The problems of Russian speaking refugees from the Ukraine region of the former Soviet Union are the basis for ethnographic inquiry and the delineation of the role of voluntary agencies who assist their resettlement in Portland, Oregon. Interpretive methods are the foundation for an analysis of Ukrainians' perceptions of problems inherent in the migration and communication process. Though their reasons for emigration are understood, techniques of participant observation reveal otherwise hidden aspects of the effect of bilingualism and Ukrainians' perception of the role of resettlement agencies as representatives of the state. The intention of the research is to contribute to the field of anthropological study of social issues and refugee resettlement. In the aim of conflict resolution, the research focus seeks to improve communication between those in authority and those subordinate to the prerogative of immigration law. / Graduation date: 1994

xi, 87 p. : col. map / This project explores the factors contributing to and hindering coalition building and cooperation between immigrant day laborers and the building trade unions in Portland, Oregon. The research is based on interviews with local labor and worker center leaders and an examination of public records and media discourse. It draws from a theoretical framework informed by Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and their work on identity politics in new social movements. The research concludes that the lack of full success in this case was the result of a conflicting message that conveyed to workers that they shared a similar identity, while at the same time that they labored in separate industries. As a result, no shared identity was ever established and organized labor continued to view immigrant workers as outsiders. / Committee in charge: Daniel HoSang, Chairperson; Joseph Lowndes, Member; Daniel Tichenor, Member

x, 100 p. : music / This study looks at the lives of female musicians who lived and worked in Oregon in the early twentieth century in order to answer questions about what musical opportunities were available to them and what musical life may have been like. In this study I am looking at the lives of the composers, performers, and music teachers, Ethel Edick Burtt (1886-1974) and Mary Evelene Calbreath (1895-1972). Mary Evelene Calbreath was a prominent Portland musician and composer. Her works were performed frequently in Portland and were written about newspapers. Ethel Edick Burtt composed piano pieces and songs, and performances of them were advertised in newspapers. Her life was remarkable enough to make it into encyclopedias like the <italic>Who's Who, Cohen,</italic> and the <italic>MacMillan.</italic> For this study I use archival material, newspaper advertisements and articles, and secondary sources about Portland and Oregon history. / Committee in charge: Anne Dhu McLucas, Chair; Lori Kruckenberg, Member; Loren Kajikawa, Member

Two groups of urban residents present ongoing problems, the frail elderly and disadvantaged youth who are approaching transition from school to the work force. Many of the disadvantaged youth are at risk because of family background, inadequate education, and lack of work experience. Many of the frail elderly are unable to care for themselves because of debility, chronic illness, or functional impairments (Eustis, 1974). The United States is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the numbers of persons over 65 years of age and it is expected that between 1980 and 2000 there will be a 67 percent increase in persons 80 and over. These demographic changes are significant especially for long-term care policy for the elderly. There is an urgent need to provide the kind of care that permits them to continue to live in their own homes. The frail elderly perceive their need for a dependable source of food as a primary requirement. If this is not met, institutional care becomes the only possible option. Urban youth face an increasing pressure to take a job in order to earn money, often at the expense of further education. Part-time work and school can be managed, and with planning, the classroom curriculum can be blended with the job. Intergenerational programs present a possible solution to some of the problems of the frail elderly and youth. They can be brought together through one of these programs for their mutual benefit. Intergenerational programming is the process of planned and purposeful interaction between generations. The programs encompass a range of ideas as they are guided by the needs of the community and its resources to meet these needs (Newman, 1983). Project MAIN was one of these projects. In 1983 under the auspices of Portland Youth Advocates, Project MAIN was created to meet the needs of the frail elderly and youth in an urban area. Many of the frail elderly were confined to their homes, unable to do ordinary tasks such as grocery shopping. Low-income teenagers needed access to an income-generating jobs program that would permit them to remain in school. Project MAIN was planned to help disadvantaged youth and simultaneously enrich the lives of the elderly (Ventura-Merkel, 1988). Project MAIN was conceived as a dynamic entity that could not be seen directly, but perceived as a process that had qualitative effects on those with whom it came in contact. It was planned as an active participatory learning experience for youth. Relevant classroom curricula blended with part-time jobs. The focus was on full participation by the youth in the process of providing a shopping service for the homebound elderly. Two important elements of the project were active youth participation and project-oriented learning. The youth planned and operated a shopping service for the frail elderly clients. The youth continued with their education and worked part-time. They began with minimum wage and increases came regularly, following satisfactory evaluation by peers and staff. As they became more competent, they assisted the staff with supervision and instruction. A case study explored the outcomes of Project MAIN. A weakness in the data from guided interviews of the clients resulted from memory loss and confusion encountered in a few of the elderly. A strength was the flexible interviews which gave the elderly time to explore new ideas as they emerged. The outcomes of Project MAIN were measured by the level of satisfaction for both the elderly clients and the participating youth. The levels of satisfaction were high in the pilot project, with its four weeks of intensive training and careful supervision. Adequate funding from private organizations made this possible. In the demonstration phase, funding became an acute problem. Training and supervision of the youthful shoppers was curtailed. Although the clients found the service better than they had before Project MAIN, complaints of broken appointments and declining dependability began to be heard. It became evident that the youth were in need of better preparation and more intensive supervision. Because of lack of funds, it was not possible to supply staff for these tasks. From the outcomes of the pilot project, it is evident that the concept of Project MAIN is a viable one for meeting the needs of the frail elderly and youth. However, from the demonstration phase, it was seen that without adequate funding, the quality of the shopping service declined. Decisions need to be made in the early planning of a program like Project MAIN. Elimination of staff needed for training and supervision in favor if increasing the number of youthful shoppers can threaten the viability of the program.

