Civios
Persistent link for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/11299/181310
Public affairs research provides important insights into issues that impact all of us—from urban planning and design to environmental policy and human services. Typically, this research is published in academic journals that are not accessible to people outside of academia. When important policy research is not seen by practitioners, policymakers, and the broader public, we lose the opportunity to inform policy decisions with researched-based information. Civios aims to change that.
An initiative of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Civios offers short and visually engaging digital materials to inform public affairs discussions. These materials translate policy-relevant scholarly research for policymakers, practitioners, and the broader public.
Taking research one step further
In today's digital age, important research often fails to reach its target audiences in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. To address this problem, Civios includes a strategic communication plan to disseminate each research-based "product" developed—whether it is a podcast, mixed media material, or case study—to relevant audiences. Not only does this make Civios a gateway for the research, but it becomes a vehicle for sharing the research far and wide. This targeted distribution produces what we call knowledge networks—or "hubs of influence"—that are most effective for communicating public affairs research in the digital age.
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Item Africa’s First Democrats(2017) Samatar, AbdiAbdi Ismail Samatar provides a clear and foundational history of Somalia at the dawn of the country’s independence when Africa’s first democrats appeared. While many African countries were dominated by authoritarian rulers when they entered the postcolonial era—and scholars have assumed this as a standard feature of political leadership on the continent—Somalia had an authentic democratic leadership providing fundamental lessons.Item Animating Children’s Views: An Innovative Methodology for Quantitative Research(2021-02) Levison, DeborahUNCRC Article 12 (Convention on the Rights of the Child) states that children's views and perspectives should be listened to, especially when it comes to policy decisions that affect them. In theory, this is great—but it's hardly the norm, particularly in the Global South. Professor Deborah Levison and her research assistant, PhD student Anna Bolgrien, sought to develop a way to survey children in the Global South about difficulties and challenges they may be facing in everyday life, which had to be done without putting children at risk of being overheard and punished by their family members or communities. The result: Animating Children's Views, an open-source, human rights–based interview methodology using simple cartoon vignettes featuring different scenarios (e.g., peer pressure, child labor, street harassment) and a scale of emoji faces ranging from happy to sad. After collaborating with an artist and an animator to create the vignettes, Levison and Bolgrien worked with teams of local collaborators in Nepal and Tanzania to gather quantitative data, with plans to expand the project to Brazil. They hope that other organizations will adopt the Animating Children's Views methodology and use its online library of images and animations to help influence policy changes on a global scale. "The point is that whatever kids have to say, we should be listening to it more," Levison says.Item Assessing the Economic Impact and Health Benefits of Bicycling in Minnesota(Minnesota Department of Transportation Research Services and Library, 2016) Lindsey, Greg; Quian, Xinyi; Linscheid, Neil; Tuck, Brigid; Schoner, Jessica; Pereira, Mark; Berger, AaronThis project estimated the economic impact of the bicycling industry and events in Minnesota, estimated bicycling infrastructure use across the state, and assessed the health effects of bicycling in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.Item Building Community Support for Young Children With Autism(2018-08) Stronach, Sheri"Early intervention is key," says Sheri Stronach, an assistant professor in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at the University of Minnesota, who researches early identification of autism spectrum disorder in children. Early detection can have a positive impact on intervention, and Stronach has shown that autism can be reliably diagnosed in children as young as 18 to 24 months. Her current research examines the impacts of autism interventions in six communities around Minnesota: four in the Twin Cites and two outside of the metro area. When conducting this kind of community impact research on autism, she notes, it is important to develop trusting relationships with community members. This can help researchers navigate cultural barriers and stigma among families and health care providers.Item Coordinated Education Programs for Children and Parents(2018-06) Eckrich Sommer, Teresa"One of the biggest determinants of the outcomes of any individual is their level of education and income," says Teresa Eckrich Sommer, a research associate professor at Northwestern University. Unlike many human services programs that treat each member of a household individually, Sommer's research is focused on designing programs for families. This "two-generation" approach aims to improve human capital outcomes for parents and children simultaneously. Sommer's current research pairs career support and workforce training for parents of low-income households with high-quality early education programs for their children through Head Start. "This kind of work