Sociology, Urban

Community-oriented policing implementation has been examined under the
context of large agencies whereas the literature on smaller agencies has ultimately been
lagging behind The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the degree of
community policing implementation within these smaller agencies, controlling for
characteristics derived from the theory of social disorganization, to gather further insight
into what variables may be impacting crimes rates Pearson correlation and OLS
regression analysis is employed to obtain the necessary results The findings indicate that
although community-policing implementation does not significantly impact or explain
the variation of crime rates in small cities, the statistically significant results of particular
social disorganization characteristics should be an indicator of the need to incorporate
theory with practice

Local governments are adopting both the rhetoric and practices of market-based governance interventions. Imported into these cities are public relations and marketing tactics to sell cities to internal and external audiences alike. Public communication in these cities went from a public information focus hinging on a just-the-facts approach to a public relations and marketing focus on selling and image generation to please customers. Acute attention to image generation leads to the metaphor of municipalities presented in this research - as public relations and marketing firms. Private sector public relations (PR) and marketing firms gain results for their clients, usually in the form of consumer consumption. A city acting as a public relations and marketing firm puts priority on the image-generation potentials of nearly all its governance functions to sell a commodity to customers. To illustrate this, a six-point model was devised of PR and marketing tactics used in cities operating as public relations and marketing firms: branding, media relations, in-house publications, use of volunteers and outside organizations as PR tools, aesthetic and affective appeal, and sustainability and going green. A city using all six is a fully realized PR and marketing firm, as it adopts, adapts and executes the tactics in meaningful ways. An over-reliance on image-generation (PR and marketing) versus substance (information) pushes public organizations through Baudrillard's four phases of the image. The image of the city becomes dissociated with reality, and the government operates in a simulation of itself. This research uses Qualitative Media Analysis (Altheide, 1996) supplemented by a discourse analysis method created for this research - Baudrillardian Discourse Analysis.

James Ensor's depictions of Belgian cities and their inhabitants offer a derisive critique of modern urban space, and the resulting societal transformations, that developed during the nineteenth century. His illustrations of the contemporary urban societies of Brussels and Ostend generally always include images of crowds and masks, elements which represent the horror and emptiness of the modern city.