Abstract
This paper examines the role of the urban ecosystem in expediting the exchange of ideas, in creating vast local markets for new products, in forcing urban planners and engineers to look at new ways of meeting the pressing exigencies brought about by dynamic growth, and in concentrating human and productive resources in a geographically discrete location so that they can be exploited fully. The author points out that Lewis Mumford relates that, in the early American towns, businesses, in ceaseless competition, sought innovations to stay "one step ahead". The paper states that Mumford argues that the essential "garden city", which incorporates nature into the urban world and vice versa, actually existed in the colonial America of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

From the Paper
"One of the more controversial items Mumford raises in his work is the view that the urban community and the culture springing from it are not simply phenomena intrinsically designed to build human wealth and/or to fulfill basic human needs. Perhaps, at one time, that was indeed the case, but Mumford insists that the modern urban society is pre-eminently one in which the "conquest" of nature and the "control of life" are the chief aims of those who wield power over the productive appendages of the mega-machine."

Tags:capitalist, colonial, planner, ideas, competition

Abstract
The paper considers the philosophical ruminations of Lewis Mumford and uses early American communities as an example of how the "urban world" has contributed to scientific and technological advancement. The paper also discusses how urban communities have historically fostered the vigorous exchange of ideas. Further, the paper addresses the unexpected ways in which contemporary concepts like "environmental design" owe their beginnings to the creation of the urban ecology. As well, the paper brings to light the extent to which the exigencies of the growing urban community, the curious culture of such communities, and the social and occupational reification of the urban world make scientific and technological breakthroughs possible - and exploitation of human beings and the natural world possible, as well. The paper concludes that some of the best and most pernicious elements of our present world have their wellsprings in the rise of the urban ecosystem.

From the Paper
"For many decades, academic demographers have reminded North Americans that their world is becoming an increasingly urban one. The result of this urbanization has been the slow death of the traditional farming community (to say nothing of the traditional "family farm") and the rise of congested megalopolises that have become, for all intents and purposes, their own self-contained worlds. With the above in mind, the following paper will explore how the "urban world" has contributed to scientific and technological advancement over time. In doing so, the philosophical..."

Tags:urban, society, innovation

Abstract
This paper examines the musical innovation of jazz and how it helped to define the African-American community in America during the 1920s. The paper looks at how, for the most part, European and African music were united to create a new genre of music that was highly influential on all aspects of American culture. The paper also looks at how racism played a large part in how black jazz musicians were not able to thrive in the South and so were invariably driven to migrate toward northern urban environments that would allow them to play their music.

Tags:jazz, america, music

Abstract
The paper relates that in a previous paper, a hypothetical educational institution - a high school - located in the Midwestern United States in a comparatively small urban center was examined with an eye towards establishing how integrated marketing could be made to work in the best interests of the school. In this paper, the same educational institution, wracked with the same problems of high absenteeism and poor academic performance - and wracked as well by parental apathy and by diminished morale amongst the faculty - are explored; this time, however, the focus shifts to looking at how a culture of innovation can be nurtured in such a school and at how knowledge flow can be facilitated.

From the Paper
"In a previous paper, a hypothetical educational institution - a high school - located in the Midwestern United States in a comparatively small urban center was examined with an eye towards establishing how integrated marketing could be made to work in the best interests of the school. In this paper, the same educational institution, wracked with the same problems of high absenteeism and poor academic performance - and wracked as well by parental apathy and by diminished morale amongst the faculty - will be explored; this time, however, the focus will shift to looking at..."

Tags:organization, innovation, educational

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the three examples of Germany in the Weimar Republic, China and New York, how different types or classes of people have claimed and used urban space in ways that challenged expectations and, in fact, defined urban modernity in these areas. This discussion supports the hypothesis that the relationship between state, political and cultural constructs of space can have very different outcomes when brought into the light of the real world and how people really live in urban areas.

From the Paper
"Part of the project of modernism has been to design spaces that promote order harmony and civic identity, yet urban landscapes become contested turf for various groups laying claim and appropriating them for their own use. The purpose of this paper is to explore through the three examples of Germany in the Weimar Republic, China and New York, how different types or classes of people have claimed and used urban space in ways that challenged expectations and in fact defined urban modernity in these areas..."

Tags:modernism, Weimar Republic, urban planning, housing, architecture, public spaces, globalization, culture, urban communities.

Abstract
The paper discusses how the innovation culture at Nypro is based on its highly competitive characteristics. The paper explains that this competitive character is devoid of most of the negative aspects that can arise in organizations that typically depend on unbridled competition to fuel growth and expansion. The paper also includes a conference activity that discusses an article related to transformational leadership.

Outline:
Abstract
Nypro Overview
Innovation at Nypro
Outcome
Conference Activity

From the Paper
"Nypro is a leading global manufacturer of customized injection molded plastics with a concentration on primarily three market segments. These segments consist of consumer and industrial sales which constitutes approximately 32% of sales, healthcare products which amounts to approximately 46% of total sales, and communications and electronics which accounts for approximately 21% of total revenues (Voorheis, 1998, p.1). Nypro is a strong performing company with good revenues and a diverse customer base that allows it to avoid over-reliance on a single market segment. However, the data provided seems somewhat confused. The researchers make the comment that Nypro's revenues, in 1995, figured on a per customer average were in excess of $4m (Voorheis, 1998, p.2)."