tells us that you can really create changes within how services are delivered and that you can better coordinate and align them in ways that serve the interests of parents and children at the same time. And we know that is critically important to improving family wellbeing," she says.Item The CREATE Initiative Policy Toolkit: Sharing In the Benefits of a Greening City(2020) Swift, Kaleigh; Klein, Mira"What are ways that we can envision greening as a way to create a more equitable and just world?" The CREATE Initiative, an interdisciplinary group of scholars, community leaders, and engaged researchers funded by the University of Minnesota's Grand Challenges Research Initiative, works to tackle issues at the intersection of environment and equity. In this video, research associate Mira Klein and program coordinator Kaleigh Swift of the CREATE Initiative describe the scope and purpose of the initiative's policy toolkit. The toolkit aims to redesign existing anti-displacement policy tools to provide guidance for institutions and organizations working with communities of color and low-income communities who face displacement as a result of green gentrification, housing crisis, and historic inequities. Klein and Swift discuss the process of creating the toolkit, explain its goals and strategies, and share their hopes for its implementation: "There's a clear relationship between environmental justice types of work and housing work. If people are able to make that connection, that's really important." Listen to Humphrey School assistant professor Bonnie Keeler discuss the CREATE Initiative in more detail in this Civios podcast: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/218236Item Criminal Liability Issues Created by Autonomous Vehicles(Santa Clara Law Review, 2012-12-13) Douma, Frank; Aue Palodichuk, SarahItem Daily Travel Behavior and Emotional Well-Being: A comprehensive assessment of travel- related emotions and the associated trip and personal factors(2017) Zhu, Jing; Fan, YinglingEmotional well-being has become an important societal goal given the rising evidence from psychology research that positive emotions have long-lasting benefits for human development. Although daily travel behavior has been found to influence emotional well-being, existing research in the field has focused on limited travel behavior dimensions such as travel mode and/or travel duration. Other dimensions such as travel purpose and travel companionship have received limited attention. Using data from the 2012-2013 American Time Use Survey, this paper offers a comprehensive assessment of how various trip- and personal-level factors relates to various positive and negative emotions.Item Item Engaging Dads in Family Programs(2018-08) Fabiano, Gregory"We were running parenting programs, and dads weren't showing up for them," says Gregory Fabiano, a professor of counseling at the University at Buffalo. Fabiano is an expert on evaluating and treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other disruptive behavior disorders in children and teens. In this video, Fabiano discusses the importance to designing support programs for children that actively engage parents — and how he and colleagues created an innovative sports little league program to increase the participation of dads.Item Episode 10: Examining Racially Concentrated Areas of Affluence in the US(2017-12-13) Goetz, Ed; Conners, Kate"Contemporary federal housing policy in the United States has largely focused on racially segregated areas with high levels of poverty, known as racially concentrated areas of poverty (RCAPs). In this podcast, Ed Goetz, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, examines the other side of this dynamic—concentrated areas of white affluence. Goetz, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, discusses his work to identify and understand racially concentrated areas of affluence (RCAAs). ""When we started our study, we were actually responding to advocates for low income communities who maintained that this single-minded focus on their communities problematized their communities, stigmatized their communities, and ignored the other half of the segregation formula—which is of course the ability and tendency of white people to seclude themselves into neighborhoods,"" says Goetz. ""So we tried to look at the other side of the coin."""Item Episode 11: Local Health Co-Beenfits of Urban Climate Action(2017-12-21) Ramaswami, Anu; Conners, KateReducing carbon emissions across multiple urban infrastructure sectors can yield significant local air pollution related health co-benefits. But cities will see and experience these co-benefits in different ways and to different degrees. In this podcast, Anu Ramaswami, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, discusses the emerging science around how to connect global carbon reduction actions to city-specific health outcomes.Item Episode 12: Circular Economies and Low-Carbon Urban Infrastructure Planning(2017-12-21) Ramaswami, Anu; Conners, KateWhat is the unique role that urban infrastructure planning can play in national carbon mitigation? In this podcast, Anu Ramaswami, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, discusses how cities are positioned to plan infrastructure systems using circular economy principles that reduce material and energy reuse across sectors to deliver a low-carbon future.Item Episode 13: All-city Carbon Emissions: Understanding City Types and Impact(2017-12-21) Ramaswami, Anu; Conners, KateIt is common practice to consider the carbon emissions of single cities. But what happens when you analyze carbon emissions for all cities in a country using nationally aligned data? In this podcast, Anu