Despite federal, state, and local efforts to combat environmental injustices resulting from heavy industrial activity and high air pollution levels, there is a widespread tendency for hazardous industrial activities to locate near low-income, underrepresented ethnic populations in the United States. The Houston Ship Channel, a port containing the largest concentration of Petrochemical Facilities in the United States, evidences this tendency and provides a stellar example of the nexus between poverty, race, industrial location, and air pollution levels. As a result of the heavy industrial activities in the East Houston area adjacent to the Houston Ship Channel, the surrounding residential area’s air quality levels are significantly poor in relation to federal, state, and local standards. Not coincidentally, these neighborhoods are predominantly low-income and Hispanic in makeup. Unfortunately, there exist few or no federal or state accountability and enforcement mechanisms to resolve this serious problem. In addition, Houston’s lack of zoning and weak land use regulations provides little opportunity for the situation to improve. Although community organization efforts have succeeded in terms of mobilization, education, and consensus building, more effective local planning tools, supported by federal regulations and applied research, would serve to remove the roadblocks that have hindered the advancement of policies promoting enhanced air quality controls, and thus improve the quality of life of the residents of East Houston. / text

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This study examines the issues of collaboration and competition in the context of oil and gas sector organizations. The convergence of economics and organization science literatures suggests a connection between the prevalence of extraorganizational exchange and the role of technology in driving innovation and growth. Specifically, the role of collaboration as a strategy for increasing the returns to technology and providing competitive advantage is explored in this research. / Two questions were advanced to examine the framework. The first investigated the relationships between a set of organizational characteristics and collaborative success; four propositions were developed to test this question. The second issue explored how organizations manage collaborative-competitive tensions in an environment characterized as fiercely competitive and marked by widespread collaborative arrangements. / Using a qualitative research methodology, thirty face-to-face interviews were conducted with executives and senior-level managers from twenty-three companies over an eight-month period; a questionnaire was also used to gather the more objective information. The sample included diversified energy, exploration and development, pipeline and oil and gas service companies. The majority of firms were located in the Houston, Texas area. / The most important implications of the study pertain to innovation and organizational change issues. Principal findings were that the ability to manage complex and multiple time frames was positively associated with an organization's level of collaborative capability, a construct that measured collaborative experience and expertise; organizational boundaries that are neither completely permeable nor fully defined were consistent with more successful collaborations; and the proposed direct relationship between collaborative capability and competitive advantage was only weakly supported. Further results indicate that three-fourths of the sample did not experience conflict between collaborative and competitive strategies, while those firms that noted tensions were confined to oil and gas service companies; and collaborative arrangements were motivated by three imperatives of capital intensity, competition and dependency, each of which led to distinct organizational outcomes.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148).

Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-97).

This study was designed to examine the opinions of Turkish immigrants living in the Houston metropolitan area about the conflict between secularism and Islam in Turkey. The study examined the role of the practice of religion on the opinions about the clash between secularism and Islam. A final sample consisted of 40 immigrants recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. In-depth interviews and a survey including screening questions were conducted. The results indicated that practice of religion has a partial impact on the opinions of Turkish immigrants about the conflict between secularism and Islam. Future research should further examine if the experience of living abroad for a long period influence Turkish immigrants' opinions about the same issue.

No description available.

This study is concerned with the roles and relationships between artists-in-residence, community audiences, and program coordinators/art educators as they engage together in community arts programs. This study takes place at Project Row Houses (PRH), a community arts organization located in Houston, Texas and focuses on the artist-in-residence program, which commissions a group of national and international artists for a 6-month period to create art installations in relation to the community and its African-American heritage. This ethnographic case study is based on the activities and events surrounding the 2008 PRH exhibition, Round 29, Thunderbolt Special: The Great Electric Show and Dance, after Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins and employed qualitative data gathering methods of participant-observation, conducting semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews, and through document collection, and contextual information. Observations were recorded through field notes, photographs, and video. Interviews were conducted with 3 artists-in-residence, 3 community audience members, and 3 program coordinators or staff members involved with the program, regarding their experiences at the site and experiences with each other. My analysis presents the roles of artist, community audience, and program coordinator/art educator through three sections on cultural work. Within these sections I discuss topics related to the power of voice, situatedness, and creativity, as it relates to the artists and community audiences. For the role of program coordinator/art educator, I focus more closely on her role in the process of mediation. Topics of power, social dynamics, identity, and representation are also framed within these discussions.

The aim of this exploratory qualitative study is to identify the problems African American adolescent girls face in making eating choices and to learn how they make decisions about eating. Differences related to culture and socioeconomic status influences, and decision-making strategies were explored. Three sites in African American communities were selected for focus groups and individual adolescent girl-parent dyad interviews for data collection. Data were gathered in 5 focus groups and 4 individual adolescent girl-parent dyad interviews with African American adolescents (n=30). Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (EST) provided the conceptual framework for informing the analysis and interpretation of the data. Using grounded theory methods, the researcher identified the core variable or basic psychosocial problem that faced the participants was receiving mixed messages. Low income African American adolescent girls receive mixed messages about nutrition, health and foods from their microsystems that are comprised of friends and family, and from macrosystems that include textbooks and the media. Filtering the mixed messages is the basic psychosocial process that low income African American girls use to handle the barrage of mixed messages they receive from their microsystems and macrosystems regarding eating choices and exosystem influences. The process of filtering the mixed messages is comprised of five phases: Applying a lens, surveying available resources, weighing influences, then choosing alternating eating strategies and evaluating their eating choices. How the adolescent girl applies a lens, surveys resources and weighs the influences together impact the alternating eating strategies that they implement. Over time they evaluate the effectiveness of their eating choices. / text