Michael Krassa is the chair of "Human dimensions of Environmental Systems" and a professor in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in the interactions between humans and their environments. His early work was on how one's neighbourhood of residence influenced political views and participation. This work evolved into a larger interest in the way that the social and physical setting in which a person lives affects behaviors and attitudes. In this broader mode of inquiry, his work pioneered the idea that behaviors depend on the social and physical context. His works on neighbourhoods in Illinois, California, Missouri, and modern planned places such as Poundbury (in the UK), Seaside, Florida (USA), Kentlands, Maryland (USA), and Celebration, Florida (USA) all demonstrate that the physical setting is an important determinant of the kinds of interpersonal connections a person forms, and interpersonal connections are a strong determinant of the way the people form political views.
Political science is a social science which deals with systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts, and political behavior. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics which is commonly thought of as determining of the distribution of power and resources. Political scientists "see themselves engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions, and from these revelations they attempt to construct general principles about the way the world of politics works."
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois is often noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
His holistic work on suburban and urban life is not easily classified. He criticizes the New Urbanist planners for narrowness and incomplete planning, but recognizes the strong points such as planning for "community" and "civic engagement." He highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of such communities, commending the efforts at building "public spaces" and the "third place," but notes that, to date, most have failed to build either the racial or income diversity that was planned, and have not succeeded in creating the desired level of local employment within the community. However, he indicates that even the oldest of these are fairly new neighbourhoods, and that only time will tell.
A community is a small or large social unit that has something in common, such as norms, religion, values, or identity. Communities often share a sense of place that is situated in a given geographical area or in virtual space through communication platforms. Durable relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties also define a sense of community. People tend to define those social ties as important to their identity, practice, and roles in social institutions. Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties (micro-level), "community" may also refer to large group affiliations, such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.
Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Citizens acting alone or together to protect public values or make a change or difference in the community are common types of civic engagement. Civic engagement includes communities working together in both political and non-political actions. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.
In community building, the third place is the social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. Examples of third places would be environments such as churches, cafes, clubs, public libraries, or parks. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.
He also notes the dangers of successful local communities. Warning about deviation, "groupthink," and self-reinforcing values, he notes that the successful New Urbanist enterprises may be in danger of building communities that embody the worst of the small town instead (or in addition to) its best. His work shows that this is avoidable in a number of ways, one of which is building cities that have a large number of diverse, successful neighbourhoods.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
His research on sustainable suburban development goes far beyond the political, focusing on how even far-flung suburbs might become more self-sufficient even if a majority of residents must commute some distance to work. He posits that commuter trains and trolleys provide benefits similar to remote offices, and how suburbs with retail and employment that draw on local residents are more successful than those lacking in such features. One difficulty, he notes, is that those employed in suburban jobs often commute there from a different suburb, mitigating much of the hypothesised benefit of jobs in the suburb. He indicates that the solution to this is social and political rather than design based.
As a political scientist, his work shows that both the participation and voting patterns in suburban neighbourhoods vary markedly with the way that the neighbourhood is integrated with itself, and with the networking patterns of its residents. Neighbourhoods with dense internal social networks are stronger and more able to resist crime, development, pollution, and other "undesirable" features. Neighbourhoods where most residents have few internal connections are loosely organized and threats such as crime will quickly lead to "flight" or departures. The fight or flight response applies to resident decisions about whether to remain or leave a neighbourhood facing change, and Krassa shows that network density and location, as well as neighbourhood type, are important determinants of resident choice.
His most influential work is an Op-Ed, "The Bright Side of NIMBY," in which he argues that the "Not In My Back Yard" response by residents is a sign of a level of connections within a neighbourhood that in some ways demonstrates health. Although often NIMBY is seen as something bad, if the residents successfully organize to repel something they see as undesirable, it is a sign that there are interconnections within the neighbourhood that can produce desirable (as well as undesirable) consequences.
NIMBY, or Nimby, is a characterization of opposition by residents to a proposed development in their local area. It often carries the connotation that such residents are only opposing the development because it is close to them, and that they would tolerate or support it if it were built farther away. The residents are often called Nimbys, and their viewpoint is called Nimbyism.
His other noteworthy finding is that the decline in voter turnout for local and state elections is most dramatic in areas that have the fewest interpersonal ties within the locale. As the proportion of a person's social network lay outside the locale in which one resides declines, the chance that one votes or otherwise participates in local affairs also declines. This is important because political scientists have noted the remarkable decline in voting at all levels but especially the local. Some political scientists have also noted the increasing "nationalization" of all elections—the idea that more and more the same issues are important everywhere. Krassa's findings may help explain this.
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Eligibility varies by country, and the voting-eligible population should not be confused with the total adult population. Age and citizenship status are often among the criteria used to determine eligibility, but some countries further restrict eligibility based on sex, race, or religion.
Bibliography
Krassa, Michael et al.,Understanding American Government. 2004.
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