The Carsey Institute kicks off its Spring 2006 brown bag series, “People and Place,” Wednesday, Feb. 8 with “21st Century Restructuring of Employment in the Northeast.”

New England communities face new challenges as fortunes are tied to late 20th century developments in industry. Speaker Amy Glasmeier, visiting faculty, Carsey Institute, and the E. Willard Miller Professor of Economic Geography at Pennsylvania State University, will discuss the variety of forces that are causing major shifts in employment in New England and the US and the needed policy responses.

All presentations are held in the MUB Room 302 from noon to 1 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Please bring your lunch. All are welcome to attend.

Other seminars are as follows:

Wednesday, March 8: Supporting Individuals with Disabilities and Elders in the North Country

Jan Nisbet, director of the UNH Institute on Disability and institute colleagues Peter Antal and Susan Fox will discuss the Institute on Disability’s current efforts to advance community engagement in supporting individuals with disabilities and elders. They will present field-tested municipal planning models and will outline evaluation data and implications for state and national adoption/replication.

Wednesday, April 5: New Immigrant Settlements in Rural America: Problems, Prospects and Policies

Communities and immigration scholars alike have been caught off guard by a new and interesting trend -- the geographic redistribution of the immigrant population away from traditional cities of destination and toward new settlement communities. Leif Jensen, professor of rural sociology and demography at Pennsylvania State University, will provide a description of immigrants in rural and small town America, and he will draw on a review of the literature and in-depth key informant interviews to illuminate the socioeconomic consequences and policy implications for new settlement destinations.

Wednesday, May 3: Empowering Low Income and Disenfranchised Groups through Community Economic Development for Economic Gain and Social Progress

Ross Gittell, UNH’s James R. Carter Professor of Management, and Phillip Thompson, associate professor of urban studies and planning at MIT, will draw on their recent research and case studies to present a community economic development action framework. The framework suggests how low income and disenfranchised groups can leverage their social, political and aggregate economic assets for economic gain and social progress. This special event will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m, at the Elliot Alumni Center 1925 room.

Contact Amy Seif at the Carsey Institute at amy.seif@unh.edu or 2-4650 with questions about the Carsey Brown Bag Series.