Theodore R Alter
Biographic Data
| ID | 3492058 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Theodore R Alter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Theodore R |
| FAMILY NAME | Alter |
| SIGNATURE | ALTER T R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3472-7016 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 98 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Food apartheid in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley as a fractal representation of a global racialized corporate food regime
Framed within studies of racial capitalism and neoliberal corporate food regimes this article examines how residents of Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley experience and articulate food apartheid, a racialized system of food access, and how their experiences intersect with processes of deindustrialization, capital abandonment, and structural racism. Findings from engagements across three Mon Valley municipalities reveal complex geographies of food…
Building urban community resilience through university extension
Online Quiz as Exit Ticket
Social work students are required to take research methods courses because research-informed practice and practice-informed research are essential to professional practice. However, these students are often reluctant to take a research course and can be difficult to engage in the classroom. We used a mixed methods survey-based design to evaluate the use of an online polling website at the end of each class session in an undergraduate program. Thi…
Wild dog management in Australia
Wild dogs are a widespread, established pest in Australia and have economic, environmental, and social impacts. Best practice management recommends coordinated community-led action as a key strategy to reduce this vertebrate pest. This research increased understanding of how citizens organize to collectively manage wild dogs in three case studies from Australia, with attention to the interaction of cultural, structural, and interactional domains …
The creative fire
Mapping community innovation
Can community networks be mapped to facilitate innovation? This study focuses on social structure and network interactions that can be used to identify key individuals and relationships with the potential to facilitate community innovation and development. Viewed through the lenses of social network analysis (SNA), interactional community theory, and social capital (trust), this study examines the dynamics of network interactions and the communit…
Government and the entrepreneurial ecology
Entrepreneurship promotion and support is an integral component of an economic development strategy. The state of a community's entrepreneurial ecology impacts the volume and success rates of new ventures. Building a better understanding of a community's entrepreneurial ecology will facilitate better policy and program interventions for the purpose of economic development. This research endeavors to build a better understanding of the entrepreneu…
Community entrepreneurship development
An emerging area of scholarship can be found at the nexus between entrepreneurship and community development. Beyond a mere focus on firms and their contributions, this growing nexus in the literature seeks to understand the complex ways that entrepreneurs benefit their communities, and that communities enhance or inhibit entrepreneurship. This exploration is fundamentally economic, sociological, psychological, strategic, behavioral, and cultural…
Promoting Fair Local Organizing for Broadband Delivery
Are public-private partnerships superior to private-only or public-only broadband initiatives in meeting the needs of the most rural and least served areas? Yes, say the authors, based on data collected from a USDA-funded six-case mixed-methods study that compared examples of the three types of successful rural broadband initiatives. This finding, they say, applies both to residential and business users. Based on these data, they offer six target…
Rural Embedded Assistants for Community Health (Reach) Network
Community research and action projects undertaken by community–university partnerships can lead to contextually appropriate and sustainable community improvements in rural and urban localities. However, effective implementation is challenging and prone to failure when poorly executed. The current paper seeks to inform rural community–university partnership practice through consideration of first‐person accounts from five stakeholders in the Rural…
Weighing the universal service obligation
Due to the rise in web-based communication, such as e-mail and declining surface mail volume over the past decade, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been forced to reconsider its universal service obligation (USO). The USO ensures that all American citizens, regardless of geographic location, receive postal service six days a week. Considerations of postal service reductions have largely been couched in analyses that examine the financi…
Determining Eligibility for Poverty‐Based Assistance Programs
Because the official U.S. poverty level is too low to adequately assess need for assistance among low income households, assistance agencies set eligibility levels to multiples of the poverty level, such as 125 or 150 percent. The Self Sufficiency Standard provides an alternative measurement that accounts for many characteristics of modern society and geographical differences in cost of living. We use both measures to examine eligibility levels f…
Public sociology, public scholarship, and community development
In his 2004 presidential address to the American Sociological Association, Michael Burawoy called for the creation of a public sociology that would be more relevant and useful to the people whom we study and with whom we work. This vision represents one of many responses to the growing chorus of critics who claim that higher education and the various disciplines that comprise it are out of date, out of touch, and are failing to address pressing s…
An Interactional Approach to Place-Based Rural Development
Rural America is in the midst of the most far-reaching transformation in our history. Globalization and other forces are fundamentally altering the economic landscape and erasing many traditional sources of employment and income; in such an uncertain environment, economic development has become more important and more complicated than ever. Unfortunately, rural policies have not kept pace with the times, and there is growing recognition that what…
