New Working Paper: School Closures Significantly Reduced Arrests of Black and Latinx Urban Youth
BU Assistant Professor of Sociology, Jessica Simes, released a new working paper on how school closures during the pandemic significantly reduced arrests of Black and Latinx urban youth. This working paper was co-authored with Tori Cowger (FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Jaquelyn L. Jahn […]
Meet the 2022–2023 NLC Menino Fellow: An Pham
The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is pleased to announce An Pham (KHC ‘24) as our 2022–2023 National League of Cities (NLC) Menino Fellow. An is a junior majoring in Economics and Mathematics and is interested in inequality, environmental policy, and urban economics. He hopes to pursue a career in policy analysis, where he can work […]
#BUandBoston: Charles River Cleanup
This post is part of our #BUandBoston series, highlighting the work and research of BU students, faculty, and staff throughout the City of Boston and the Greater Boston region. Interested in having your Boston-related work featured? Tag us on Instagram or Twitter (@BUonCities) using the #BUandBoston or send us an email at ioc@bu.edu. By Dhruv Kapadia On Sunday, September 18th, the […]
Join our team! Hiring a Communications Manager & Administrator
The BU Initiative on Cities seeks a full time Communications Manager & Administrator to serve in a critical communications and operations role on our team. The Communications Manager/Administrator manages events with researchers, elected officials and other government practitioners, and leads external and internal communications, including our weekly newsletter, website, social media, and annual report. She/He/They […]
New Partnership with Community Solutions to Research Homelessness Policy
Community Solutions — a leading nonprofit committed to creating a lasting end to homelessness — and researchers from Boston University and Cornell University will study the landscape of homelessness public policy and its consequences Numerous government agencies at all levels make public policies that are influential to the well-being of people experiencing homelessness in the […]
IOC Releases 2022 Annual Report
The Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to release our 2022 Annual Report. It reflects on the research, learning, events, and people that have empowered the next generation of civic leaders at Boston University and advanced inclusive urban transformation. “2022 has been a year of growth, as well as one marked by transitions. Last […]
Gaps and opportunities: supporting Boston’s BIPOC small businesses
This report captures small business service providers’ views on the most salient challenges confronting Boston’s Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) small business owners and entrepreneurs, and their priorities for the future. The report draws on 30 in-depth survey interviews, conducted between November 2021 and February 2022, with leaders from the ecosystem of organizations that are focused on supporting the growth of BIPOC small businesses.
Gentrification, urban policy and urban geography
Despite recognition that gentrification around the world is state-led – and that gentrification is in of itself de facto an urban policy – few scholars writing about gentrification, including urban geographers, have engaged purposively with urban policy, urban policy makers and other institutional actors. Building on my particular commitment to putting mitigations and solutions to gentrification on the policy table, I once again call for scholars of gentrification to work with policy makers and other institutional actors, to make our research on the negative impacts of gentrification known and to develop alternative and better policy practice.
New Report! Gaps and Opportunities: Supporting Boston’s BIPOC Small Businesses
Boston’s Small Business Service Providers Call for Focus on Capital, Contracts, Cultural Competency, & New Approaches to Mitigate Displacement of BIPOC Businesses Boston University Releases Findings from Survey of Boston’s Ecosystem of Small Business Providers While Boston’s population is majority-minority, its small business community is not reflective of its diversity. In the wake of the […]
The influence of social norms varies with “others” groups: Evidence from COVID-19 vaccination intentions
Willingness to engage in COVID-related preventive behaviors including vaccination depends on the perceived extent to which others engage in them. But “others” can refer to groups of varying size, heterogeneity, and personal relevance. We find the strongest relationships between vaccination intentions and social norms for respondents’ friends and family—and among Republicans, copartisans—and these relationships weaken as the reference group expands to people in one’s neighborhood, city, and state.