This is a study of participation and engagement in power-based community organizing a multidimensional approach to community and person-level change. Community organizing groups seek to develop and strengthen local networks of voluntary members that operate independent of particular issues, and span multiple constituencies. The local federations participating in this research have harnessed the power of volunteer participation to pursue fair lending, affordable housing, improvements in education, community development, crime prevention, and other issues of local concern. Understanding impacts on participation, particularly setting-level or contextual influences, is crucial to furthering the goals of power-based organizing, especially as these goals are addressed by maintaining and deepening member participation. This study examines individual participation patterns in context specifically, the settings, networks, and neighborhoods in which participatory activities occur. Longitudinal data analysis on participation in organizing groups demonstrates great variation in rates of return and attrition among participants. Attendance at certain types of meetings (particularly research actions), participation in the relational work of organizing through one-to-one meetings, and social network engagement are found to be important determinants of future participation. This study sheds light on dynamics within the practice of community organizing at the interstices of group process and individual behaviors, and suggests ways that intentionality in the application of an organizing model can help to sustain and deepen member participation, enhancing the power of local organizing groups. Implications are explored more broadly as they relate to movement building, and attempts to increase civic engagement.

The flow of ideas that emerges from educational programs, particularly those that explicitly encourage interactions with community members, holds under-appreciated potential for knowledge flow to contribute to development at a community level. This study examines a single case, the PSA program in Colombia, to explore the patterns and potential of educational knowledge-sharing for community development. Using the lenses of network theory and communities of practice, it draws from social network data, interviews, and participant observation to capture the knowledge-sharing practices of students and their contributions to community development. Findings suggest that through formally-assigned activities and those that emerge from student initiative, students enrich their existing networks of community with additional information, recommendations for practice, and discussions of fundamental values and concepts. At the same time, they extend those networks to include new individuals and promote sharing that shapes practice within communities of practice.

Much ink has been spilled over the question of whether or not there is a culture war going on in the United States between religious conservatives and liberals (Hunter, 1991). This thesis examines the possibility of cultural war through an in-depth investigation of how morality and values affect peoples larger political narratives. Specifically, I use the grounded theory method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to develop a theoretical model of how political narratives form and develop. From this analysis, I found that beliefs, values, and emotional sentiments are the three super-ordinate categories from which political narratives take shape. First, I show how these categories, taken together, are the basic building blocks of a persons political narrative at any given time. Second, I show how these categories interact with a persons context to lead to the development of a political narrative across time. After examining the importance of beliefs, values, and emotional sentiments in the general case, I explore two political narratives in extensive detail. Through this exploration I show how these categories combine to create political narrative in specific instances. Finally, I use the information learned through this analysis to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of two prominent theoretical accounts of morality and politics and morality, one offered by Jonathan Haidt (2007), the other by George Lakoff (2002).

This thesis uses Foucaults conceptualization of power to examine power dynamics in two health and human service organizations. Foucault suggests that power should be observed by assessing relationships, cultures, and ideologies. Recognizing power processes that inform individual agendas, culture, and structure is vital for understanding how organizations function and potentially create sustainable change. However, there are few academic studies that focus on organizational power. Moreover, when investigating power in organizations, research has tended to: 1) compartmentalized power; 2) classify its definition as a human capacity; or 3) privilege collective efforts to exercise power. Findings based on an analysis of interviews, focus groups, participant observations, and organizational artifacts indicate the presence of power at multiple organizational levels. Results also reveal varying and often contradictory expressions of power as well as informal power dynamics. Given these outcomes, I present a model based on Foucaultian themes to simultaneously observe power at multiple organizational levels. Lastly, theoretical and practical implications for organizations, policy, and organizational change are discussed.

Adolescent substance abuse continues to be a public health concern. Certain vulnerable populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, females, and rural residents, still contend with disparities in access to health care. The purpose of this study is to examine disparities in utilization of substance abuse treatment among minority, female and rural adolescents enrolled in Mississippi's (MS) Medicaid program. This secondary data analysis used eligibility and claims data from adolescents aged 12-17 years enrolled in MS Medicaid in 2005. Utilization was examined in two ways. The first considered probability of substance abuse treatment. For these analyses, the sample was the statewide population of adolescent Medicaid enrollees in 2005 (n = 37,047). The second utilization measure examined the age at which the first substance abuse service was received. For the first-use analyses, the sample consisted of adolescents who had a substance abuse service paid for by Medicaid in 2005 (n = 267). Minority and female adolescents were less likely to use substance abuse treatment than white and male adolescents, respectively. Minority, female, and rural adolescents did not significantly differ with their respective counterparts on age of first substance abuse service. Disparities are still present and should continue to be examined in this context.

