ABSTRACT This qualitative study advances crisis communication and relationship management application and theory by examining the crisis response strategies used by corporations during a time of crisis involving a nonprofit partner. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the Facebook pages of 57 companies that were corporate partners of Susan G. Komen in early 2012. Nineteen companies responded using their Facebook accounts during two crisis periods studied. The researcher argues that consideration must be given to additional contingent factors beyond those proposed by situational crisis communication theory. Contingent variables related to the corporations' relationship with the charity, including level of investment, as well as the size and exposure of the businesses were explored for possible influence on the companies' choice of crisis response strategy. Though causation cannot be determined in a qualitative study, support was found for the variables' role in prompting company responses within this particular crisis. The study concludes with a call for more research on the contingent variables that may influence responses in corporate social responsibility partnership crises, as well as for further study on the effectiveness of response strategies employed.

This study is an exploration of the possibility of pedagogical partnership between low socioeconomic public high school principals and their classroom teachers for the purpose of advancing critical thinking skills and critical consciousness development in their students. This study will explore the viability of these partnerships through the perspectives of associate superintendents, principals, and teachers. The exploration will seek to determine the participants’ willingness to partner pedagogically, their readiness to advance critical thinking and critical consciousness development in their students, and their perception of district and state policies that might help or stand in the way of such development. / text

The social purpose of American higher education is a question that has frequently surfaced. The Atlanta showing of the Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography In America Exhibit provided a unique opportunity for an institution of higher education, a government agency, and private citizens to collaborate on a reconciliatory project related to the social justice issue of lynching. The role of higher education has varied over the course of history, but the foundation for this study was laid when higher education institutions first developed an interconnectedness with the communities in which they resided, with higher education serving in a key capacity in the development and training of community leaders. This case study was designed to examine how Emory University, a private, prestigious, Southern research university, collaborated with external entities to provide educational opportunities for members of the Atlanta community to engage in discourse related to the lynchings that occurred in the United States from the 1870s to the 1960s. The case study method allowed for the exploration of complex social conditions from multidimensional perspectives. Interviews of individuals involved with the Exhibit and Emory University as well as document analysis were used to investigate the problem. The partnership was examined through a social justice framework, allowing for a full examination of the process and the outcome of the partnership in relation to the treatment of the subject matter. As a result of this study, a greater understanding of the role institutions of higher education can have in reconciliatory acts related to racial oppression and social injustice is provided.

The central argument that I advance in this dissertation is that the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in the governance of global health and agricultural development has been derived from their ability to advance knowledge structures crafted to accommodate the preferences of the dominant states operating within the contexts where they have sought to catalyze change. Consequently, this dissertation provides a new way of conceptualizing knowledge power broadly conceived as well as private governance as it relates to the provision of public goods. In the first half of the twentieth-century, RF funds drove scientific research that produced tangible solutions, such as vaccines and high-yielding seed varieties, to longstanding problems undermining the health and wealth of developing countries emerging from the clutches of colonialism. At the country-level, the Foundation provided advanced training to a generation of agricultural scientists and health practitioners, and RF expertise was also pivotal to the creation of specialized International Organizations (IOs) for health (e.g. the League of Nations Health Organization) and agriculture (e.g. the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) as well as many informal international networks of experts working to solve common problems. Finally in the neo-liberal era, RF effectively demonstrated how the public-private partnership paradigm could provide public goods in the face of externally imposed austerity constraining public sector capacity and the failure of the free-market to meet the needs of populations with limited purchasing power. Since its inception, the BMGF has demonstrated a similar commitment to underwriting innovation through science oriented towards reducing global health disparities and increasing agricultural productivity in poor countries, and has greatly expanded the application of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach in both health and agriculture. Unlike its intellectual forebear, BMGF has been far more focused on end-points and silver bullets than investing directly in the training of human resources. Moreover whereas RF has for most of its history decentralized its staff, those of BMGF have been concentrated mainly at its headquarters in Seattle. With no operational programs of its own, BMGF has instead relied heavily on external consultants to inform its programs and remains dependent on intermediary organizations to implement its grants. Despite these and other differences, both RF and BMGF have exhibited a common capacity to catalyse institutional innovation that has benefited historically marginalized populations in the absence of structural changes to the dominant global power structure. A preference for compromise over contestation, coupled with a capacity for enabling innovation in science and governance, has resulted in broad acceptance for RF and BMGF knowledge structures within both state and international policy arenas. This acceptance has translated into both Foundations having direct influence over (i) how major challenges related to disease and agriculture facing the global south are understood (i.e. the determinants and viable solutions); (ii) what types of knowledge matters for solving said problems (i.e. who leads); and (iii) how collective action focused on addressing these problems is structured (i.e. the institutional frameworks).

