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As constraints on public funding become more prevalent and public policy devolves funding responsibility to the agency level in part, public organizations seek additional revenue streams. One identified private resource is philanthropy, which has seen a growth in importance over the past decade as individuals with vast sums of wealth commit a portion of their fortunes to aid society. The literature on philanthropy primarily seeks to understand donor motivations in order to aid organizational pursuit of these funds, with some scholars finding that giving is often undemocratic and can give private donors power relative to other stakeholders. What is far less understood are the effects donations have on organizational priorities. This becomes an important question for public administration as philanthropic donations to public agencies seeking additional funding. To better understand the effects of this phenomenon, this research undertook two replicative case studies in public higher education, an area where public organizations that have a long history of fundraising as well as decreased public funding. Through the lens of quasi-autonomous governmental organizations, rather than privatization, this study triangulates archival, historical, and interview data to study changes in salience of university priorities after a mega-gift is made. In the two cases studied, mega-gifts were found to have some limited effects on salience of priorities. Three different interpretations can be drawn from the findings. First, as loosely-coupled structures, higher education institutions guard against change. Second, control is a negotiated proposition and thus the potential for gifts to create change may be limited. Third, mega-gifts enable structural change, which allows some organizational actors to work with private donor to set agendas for otherwise public functions. These findings are particularly important for public policy makers, administrators, and citizens to understand and scholars to build upon as increasing numbers of public organizations seek to raise private monies. / Ph. D.

This study seeks to understand the role of non-state actors, particularly NGOs, in global environmental governance by spotlighting the EU’s policies on waste trade. To understand the role of NGOs in waste trade, the study traces the waste trade problematisation of the EU and discovers NGOs' strategies and frames to influence the policies of the EU on waste trade. The study uses mixed methods with the help of constructivist and post-structuralist approaches. According to the study, the EU historically approaches the waste trade as an environmental subject outside of the EU with the contribution of NGOs. On the other hand, changes in the global waste trade scene are shifting the EU’s waste trade problematisations within the EU as an economic dependency problem. In this context, by taking a dialogue builder and voice articulator role and creating alliances, NGOs try to change the EU's this two-way approach.  They work to create a global environmental problem understanding for waste trade using mixed frames, which contain both technical and political frames.

Bakgrund Malnutrition är ett omfattande problem i Sydafrika och är orsaken bakom nästan hälften av dödsfall hos barn under 5 år i Sydafrika. Undernäring ger både kortsiktiga och långsiktiga konsekvenser på individ- och samhällsnivå. Hälsofrämjande och preventivt arbete utgör en viktig del av arbetet med att minska andelen barn som lider av malnutrition. I många fall är icke-statliga organisationers avgörande då arbetet är överväldigande för enbart statliga funktioner. Syfte Syftet med studien var att beskriva erfarenheter av att arbeta med malnutrition och uppfattningar om dess bakomliggande orsaker hos personer som arbetar på inhemska icke-statliga organisationer i Kapstaden. Metod I studien användes en kvalitativ studiedesign. Resultaten baserades på data från nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med medarbetare på icke-statliga organisationer. En frågeguide användes för datainsamling och datan analyserades genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat Resultatet sammanställdes och presenterades under huvudkategorierna Organisationernas strategier i arbetet med malnutrition, Behovet av ökad utbildning, Bakomliggande orsaker till malnutrition och hinder för förbättring och Tankar om framtiden. Resultatet visade att samtliga bakomliggande orsaker påverkar varandra negativt, och att tidiga interventioner samt preventivt arbete är avgörande. Den vanligaste strategin bland organisationerna var att öka tillgången till näringsrik mat genom att distribuera råvaror och servera måltider. Resultatet visade även på vikten av fortsatt nutritionsutbildning för att öka kunskapen kring matvanor. Slutsats Det finns flera fungerande strategier som icke-statliga organisationer arbetar med för att motverka malnutrition. Malnutrition är dock ett problem som samspelar med andra samhällsproblem och kan därför inte lösas genom att enbart fokusera på malnutrition. De bakomliggande orsakerna måste tacklas parallellt. Vikten av att sprida kunskap kring nutrition belyses i vårt resultat. Genom ökad kunskap kring malnutrition finns möjlighet för sjuksköterskor att sprida sin kunskap till fler via hälsoutbildning. / Background Malnutrition is a large problem and the cause of almost half of the deaths among children under 5 years in South Africa. Undernourishment causes both short-term and long-term consequences, on both individual and societal levels. Health promotion and preventative work is an important part of reducing the proportion of children with malnutrition. Non-governmental organizations’ work is often crucial because the work is overwhelming for governmental functions to tackle alone. Aim The aim was to describe experiences of working with malnutrition and perceptions of its underlying causes among people working in domestic non-governmental organizations in Cape Town. Method This study used a qualitative design. The results were based on data from nine semi-structured interviews with employees in non-governmental organizations. An interview guide was used to collect data and the data was analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Results The results were compiled and presented under the main categories The organizations strategies in working with malnutrition, The need for increased education, Underlying causes of malnutrition and Thoughts on the future. The results showed that the underlying causes affect each other in a negative way and that early interventions and preventative work is key. The most common strategy among the organizations was to increase access to food through distribution of food and serving meals. The results also showed the need for continued education to increase the knowledge on eating habits. Conclusions There are several effective strategies used by non-governmental organizations to combat malnutrition. Malnutrition is a problem that interacts with other problems and will therefore not be resolved by singularly focusing on malnutrition. The underlying causes must be tackled at the same time. Through increased knowledge about malnutrition among nurses, there is an opportunity to spread knowledge to a larger audience through health education.

