The Urban Portal

---

---

---

British Household Panel Survey

Economic and Social Data Service
The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) is carried out by ISER at the University of Essex. The main objective of the survey is to further understanding of social and economic change at the individual and household level in Britain, to identify, model and forecast such changes, their causes and consequences in relation to a range of socio-economic variables.
The BHPS provides information on household organiaation, employment, accommodation, tenancy, income and wealth, housing, health, socio-economic values, residential mobility, marital and relationship history, social support, and individual and household demographics.

Filed under: Data

---

Census UK

Economic and Social Data Service
UK Census data.

Filed under: Data

---

Center for Human Potential and Public Policy

University of Chicago
Center at the Harris School focused on trans-disciplinary research and training on achievement, health, and well-being across the lifespan. 

Filed under: Organizations

---

Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture

University of Chicago
Interdisciplinary program dedicated to promoting engaged scholarship and debate around the topics of race and ethnicity.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Center for Urban and Community Studies

University of Toronto
The Center for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS), established in 1964, promotes and disseminates multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on urban issues.

The Centre's activities contribute to scholarship on questions relating to the social, economic and physical well-being of people who live and work in urban areas large and small, in Canada and around the world.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Center for Urban History (Antwerp)

University of Antwerp
The Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp (CSG) strives to investigate important aspects of urban culture, economy, religion, politics and institutions from the Middle Ages to the present, in relation to each other and to non-urban structures. Specific research topics on which the Centre places particular emphasis include civil society and urban identities, material culture and urban renaissances; the role of cities as centers of knowledge, creativity and innovation; economic growth and social inequality; migration and urban networks; and the urban living environment in the broadest sense. The geographic emphasis rests on north-western Europe, but always in an international and comparative perspective.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Center for Urban Initiatives and Research

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Urban Archive is designed as a catalogue of research studies and reports focused on greater Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin. Each catalogued item provides bibliographic information, content abstract, source and, where possible, an electronic link to the report. The catalogue is organized by topical categories.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Chicago Policy Review

University of Chicago
Since 1996 the Chicago Policy Review (CPR) has published top scholarship in the field of public policy analysis. Initially a forum for renowned scholars and policy experts such as Nobel Laureate James Heckman, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain, the journal has primarily published the work of students and alumni of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago since 2006.

The Chicago Policy Review (ISSN: 1093-8990) is edited and published annually by the students of the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. By establishing linkages between theory and practice, the Review aims to promote thought provoking, insightful, and relevant public policy decision-making.

Filed under: Journals

---

Cities Alliance

The Cities Alliance is a global partnership for urban poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in sustainable development.

The Cities Alliance prioritizes support to cities, local authorities, associations of local authorities and/or national governments that are committed to:
• Improving their cities, and local governance, for all residents;
• Adopting a long-term, comprehensive and inclusive approach to urban development;
• Implementing those reforms necessary to effect systemic change, and to achieve delivery at scale; and
• Decentralizing resources to empower local government

Filed under: Organizations

---

---

City Mayors

Cities are shaping today's social, cultural, economic and technological agendas. They compete, learn from each other and act together.  The City Mayors Foundation was established in 2003 to promote, encourage, and facilitate good open and strong local government.

Filed under: Links

---

City of Chicago Data Portal

The City of Chicago’s Data Portal is dedicated to promoting access to government data and encouraging the development of creative tools to engage and serve Chicago's diverse community. Here you’ll find essential data presented in easy-to-use formats to help Chicagoans keep track of how their government is performing and build innovative applications to benefit residents and visitors alike.

Filed under: Data

---

CITYNET

For over 20 years, CITYNET (The Regional Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements) has committed itself to helping local governments improve the sustainability of human settlements. Starting with 26 members in 1987, CITYNET has grown to become an international organization of more than 100 members in more than 20 countries, most of which are cities and local governments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Filed under: Organizations

---

County and City Data Books

University of Virginia
This resource provides access to the 1944 through 2000 County and City Data Books providing users with the opportunity to create custom printouts and/or customized data subsets (subsets only available for 1988-2000). 

