Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2003. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement and English abstract inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-319).

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In the ever-evolving landscape of health systems, citizen advocacy stands as a tool for influencing policy aiming to strengthen health systems. This dissertation delves into the multifaceted nature of health policy advocacy and how citizen advocates can leverage research evidence in addition to the commonly used emotional messaging to influence policy. The first study is a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS), creating a theoretical framework that helps us understand the roles of citizen health policy advocates and their relation to research evidence. The second study is a multiple-case study that examines the approaches taken by citizen-serving NGOs in their advocacy training and whether and how research evidence is incorporated into the training. The third study is a qualitative descriptive study that explores citizens' experiences participating in these training modules and their perceptions of factors affecting the incorporation of research evidence in the training. In Chapter 2, we included 32 publications in the CIS, and four thematic groups were identified, including the roles of citizen health policy advocates, how research evidence could support them and the facilitators and barriers to their use of research evidence. In Chapter 3, we conducted a documentary review of 27 documents and interviewed 16 staff and board members of three organizations that provide advocacy training to citizen advocates. In Chapter 3, we interviewed 14 citizens who participated in the training of the three organizations. v The first study outlined how citizens could use research evidence and its importance to their advocacy roles, while the last two studies provide an understanding of how citizen-serving organizations offer training to citizen advocates and whether, how, and under what conditions they include research evidence in training. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Advocacy is an effective way to influence policies in democratic societies. One of those areas that are influenced by policy advocacy is health systems. Citizens who advocate for improving their health systems often rely on personal emotional messages rather than peer-reviewed research evidence. This dissertation tries to understand why this is the case and how research evidence can support those citizens. We also explore the factors that encourage or hinder citizens from using research evidence in health policy advocacy. We then examine three citizen-serving organizations that support citizens with advocacy training and explore how they support the trainees to use research evidence in advocacy. We also examine the experiences of citizens who participated in those training sessions and how they perceive the utility of research evidence in their advocacy to strengthen their health systems.

Research within the last fifteen years on global advocacy networks has often focused on their accomplishments through the linking of similar groups. The majority of this research while being useful to examine transnational political dynamics has two deficiencies. The first is that there is little or no consideration of the network infrastructure (from code to cables) that allows the aforementioned linkage to occur. It is therefore important to investigate the politics of infrastructure, architecture and design and the power and control thereof. Secondly, prior to Web 2.0. technologies, advocacy networks were nodes of information distribution, rather than nodes to which information was directed, and then subsequently collected, compiled and used for political purposes. It is quite reasonable to argue that Web 2.0. technologies (again due to considerations of code, digital architecture and design) have altered the manner in advocacy networks interact with their supporters, other organizations and formal political institutions. This change is located within the advocacy network’s technoorganizational structure. Subsequently, as the digital architecture for the internet is an inter-operable free/libre open source software (FLOSS) common to information exchange, it stands to reason that as an infrastructure this technology is directly a political landscape over which and in which friction and contestation can and does occur. In regard to the methods of interaction, FLOSS technologies have greatly expanded the pool of potential social activists and reduced the costs of engagement, activism and highlighting issues. With these factors in mind it can be argued that FLOSS has created opportunities for civil society to emerge and engage with society at large in ways that are both new (in a digital medium) and similar (tackling issues of social justice as constructed by the social activists). When considered at a systematic level this process has several implications. These implications include the impact of 4 networking on identity, social relations, power relations and so on, which in turn acknowledges that modern computer networking can act as a mechanism that radically restructures various political relations. This itself acknowledges various contests over modern computer networking (one position which is expressed by various FLOSS proponents), and the physical infrastructure and the power and control thereof which allows such networking to even exist in the first instance. Within this context, which could be described as an information ecosystem, there is a recognition that advocacy networks have emerged as new sources of power ready to exert influence through networking that occurs in a) a non formal manner and b) ‘beneath the radar’ as it were.

Thesis advisor: Brian J. Gareau / This study explores efforts by the farm animal protection movement to pass anti-CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) farm animal protection legislation in Massachusetts and Rhode Island from 2012 to 2015, aiming to understand why successful outcomes were limited, through the theoretical lenses of collective identities and collective action frames. CAFOs, the predominant source of food animals in the United States, rear animals in intensely confined conditions, which raises significant animal welfare concerns, and also exact serious damage on workers, the environment, public health, and rural communities. Given the animal cruelty inflicted by CAFOs, animal protection organizations have invested much time and effort into passing legislation to ban intensive confinement practices, yet have encountered significant challenges in doing so in some states. This thesis aims to help explain why and how some of these challenges arise, and how they might be avoided or overcome in future efforts. To this end, I describe the collective identities of Massachusetts and Rhode Island farmers and professional farm animal advocates, and analyze the ways that these collective identities interact with and inform framing strategies. I conclude that some elements of the farm animal advocate identity conflict with farmer collective identity, and, further, that consequent advocacy framing strategies at times significantly hinder attempts to pass farm animal protection legislation.

This thesis examines the ethical implications of legal professional advocacy in an adversary system of justice. It identifies a standard conception of the advocate's duty which is encapsulated in the various professional codes and its fundamental principles of partisanship and zealous advocacy. It acknowledges that the standard conception involves a duty to pursue the interests of clients without regard for the interests of others and explores the inevitable moral ambivalence which such an absolute loyalty entails. The concept of role morality upon which this conception is based is explored. This involves an examination of the adversary system of justice and the extent to which it serves the public interest. It is concluded that the adversary system is of considerable utility in maintaining individual rights, eliciting the truth, providing an important element of ritual and sublimating conflict. Consequently, its value provides ethical justification for lawyers to fulfil the adversarial roles upon which it depends. However, it is contended that it neither requires nor justifies the absolutism inherent in the standard conception of the advocate's duty. A number of alternative paradigms are considered but rejected as inadequate. It is argued that the existing norms of partisanship and zealous advocacy should be retained but relegated to prima facie duties which may have to be balanced against competing ethical demands such as the need to avoid causing undue harm to others.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1991. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 72).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-273).