Stobbe, Mark Jacob, M.A. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, February 2014. Public-Private Partnerships in Saskatchewan: A Tale of two Upgraders. Most of the literature dealing with public-private partnerships (P3s) examines the impact of private sector involvement in the provision of infrastructure or services normally provided by the public sector. This thesis uses the two case studies of the NewGrade Heavy Oil Upgrader and the Bi-Provincial Heavy Oil upgrader to examine the dynamics of P3s entered into by government in a market-driven, commercial sector for the purposes of promoting economic development. In the 1980’s, there was a political consensus in the Saskatchewan legislature that the province needed upgrading capacity to convert heavy crude oil into more marketable and valuable light synthetic crude and that the upgraders should be built through P3s. The result was the creation of the NewGrade and Bi-Provincial Upgraders. In the 1990’s, financial losses at both upgraders caused the Saskatchewan government to demand renegotiation of these partnerships. The thesis examines these partnerships in their initial negotiation, construction/operation and renegotiation in order to determine what environmental factors and internal dynamics contributed to the success or failure of the partnerships and the relations between the partners. The thesis argues that the upgraders successfully achieved their public policy objectives and gained the benefits of synergies arising from the differences between the public and private sector. However, the partnerships came under severe stress arising from a prolonged downturn in oil markets and the price of crude oil. The resulting financial losses caused the Saskatchewan government to seek a renegotiation of the terms of partnership. Despite this common cause of stress in the partnerships, the renegotiations of the agreements varied greatly. It is demonstrated that these differences arose from the financial structure of each partnership, the nature of the private sector partners and the number of partners involved in the project. The thesis provides some observations of potential value for governments and corporations considering entering partnerships for economic development projects. The differences between partners that can create synergistic benefits can also be the basis for the erosion of trust between the partners. The different financial tools used by government to participate in P3s can have significant impacts on both project viability and relationships between the partners.

Using a qualitative case study approach, a study looking at what student co-researchers value while they are part of a research team was conducted. The three questions guiding this study included: What personal changes did student co-researchers experience? How does a Co-operative Inquiry approach contribute to youth engagement and positive youth development? And, What adult skills are evident in building a strong youth led research project? Data was collected from a Co-operative Inquiry research project entitled 62 Ways to Change the World. The multiple sources of data included: key informative interviews and a focus group with student co-researchers from 62 Ways to Change the World and all documents pertaining to the research project. By understanding what young people value while they are on a project team strategies that contribute to sustainable student-led research can be developed and shared with organizations, educational institutions and governments that are currently or are interested in conducting research with young students.