Filed under: Data

---

Creative City Network of Canada

Municipalities are playing a growing role in the development of arts, culture and heritage in Canada. The Creative City Network of Canada (CCNC) is an organization of municipal staff working in communities across Canada on arts, cultural and heritage policy, planning, development and support.

The CCNC exists to connect and educate the people who do this work and share this working environment so we can be more effective in cultural development in our communities. By sharing experience, expertise, information and best practices, members support each other through dialogue, both in person and online.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Data Driven Detroit

Data Driven Detroit (D3) provides accessible, high-quality information and analysis to drive informed decision-making that strengthens communities in Southeast Michigan.

D3 believes that direct and practical use of data by grassroots leaders and public officials promotes thoughtful community building and effective policymaking. As a “one-stop-shop” for data about the city of Detroit and the metro area, D3 provides unprecedented opportunity for collaboration and capacity building in Southeast Michigan.

Filed under: Data

---

Data.Seattle.Gov

City of Seattle
The purpose of Data.Seattle.Gov is to increase public access to high value, machine-readable datasets generated by various departments of Seattle City Government.

Filed under: Data

---

DataPlace

DataPlace is an easy-to-use source of U.S. housing and demographic data from the census tract to the national level. The cite currently contains data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, as well as home mortgage, Section 8, and housing needs data. There is useful directory and users can create their own maps. Included topics are mortgage lending, income and employment, housing, health, social and demographic, education, arts, and federal expenditures.

Filed under: Data

---

Does transparency mean more democracy?

Data.gov was established with the goal of making the US government more transparent and “establishing a new standard of openness.” It provides access to copious government data on topics as varied as unemployment records and Medicare costs. Data.gov is part of an open-data movement that has spread around the globe. Twenty-one countries have so far at least partially opened up their data for public use. But does having more data available to more people really mean greater democracy?

November 01, 2011

Filed under: Issues

---

Government Sponsored Enterprise Data

The Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a wealth of information on the mortgage purchases of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) that HUD oversees. The GSEs are secondary-market institutions that purchase single-family conventional loans originated in the United States. HUD has established housing goals in accordance with the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (the 1992 GSE Act). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to meet specified goals for purchases of mortgages that finance housing for very-low-, low- and moderate-income families and families living in areas traditionally underserved by the mortgage market. These new data sets shed light on their efforts and provide additional data for mortgage research.

Filed under: Data

---

Households Below Average Income UK

Economic and Social Data Service
Households Below Average Income (HBAI) uses household disposable incomes, after adjusting for the household size and composition, as a proxy for material living standards. More precisely, it is a proxy for the level of consumption of goods and services that people could attain given the disposable income of the household in which they live. In order to allow comparisons of the living standards of different types of households, income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and composition of the households in a process known as equivalisation. A key assumption made in HBAI is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from the combined income of the household. This enables the total equivalised income of the household to be used as a proxy for the standard of living of each household member.

Filed under: Data

---

Housing Affordability Data System

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Housing Affordability Data System (HADS) is a set of files derived from the 1985 and later national American Housing Survey (AHS) and the 2002 and later Metro AHS. This system categorizes housing units by affordability and households by income, with respect to the Adjusted Median Income, Fair Market Rent (FMR), and poverty income. It also includes housing cost burden for owner and renter households. These files have been the basis for the worst case needs tables since 2001. The data files are available for public use, since they were derived from AHS public use files and the published income limits and FMRs.

Filed under: Data

---

Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation

Rutgers University
The Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT) is a university-based effort that helps community residents and leaders in the public and private sectors frame workable policies that will bolster the political, economic, and social participation of marginalized communities within the larger metropolitan community. The IRCT's vision is inclusive. Not only does it encompass concerns for the poor, but leaders of the Initiative also believe that in order for metropolitan regions to support sustainable and livable communities, all sectors of civil society must be involved and see a shared interest.

