Ramon Borges-Mendez

Clark University · Department of International Development, Community and Environment

Between 1950 and 1994, the pace of deforestation in Costa Rica was one of the most rapid in the western hemisphere. This is a case study of FUNDECOR (Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Cordillera Volcánica Central/Foundation for the Development of the Central Volcanic Range), an NGO created to stop deforestation and to promote alternatives for sust...

Regional workforce development collaborations have emerged as a notable approach to tackle complex problems within workforce development systems. While much of the existing research on workforce development documents the importance of promoting regional workforce development collaborations, little research exists that adequately identifies the spec...

In this introductory essay to the special issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly on diversity, we begin by reviewing management research on diversity in nonprofits. The preponderance of this research focuses on demographic representation. While more contemporary approaches emphasize inclusion in decision making, even this approach falls...

Climate change is a threat to food system stability, with small islands particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. In Puerto Rico, a diminished agricultural sector and resulting food import dependence have been implicated in reduced diet quality, rural impoverishment, and periodic food insecurity during natural disasters. In contrast, small...

Puerto Rican households experience a wealth gap relative to non-Puerto Rican Latinos and Non-Latino groups. This research relies on the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), Public Use Micro-Data Sample of 2008 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the “asset side,” Puerto Rican households showed a weak “wealth platform” relative to most groups. Housi...

This study examines, first, how public workforce development systems under the Workforce Investment Act (1998) are responding to the needs of Puerto Rican low-wage workers. Three local public systems are compared using mainly qualitative methods: New York City (NY), Hartford (CT), and Springfield-Holyoke (MA). Further, the study documents what is t...

The Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) is a STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education) and workforce development partnership created in 2003 to improve technological education and the supply of information technology (IT) workers for the knowledge-based and high-tech industrial sector of the G...

The growth of the IT sector masks important dynamics: occupational complexity; the spread of the IT workforce into other sectors, and a transformation in traditional human resource practices. Handling these tensions is demanding regional workforce development strategies, especially to create institutional connections, or labor market intermediaries...

This brief presents an analysis of various economic indicators pertaining to the Latino population in metropolitan areas of high Latino concentration in Massachusetts. It includes information on and comparisons of the Primary Metropolitan Areas of Boston and the Metropolitan Statistical Area of Springfield and when available the Primary Metropolita...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1995. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-298). by Ramón Borges-Méndez. Ph.D.

The industrial forces and conditions of Massachusetts that awaited and attracted European immigrants were vastly different from those encountered by the more recent wave of Latino immigrants. This study seeks to compare and clarify what those forces and conditions were at three different times, especially in the small mill towns of Lowell, Lawrence...

Although somewhat later than other major urban areas, Boston has been experiencing fundamental demographic changes. The 2000 Census reported that for the first time non-Hispanic whites constitute a minority of the city’s population. Subsequent Census estimates confirm an even stronger trend toward a rapidly diversifying population. Immigration has...

The main objective of this research was to investigative the contribution of Latino immigrant business owners (or entrepreneurs) in East Boston. Twelve Latino business owners in East Boston were interviewed and supplementary interviews with public officials and other key informants served to further document the contribution of Latino entrepreneurs...