This thesis articulates how the Kuh-Ke-Nah network (K-Net) shaped broadband development in remote indigenous communities. K-Net operates under the not-for-profit stewardship of Keewaytinook Okimanak (KO) Tribal Council. Located in Northwestern Ontario, KO brought K-Net to life amongst its six member First Nations in the mid 1990s. As K-Net evolved and expanded its membership, KO established a governance model that devolves network ownership and control to community networks in partner First Nations. This governance model reflects KO’s use of social enterprise to organize K-Net’s community-based broadband deployment amidst necessary partnerships with government programs and industry players. K-Net’s social enterprise has rapidly grown since 1997, when its core constituents fought for basic telephone service and internet access in Northern Ontario. In the space of less than a decade, K-Net communities have gone from a situation in which it was common for there to be but a single public payphone in a settlement, to a point where over thirty now have broadband internet services to households. Technologies now under K-Net control include a C-Band satellite transponder, IP videoconferencing and telephony, web and email server space, and a variety of terrestrial and wireless links that effectively connect small, scattered First Nations communities to each other and the wider world. K-Net’s governance model encourages member communities to own and control community local loops and internet services under the authority of a local enterprise. Community ownership and control over local loops allows First Nations to collaborate with KO to adapt broadband applications, such as telemedicine and an internet high school, to local challenges and priorities. K-Net’s aggregation of demand from disparate users, within and across member communities, creates economies of scale for the network’s social enterprise, and allows a dynamic reallocation of bandwidth to meet social priorities. Based on four years of research with K-Net stakeholders under the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), my thesis documents the evolution of K-Net’s governance model as a reflection of its social enterprise. Drawing from Community Informatics and the Ecology of Games, I trace K-Net’s history and organization to assess how KO, its partners, and K-Net’s constituents, cooperated to make social enterprise viable for member First Nations.

abstract: This dissertation examines the conditions that foster or hinder success of university-based community design centers (CDCs) in the United States. Little is known about the normative underpinnings of CDCs, how successful these centers have been, which factors have contributed to or impeded their success, and how they have responded to the changes in social, political, professional and economic contexts. Adopting Giddens' theory of structuration as a research framework, this study examined CDCs via a mixed-methods sequential research design: a cross-sectional survey of CDCs on current definitions of success and metrics in use; and in-depth interviews to document the centers' histories of change or stasis, and how these changes influenced their successes. The findings of the first phase were utilized to develop a comprehensive success model for current CDCs that comprise measures related to organizational impacts, activities, and capacities. In the multiple case study analysis, four major rationales were identified: universities for public service, pragmatist learning theories, civic professionalism, and social change. These four rationales were evident in all of the studied cases at varying degrees. Using the concept of permeability, the study also exemplified how the processes of CDCs had transformative impacts in institutional, societal, and personal contexts. Multidisciplinarity has also emerged as a theme for the current organizational transformations of CDCs. The main argument that emerged from these findings is that it is not possible to identify a singular model or best practice for CDCs. The strengths and unique potentials of CDCs depend on the alternative rationales, involved agencies, and their social, political and spatial contexts. However, capitalizing on the distinctive attributes of the institutional context (i.e. the university), I consider some possibilities for university-based CDCs with an interdisciplinary structure, pushing the professional, curricular, and institutional boundaries, and striving for systemic change and social justice. In addition to contributing to the theoretical knowledge base, the findings provide useful information to various CDCs across the country, particularly today as they struggle with financial constraints while the community needs they provide are increasingly in demand. Since CDCs have a long history of community service and engagement, the findings can inform other university-community partnerships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Design and Planning 2011

Este estudo é resultado de pesquisa realizada com coordenadores e ex-coordenadores de projetos de parceria universitária financiados por meio do Programa CAPES/Brafitec (Brasil-France Ingénieur Technologie). Um dos programas mais consolidados da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), o Brafitec viabiliza a formação de redes de cooperação entre Escolas de Engenharia do Brasil e da França. O Programa é resultado da parceria da CAPES com a CDEFI (Conference des Directours d’Écoles et Formations d’Ingénieurs) e, desde sua criação em 2002, já beneficiou 5.220 alunos brasileiros e 2.273 franceses por meio de 204 projetos financiados. Esta pesquisa objetiva avaliar a contribuição do Brafitec para: a internacionalização dos cursos de engenharia no Brasil; o reconhecimento recíproco de créditos; e a geração de oportunidades de prática profissional por meio de estágios em laboratórios e empresas no Brasil e na França. / This study is based on a survey conducted with coordinators and former coordinators of university partnership projects funded within the CAPES/Brafitec Program (Brazil-France Engineer Technology). One of the most successful programs of the Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), Brafitec enables the creation of cooperation networks among Brazilian and French Engineering Schools. The Program resulted from the agreement between CAPES and CDEFI (Conference des Directours d’Écoles et Formations d’Ingénieurs) and, since its establishment in 2002, it has benefited 5.220 Brazilian and 2.273 French students within 204 financed projects. This research aims to evaluate Brafitec’s contribution to: the internationalization of engineering courses in Brazil; the mutual recognition/transfer of credits; and the establishment of work experience opportunities through internships at laboratories and companies in Brazil and France.

