This dissertation seeks to expand our understanding of AIDS activism by adding to the historical register the stories of individuals who engaged in everyday acts of protest through their endorsement of unorthodox etiological and therapeutic responses to the disease. By focusing on the histories of two poorly understood New York City based organizations – the People with AIDS Coalition (PWAC) and Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL) – it both supplements and challenges scholarship which has to date focused predominately on the public protests organized by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Resisting a common scholarly bias that masks and marginalizes unorthodox, everyday acts of resistance, I map the larger sociocultural currents that gave birth to and sustained their expression amongst individuals living with, responding to, and dying from AIDS in New York City through the 1980s and 1990s. In so doing, I strive to achieve a true social history of AIDS better able to capture diverse expressions of patient resistance than those organized about professional norms and institutional taxonomies. It is my hope that its methodology and conclusions may not only deepen our understanding of the late 20th Century’s most studied epidemic disease, but indeed more broadly inform historical scholarship investigating patient engagement with other infectious and chronic diseases.

The election to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic took place in 2010. The theses focuses on examining of pre-election polls and election results themselves using some knowledge of game theory and public choice theory. The work describes in detail the methodology of processing election results as it works in the Czech Republic at present. Pre-election polls of selected survey agencies are compared and evaluated here. Further the theses uses an alternative approach to the distribution of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, with a focus on possible impact on the election results both in terms of the different distribution of seats, and in terms of the subsequent formation of possible coalitions. There are also discussed all possible coalitions which were suggested after the elections in 2010.

This dissertation builds upon a 25-year old study by Mizrahi and Rosenthal (1993) which examined how coalition leaders defined and perceived success and failure in their respective coalitions. This study replicates the Mizrahi and Rosenthal study by returning to participants from the original study and, adapting the original instrument, interviewing those participants to examine their perceptions after 25 years has passed. Utilizing the same instrument, new coalition leaders from the originally studied coalitions which are still intact are also interviewed and their responses are compared against responses from leaders of coalitions which have since dissolved. The current study uses basic descriptive analysis for the structured survey items and grounded theory methodology for the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions. The analysis examines participant responses in the following areas: participant information; coalition information; demographic information of working group, board and constituency; characterization of coalition; internal and environmental predictors of dissolution; political and social climate during dissolution; political forces influencing dissolution; events in the lifespan; benefits and drawback of permanency; target information; definition of success; internal and environmental predictors of success; goals; strategies and tactics; decision-making processes; modes of communication; coalition resources; membership and participation; leadership; and practice wisdom. Utilizing organizational, ecological, social capital and collaboration literature and theory, indicators of coalition success are reviewed. Specifically, findings from this study confirm that coalition success should be defined multi-dimensionally and that coalitions should be operationalized as networks more than as organizations. Findings demonstrate that coalition success is predicted by the following internal factors: impetus to form and coalition purpose; goal-setting, identification of target and strategy; internal resources; leadership; power and decision-making; coalition structure; member contributions; diversity; and relationships, including dynamics of respect, trust, commitment and communication. Additionally, findings demonstrate that coalition success is predicted by the following environmental factors: external resource and resource dependence; goal-setting, identification of target and strategy; relationship with community and degree of coupling; and political, fiscal and social climate. Theoretical and practical implications for these findings are discussed along with limitations to current research and areas for potential future research.

Community coalitions have had successful reductions in adolescent substance abuse, and the legalization of marijuana presents an opportunity for these coalitions to re-evaluate their current methods and messages for preventing adolescent marijuana usage. Using the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes affects the methods and messages of coalitions and how the coalition members perceive their efforts to reduce adolescent marijuana usage post-legalization in Colorado. Participants were obtained by recommendations from the executive director in each of four coalitions. A purposive sample of 12 coalition members was interviewed via telephone and recorded. Data from the transcripts were analyzed, coded, and repeated as necessary until themes arose. The major themes suggested that programs alone were inadequate to change adolescents' perception of marijuana, despite the current success of the methods and messages expressed by coalition members. Recommendations included continuing current programs despite legalization, partnering with marijuana retail shops, engaging youth through multiple tactics, developing relationships with youth, and improving parent education to help prevent adolescent marijuana usage. These themes could shape the development of programs that guide adolescents into making better choices, which could ultimately lead to positive social change.

The study was designed to investigate the practices of Christian college educators in identifying and translating ethical and moral ideals into written character development objectives for integration into curricular and co-curricular activities. A second purpose was to determine what sponsored curricular and co-curricular activities were designed as effective means to develop desirable character traits in students of the institution.Chief academic officers and chief student personnel administrators from seventy Christian Coalition colleges were mailed character development strategies questionnaires. Of the 140 surveys mailed, 85 were returned for a sixty-one percent response rate. Data were analyzed by frequency distribution, measures of central tendency, and measures of dispersion.Major conclusions included:1) The lack of coherence and pervasive integration-of the institutional mission and ideals into curricular and cocurricular programs has contributed to the diminishing distinctiveness of Christian higher education.2) Moral reasoning is considered to be the most effective approach in promoting character development in Christian Coalition students and values clarification was rejected as a viable approach.3) The neglect of developing an assessment strategy to calibrate student integration of desired moral and ethical ideals contradicts the espoused importance, intentionality, and purposefulness of character development of students as a central mission and justification of Christian education.4) There is little difference between public and Christian higher education regarding the intentional programming of character development in students.