Social ecological theory, adapted from natural ecology, aims to understand the connections between people, groups, cultures, and the natural environments that they inhabit. Following psychologists ecological adaptations in the 1930s and Kellys (1968) landmark adaptation of ecological processes into community psychology (CP), community researchers have attempted to attain ecological validity without a systematic methodology to guide and test their efforts. This has often resulted in theories and methods that do not fully reflect researchers ecological intentions. This paper explains the scientific evolution of ecological epistemology and creates an evaluative framework to test ecological validity. Then a sample (n = 26) of published research articles in CP is gathered from the 3 major CP journals using ecological search terms and then evaluated within the framework to determine the fidelity of the application of ecological theory. Total adherence to ecological principals by CP is somewhat less than half of potential (43.54%.), although a breakdown of scores reveals a trend toward traditional over action research (68.16% compared to 18.91% of potential) and preference or knowledge of some levels, processes, and methods over others including a high amount of individual level research. New additions to the ecological analogy correlated well with existing concepts, indicating acceptable construct validity for suggested elements of ecological validity.

Family involvement in mental health treatment has been shown to positively influence child outcomes, but families often are difficult to involve in treatment. We investigated the influence of child, caregiver, service system, and community factors on family involvement in mental health treatment for children with severe emotional disturbances using in-depth interviews and case review ratings gathered in a previous study. One hundred thirty-six children and adolescents, who received Medicaid coverage for mental health treatment in Mississippi and Tennessee, were the focus of this six month longitudinal study that assessed child and caregiver characteristics at wave one, and service system factors at follow up. Results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the quality of the service system had the most influence on family involvement in treatment. Previous research has overlooked the influence of the service system and attributed the level of family involvement to child and family characteristics.

How are characteristics of communities associated with the degree to which systems of care (SOC) are implemented within them? This study uses multiple regression with a stratified random sample (n=225) of U.S. counties to explore predictors of three implementation factors of the System of Care Implementation Survey (SOCIS). A model composed of community predictors accounted for at least 12 percent of the variation in: (1) Family Choice and Voice, (2) Outreach and Access to Care, and (3) Interagency and Cross-Sector Collaboration. Significant predictors varied between factors, though rurality tended to be negatively associated with SOC implementation, while residential stability tended to have positive associations. Surprisingly, availability of a community health center was not significantly related to any factor. Given the limitations of the study, results should be interpreted with caution. Further research is needed to clarify these relationships which could inform intervention and assistance efforts directed at promoting SOCs.

In China, rapid but geographically uneven development has led to massive migration from rural to urban areas. The hukou residency registration system has traditionally limited the rights of migrant families, and although public education is now technically available, associated fees often lead children to enroll in alternatives, such as private or migrant schools. Using survey data from rural parents who were working in Chinese urban areas as part of the China Ministry of Educations 2006 project, The Transition of Chinas Rural Labor to Urban Areas, I use parents social capital to predict type of school enrollment for migrant children. Results indicate that parents attachment to their urban community and neighborhood social interaction feature prominently in the ability of children to attend public schools; reliance on neighborhood resources to the exclusion of other support, however, may be associated with attendance at less desirable schools. Implications for labor, migration policy, education, and conceptualizations of social capital in the Chinese context are discussed.

Recent studies have highlighted the religious prejudices that plague communities across the United States and act as social, political, and economic barriers for many religious minority groups. These studies have noted the pervasive negative attitudes towards such American religious minorities as Muslims, atheists, Mormons, and Jews. Further, these prejudices appear to be more pronounced in the American South, a phenomenon that remains underexamined. The present study suggests the importance of and takes aim at uncovering and analyzing the social processes undergirding religious prejudices in the U.S., and of religious prejudices in the American South specifically. The study draws on qualitative data collected from eight communities across the state of Tennessee over a period of three years. My analysis of these data, first, adds indepth qualitative insight in an area of research where experimental and quantitative methods predominate. Building from threatbased theories of prejudice, I utilize critical discourse analysis to delve more deeply into the ways in which prejudices are uniquely framed and expressed by social actors within a specific sociohistorical milieu. Specifically, I pay attention to the common idioms, stories, and caricatures that are part of the discursive lexicon mobilized by residents as they encounter the religious other. Finally, I suggest that this analysis has important implications for dialogue and interventions surrounding religious differences and conflicts. The concept of the dialogic community will be highlighted as a particularly promising response to these conflicts.