Orientador: Theresa Maria de Freitas Adrião / Banca: Cleiton de Oliveira / Banca: Rubens Barbosa de Camargo / Resumo: A presente pesquisa investigou e analisou a implantação e as consequências das parcerias público-privadas estabelecidas entre a administração pública municipal e o setor privado, nos estudos de dois casos intencionalmente selecionados: os municípios de Ipeúna e Santa Gertrudes, no Estado de São Paulo, na aquisição de 'sistema de ensino', com adoção de um modelo pedagógico único, sob a forma de material didático apostilado. O período selecionado para o estudo compreende a vigência do Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento do Ensino Fundamental e Valorização do Magistério (Fundef), 1997 a 2006. Partimos do pressuposto que, no Estado de São Paulo, a reforma da educação pública a partir da política do governo estadual introduzida no primeiro governo de Mário Covas (1995-1998), e ratificada nacionalmente pelo Fundef, induziu a municipalização da oferta educacional do ensino fundamental nos municípios paulistas. Em decorrência, houve a ampliação de parcerias público-privadas. Nos estudos de casos, o procedimento teórico-metodológico compreendeu a análise bibliográfica referente à temática da pesquisa; a identificação do perfil dos municípios estudados, visando entender as razões que levaram os dois municípios a estabelecerem parcerias com a instituição privada Sistema Objetivo Municipal de Ensino (Some) na aquisição de 'sistema de ensino' apostilado para as séries iniciais do ensino fundamental municipal, via levantamento de dados, informações e documentos oficiais sobre a população e o atendimento educacional - pesquisa empírica; entrevistas semi-estruturadas com representantes das Secretarias Municipais de Educação, da direção e da coordenação pedagógica de escolas de ensino fundamental e da empresa privada; apresentação e análise de indicadores educacionais e da composição dos gastos municipais em Manutenção... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present research investigated and analyzed the implantation and the consequences of the public-private partnerships established between the municipal public administration and the private sector, in the studies of two cases intentionally selected: the Ipeúna and Santa Gertrudes municipality's, in the São Paulo' State, in the 'acquisition of education system', with adoption of an only pedagogical model, and booklet learnship system. The selected period for the study understands the validity of the Fund of Maintenance and the Development of Basic Education and Valuation of the Practice Teaching - The Fundef, put it between 1997 and 2006. We leave of the estimated one that, in the São Paulo' State, the public education reform from the politics of the state government introduced in the Mário Covas first government (1995-1998), and ratified nationally for the Fundef, induced the municipalization of basic education offer's in the São Paulo municipality's. In result, it had the magnifying of public-private partnerships. In the studies of cases, the theoretical-methodological procedure understood the referring bibliographical analysis to the thematic of the research; the profiles identification of the municipality's studied, aiming at to understand the reasons that had taken the two cities to establish partnerships with the private institution "Objective System of Municipal Education" (Some) in the acquisition of booklet learnship system for the initial series of municipal basic education (it saw official datacollecting, information and documents on the population and the educational attendance - empirical research; interviews half-structuralized with managers of the Education Departments, the direction and the pedagogical coordination of the basic education schools and of the private company; presentation and analysis of educational pointers and the composition... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre