<p> The rapid process of urbanization currently swelling the poor urban neighborhoods of developing countries is changing local and national political landscapes. As the population of urban poor continues to grow&mdash;it is expected that by 2030 half of the total urban population will be poor&mdash;so are poor peoples' demands for access to public services, as well as the type and intensity of their engagements with political actors. The dissertation focuses on the different types of interactions between the urban poor and politicians and specifically tackles the following questions: What explains the variation in political participation among the urban poor? What drives the urban poor to become active in politics? What types of political activity are these citizens engaging in? The dissertation uses a mixed-methods strategy that makes use of a case study of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and survey data, including an original dataset that includes interviews with over 400 favela dwellers. It finds that in Brazil, there is a "favela effect" in political participation: favela dwellers are more likely to become politically engaged in a number of activities&mdash;voting, working for a politician, participating in neighborhood meetings&mdash;than people living in more affluent neighborhoods. In addition, the dissertation demonstrates that there are multiple pathways to political participation and that four factors are key in explaining the levels of political engagement: social networks, religious groups, government transfer schemes, and NGO programs. The dissertation contributes to the literature on political participation and democracy, and helps move the debate on political engagement of the urban poor beyond arguments that, on the one hand, portray them as uninterested or unable to engage in political activities and, on the other hand, describe them as the inevitable victims of clientelism and political bosses.</p>

<p> This project explores the historic, current and future services for individuals with developmental disabilities in New York State in a series of related studies presented in three chapters. The first chapter examines the history of how modern services for individuals with developmental disabilities were established. The second chapter examines the social, economic and political factors that are driving the first major changes in services for individuals with developmental disabilities since the early 1970's. The first two chapters will demonstrate similar trends that caused major changes in the 1970's and the major changes currently happening in service delivery. The final chapter examines the proposed services that will be offered to individuals in New York State, the implementation of the new services, potential barriers to implementation and both the intended and unintended consequences of the new services.</p>

<p> Esta investigaci&oacute;n analiza los retos con los cuales se enfrenta el Departamento de Educaci&oacute;n de Puerto Rico para incluir, como parte de su programaci&oacute;n acad&eacute;mica, desde el nivel preescolar, un curr&iacute;culo sobre promoci&oacute;n y respeto a la diversidad, para los estudiantes del sistema p&uacute;blico de ense&ntilde;anza. Me propuse, a trav&eacute;s de esta investigaci&oacute;n, entender los significados que cada participante de la investigaci&oacute;n le otorga a la diversidad humana, desde la perspectiva de derechos humanos. Esta investigaci&oacute;n cont&oacute; con cuatro finalidades u objetivos, encaminados a generar conocimiento, desde una perspectiva de derechos humanos. Son varias las preguntas que guiaron la investigaci&oacute;n, las cuales se trazaron de acuerdo al objetivo. Para el primer objetivo las preguntas estaban dirigidas a entender qu&eacute; piensan los participantes sobre la responsabilidad del Departamento de Educaci&oacute;n con respecto a promover la tolerancia y el respeto a la diversidad en el sal&oacute;n de clase. Para el segundo objetivo las preguntas estaban dirigidas a entender qu&eacute; piensan los participantes sobre la inclusi&oacute;n de un curr&iacute;culo de tolerancia y respeto a la diversidad, en la programaci&oacute;n acad&eacute;mica. Para el tercer objetivo las preguntas estaban dirigidas a entender qu&eacute; piensan conocedores y defensores de derechos humanos sobre la pertinencia del tema para nuestra sociedad y para el Departamento de Educaci&oacute;n. El cuarto objetivo refleja el resultado de los hallazgos de la investigaci&oacute;n: un Borrador de Orden Ejecutiva para la firma del Gobernador de Puerto Rico y un Borrador de un Plan de Trabajo. Esta investigaci&oacute;n es cualitativa con un enfoque fenomenol&oacute;gico y los datos fueron recopilados de un grupo de participantes intencionado no representativo, a trav&eacute;s de entrevistas semi-estructuradas. Durante el proceso investigativo se tomaron en consideraci&oacute;n todas las previsiones &eacute;ticas para la protecci&oacute;n de los sujetos humanos, seg&uacute;n establecido por el Comit&eacute; Institucional para la Protecci&oacute;n de los Seres Humanos en la Investigaci&oacute;n (CIPSHI) de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de R&iacute;o Piedras, as&iacute; como lo establecido en el C&oacute;digo de &Eacute;tica Profesional del Colegio de Profesionales de Trabajo Social de Puerto Rico (2010).</p>

<p> This study is an interpretative phenomenological analysis that explored the meanings homeowners associated with their lived experience of foreclosure. In the wake of the 2006 housing crash and 2008 Great Recession, questions have been posed about the continued efficacy of homeownership as an asset-based strategy. In addition, the conversation has been dominated by traditional economic and business interests. Discussions about housing policy and foreclosure response have marginalized the voice of vulnerable populations. The literature on housing policy reflects a positivist perspective that privileges analysis of unit production, economic costs and benefits. Secondary attention is given to exploring housing and foreclosure from a critical and constructivist standpoint. Consequently, this study intentionally engaged people who have experienced foreclosure. Depth and meaning were uncovered through interpretative phenomenological analysis. A purposive sample of five homeowners who experienced foreclosure was identified. The five homeowners participated in semi-structured interview. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using the six-step process articulated for interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). IPA combines three philosophical foundations&mdash;phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography&mdash;to approach qualitative and experiential research. The findings of this study discovered that foreclosure represents disconnection for the participants. Specifically, due to experiencing foreclosure, participants felt separated from their self-identity, from housing finance literacy, from their relationship with their mortgage lender and servicers, from the benefits of homeownership and from self-sufficiency due to their social service-based, helping-based, and/or low-wage employment. Study findings both affirm and challenge relevant theoretical frameworks. In addition, this research underscores the need for social work education to address financial literacy. Further, social work practitioners should be prepared to either provide or refer consumers to home-buyer education and training. Social workers should also challenge exploitative consumer practices and offer empowering alternatives in their place. Lastly, this research offers strategies and practices to strengthen housing policy and foreclosure response for the benefit of consumers. </p>

<p> Computer dialogs communicate important security messages, but their excessive use has produced habituation: a strong tendency by computer users to ignore security dialogs. Unlike physical warnings, whose design and use is regulated by law and based on years of research, computer security dialogs are often designed in an arbitrary manner. We need scientific solutions to produce dialogs that users will heed and understand. </p><p> Currently, we lack an understanding of the factors that drive users&rsquo; attention to security dialogs, and how to counteract habituation. Studying computer security behavior is difficult because a) users are more likely to expose themselves to risk in a lab experiment than in daily life, b) the size of observed effects is usually very small, which makes it necessary to collect many observations, and c) it is complex to balance research interests and the ethical duty not to harm. </p><p> My thesis makes two contributions: a novel methodology to study behavioral responses to security dialogs in a realistic, ethical way with high levels of ecological validity, and a novel technique to increase and retain attention to security dialogs, even in the presence of habituation.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to partner with a host agency, Families Uniting Families, identify a potential funding source, Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, and write a grant proposal to obtain funding for an emancipation roadmap program for transitional age youth (TAY) in foster care. The proposed program focuses on helping youth transition to independence through education, guidance, support, and system linkage. A literature review was conducted to examine the needs of this vulnerable population and legislative policies developed to address the unwanted psychosocial outcomes for transitional age youth. The proposed program will leverage and maximize resources and support available through existing legislative policies in efforts to diminish the effects of aging out of care and reduce barriers to achieving independence. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant was not required to successfully complete this project.</p>