Abstract Since the 2006 election the country of Sweden is governed by four Liberal and Conservative parties. Parties that by cooperating maintain power in office and forms a so called coalition. A coalition that not only can be seen at the national but also at the local level. According to pervious research coalitions that holds control of the seats in the government at the national level tends to increase the total expenditures compared to other types of government formations. Can a similar connection be seen at the local level? This the fundamental issue of this essay. The study is a multiple case study of the Swedish local governments and their expenditures. The purpose of the study is to examine if Swedish local governments governed by a coalition of parties tend to spend more money than other types of local government formations. The hypothesis is that coalitions tend to increase the local expenditures compared to other government formations in the local governments due to the result of previous research at the national level. The empiric investigation examine the Swedish local governments after the 1994 and 2006 elections. The government formations are then compared with different types of measures of local expenditure. The investigation shows that local governments governed by a coalition of parties not tend to have increased expenditures compared to local governments governed by other types of government formations.

The history of the United States is one of racial division and conquest. People of color have employed every method of resistance available to them to defend themselves against white racist aggression. Large political coalitions among racially oppressed groups have been relatively rare in United States' history. Political scientists and sociologists have revised downward early predictions of coalitions among these groups. Most contemporary social science details the problems confronting interracial alliances but do not detail empirically supported solutions. This thesis fills the gap in the literature by analyzing two interracial political campaigns in Houston, Texas. In so doing, I use extended case method and grounded theory to define the organizational structures, ideologies, and political climates that skillful organizers have used to successfully launch and maintain political coalitions among African Americans, Latinos, and whites. Through participant observation, in-depth interviewing with organizers from Justice for Janitors campaigns in 1986 and 2006, and content analysis, I extend social movements and critical race literatures. The thesis extends Bell's interest convergence theory to include struggles for civil and economic rights conducted in the new millennium primarily in support of Latinos. Contrary to the political process model and in support of interest convergence theory, I find that Justice for Janitors campaign outcomes depended on whether white policymakers clearly saw whites' interests in supporting racial justice. Even with similar political climates, organizers' achieved success through sacrificing Latina janitors' racialized interests to bring union demands into agreement with white policymakers' goals. This case study gives close attention to one aspect of the union's negotiations of the 2006 political climate, namely the union's careful framing of the movement to minimize discussions of race in a white racist context. Finally, this thesis also looks inside the movement and analyzes the roles that personal racial ideology and organizational structure played in the trajectory of the 2006 campaign. I conclude with a discussion of interracial political coalitions and what lessons future organizers and aggrieved parties can learn from Justice for Janitors' efforts in Houston, Texas.

This thesis aims to explore lesbian desire and sexual identity in Lydia Kwa¡¦s This Place Called Absence, beginning with the textual subversion of heterosexual norm, evolving through the author¡¦s mapping of butch/femme desire and concluding with the protagonist¡¦s formation of self-identity. Chapter One discusses how the text subverts the heterosexual norm through the erotic chaos created by queer characters. I will apply Judith Butler¡¦s notions of heterosexual matrix and gender performativity to look into the textual strategies of subversion. The appropriation of gender is not only a strategy of queer politics, but also the primary means by which lesbians articulate desire. To illuminate Kwa¡¦s mapping of lesbian desire, I apply Teresa de Lauretis¡¦s theory of lesbian fetishism in Chapter Two to examine how butches and femmes in the novel express their desire through manipulating gender signs. The masculinity fetishes are prone to social misunderstanding as penis envy and thereby arouse male hostility. The anxiety of lesbian characters with the paternal phallus will be the focus of the second part of the chapter. Chapter Three looks into how the protagonist establishes positive self-identity through reversing social stigma to empowering self-image in queer coalition. The queer coalition comprising gays and lesbians, nevertheless, cedes its place to equalitarian women¡¦s community at the end of the novel. The problems of the concept of universal women for lesbians will be discussed in the latter part of the chapter from the perspectives of Butler and de Lauretis. After probing into textual details, I will argue that the protagonist, in spite of her desire for female solidarity, ultimately identifies with queer coalition. In conclusion, I will regard the novel as a lesbian counter-discourse by summarizing its strategies of displacement, resignification and reversal of the heterosexual symbolic and foreground the multiplicity of desire and differences among lesbians against the reification of heterosexual symbolic.