Ramaswami, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, discusses how all-city analysis can reveal “city types” that help inform carbon policy and action.Item Episode 14: Sex Trafficking and Community Wellbeing(2018-01-26) Martin, Lauren; Conners, KateIn this podcast, Lauren Martin, director of research at the Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) and affiliate faculty member of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, addresses sex trafficking and commercial sex, defining their differences and dispelling myths. When it comes to the relationship between sex trafficking and mega sporting events, an issue that drew increased attention as Minnesota prepared to host the big game, Martin notes that "it's not that there's no impact, it's that the impact is akin to any large event."Item Episode 15: Economic Impacts of US Immigration Policies(2018-01-30) Allen, Ryan; Conners, Kate"Impeding the path of immigrants—throwing up roadblocks that allow immigrants to come to the United States—is going to create some real economic problems in the future," warns Humphrey School of Public Affairs Associate Professor Ryan Allen. In this podcast Allen discusses the potential economic impacts of immigration policies in the United States and Minnesota, focusing on the role of immigrants in the workforce and the resulting net fiscal effects. "We're actually losing more of our native born residents than we're gaining," says Allen. "More people tend to leave the state of Minnesota than move here from other states. And so, we're going to have to rely on international immigrants. If instead of increasing the flow of international immigrants we're reducing it, that's going to have an enormous impact on our labor force, and potentially, a large impact on the kinds of economic growth we expect in the state."Item Episode 16: Financing Urban and Rural Infrastructure(2018-04-26) Zhao, Jerry; Conners, KateInfrastructure is not often at the forefront of policy discussions until something goes wrong, says Jerry Zhao, associate professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Infrastructure Finance. Zhao's research explores how federal, state, and local entities pull together the resources to fund critical infrastructure investments in areas such as transportation, water, and education. These investments are complex. They typically involve big money, multiple decision makers, and have uncertain long-run benefits. To help address this, Zhao stresses the importance of using infrastructure finance research to inform policy makers of possible problems and solutions before issues arise.Item Episode 17: Violence and Restraint: Making Strategic Decisions During Civil War(2018-05-31) Stanton, Jessica; Conners, Kate"Does civil war always lead to violence against civilians? The short answer is no, according to Jessica Stanton, an associate professor in the global policy area at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Stanton's research has found that more than 40 percent of the civil wars between 1989 and 2010 did not involve large-scale attacks on civilians. ""We haven't paid enough attention to the fact that not all civil wars involve violence against civilians,"" she says. So why do some governments and rebel groups engage in violence against civilians while others exhibit restraint? ""Both violence and restraint can be strategic,"" Stanton says. Understanding why some groups avoid targeting civilians may help policymakers incentivize groups to exercise restraint. Stanton is the author of Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016)."Item Episode 18: Abortion Reform Under Latin America's Leftist Governments(2018-07-19) Ewig, Christina; Conners, KateResearch in the United States and Europe has found that when leftist governments come to power there tends to be a liberalization of policies around reproductive rights. But is this true in other parts of the world? Work by Christina Ewig, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and faculty director of the Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy, investigates how the rise of leftist governments during Latin America's "pink tide"(1999-2018) influenced abortion policies in the region. Unlike in the US and Europe, Ewig's findings suggest that the success of progressive reform under leftist governments in Latin America also depends on the type of political party in office.Item Episode 19: Advancing Roadway Safety in American Indian Reservations(2019-01-14) Quick, Kathy; Conners, Kate"Nationally, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury for American Indians aged 1 to 44 and their motor vehicle death rate is higher than for any other ethnic or racial group in the United States. To better understand these high fatality rates, Humphrey School of Public Affairs Associate Professor Kathy Quick and University of Minnesota researcher Guillermo Narváez conducted an in-depth study of roadway safety on American Indian reservations. Four case studies were carried out in partnership with tribal governments in Minnesota: the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Researchers collected extensive data from the reservations through fieldwork observations, interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups with expert drivers, and in-person surveys of residents. They also collaborated with the Federal Highway Administration to design and analyze results of the 2016 Tribal Transportation Safety Data Survey, a national online survey with responses from 151 representatives of tribal governments and 45 representatives of state governments. Of the five high-priority concerns the researchers identified, one in particular stood out: the safety of pedestrians on tribal lands. "