Tags:stockholders, shares, internal, culture, transformational, leaders

Abstract
This paper stresses that stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS has to be made integral to any development endeavor aimed at improving the lives and well-being of citizens of the world. The author points out that the United Nations acknowledges that good governance has to be integrated into the creation and management of institutions, processes and programs aimed at beating the targets set forth in the "Millennium Declaration of 2000". The paper reviews and analyzes the present and future scenario of HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation in the Philippines and identifies some elements of intervention needed to operationalize a strategy for good governance. The author underscores that the HIV/AIDS program of Zamboanga city is built around improved capacities for public administration and civil service, decentralization in delivery of services, transparency and accountability, expanded role of civil-society, and the centrality of participation grounded on the rule of law and human rights.

Table of Contents:
Abstract
Introduction
Conceptual Framework
Related Literature
Pro-Poor Policy Framework
Public Administration and Civil Services
Decentralization and Delivery of Services
Accountability and Transparency Situations and Context of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
Socio-Economic Impact of HIV Aids
Participatory Approach
Cultural and Moral Dimensions
Grounding Development
Mobilizing the Cultural Resources
Key Lessons in Good Governance from the United Nations
Case in Point: Zamboanga City HIV/AIDS Program
Public-Civil Society Partnership
Organization and Management
Community-Oriented/ Community Based
Innovative Optimized Use of Infrastructure Support
Livelihood Assistance
Financial Resources
Lessons from HIV/Program Implementation
Conclusion

From the Paper
"According to the United Nations, a critical requisite for achieving the MDG's is a conducive and coherent policy framework. This involves first, the contextualization of the goals by each country, and down to identifying sectoral concerns and on to effective local responses. Responses and interventions to HIVAIDS entails a national policy framework that provides for effective decentralization of action and one that effectively coordinate implementation and resource mobilization as well as achieve a critical mass of support from the public in a much cost effective way. The policy framework to be pro-poor means, that it recognizes the social and economic implications of HIV/AIDS and seeks to integrate social and economic interventions to mitigate the spread of the infection and disease."

Tags:contextualization national decentralization, policy framework, human rights

Abstract
The paper looks at an argument that urban schools, which tend to be the most culturally diverse, tend to be more economically disadvantaged than suburban schools. The paper also discusses the assertions that teachers can find themselves with a hierarchically-imposed curriculum and student testing standards that conflicts with a training where innovation, active participation and broader social contexts are taken into consideration. The paper concludes that teachers should see the concept of multicultural education as an integral foundation for their teaching.

From the Paper
"The role of multicultural education in terms of teacher training is one that has certainly evolved over the years. From starting out as a simple acknowledgement that teachers throughout the school system should have some basic familiarity with the diverse backgrounds of their students, it has grown into a more complex and more comprehensive series of philosophies, concepts and pedagogical methodologies to enable teachers to much more effectively reach students from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. This growth is welcome as the numbers and proportion of children from minority and/or multicultural backgrounds has continued to increase in school districts across the country, instilling more urgency and immediacy into the task of multicultural teacher training, especially given the downward trending of student achievement scores in some areas (Duarte.) As might be expected, this phenomenon has also created some points of disagreement about the precise role of multicultural educational programs for teachers."

Tags:culture, diversity, class, size, funding, curricula

Abstract
This paper studies the nature of the early state systems of Sumeria, Persia, and Assyria, the first region to experience the development of organized states based on urban civilization. The paper examines their internal structures and relationships with the societies around them, the ways in which they laid the foundations for each other, and the external factors that influenced their development.

From the Paper
"Perhaps most important as a determining and unifying theme in the evolution of state systems in Mesopotamia is the geography of the region. It is significant that it was in the area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, forming wide fertile valleys enclosed by mountains, that the first urban civilization developed; and the topography, resources and economic potential of the Mesopotamian landscape was crucial in influencing the character of the societies that flourished there."

Tags:irrigation, agriculture, cities, innovations, religion, administration, culture, society, political, life, babylon, tigris, euphrates

Abstract
The paper argues that the evolution of the concept of domesticity - and its associated impact upon furniture design - was closely associated with the rise of the bourgeois or middle class and the gradual preeminence of urban living as the defining lifestyle of the Middle Ages. The paper shows how the merchant classes of medieval European cities were the primary agents of historical and social change and innovations in furniture design.

Outline:
Introduction
The Rise of the Middle Class
The Early Medieval Home and Furniture
The Evolution of the Language of Domesticity
The Signification of Furniture

From the Paper
"It must be acknowledged that in making the argument that it was the early European middle classes in their small city dwellings, and not the medieval nobility in their huge, picturesque castles, who were primarily significant in terms of the evolution of domesticity and furniture design one is challenging a popular image of medieval history. However, while the nobility were undeniably the ruling class in medieval Europe, the history of the Middle Ages can also be read as a history of the decline of aristocratic power and the rise of the middle class."

Tags:bourgeois, aristocracy, middle, class, lifestyle, Middle, Ages, culture