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This paper examines taxable sales in the Los Angeles and Miami metropolitan areas to find evidence of the short- and long-run effects of the Rodney King riots and Hurricane Andrew on their respective economies. The comparison of these two events shows that the King riots had a long-term negative effect on Los Angeles' economy while Hurricane Andrew had a short-term positive effect on the Miami economy. The paper also applies the contrasting experiences of Los Angeles and Miami to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In some ways, Katrina is a hybrid of these two events since it combines elements of both a natural disaster and a social disaster. The paper examines how Katrina is similar to each of the previous incidents and how these similarities might affect the recovery of New Orleans following the storm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a growing consensus that Internet communication technology (ICT) affects collective action in the twenty-first century, we know very little about what keeps individuals involved in ICT-based organizations over time. Our paper addresses this lacuna by examining whether individuals stay involved in two organizations that use ICT to structure interaction differently over a two-year period. We draw on interview and participant observation data with 38 supporters of MoveOn.org, which structures interaction hierarchically, and the Florida Tea Party Movement, which structures interaction horizontally, to assess how individuals think about each organization's use of ICT and how this shapes individual efficacy and voice – two factors that we find critical to keeping individuals engaged in organizations over time. We show that how a group uses ICT to structure interaction affects the kinds of efficacy and voice individuals are likely to experience. Organizations that use ICT to hierarchically structure interactions are effective at mobilizing people or money quickly and at achieving short-term goals, but very ineffective at creating a community of activists on the ground. The opposite is true of groups that use ICT horizontally. They are effective at creating a political community, but the conflicts that arise among supporters narrow group membership, hinder mobilization, and undercut organizational political clout over time. We conclude with a discussion of our results for understanding ICT and activism in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Examining the spatial and contextual features of race and ethnic-specific stop rates, this paper combines structural indicators of concentrated disadvantage and social disorganization with citizen-police contact data on more than 61,000 police stops in the Miami-Dade area. While the existing race-biased policing literature tends to vary greatly in scope and analytical strategy, research that takes into account spatial dynamics coupled with neighborhood characteristics when examining police stop rates has yet to be offered. Furthermore, given the racial and ethnic diversity of the Miami-Dade communities, we assess the often neglected issue of police stops involving Hispanic drivers, in addition to those of whites and African Americans. Our spatial analysis, which allows us to account empirically for the theoretical likelihood that what occurs in one neighborhood is influenced by nearby neighborhoods, reveals differences in spatial clustering of stops involving racial and ethnic groups. Spatial multivariate regression analysis shows that racial composition and levels of violence are the most consistent predictors of race and ethnic based stop rates. Additional analysis finds that the effect of racial composition on stop rates is conditioned by community levels of violence. Our results show the importance of spatial analysis to understanding the racial and ethnic disparities in police stops at the macro-level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]