The Importance of Subjective Data for Public Agency Performance Evaluation
Evaluating public agency performance has typically been based on objective measurements. However, some researchers contend that evaluation is not complete without considering client perceptions of agency performance. This study supports combining subjective client perceptions with objective data in the evaluation process. Survey results and internal performance data are examined for a state agency charged with investigating citizen disputes with …
Place, Community Development, and Social Capital
Over the past decade, the concept of social capital has become an important component of many community development strategies. In this article we argue that social capital is predicated on assumptions that raise a number of questions about its usefulness in a variety of different settings. The most important features of social capital—trust and norms of reciprocity—emerge from repeated and regularized interactions that are bounded in space and t…
Rural land use planning in developed nations
Place, Community Development, and Social Capital
Over the past decade, the concept of social capital has become an important component of many community development strategies. In this article we argue that social capital is predicated on assumptions that raise a number of questions about its usefulness in a variety of different settings. The most important features of social capital—trust and norms of reciprocity—emerge from repeated and regularized interactions that are bounded in space and t…
Community entrepreneurship development
An emerging area of scholarship can be found at the nexus between entrepreneurship and community development. Beyond a mere focus on firms and their contributions, this growing nexus in the literature seeks to understand the complex ways that entrepreneurs benefit their communities, and that communities enhance or inhibit entrepreneurship. This exploration is fundamentally economic, sociological, psychological, strategic, behavioral, and cultural…
The creative fire
An Interactional Approach to Place-Based Rural Development
Rural America is in the midst of the most far-reaching transformation in our history. Globalization and other forces are fundamentally altering the economic landscape and erasing many traditional sources of employment and income; in such an uncertain environment, economic development has become more important and more complicated than ever. Unfortunately, rural policies have not kept pace with the times, and there is growing recognition that what…
Mapping community innovation
Can community networks be mapped to facilitate innovation? This study focuses on social structure and network interactions that can be used to identify key individuals and relationships with the potential to facilitate community innovation and development. Viewed through the lenses of social network analysis (SNA), interactional community theory, and social capital (trust), this study examines the dynamics of network interactions and the communit…
Public sociology, public scholarship, and community development
In his 2004 presidential address to the American Sociological Association, Michael Burawoy called for the creation of a public sociology that would be more relevant and useful to the people whom we study and with whom we work. This vision represents one of many responses to the growing chorus of critics who claim that higher education and the various disciplines that comprise it are out of date, out of touch, and are failing to address pressing s…
Rural Embedded Assistants for Community Health (Reach) Network
Community research and action projects undertaken by community–university partnerships can lead to contextually appropriate and sustainable community improvements in rural and urban localities. However, effective implementation is challenging and prone to failure when poorly executed. The current paper seeks to inform rural community–university partnership practice through consideration of first‐person accounts from five stakeholders in the Rural…
Weighing the universal service obligation
Due to the rise in web-based communication, such as e-mail and declining surface mail volume over the past decade, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been forced to reconsider its universal service obligation (USO). The USO ensures that all American citizens, regardless of geographic location, receive postal service six days a week. Considerations of postal service reductions have largely been couched in analyses that examine the financi…
Determining Eligibility for Poverty‐Based Assistance Programs
Because the official U.S. poverty level is too low to adequately assess need for assistance among low income households, assistance agencies set eligibility levels to multiples of the poverty level, such as 125 or 150 percent. The Self Sufficiency Standard provides an alternative measurement that accounts for many characteristics of modern society and geographical differences in cost of living. We use both measures to examine eligibility levels f…
Rural land use planning in developed nations
Place, Community Development, and Social Capital
Over the past decade, the concept of social capital has become an important component of many community development strategies. In this article we argue that social capital is predicated on assumptions that raise a number of questions about its usefulness in a variety of different settings. The most important features of social capital—trust and norms of reciprocity—emerge from repeated and regularized interactions that are bounded in space and t…
An Interactional Approach to Place-Based Rural Development
Rural America is in the midst of the most far-reaching transformation in our history. Globalization and other forces are fundamentally altering the economic landscape and erasing many traditional sources of employment and income; in such an uncertain environment, economic development has become more important and more complicated than ever. Unfortunately, rural policies have not kept pace with the times, and there is growing recognition that what…
The Importance of Subjective Data for Public Agency Performance Evaluation