Filed under: Organizations

---

IRS Business Master Files (BMF)

National Center for Charitable Statistics
Descriptive information for all active organizations that have registered for tax-exempt status with the IRS

Filed under: Data

---

Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program

Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
The Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program was established in 1996 under the direction of William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor. The Program seeks to analyze the effects of increasing urban poverty and joblessness plaguing the inner cities and to ensure that scholarly research plays a critical role in the creation and implementation of national public policy concerning the poor.
Through conferences,seminars, and research activities, the Program agenda focuses on the various social forces and ecological factors that contribute to the marginalization and social isolation of urban populations.

Filed under: Links

---

Journal of Policy Analysis & Management (JPAM)

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
APPAM founded the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) in 1981 through the merger of two other journals – Policy Analysis and Public Policy. Wiley-Blackwell (formerly John Wiley & Sons) has published JPAM since 1981. The current contract for publishing JPAM runs until the end of 2016. JPAM is published quarterly and is a peer-reviewed research journal. The creation of JPAM fulfilled one of the primary reasons for APPAM's existence: the dissemination of the highest quality, multidisciplinary research in public policy and management. As the Association's journal of record, JPAM's ultimate purpose is building a professional community of scholars and practitioners devoted to more effective policy analysis and public management.

Filed under: Journals

---

Journal of the American Planning Association

American Planning Association
Since 1935, the quarterly Journal of the American Planning Association has published research, commentaries, and book reviews useful to practicing planners, policy makers, scholars, students, and citizens of urban, suburban, and rural areas. JAPA publishes only peer-reviewed, original research and analysis. It aspires to bring insight to planning the future, to air a variety of perspectives, to publish the highest quality work, and to engage readers.

Filed under: Journals

---

Journal of Urban History

The Journal of Urban History (JUH), peer-reviewed and published bi-monthly, provides scholars and professionals with the latest research, analyses, and discussion on the history of cities and urban societies throughout the world. JUH presents original research by distinguished authors from the variety of fields concerned with urban history. Each insightful issue offers the latest scholarship on such topics as public housing, migration, urban growth, and more.

Filed under: Journals

---

London Lives

University of Hertfordshire, University of Sheffield, Economic and Social Research Council, HRI
A searchable resource on crime, poverty, and social policy in London from 1690-1800 featuring 240,000 manuscripts from 8 archives, and 15 datasets, with access to 3.35 million names.

Filed under: Data

---

Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS)

Rand
The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) is a longitudinal study of families in Los Angeles County, California, and of the neighborhoods in which they live. Research suggests that safe, supportive neighborhoods are important for children, teens, and adults. But what makes a neighborhood a positive place to live? L.A. FANS is addressing this questions by comparing the lives of children and adults in a broad range of neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County. The L.A.FANS focuses on: neighborhood, family, and peer effects on children's development; effects of welfare reform at the neighborhood level; and residential mobility and neighborhood change. The first wave of the L.A.FANS was fielded between 2000 and 2001. Fieldwork for Wave 2 of L.A.FANS was conducted between 2006 and 2008. 

Filed under: Data

---

---

Mapping London

Highlighting the best of maps of London. Mapping people, places, data, things

Filed under: Data

---

Mothers Alone : Poverty and the Fatherless Family, 1955-1966 UK

Economic and Social Data Service
The study explores the lives and experiences of mothers living alone: unmarried, separated, divorced or widowed. The study posed two questions: what is poverty and who are the fatherless? The study asked about housing conditions, homelessness, diet and nutrition, family relations, marriage and marital breakdowns, and the levels and adequacy of community and national assistance. The interviewees were asked about detailed indicators of poverty and also the subjective, felt experience of poverty. The study examined problems families faced as a consequence of both low income and lack of fathers, the causes of their circumstances, and the adequacy of assistance provided by community and national sources. 

Filed under: Data

---

Multifamily Tax Subsidy Income Limits

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Multifamily Tax Subsidy Projects (MTSP) Income Limits were developed to meet the requirements established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-289) that allows 2007 and 2008 projects to increase over time. The MTSP income Limits are used to determine qualification levels as well as set maximum rental rates for projects funded with tax credits authorized under section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) and projects financed with tax exempt housing bonds issued to provide qualified residential rental development under section 142 of the Code.

