"Urbancomm":About

From "Urbancomm"

Urban Communication Foundation Mission Statement

The Urban Communication Foundation is a not-for-profit organization (501 (c) 3) that promotes and supports research in urban communication, sponsors special seminars and special events, encourages young scholars, and rewards outstanding scholarship.

- The organization of the Urban Communication Foundation is predicated upon several assumptions.

- The continuing importance of traditional mass media channels in the lives of residents and their roles as citizens and neighbors.

- That the accelerated impact of communication technology is altering the relationship of community and neighborhood.

- That the nature of the urban-suburban-rural transect has radically changed and with it redefines the values we apply to place and relationships.

- That communication is the keystone of interaction and daily life

- The city is a complex context that shapes and is shaped by communication.  

The Urban Communication Foundation recognizes

- That communication research carries with it an application component.

- That research in urban communication is linked to urban policy and design.

- That urban communication research often is interdisciplinary linking with other research and creative disciplines such as: Architecture

  - Urban Planning

  - Environmental Psychology

  - Geography

  - Sociology

  - Political Science

But that communication serves as the primary and unifying element that frames such research.  

Our mission is predicated upon:

- The primacy of face-to-face interaction and the increasing importance of virtual interaction

- In the recognition that communication technology transmits and carries data, while also altering human values and expectations.

- In the importance of the city and its urban values and the recognition that cities are increasing in size and population

- In the apparent differential values of cities and suburbs

- In recognizing redistribution of social and civic function from public space to virtual space

- In understanding the increasing importance of the suburbs and the impact of its values upon the city.

- In the recognition that technological progress is not reversible and that the challenge is to choreograph communication technology while preserving an older set of traditional values of human interaction.  

The purpose of the Urban Communication Foundation is:

- To promote research that helps us understand communication patterns in the urban-suburban environment

- To promote the application of research by design, policy, and administrative sectors

- To promote civic and social engagement within a technological age.