The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is an international, interdisciplinary organization founded in 1968 by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers. The purpose of EDRA is the advancement and dissemination of environmental design research, thereby improving understanding of the interrelationships between people, their built and natural surroundings, and helping to create environments responsive to human needs. Not-for-Profit, Academic, and Corporate memberships are available, as are discounted memberships with significant benefits for students and retired professionals.
The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) is the worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research. Its members promote global inclusiveness and excellence within the best traditions of critical research in the field. Its objectives include strengthening and encouraging the participation of new scholars, women, and those from economically disadvantaged regions, including researchers from African, Asian and South and Central American countries (from the IAMCR website).
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to cultivate the widest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multi-cultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a better informed public (from the AEJMC website).
The International Communication Association (ICA) is an international association for scholars interested in the study, teaching, and application of all aspects of human-mediated communication. ICA began more than 50 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and has matured into a truly international association with more than 3,500 members in 65 countries, dedicated to promoting research in communication worldwide, utilizing its journals, conferences, awards and fellowships, and network of professional relationships (from the ICA website).
The National Communication Association was founded in 1914 as the National Association of Academic Teachers of Public Speaking. Today, the association boasts a membership of more than 8,000 educators, practitioners, and students in every state and more than 20 countries. NCA’s purpose is to promote study, criticism, research, teaching, and application of the artistic, humanistic, and scientific principles of communication. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems (from the NCA website).
CEOs for Cities was founded in 2001 by Paul Grogan, author of Comeback Cities and President of the Boston Foundation. It is a civic lab of today’s urban leaders catalyzing a movement to advance the next generation of great American cities. We support the development of next generation cities by: identifying first-look trends and opportunities that represent the best opportunities for cities and the people who live in them to succeed; connecting urban leaders to powerful ideas and each other; articulating the value to cities and the nation of improving performance on key urban success measures; mobilizing new urban activists to execute real change in cities; and telling powerful stories about the potential of cities to solve our most pressing problems. Want to change the world? Start with your city (from the CEOs for Cities website).
Jane’s Walk is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Jane’s Walk was established in North America in 2007, and continues to grow internationally. Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighborhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play: “No one can find what will work for our cities by looking at … suburban garden cities, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You’ve got to get out and walk.” Downtown is for People, 1957 (from the Jane’s Walk website).
The National Center for Suburban Studies (NCSS) at Hofstra University® is a non-partisan research institution dedicated to promoting objective, academically rigorous study of suburbia’s problems, as well as its promise. Rooted in the laboratory of Long Island’s diverse and aging suburbs, almost literally in the shadows of the iconic Levittown, the National Center will study a broad range of issues from local and national perspectives and, whenever possible, collaborate with researchers at other respected institutions. The suburbs have emerged as the nexus of dynamic demographic, social, economic and environmental change in New York and throughout the United States. The tasks of identifying, analyzing and solving the problems of suburbia are essential for the health of the country – and central to the Center’s mission (from the NCSS website).
The Media Ecology Association (MEA), formed in 1998 by five of Neil Postman’s former students (Susan B. Barnes, Thomas F. Gencarelli, Paul Levinson, Casey Man Kong Lum, and Lance Strate), is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the study, research, criticism, and application of media ecology in educational, industry, political, civic, social, cultural, and artistic contexts, and the open exchange of ideas, information, and research among the Association’s members and the larger community (from the MEA website).
The International Association for People-Environment Studies (IAPS) was established in 1981, to facilitate interdisciplinary debate and international collaboration in environment-behavior research and man-environment studies, with its primary goal to improve the quality of life. IAPS is a multidisciplinary association of researchers and practitioners from around the world, with a shared interest in people’s interaction with their environment, and is committed to support the coexistence, reciprocal understanding and collaboration of theoretical, practical work and lobbying activities (from the IAPS website).