In recent decades, a renewed interest in the development of urban areas has resulted in tensions between various social, economic, and political interests that may be resolved through the process of urban planning, often in neighborhood-scale and community-based planning endeavors. As planning shifts to become more participatory and collaborative in practice, these processes must be closely examined to understand their value to, and impacts on, urban communities. This study focuses on issues of power and participation in a neighborhood revitalization planning process in a low-income urban neighborhood. The studys theoretical framework includes theories of social and systemic power, community development and empowerment, and participatory planning. An ecological analysis approach using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and ethnography, is employed to examine the interactions between participants, facilitators, and the broader socio-spatial and socio-political contexts in which the process was situated. The study findings reveal a planning process that was generally inclusive and produced a neighborhood plan that reflected the communitys needs and interests, but implementation of the plans recommendations proved difficult due to several contextual factors, including a substantial change in local government administration and a lack of leadership and cohesiveness within the community. The findings contribute to participatory planning and community power theory by providing an in-depth empirical study of the role of contextual factors and power in shaping the structure and outcomes of neighborhood plans. Additionally, the findings inform planning practice by identifying barriers to implementation, and strategies for effectively structuring neighborhood planning processes to engage community members in decision-making and build community capacity.

This exploratory study examines the motivations and goals of relocators, Christian Community Development Association members who intentionally relocate to low-income urban neighborhoods for the purpose of community partnership. The purpose of this project is twofold: first, I seek to describe and explore the motivations, goals, and experiences of relocators, a population unknown to most scholars; and second, I seek to consider these findings from an explicitly critical perspective. Thus, I orient my study within feminist antiracism, employing Romanâs (1997) fantasies of redemptive identification as my theoretical framework, which suggests that whites tend to collapse differences among racial groups in an attempt to create (false) sameness among them, often resulting in the appropriation of othersâ experiences, an implicit norming, a redemptive and heroic positioning, and an avoidance of systemic complicity. I collected qualitative data in 2010 from a snowball sample of 10 participants in Portland, Milwaukee, and Chicago via in-depth, semi-structured interviewing. Findings revealed that: (1) participants were primarily motivated by a religious conviction to personally respond to issues of poverty and injustice; (2) participants sought to belong in the neighborhood through shared experiences and personal relationships; and (3), participants described relocations as both a risk and a benefit. Moreover, critical analysis of these themes further suggests that relocators tended to: (1) explicitly resist a redemptive role while implicitly assuming a modeling position; (2) seek sameness through geographic proximity with limited attention to issues of power and difference; and (3) focus on individual-level interventions with virtually no references to macro-level change.

Since 1987, billions of dollars in homeless assistance have been allocated annually by the U.S. federal government. Yet, few evaluations of homelessness interventions exist. This study analyzes the likelihood that households in Georgia returned to shelter within two years of leaving one of three interventions: rapid re-housing (RRH), transitional housing (TH), and emergency shelter (ES), with the latter serving as a reference. Using propensity scores, RRH households were matched to comparable TH and ES households. Generalized linear mixed modeling then controlled for household characteristics as well as variation between intervention implementations. Housing stability did not appear affected by whether study households were gradually transitioned or rapidly placed into housing. In addition, the effect of TH for households without children appears highly dependent on the interventionâs implementation, which deserves further study. These findings are generalizable to a subpopulation that is better resourced than the general homeless population.

This thesis describes the details and rationale of a study exploring particular organizations that work to address structural inequalities in our society, local labor unions. The purpose of this study was to explore local labor unions using the lens of mediating structures, in which specific program components or activities that local labor unions sponsor for their members are examined as mechanisms of democratic participation. In this way, light may be shed on the organizational mechanisms that have made unions vital in citizen mobilization and voter turnout. Labor leaders within the Kansas City metropolitan area were surveyed about their union-sponsored programs and activities, specifically internal, nonelectoral political, and electoral democratic activities, and asked some general demographic information about their unions. These data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to paint a picture of the union landscape in Kansas City, as well as to provide an insight into the internal workings of mediating structures. Union memberships were predominantly white and male. Positive correlations were found between proportion of male members and general election turnout estimates; and between union size and nonelectoral political activities as well as electoral activities. Nonelectoral political activities were offered most regularly, followed by electoral, then internal activities. Average democratic activity overall, as measured by the survey, was high. Implications for labor unions and other mediating structures, as well as limitations of the study are discussed.

This study weaves together strands of knowledge from a range of disciplines including anthropology and physics to explore power and leadership from a paradigm of synergy. Due to a desire to develop a phenomenological understanding of synergic power, both synergic power and network-based leadership are explored in an organization in Northern Colorado that uses community organizing to develop leaders and exercise power for social change. Nine semi-structured interviews, observational data, organizational documents, and census data were collected and analyzed to address five research questions: do people in organizations use synergic power and are they aware of it, how do they conceptualize power, how do they conceptualize leadership, what is the structure and function of leadership, and what can we learn about synergic power and network-based leadership from this type of organization. Overall the data provides support for the presence and use of synergic power and network-based leadership in the organization. The data also shows that organizational members understood power and leadership to be relational phenomena which is indicative of a synergy paradigm. The results of this study have implications for leadership, practice, social action, and social change.