Filed under: Data

---

National Poverty Center

University of Michigan
The National Poverty Center (NPC) was established in the fall of 2002 as a university-based, nonpartisan research center. We conduct and promote multidisciplinary, policy-relevant research on the causes and consequences of poverty and provide mentoring and training to young scholars.

Located within the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the NPC benefits from close proximity to an extensive and diverse group of University of Michigan-based scholars from such units as the Institute for Social Research; the Department of Economics; and the Schools of Education, Public Health, and Social Work. In addition, the NPC draws on the work of over forty nationally recognized scholars from around the country, our Senior Research Affiliates.

Major funding for the NPC is provided through a cooperative agreement with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. University of Michigan funders include the Ford School, the Office of the Vice-President for Research, the Institute for Social Research, and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

Filed under: Organizations

---

NYC Data Mine

City of New York
This catalog supplies many sets of public data produced by City agencies and other City organizations.

Filed under: Data

---

---

Panel Study of Income Dynamics

University of Michigan
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics - PSID - is the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world. The study began in 1968 with a nationally representative sample of over 18,000 individuals living in 5,000 families in the United States. Information on these individuals and their descendants has been collected continuously, including data covering employment, income, wealth, expenditures, health, marriage, childbearing, child development, philanthropy, education, and numerous other topics. The PSID is directed by faculty at the University of Michigan, and the data are available on this website without cost to researchers and analysts.

The data are used by researchers, policy analysts, and teachers around the globe. Over 3,000 peer-reviewed publications have been based on the PSID. Recognizing the importance of the data, numerous countries have created their own PSID-like studies that now facilitate cross-national comparative research. The National Science Foundation recognized the PSID as one of the 60 most significant advances funded by NSF in its 60 year history.

Filed under: Data

---

Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Datasets

Pew Research Center
Variety of data sets on social & demographic trends

Filed under: Data

---

Policy Studies Journal

American Political Science Association; Policy Studies Organization
As the principal outlet for the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association and for the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), the Policy Studies Journal (PSJ) is the premier channel for the publication of public policy research. PSJ is best characterized as an outlet for theoretically and empirically grounded research on policy process and policy analysis. More specifically, we aim to publish articles that advance public policy theory, explicitly articulate its methods of data collection and analysis, and provide clear descriptions of how their work advances the literature.

Filed under: Journals

---

Poverty & Public Policy

Poverty & Public Policy is a new global journal that will address all the complex aspects of poverty, income distribution, and welfare programs around the world. The journal will be eclectic, publishing peer-reviewed empirical studies, peer-reviewed theoretical essays on approaches to poverty and social welfare, book reviews, and data sets from scholars and practitioners, including those in less developed nations.

Filed under: Journals

---

---

Research Center for Urban Cultural History

University of Massachusetts Boston
The Research Center for Urban Cultural History (RCUCH) premises its work on the multi-disciplinary study of cities as dynamic sites where cultures are generated, renegotiated and transmitted. Housed within an institution of higher learning with a commitment to an urban mission and an exceptionally diverse student body, and located in a city richly endowed with intellectual resources, the RCUCH initiates and facilitates scholarly and teaching projects that explore a wide array of possible links between studies of cities in the U.S. and throughout the world, encompassing both contemporary and historical topics. The Center's educational, scholarly, and outreach activities are directed toward achieving a flexible, comprehensive and innovative approach to urban cultural history in a global context.

The Center's principal focus is on interdisciplinary and collaborative research and teaching in urban cultural history. This field focuses on: the specificity of the urban setting and its environs; spatial definition; demographic and economic shifts; temporal change; cultural exchange and cultural transformation; and discursive and signifying networks created by the production of meaning between groups and populations.

Filed under: Organizations

---

---

Social Science Review

The School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago
Founded in 1927, Social Service Review is devoted to the publication of thought-provoking, original research on social welfare policy, organization, and practice. Articles in the Review analyze issues from the points of view of various disciplines, theories, and methodological traditions, view critical problems in context, and carefully consider long-range solutions.

