collaboration networks are essential for understanding how new ideas, research practices, innovation or cooperation circulate and develop within academic communities and between and within university departments. In our research, we explore and investigate the structure of the collaboration network formed by the academics working full-time within all the 17 sociology departments across Romania. We show that the collaboration network is sparse and fragmented, and that it constitutes an environment that does not promote the circulation of new ideas and innovation within the field. Although recent years have witnessed an increase in the productivity of Romanian sociologists, there is still ample room for improvement in terms of the interaction infrastructure that ought to link individuals together so that they could maximize their potentials. We also fail to discern evidence in favor of the Matthew effect governing the growth of the network, which suggests scientific success and productivity are not rewarded. Instead, the structural properties of the collaboration network are partly those of a core-periphery network, where the spread of innovation and change can be explained by structural equivalence rather than by interpersonal influence models. We also provide support for the idea that, within the observed network, collaboration is the product of homophily rather than prestige effects. Further research on the subject based on data from other countries in the region is needed to place our results in a comparative framework, in particular to discern whether the behavior of the Romanian sociologist community is unique or rather common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a confluence of unique values and activities, the collective practice of community psychology is difficult to characterize in a simple way. Increasingly, however, professional contexts are laden with pressure to define any practice-from library work to medical interventions-in the orderly, compact language of traditional science. This trend has historically been resisted in the field by those sensing a fundamental lack of fit between the fluid, emergent aspects of community psychological practice and the fixed, precise language of classic science. In response to this “language-practice gap,” some have attempted to adapt the traditional language of science to better fit the field’s practice, while others have explored alternative languages of practice seemingly more indigenous to the messy “swamp” of actual communities. While the former effort leaves some theoretical contradictions intact, the latter tends to discount scientific identity entirely. This paper proposes a potential step forward by resituating questions of disciplinary language and identity within a current philosophical discourse where the nature of social science itself remains sharply contested. This suggests shifting attention away from “should webe a science?” to “what kindof science might we be after all?”; in turn, alternative languages may be re-cast as legitimate contributors to a kind of science more authentic to human communities-even a viable “science in the swamp.” One such language-philosophical hermeneutics-is presented as a particularly valuable supplement to traditional science. Illustrations highlight ways that hermeneutics may advance the formal language of the field towards a closer fit of what actually happens in practice, while preserving and even bolstering the empirical rigor and scientific identity of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on planning literature which include approaches to empirical work in regional economics, understanding the barriers to social adaptation, and management of large city regions.

This paper presents personal observations concerning the different purpose and methods of a psychologist working in different sectors of community functioning including education, psychological healing, institutional management, business administration, finance, and military installations. Each of these sectors of community work required its own specific purpose and methods which were often conflicting. It is concluded that there are many different legitimate roles and functions for psychologists working in the community, and that those working in one area should be understanding and tolerant of different professional applications in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although consultation has become an important vehicle for purveying psychological services to social systems, few well-defined conceptual or empirical guidelines sensitive to the multidimensional nature of complex social systems exist to structure intervention efforts. A case study of a consultative intervention with an internally conflicted police department is presented. The process of the intervention clearly illustrated the multidimensional factors sustaining the difficulties. A particular consultative intervention, the consultant-trainee model, was utilized and seemed to have several features useful in such cases. A pre-post evaluation supported the effectiveness of the intervention and several recommendations for the conduct of effective, ecologically sensitive social system consultation were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two divergent neighborhoods were sampled to assess the ability of the Characteristics of the Residential Environment Scale (CRE) to discriminate between them and to determine the CRE's relationship to satisfaction in each neighborhood. The CRE taps present perceptions and preferences of the physical and social aspects of a neighborhood. A separate sample population was used to assess test-retest reliability. Results indicated that the CRE was a relatively stable instrument. All modes of measurement in the CRE (i.e., perceived, preferred, and the discrepancy between the two) discriminated between neighborhoods; and within modes, social and physical, all but social preferences distinguished between neighborhoods. The inclusion of preference and discrepancy scores contributed significantly to the prediction of neighborhood satisfaction. The predictors are different in the two neighborhoods, suggesting that satisfaction had different meaning to the residents of each neighborhood. Overall, the results indicated good reliability for CRE and supported its continued use in investigations of the residential environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community psychology can be seen as a vigorous, action-oriented movement. It is, however, still in the developmental stage characterized by the continued attempts to specify the goals and parameters of the field. The growing paraprofessional movement shares similar origins to community psychology and appears to provide answers to some of the questions raised about the accomplishments of the practitioners of community psychology. Some of the stated goals of community psychology are briefly reviewed and the paraprofessional movement is described in greater detail in an attempt to demonstrate the relationship between the accomplishments and trends of the paraprofessional movement and the goals espoused by community psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]