This thesis uses thirteen interviews with low-income housing advocates to place current housing advocacy practice in its historical context of the last 150 years. Historically, housing policy has become more progressive when two conditions are present: one, urban social unrest and, two, professional housing advocacy. However, once major successes were made during the sixties, neoliberal federal policy changes put advocates on the defensive. Analysis of the interviews indicates that preferred strategy of housing policy modification differed along participants social position and level of investment in the current system, level of outrage, and belief in democratic agency. Four main strategies of advocacy work were found, each differed to the extent it was public as opposed to private. The four strategies were: educating and mobilizing the public, educating public officials, lobbying public officials, and mobilizing private organizations. Advocates most invested in the current system of property relations promoted the least public forms of action, while those on the margins promoted the most public forms of action. Theoretical and practical implications for advocacy, political economics, and democratic theory are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge current understandings about the nature of community and individual relationships held by development theory. Recently, development theorists have challenged the idea that economic growth should be either the primary means or ends of development, and have sought to understand development in terms of freedoms, capabilities, and human rights. While these theories present exciting frameworks with which to further understand and pursue human flourishing, they fail to recognize the importance of community as an integral aspect of human development. In this paper, I argue that the exclusion of community development in the process of human development results from an inadequate understanding of the roles and functions of community, as well as an over-simplification of the nature of individual and community relations. <p> In order to illustrate these concepts, I explore the role of community in the development of indigenous people in the Chimborazo province of Ecuador. I will rely on interviews collected during an evaluation of an education-focused development program to examine the ways that people understand their community and the relationships between community and individuals. I will first use a community narrative framework to interpret how the people that I interviewed understand community at a discursive level. I will then describe the roles of indigenous community organizations and the ways they function in indigenous society. Lastly, I will explore indigenous understandings of individual and community relationships, and use these understandings to challenge current development theories.

This dissertation is a collection of three studies examining the overlap between mental health services and being charged with a crime during the time of transition to adulthood from 16 to 25 years of age. The first study extends past research on predictors of criminal charges for youth in the public mental health system. Findings from this study indicated high levels of dual involvement. In general, males and youth diagnosed with substance use disorder or conduct disorder were more likely to have a criminal charge. Residential treatment, inpatient hospitalization, and anxiety disorder were generally not related to criminal charges. The second study documented the annual incidence and cumulative prevalence of being charged with a crime for youth served in out-of-home treatment while 16, 17, or 18 years old. Results indicated that both males and females served in out-of-home treatment had high annual incidence and cumulative prevalence rates of being charged with a crime into young adulthood. However, youth served in non-out-of-home treatment had similarly high rates. These groups did not significantly differ in annual or cumulative charge rates before 16, when 16 to 18, or from 18 to 25 years old. The third study longitudinally modeled the probability of being charged with a crime in relation to localized events, including being served in out-of-home treatment and aging into adulthood. Results indicated that out-of-home treatment was related to a decreased probability of being charged with a crime while the youth was in treatment, but that it had no effect on post-treatment probability. Longitudinal probability of being charged was moderated by gender; in general, females did not experience a peak probability time, while males peaked at age 19. Other significant contributors to being charged included having a substance use diagnosis, and having an offense record prior to age 16.

This study provides information on the number of youth in Nashville who experience homeless episodes and describes the experience of literally homeless youth in Nashville. The study included two data collection efforts: a survey of 2,169 randomly selected Metropolitan Nashville Public School (MNPS) youth in grades 9 through 12 and in-depth face-to-face interviews with 40 homeless youth who identified as either street youth or couchsurfers. Nearly 14% of Nashville public high school youth reported a runaway (6.3%) or throwaway (7.3%) episode in the past twelve months. Nearly 1 in 5 (19.6%) were either a runaway or a throwaway in their lifetime, and 20.5% had a homeless experience of some kind. Twelfth graders were significantly more likely than those in grades 9-11 to report a runaway/throwaway episode, and more likely to be kicked out than to run away. Homeless youth in Nashville appear to make use of available services. Formal shelter services were most used (70%) but also most avoided due to a negative experience. Youth reported using food services (53%); a local homeless youth outreach program (45%); local churches (43%); safe spaces (43%); mental health services (33%); educational assistance (28%); employment assistance (23%); and physical health services (15%). Reasons for avoiding services included negative experiences, a sense of independence, the location of services and transportation, not wanting to leave a partner to get services, and strict service requirements or rules. Couchsurfing youth tended to be less likely than street youth to utilize available services. Nashville youth have myriad strengths, including being optimistic, strong-willed, altruistic, smart, and friendly. They saw their youth as a factor that worked in their favor, relied on their relationships for strength, and called on their faith to help them through challenging situations they faced daily. According to these youth, assistance to a homeless person under the age of twenty-five would have a greater impact, because they tend to be more motivated to leave their situations than those who may be older or have been on the streets longer. Implications for practice, policy and research are discussed.

This dissertation highlights the role of congregations in civic participation and illuminates the role of spirituality within the process of congregation based community organizing (CBCO). Empowerment (psychological, interpersonal, and behavioral), alienation, spirituality, and sense of community are found to vary by organizational affiliation (CBCO, non CBCO church, neighborhood, school, and non-affiliation). In particular, CBCO participants evidence higher levels of psychological and interpersonal empowerment and civic participation compared to those affiliated through other organizational contexts. CBCO participants are no stronger in spirituality than non CBCO church goers, but are significantly more likely to channel their spirituality into action through the civic sphere. Importantly, the directly negative effects of a heightened cognitive understanding of power on civic participation are shown to reverse (become positive) when mediating effects of spirituality and sense of community are considered.