The Review features balanced, scholarly contributions from social work and social welfare scholars, as well as from members of the various allied disciplines engaged in research on human behavior, social systems, history, public policy, and social services. The journal welcomes contributions on a wide range of topics, such as child welfare, poverty, homelessness, community intervention, race and ethnicity, clinical practice, and mental health. The Review also features discerning essays and substantive, critical book reviews.

Social Service Review is edited by Michael R. Sosin and the faculty of The School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.

Filed under: Journals

---

Sociology Data Set Server

A collection of ICPSR sociological data.

Filed under: Data

---

SSIIM:  Social and Spatial Inclusion of International Migrants, Urban Policies and Practice

Lauv University of Venice
By promoting public awareness on the importance of effective urban policies for the social and spatial inclusion of international migrants, the SSIIM UNESCO Chair will help addressing urban poverty reduction, as well as enhancing worldwide urban cultural diversity and preventing urban conflicts.

In the short term the SSIIM UNESCO Chair will contribute:

-  to produce new knowledge and a better understanding on how to improve good urban governance for the social and spatial inclusion of international migrants.

- to exchange information on policies and practices that best respond to the challenges of increasingly multicultural urban societies.

-  to foster the awareness of policy-makers, government officials and the civil society at large on the importance of international migrants social and spatial inclusion in urban areas.

Filed under: Organizations

---

This Big City

Founded in September 2009, This Big City is an award winning sustainable cities blog exploring urban innovations in architecture, design, culture, technology, transport and the bicycle. Created by Joe Peach, This Big City now features content from urbanism writers all over the world, and has been featured on Next American City, Planetizen, Sustainable Cities Collective and IBM Smarter Cities.

Filed under: Links

---

Unified Database of Arts Organizations (UDAO)

National Center for Charitable Statistics
Master list of commercial, nonprofit, and governmental organizations with arts programs

Filed under: Data

---

Urban Geography Commission

University of Lausanne
This commission is designed to encourage geographical research on urban systems and on new urban problems, and to further the exchange of findings among urban geographers from many countries.  Since cities, with their distinctive processes and problems, are major features of the modern world, it is vital to have a commission that focuses on their characteristics, problems and solutions in a comparative global context.  A key aspect of the new commission will be the encouragement of younger scholars to participate in our meetings.

Filed under: Organizations

---

Urban Studies

Urban Studies is a fully peer reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles which deal with every kind of urban and regional problem that is susceptible to social science or other relevant analysis. These range from such problems as urban housing, employment, race, politics and crime, to problems of regional investment and transport. Although most articles published deal with problems located in the advanced industrial societies of Europe and the Americas, important articles dealing with these problems in Asia, the Third World and in Eastern Europe are also published regularly.

Filed under: Journals

---

Urbanities

Urbanities is an international academic peer-reviewed journal. The Editorial and Scientific Boards reflect the journal’s aims and broad ethnographic spread, and include international scholars who specialize in different ethnographic and theoretical fields.

Urbanities aims at publishing original articles on research at the forefront of the discipline, at exploring new trends and debates in Urban Anthropology that promote critical scholarship in international anthropology and at highlighting the contribution of urban research to the broader society. Articles published in the journal are ethnographically based and address theoretical, methodological or public issues concerning all aspects of urban research. Urbanities is also committed to promoting debate between socio-cultural anthropology and biological anthropology as well as between anthropology and other cognate disciplines. 

Filed under: Journals

---

What is the effect of mass incarceration on urban black families?

More than seven times as many people are incarcerated in the United States as in Europe. The main victims of the prison boom are minority, particularly African American, men, who, as sociologist Bruce Western has found, are eight times more likely to have served time in prison than white men.

June 01, 2011

Filed under: Issues

---

---

The University of Chicago Urban Network
1126 East 59th Street, Box 114 Chicago, Illinois 60637
773.702.5116 | urban@uchicago.edu
Urban Network email list | Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook

© 2013 The University of Chicago