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Category Archives: Civil Society
Doing Program Evaluation Scientifically
I was inspired to write this post after reflecting on James Boutin’s series of posts critiquing the construction and use of data in schools. There are a lot of ways to screw up evaluations, beginning with misguided initial theories, terrible … Continue reading
The Diminishing Power of the Public, Part 1: Nonprofits as Privatization
This is the first in a series of posts on privatization, the decline of public power, and its implications for democracy and the provision of public and social goods. A common argument among globalization’s flattening earth theorists is the assertion … Continue reading
Posted in Civil Society, Historical Trends, Nonprofits, Public Policy
Tagged Accountability, Democracy, Impact Investing, Privatization, Public good
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Researching With Nonprofits
There seems to be a growing integration of higher education with real world experience. While internships are the most historically common form, other types of university-community collaboration are emerging with success. Take campusCATALYST for example. They are a graduate student … Continue reading
DonorsChoose Supplement Part 3: Market Corrections
Note: In preparation for the results announcement by DonorsChoose, this series is meant to carve up different issues raised by my work on the DonorsChoose Data and address them directly and more fully. You can find the original announcement and … Continue reading
Posted in Applied Research, Economy, Education, Internet, Nonprofits
Tagged DonorsChoose, Justice, Market Correction, Prediction, Schools
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DonorsChoose Supplement Part 2: Deservingness
Note: In preparation for the results announcement by DonorsChoose, this series is meant to carve up different issues raised by my work on the DonorsChoose Data and address them directly and more fully. You can find the original announcement and … Continue reading
Posted in Civic Engagement, Education, Gender, Public Policy, Theory
Tagged Deservingness, DonorsChoose, Education, Education reform, Justice
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DonorsChoose Summary Part 1: Sociological Insights
Note: In preparation for the results announcement by DonorsChoose, this series is meant to carve up different issues raised by my work on the DonorsChoose Data and address them directly and more fully. You can find the original announcement and … Continue reading
Posted in Applied Research, Civic Engagement, Economy, Education, Internet
Tagged DonorsChoose, Hacking Education, Philanthropy, Sociology
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The Revolutionary Potential of Social Enterprise
Over the past forty years, we’ve become accustomed to the legal, economic, organizational, and moral distinctions between for profit and non-profit enterprises. For-profits, like McDonald’s and Proctor and Gamble, provide goods and services in exchange for money which then gets … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Foundations, Nonprofits, Poverty
Tagged Business, capitalism, L3C, Nonprofit, Philanthropy, Social enterprise
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Predicting Success on DonorsChoose
Using statistical regression methods, I constructed an algorithm that predicts the probability of success for almost every project on DonorsChoose.org within 2-7%. This is the report on how I constructed the prediction models and evaluated the results along with a … Continue reading
Posted in Civic Engagement, Education, Methodology, Technology, Youth
Tagged DonorsChoose, Hacking Education, Prediction
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Business, Civics, and Entrepreneurship
My research and engagement in the Chicago community seem to be converging on a nexus embedding business and civil society, or the economic and nonprofit sectors. In the academy, this research is emerging around the concepts of social capital/social networks, … Continue reading
The “Dark Side” of Civil Society – An Introduction
The question of the “dark side of civil society” is based in a revitalized perspective of the relationship between civic engagement, social trust, and political participation. I want to introduce this background and its revival and where the “dark side” … Continue reading
Civil Sociology 