Welcome to the second issue of Atkinson's research e-newsletter.

The newsletter is an opportunity for us to showcase the outstanding achievements of Atkinson researchers, to affirm our commitment to continue existing partnerships and to further our agenda of engaging with you, our stakeholders, in ever more innovative ways. We encourage you to read the newsletter to keep up-to-date with some of the exciting research being done here at York.

We also invite you to connect with us more directly by attending this year's Engaging Research Celebration on April 14 from 10am-2pm at York University's Keele Campus. You'll have the unique opportunity to talk to some of our researchers, hear how they are developing new research directions and working with community and industry partners to put this knowledge to use. Last year, the inaugural celebration brought together more than 200 researchers, stakeholders and community partners.

To RSVP, visit www.atkinson.yorku.ca/engagingresearch/

For more information, e-mail akresearch@yorku.ca or call 416-736-2100 ext. 33584.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Kelly Thomson
Associate Dean, Research and Faculty Support

There are an increasing number of Canadians who - by virtue of having no credit rating, a poor credit rating or limited financial literacy skills - are excluded from meaningful engagement with mainstream financial institutions.

As part of a larger research project that examines financial programs and capacity-building in low income, inner-city communities in Canada, researcher Brenda Spotton Visano is working with the Black Creek community on a Microcredit Loan Program that aims to improve local economic development by removing barriers to financial credit and encouraging entrepreneurship. The project provides loans at reasonable interest rates and skill development to individuals in the community via partnerships with financial institutions and business support networks.

"The program recognizes that exclusion from financial services poses challenges to economic advancement, and it seeks to provide access to credit and support services for residents in the Black Creek community," said Spotton Visano. "Additionally, it provides assistance in developing business plans, bookkeeping and money management, computer skills and other skills necessary to employment as an entrepreneur or independent skills tradesperson- all in an effort to create sustainable employment and to maximize the untapped skills and talents of those living in the community."

The research project seeks ways in which to structure microcredit programs to be an effective avenue by which to transition low income, marginalized communities into the Canadian workforce and financial mainstream. However, many programs operating in urban communities in North America have had very limited success due to their inability to become sustainable or financially viable in the long run. Spotton Visano and fellow researcher Kelly Thomson believe that this project provides a valuable opportunity to examine closely the full range of costs and benefits a program like this can provide. It is also a chance to investigate the accessibility of these programs, honing on what actual and perceived barriers to such opportunities exist.

"We hope to develop and identify best practices for creating a continuum of integrated services that can support the transition of unskilled, low wage workers into the skilled Canadian labour market as independent contractors, sole proprietors or partners of micro-enterprises," commented Spotton Visano. "Ideally, at the same time, we will create a model on which other Ontario inner-city communities can build and strengthen their own economic programming and development."

For more information on the project, e-mail spotton@yorku.ca

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In their study of the impact of volunteer abroad programs in countries such as Malawi, South Africa and India, Social Work researcher Barbara Heron and co-researcher Rebecca Tiessen (Dalhouise University) challenge the notion that international volunteering experiences create 'global citizens' and question whether or not the practice of volunteering internationally is the most effective way to help create sustainable communities.

There are a disproportionately large number of Western volunteers working for organizations in developing communities abroad. Generally, their motives for volunteering are genuine - but Heron and Tiesson wonder whether or not these kinds of experiences produce lasting changes in the individuals who volunteer and in the communities that they serve. Their study, titled "Creating Global Citizens? The Impact of Learning/Volunteer Programs Abroad," follows closely the experiences of a group of young volunteers and interns over several years.

"It's one thing to go into a community for a week, two months or a year to do social justice work, but it is entirely another to come back from that experience and to apply what you've learned to your own community," said Heron, a former development worker and graduate program director of York's Master of Social Work and PhD in Social Work programs. "We wanted to examine the mark they leave on the countries in which they volunteer, and, importantly, what kinds of contributions they make when they return home to Canada."

Most non-governmental organizations in the Global South prefer volunteers and interns to stay at least six months, if not a year or more. Typical three-month stays are more of a drain on already scarce resources with much less return to the organizations. Though any length of stay and assistance is appreciated, most organizations consider volunteers a significant investment since it is their hope that they will return to their own countries and work towards political change.

"For some, the experience of volunteering internationally can lead to a lifelong commitment to development work, but for others it simply becomes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that has little long-term impact," said Heron. "It leaves us wondering whether or not short-term volunteer experiences are really helping to bridge the inequality gap, or, in the end, if there is a much more viable solution."

For more information on the study, read Maclean's.

Issues such as poor working conditions and underpaid employees are on a list of growing concerns consumers have about purchasing products. For many, there is more to consider than just price, specifically the impacts their purchases have on the welfare of communities and at what costs - social, political or otherwise. Researcher David Doorey offers up a valuable solution aimed at improving global labour practices and holding multinational companies more accountable.