<p>I Jönköpings kommun har stora utvecklings- och ombyggnadsarbeten pågått under ett an-tal år. En av de största förändringarna är en bro som byggdes över Munksjön och stod fär-dig under år 2006. Bron kan ses som en katalysator för flera andra projekt som har löpt pa-rallellt med broprojektet. Uppsatsen fokuserar på processen som förlöpt från det att brons planeringsstadium inleddes 1990 till dess att det slutgiltiga byggnadsbeslutet togs 2004.</p><p>Bron var kontroversiell i bland annat miljöhänseende, men även ekonomiskt och i trafik-hänseende ansågs den vara en tveksam lösning på centrums problem. Första steget i upp-satsarbetet var att samla in information, främst från olika kommunfullmäktigedokument samt underlag som använts när beslut fattats i kommunfullmäktige. För att identifiera in-tressanta problem granskades dessa med hjälp av källkritiskt metod och delades kronolo-giskt in i sex faser, där varje fas representerade ett delbeslut i broprocessen.</p><p>För det fortsatta arbetet behövdes en analysmodell, som inkluderade multipla aktörer, och som kunde användas för en analys av den process som löpt under cirka 15 års tid. Detta ledde först till klassiska implementeringsmodeller, främst Top-down och Bottom-up-modellerna och därefter vidare till Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) som utgör en vi-dareutveckling av de båda implementeringsmodellerna. Fördelarna med ACF var många. Den hanterar multipla aktörer, tidspannet lämpar sig väl, och den innehåller ett antal krite-rier vilka ger underlag för intressanta diskussioner. Med analysramen och dokumentstudien som bas kunde problemområde, hypotes, samt beroende och oberoende variabler faststäl-las.</p><p>Valet av analysram föll således på ACF, vilken har använts mycket i USA bland annat för analys av miljöproblem. Ett av de största problemen med analysramen har då varit att mo-tivera varför olika koalitioner uppstått. Detta problem kringgås här genom att peka på de svenska partiernas större homogenitet än deras motsvarigheter i USA, detta beroende på att det där i princip endast finns två partier.</p><p>För att motivera valet av ACF som analysram testades de nio kriterier som denna innefat-tar, och genom att dessa uppfylldes kunde analysramens relevans för forskningsområdet valideras. Med hjälp av analysramen och dess kriterier, samt den källkritiska analysen, upp-ställdes hypotesen: De mest miljömedvetna koalitionerna har fått göra flest eftergifter under broproces-sens gång.</p><p>Innan analysen fortskred redovisas ytterligare två metoder: kvantitativ innehållsanalys och statistisk Chi-två metod. Den kvantitativa innehållsanalysen användes för att utifrån de svenska politiska partiernas höga grad av homogenitet motivera varför olika koalitioner uppstått. Chi-två metoden användes i resultatredovisningen för att ge statistiskt stöd för hypotesen.</p><p>Analysen började med att identifiera de tre koalitioner, som bildats under processen, nämli-gen: Pro-bro, Avvaktande och Anti-bro. De olika aktörerna indelades därefter i den koali-tion de tillhört under varje fas. Vidare fastställdes de tillfällen då en koalition fått göra en eftergift under processen. Totalt har den mest miljömedvetna koalitionen gjort sex eftergif-ter medan den mindre miljömedvetna inte behövt göra någon eftergift.</p><p>Med hjälp av den kvantitativa innehållsanalysen har det varit möjligt att visa hur det bilda-des två koalitioner varav en mer och en mindre miljömedveten. Den mest miljömedvetna koalitionen bestod av: Miljöpartiet, Centerpartiet och Vänsterpartiet medan den mindre miljömedvetna bestod av Folkpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, Kristdemokraterna och Moderaterna.</p><p>Ur koalitionsbildningarna och fördelningen av eftergifter kunde det utläsas att den mest miljömedvetna koalitionen fått göra flest eftergifter, sex mot noll. För att ge statistiskt stöd åt resultatet genomfördes även en Chi-två beräkning, vars utfall var statistiskt signifikant och gav stöd åt hypotesen.</p><p>I den slutliga diskussionen ställs frågan varför kommunen inte följt Agenda 21 och de stat-ligt uppsatta miljömålen. Slutsatsen dras att det är vanligt med konflikter mellan kommuna-la miljö- och tillväxtmål. I detta fall har det blivit en tveksam kompromiss, som varken löst trafikfrågan i Jönköpings centrala delar eller kommit tillrätta med de existerande miljöpro-blemen.</p><p>Uppsatsen avslutas med funderingar om hur ACF kan användas i framtida forskningspro-jekt på liknande områden. I en undersökning med mindre homogena aktörer behöver ana-lysramen kompletteras med bättre metoder för att beskriva hur koalitioner bildas utifrån gemensamma basala värderingar.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Since the 2006 election the country of Sweden is governed by four Liberal and Conservative parties. Parties that by cooperating maintain power in office and forms a so called coalition. A coalition that not only can be seen at the national but also at the local level. According to pervious research coalitions that holds control of the seats in the government at the national level tends to increase the total expenditures compared to other types of government formations. Can a similar connection be seen at the local level? This the fundamental issue of this essay. The study is a multiple case study of the Swedish local governments and their expenditures. The purpose of the study is to examine if Swedish local governments governed by a coalition of parties tend to spend more money than other types of local government formations. The hypothesis is that coalitions tend to increase the local expenditures compared to other government formations in the local governments due to the result of previous research at the national level. The empiric investigation examine the Swedish local governments after the 1994 and 2006 elections. The government formations are then compared with different types of measures of local expenditure. The investigation shows that local governments governed by a coalition of parties not tend to have increased expenditures compared to local governments governed by other types of government formations.</p>