<p> The Waite-Gallagher Marriage Benefit Theory (2000) articulates the premise of greater financial advantage, health benefits, and social well-being for married couples, not shared by cohabitating or singles. This benefit was not generalizable to same-sex couples or African-American. The significance of the current study is the use of a large dataset (The U. S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey) to explore if there is an association between type of legal status of marital relationship and financial advantage and health benefits for same-sex couples. Minority stress explains the systematic exclusion of same-sex couples from the entitlements of citizenship. The wage disadvantage theory of minority groups counters Waite and Gallagher and sheds light on a problem of comparison related to a heterosexual, Caucasian sample. Combining insights from a historical, political, economic, and social perspective, with a large secondary dataset from the 2010 American Community Survey 1-year tabulation, this quantitative dissertation seeks to extend the Waite-Gallagher theory. The findings suggest support for the Waite-Gallagher marriage benefit theory i.e. marriage does matter for lesbian and gay males. The principal conclusion is the existence of a statistically significant relationship between the state context (legal recognition of marriage vs. non-recognition) and financial advantage and health benefits when using a large secondary data set.</p>

<p> This study examines registration, voting and election results in the presidential elections from 1992 to 2012. During this period, North Carolina introduced a series of election reforms which were designed to increase political participation by making registration and voting more widely accessible. These reforms included making One Stop early voting and absentee voting by mail universally available, and making it possible to register and vote in a single step at an early voting site. This study examines the implementation of these reforms by county boards of elections, and the effects which they have had on voter participation and on election results. The study finds that election reform has coincided with an increase in voter turnout, and produced a short-term advantage for the Democratic Party.</p>

With the rise of the welfare state, democratic, common law governments undertook a new proactive role as social welfare manager; allocating limited health, education, and social services benefits among competing public priorities. In spite of the important impact of this role on the lives of citizens, the various political, managerial, and legal mechanisms designed to hold executive social policy-makers accountable to the legislature have largely broken down. In this dissertation, I argue that our constitutional democracy permits courts to fill this accountability gap by acting as an accountability mechanism of last resort. I propose a new doctrine of administrative review for social policy and programs in which deference is based on evidence of accountability achieved within the policy-making process. Administrative review for accountability would allow courts to evaluate the legitimacy of the process by which social policy is created rather than interfering in the substance of social policy. My dissertation seeks to develop this administrative review doctrine within existing constitutional constraints including the separation of powers.

Social capital is a relatively new concept compared to welfare, though debates on the advantages of different welfare regimes and the links between state provision and social participation are tentatively connecting the two areas. Esping-Andersen classifies welfare regimes into three types - market-focused liberal, status-focused corporatist, and equality-focused social democratic regimes. Each has been well studied with regards to the effects of commodification (market dependency), stratification (inequality and stigma), and familialisation (paternalistic family dependency). However, such focus largely upon economic rather than social concerns. This thesis examines the proposition that welfare can ???build society??? by promoting these social aspects otherwise known as social capital. The social capital concept has definition and measurement problems with causality and the capture of social activities rather than just norms. Acknowledging, this, social capital is preferably defined from the literature as norms of trust, networks of association membership, and practices of volunteering and socialising. A critical reading highlights the importance of separating bonding social capital, as captured in Bourdieu and Coleman???s exclusive networks, from bridging social capital, more akin to Putnam???s civil society and thus closer to social welfare. This thesis examines numerous empirical measures of bridging social capital, by looking at norms and networks through the World Values Survey, and practices through the Multinational Time Use Study across nine OECD countries. Results show that social democratic welfare regimes do promote social capital, with high levels of trust, membership and social activity. Corporatist welfare regimes show low but constant levels of social capital, whilst liberal welfare regimes have experienced declines in trust. Increasingly means-tested liberal regimes register high levels of commodification, with poor work-leisure balances, and are also more stratified with higher levels of inequality, whilst attitudes stigmatising immigrants and the poor are apparent amongst all less trusting countries. Familialisation is explicit in corporatist values and male/female work imbalances, and implicit in liberal values and poor family payments, with reduced social capital contributions from women as a result. Overall empirical testing of relations between welfare regimes and social capital show that both are linked most positively under universal rather than meanstested conditions.