Doorey's research explores the interrelation between legal and regulatory theory and the current and pragmatic problem of how to improve labour practices within the supply chain of multinational companies. He argues that disclosure regulation may have important effects that would indirectly influence how norms are created in workplaces. If corporations are required to disclose the addresses of their supplier factories, they will perceive this disclosure as a "risk" that needs to be managed and potentially make relevant changes within their company.

For example, social groups and the media may use disclosed information to investigate working conditions in factories and use information about abusive labour practices uncovered in those investigations to negatively campaign against companies. Organizations, in fear of this, may develop new policies and practices that will improve working conditions and manufacturing standards.

"If companies are engaging in unacceptable labour practices then disclosure regulation may be a useful tool for holding them accountable and encouraging change," said Doorey. "Ultimately, regulation may motivate positive self-reflection by global producers and facilitate growing transnational networks that seek to influence change in employer behaviour worldwide. It's obviously not a complete solution to the problem of abusive labour practices, but factory disclosure can have important and useful effects in the challenge to reduce abuse. "

Doorey interviewed senior executives at Levi Strauss, Nike, and Mountain Equipment Co-op about how they are managing the risk associated with their decision to publicly disclose their global supply chain and how that decision affected their companies in terms of image and productivity. The companies reported preparing extensively for the moment of disclosure by improving and investing in their global labour practices monitoring and inspection systems. None of them identified any negative business effects from disclosure, but emphasized that the disclosure facilitated greater collaboration within the industry - shared strategies to improve supply chain labour practices.

The next phase of Doorey's research will explore how the information they disclosed is being used to reform labour practices and effect change on a global level.

For more information, contact Doorey at ddoorey@yorku.ca

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Information technology researcher Marin Litoiu is partnering with IBM on a project that will drastically reduce the time and cost businesses spend on installing, administering and operating software on employees' computers. Funded by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and IBM, the project will focus on the development of new forms of information technology (IT) deployment and operation in which software is provisioned and maintained on a server and made available to the end user as a service over the Internet.

"In enterprises, it is estimated that the cost of IT management is 70 per cent of the company's IT budget," says Litoiu. "The management of employee's desktop software - the provisioning, software updates, security patches etc - can be a huge time constraint on IT departments. Having a desktop run on a server can alleviate most of the client management problems by enabling easier provisioning through desktop templates for common roles and easier software updates."

Litoiu's project builds on the cloud computing model, which is a new deployment and operational model in which high-level computation services and storage are provided via the Internet or "cloud". His research will investigate a two-layered cloud computing model for desktop virtualization: in the first layer, different clouds will offer basic hardware functions such as storage and raw computation; the second layer will be service-oriented and offer higher level computational services that provision and manage end user desktop software.

"The scenarios we consider will be in the context of software development teams," he says. "We envision a computing infrastructure in which the user's desktop software can be easily migrated from the user's PC to a cloud and from the cloud to the PC. The user can run the software using remote terminal software or on a classic PC or laptop. By running the desktop software on the server machine, we ensure portability, mobility and reliability of the software and a reduced cost of desktop maintenance."

For more information on his project, e-mail mlitoiu@yorku.ca

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If an earthquake, hurricane, winter storm or other disaster strikes a lack of food, water and electricity for days, or even weeks, can result in negative short- and long-term consequences. Students who are part of York's Master of Arts in Disaster and Emergency Management (MADEM) program are spearheading an exciting community initiative aimed at equipping local Black Creek area youth and residents with the knowledge and tools needed to best prepare for disasters such as these.

The initiative is sponsored by a grant from State Farm's Youth Advisory Board and organized through York's Experiential Education Office. Students will educate residents and grade school students on strategies and techniques needed to prepare for various natural and social disasters including power outages and ice storms. A number of area schools and Toronto Housing buildings will be selected as sites where disaster preparedness and readiness will be built into the everyday fabric of their location. Presentations, focus groups, disaster and media kits will all be key components of the initiative.

"In low income communities disaster preparedness tends to fall on the bottom of the priority list," said Geoff Webb, senior manager of York's EE program. "We want to develop a project that is sustainable and responds directly to community needs - something that can easily be integrated into the regular activities of the community."

Students will draw on the expertise of researchers and faculty from MADEM who have active experience in the field. They'll also maintain close connections with the York University TD Community Engagement Centre - a teaching, research and resource hub that houses educational initiatives such as community based learning.

"One of the main goals of our program, and the EE program, is to engage our students directly in real-world case studies and to have them tackle - through research and study - local and international contemporary issues," said David Etkin, graduate program director of MADEM. "As the number and magnitude of emergencies and disasters continues to rise, this project responds directly to the need for greater preparedness amongst individuals, organizations, businesses and the community. Our students will help the Black Creek community develop solutions and tools that can help them prepare for a wide variety of emergency situations."

For more information on the project or Experiential Education at York, contact Geoff Webb at gwebb@yorku.ca