Evaluating public agency performance has typically been based on objective measurements. However, some researchers contend that evaluation is not complete without considering client perceptions of agency performance. This study supports combining subjective client perceptions with objective data in the evaluation process. Survey results and internal performance data are examined for a state agency charged with investigating citizen disputes with …
Public sociology, public scholarship, and community development
In his 2004 presidential address to the American Sociological Association, Michael Burawoy called for the creation of a public sociology that would be more relevant and useful to the people whom we study and with whom we work. This vision represents one of many responses to the growing chorus of critics who claim that higher education and the various disciplines that comprise it are out of date, out of touch, and are failing to address pressing s…
Determining Eligibility for Poverty‐Based Assistance Programs
Because the official U.S. poverty level is too low to adequately assess need for assistance among low income households, assistance agencies set eligibility levels to multiples of the poverty level, such as 125 or 150 percent. The Self Sufficiency Standard provides an alternative measurement that accounts for many characteristics of modern society and geographical differences in cost of living. We use both measures to examine eligibility levels f…
Promoting Fair Local Organizing for Broadband Delivery
Are public-private partnerships superior to private-only or public-only broadband initiatives in meeting the needs of the most rural and least served areas? Yes, say the authors, based on data collected from a USDA-funded six-case mixed-methods study that compared examples of the three types of successful rural broadband initiatives. This finding, they say, applies both to residential and business users. Based on these data, they offer six target…
Rural Embedded Assistants for Community Health (Reach) Network
Community research and action projects undertaken by community–university partnerships can lead to contextually appropriate and sustainable community improvements in rural and urban localities. However, effective implementation is challenging and prone to failure when poorly executed. The current paper seeks to inform rural community–university partnership practice through consideration of first‐person accounts from five stakeholders in the Rural…
Weighing the universal service obligation
Due to the rise in web-based communication, such as e-mail and declining surface mail volume over the past decade, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been forced to reconsider its universal service obligation (USO). The USO ensures that all American citizens, regardless of geographic location, receive postal service six days a week. Considerations of postal service reductions have largely been couched in analyses that examine the financi…
Government and the entrepreneurial ecology
Entrepreneurship promotion and support is an integral component of an economic development strategy. The state of a community's entrepreneurial ecology impacts the volume and success rates of new ventures. Building a better understanding of a community's entrepreneurial ecology will facilitate better policy and program interventions for the purpose of economic development. This research endeavors to build a better understanding of the entrepreneu…
Community entrepreneurship development
An emerging area of scholarship can be found at the nexus between entrepreneurship and community development. Beyond a mere focus on firms and their contributions, this growing nexus in the literature seeks to understand the complex ways that entrepreneurs benefit their communities, and that communities enhance or inhibit entrepreneurship. This exploration is fundamentally economic, sociological, psychological, strategic, behavioral, and cultural…
The creative fire
Mapping community innovation
Can community networks be mapped to facilitate innovation? This study focuses on social structure and network interactions that can be used to identify key individuals and relationships with the potential to facilitate community innovation and development. Viewed through the lenses of social network analysis (SNA), interactional community theory, and social capital (trust), this study examines the dynamics of network interactions and the communit…
Wild dog management in Australia
Wild dogs are a widespread, established pest in Australia and have economic, environmental, and social impacts. Best practice management recommends coordinated community-led action as a key strategy to reduce this vertebrate pest. This research increased understanding of how citizens organize to collectively manage wild dogs in three case studies from Australia, with attention to the interaction of cultural, structural, and interactional domains …
Online Quiz as Exit Ticket
Social work students are required to take research methods courses because research-informed practice and practice-informed research are essential to professional practice. However, these students are often reluctant to take a research course and can be difficult to engage in the classroom. We used a mixed methods survey-based design to evaluate the use of an online polling website at the end of each class session in an undergraduate program. Thi…
Building urban community resilience through university extension
Food apartheid in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley as a fractal representation of a global racialized corporate food regime
Framed within studies of racial capitalism and neoliberal corporate food regimes this article examines how residents of Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley experience and articulate food apartheid, a racialized system of food access, and how their experiences intersect with processes of deindustrialization, capital abandonment, and structural racism. Findings from engagements across three Mon Valley municipalities reveal complex geographies of food…
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Public relations (9 works) · Economics (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Social science (5 works) · Community development (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works)