This investigation had the dual purpose of exploring, in historical perspectives, the academic discipline known as Early Childhood Education and the use of Early Childhood Education as a vehicle for compensatory education in the Portland Public Schools from 1965-1984.

This dissertation focuses on the precise and meaningful measurement of change as it pertains to the urban subarea residential housing status. The word "measurement" is qualified as meaningful in the sense that the approach adopted is of relevance to public policy. Specifically, the dissertation is aimed at providing answers to the following research questions: First, how can the changes in residential housing status in the different parts of an urban area be precisely and meaningfully measured? Second, what variables are most appropriate for the measurement? Third, can these variables be useful for differentiating between various parts of the urban area? Fourth, do the resul ts of an urban subarea housing classification system depend on the specific variables used in the classification? Using data drawn mainly from the 1960 and 1970 censuses of housing for Portland, Oregon SMSA, a simple but robust methodology is developed for indexing and monitoring changes in the urban subarea residential housing status. The research borrows appreciably from Fisher and Winnick's, and Toulan' s formulations of the filtering process in the urban housing market. The variables used in the measurement and classification analyses include the changes in the following variables: median home value or contract rent, median household income relative to the average household size, housing quality, percentage of all occupied housing units, and percentage of owner occupied housing units. Principal component analysis is used for construction of composite index of change in urban subarea residential housing status. Furthermore, this composite index is used in a multivariate linear discriminant analysis for the classification of the various subareas (census tracts) in Portland, Oregon SMSA. The findings validate the variables employed in the analyses, and support the hypothesis that the results of an urban subarea classification system depend, to some extent, on the housing market variables used in the classification. The findings from the study show that operationally simple but robust systems can be developed for monitoring the changes in residential housing status in urban neighborhoods, in relation to the general urban area.

This thesis examines the relationship between English and Romanes as spoken by the Portland Kalderash Rom (Gypsies). Examples, taken from natural conversations which were taped, translated, and analyzed, show that the intermixing follows rules which guard the linguistic integrity of both languages. Code changing, code mixing, linguistic natural setting. A lexicon of Romanes words, elicited from members of the Gypsy community, is also included. The findings of this study support the thesis that this intermixing of Romanes and English is adaptive in that it insures that all members of the community can speak both languages from an early age.

Traditionally, local above- and below-ground plant and microbial communities, temperature and precipitation, topography and texture and composition of parent material have been thought to govern the soil processes that lead to soil organic matter accumulation over decades or centuries. Soil organic matter is a substantial global reservoir of carbon and disturbance of equilibrated soils often leads to efflux of significant quantities of CO2. Anthropogenic influences shift the inputs, disturb the structure and alter the biochemistry of soil, profoundly disrupting soil-forming processes. Urbanization leads to soil organic matter equilibria that are different from those in naturally forming soils. Measurement of soil organic matter in diverse cities suggests that they differ in their capacity to accumulate soil organic matter. Here I quantify soil organic matter and examine the limitations of its accumulation within cities by comparing differences in soil organic matter and natural and anthropogenic characteristics at the neighborhood, city and regional scales in Portland, Oregon to that in the Pacific Northwest. I found that each Portland neighborhood has distinct urban characteristics and tree and shrub community composition, but soil organic matter content is indistinguishable among them. Across Portland, neither vegetation structure nor urban factors appear to directly influence soil organic matter content. Rather, microbial biomass, bulk density and total nitrogen appear to be important factors controlling soil organic matter content in Portland. The amount of soil organic matter stored in Portland's soils is statistically indistinguishable from Pacific Northwest soils, in contrast to other temperate cities.

This study is an attempt to discover the intercultural communication problems and the methods of coping used by the Nigerian students in the Portland metropolitan extent to which these discovered problems and tried solutions compare with those of other international students that are commonly reported in the literature.

This dissertation focused on citizen advocacy groups as an intervention strategy for affecting change in the policy process. The analysis is of a specific intervention in school desegregation policy by a citizen advocacy group. The purpose of this research was to identify the conditions under which a citizen advocacy group can intervene; the constraints to a successful intervention; and the attributes of a successful intervention. The case study was of the Community Coalition for School Integration, a citizen advocacy group which existed in Portland, Oregon between 1977 and 1980. A multi-method approach was used. It involved fifty interviews with members of the Coalition, school administration, school board and the media. In addition, historical and document analysis of secondary data and extensive literature review was done. The theoretical framework guiding this research was Iannaccone's dissatisfaction theory of governance, DIS/ID/STO/OS. DIS is evidence of community changed dissatisfaction reflected in voting behavior leading next to incumbent school board member defeat (ID) followed within two years by involuntary superintendent turnover (STO) and outside succession (OS). Rothman's (1968) models of community organization practice were used to analyze the intervention of the Coalition. The findings do confirm the DIS/ID/STO/OS theory of governance, but also suggest that community intervention is an intervening variable between the stage of dissatisfaction and incumbent defeat. The analysis of the intervention identifies six conditions necessary for community intervention: timeliness of the issue, financial resources, leadership, organizational support, staff, and media coverage. The major constraints were the lack of trust between the policy-making body and the citizen advocacy groups, and the political environment of the community. Attributes of successful intervention were: focused advocacy, multiple intervention strategies, and permanency of the organization. The impact of the citizen advocacy group's intervention is discussed, as are recommendations for future research.