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In this dissertation I argue that individuals' definitions of social justice, and their strategies for pursuing it, are structured by material and discursive conditions produced by specific state practices. In this study, based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, I explore this argument by examining the process by which the members of the National United Freedom Fighters (NUFF) resorted to violent political tactics and later abandoned them to adopt a state-sanctioned, self-funded development approach to their ongoing pursuit of social justice. The two different phases of the NUFF's social movement were led by the same actors, in the same impoverished region, with the same material development goals. Through comparative analysis of these two phases, and the material and discursive conditions characteristic of the two different historical moments in which they emerged, this study teases out the specific contextual variables that provoked the NUFF's initial commitment to and subsequent renunciation of violent political action. I argue that the transformation of the NUFF from a guerrilla force inspired by the promise of Marxist revolution into an NGO founded on principles of neoliberal subjectivity- self-help, participation in civil society, community-based volunteerism, market-oriented social reform, and spirituality (Rastafari)- was largely a consequence of material and discursive shifts produced by specific neoliberal governing practices instituted during and after the Structural Adjustment Program mandated by the International Monetary Fund in the mid-1980s. This investigation seeks to produce insights into the future of grassroots political action in the developing world by advancing anthropological understandings of the connections between culture, state practices, material conditions, and marginalized citizens' strategies for social change. / Anthropology

This dissertation explores the creative responses of domestic violence advocates, activists, and other professionals working to address domestic violence in a South Atlantic U.S. state. Neoliberal political-economic policies have supported the development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address social ills that the state has increasingly relinquished responsibility for. While personal responsibility and the work of civil society is extolled as the best way to address social problems and offer social services to the public, state-level cuts of funding streams to NGOs have made it increasingly difficult for these entities to perform their missions. Moreover, reliance upon the state for funding leads to a slippery slope whereby missions shift and projects may be selected based on funding availability rather than what target communities could truly benefit from. Limited resources and time available to adequately conduct organizational missions within NGOs has helped promote new forms of community coalition building across agencies and systems. Based on ethnographic research within a quasi-state agency and multiple community coalitions, this dissertation examines the knowledge and practice of actors situated within these different sites and their relationships with the state. I address the following questions: 1) how are actors affected by and then in turn respond to the socioeconomic affects of neoliberalism; 2) how do socially defined categories of difference shape knowledge and practice; and 3) what is the relationship between dominant and alternative discourses of domestic violence and the differentially positioned actors who adopt them. My research sheds light on the process of community coalition building and activism in the context of a national financial crisis, which supports politically driven hostility towards domestic violence activist work. Through an in depth analysis of the early development of a community coalition to end domestic violence in the LGBTQQI community, I examine the ways actors heterogeneous social compositions and life experiences shape understandings of domestic violence, and receptiveness to alternative forms of knowledge and practice. Material constraints produced by neoliberal political-economic policies further hinder knowledge production and actors' capacity to contend with alternative frameworks for analyzing domestic violence. / Anthropology

The Swedish welfare system is in transformation: while previously, a vast public sector has taken responsibility for welfare provision, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly invited to participate as service providers in the past years. In a qualitative case study, this paper analyses in which ways three NGOs in Malmö perceive their role in the welfare system and by identifying challenges and prospects in the cooperation with the local government. Semi-structured interviews with representatives of the NGOs are analysed through the lens of the social investment discourse by using qualitative content analysis (QCA). Findings show that the perception of all respondents exceeds a substitutionary role of civil society in welfare provision, while two respondents emphasize the social responsibility of the state. The view of one respondent demonstrates a significant change in conventional civil society engagement towards the provision of professionally managed service work. Finally, the paper anticipates that the negotiation of social responsibility could change the understanding of socio-economic human rights as such.

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