Menu Close
The Conversation

Articles on Philadelphia

Displaying 1 - 20 of 53 articles
Philadelphia’s public high schools face a trade-off between emphasizing academic and technical skills. Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images

Most Philly public school students have college ambitions − but their level of preparation depends on which high school they attend

Joseph Sageman, Princeton University

A sociologist and former high school math teacher found that Philadelphia students face starkly different expectations for college depending on what type of school they attend.
Rates of syphilis and gonorrhea have risen significantly among Philadelphians age 15-24 over the past five years. Dusan Stankovic/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Philly has highest STI rates in the country – improving sex ed in schools and access to at-home testing could lower rates

Carlos Mahaffey, Purdue University

Syphilis cases have increased 30% among 15- to 24-year-olds in Philadelphia since 2019, while cases of gonorrhea are up 18%. Chlamydia cases have decreased but remain high.
Drawing shows men making shoes at the Philadelphia Almshouse, circa 1899. Alice Barber Stephens/Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Alfred Bendiner Memorial Collection

Philadelphia’s 200-year-old disability records show welfare reform movement’s early shift toward rationing care and punishing poor people

Nicole Lee Schroeder, Kean University

Amid rising unemployment, inflation and poverty in the 1830s, Philadelphia taxpayers believed welfare scammers were bleeding coffers dry. Poor lists from 1829 show they were wrong.
Democrats and Republicans are equally less likely to support a drug treatment clinic if it’s in their neighborhood. Can Merey/picture alliance via Getty Images

How opioid treatment centers can overcome bipartisan NIMBYism to build local support

Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Harvard Kennedy School and Michael Hankinson, George Washington University

A Philadelphia neighborhood is pushing back against the city’s plan to expand an existing shelter to serve people in active addiction.
Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary. Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

As climate change amplifies urban flooding, here’s how communities can become ‘sponge cities’

Franco Montalto, Drexel University

US cities are doing green infrastructure, but in bits and pieces. Today’s climate-driven floods require a much broader approach to create true sponge cities that are built to soak up water.
The Mantua neighborhood in West Philadelphia is undergoing rapid gentrification. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation U.S.

On its 125th anniversary, W.E.B. Du Bois’ ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ offers lasting lessons on gentrification in Philly’s historically Black neighborhoods

Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, University at Albany, State University of New York and Freeden Blume Oeur, Tufts University

Du Bois’ study, published in 1899, detailed the social conditions of poor Black residents of the Seventh Ward. The area is now home to some of Philadelphia’s ritziest neighborhoods.
An interaction with police caused one young man’s heart rate to spike to 130 beats per minute, and it stay elevated for 30 minutes. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

‘It’s a deep emotional ride’ – 12 young people in Philly’s toughest neighborhoods explain how violence disrupts their physical and mental health

Kalen Flynn, University of Pennsylvania

A social science researcher followed a dozen teens from different neighborhoods in North, West and Northeast Philadelphia, tracking their family histories and heart rates as they navigated daily life.
A full-time minimum wage worker in Philadelphia earns just over $15,000 a year with no vacation or sick days. Allan Baxter/The Image Bank Collection via Getty Images

Philadelphia’s minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 – here’s why efforts to raise it have failed

Michael O'Bryan, Drexel University and Alicia Atkinson, Drexel University

Voters, city council and even local business leaders have tried to raise the city’s minimum wage, but face pushback from the state legislature in Harrisburg.
According to the state’s new guidelines, juvenile convictions that are 10 years or older should no longer be considered when determining a person’s sentence. Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao via Getty Images

Pennsylvania overhauled its sentencing guidelines to be more fair and consistent − but racial disparities may not disappear so soon

C. Clare Strange, Drexel University

The new guidelines are not intended to reduce punishment but aim to reduce disparities in punishment that are linked to race and ethnicity.
A mural dedicated to Du Bois and the Old Seventh Ward is painted on the corner of 6th and South streets in Philadelphia. Paul Marotta/Getty Images

W.E.B. Du Bois’ study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ at 125 still explains roots of the urban Black experience – sociologist Elijah Anderson tells why it should be on more reading lists

Elijah Anderson, Yale University

Over a century ago, white Philadelphia elites believed the city was going to the dogs – and they blamed poor Black inner-city residents instead of the racism that kept this group disenfranchised.

Related Topics

  1. Cities
  2. Families
  3. Gentrification
  4. Local
  5. New York City
  6. Pennsylvania
  7. Police
  8. Poverty
  9. Public schools
  10. Schools

Top contributors

More