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.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In 1922, George Tompkins was found dead in an isolated area of Riverside Park. Though the media and evidence present pointed to Tompkins having been the victim of a lynching, the official ruling was that of suicide. Almost a century later, a multiracial, driven group of individuals set out to memorialize Tompkins as a victim of lynching and challenge the ruling that he had taken his own life. In discussing deaths such as George Tompkins’, it is vital to remind oneself that the victims of lynchings were more than just statistics in the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black violence that has permeated the history of the United States. By employing a victim-centered methodology, we can examine the lives of these victims before the worst happened to them and recognize the three-dimensionality of their lived experiences. This work examines the lived experience, lynching death, and memorialization process one hundred years later of George Tompkins. In understanding the means by which he lived, died, and was remembered, we can better understand the ways that this process can play a role in multiple contemporary communities.

The alternative food movement claims varied goals such as building environmental sustainability, strengthening local economies, and promoting health equity, yet critics argue that the movement’s transformative potential is threatened by a lack of shared vision. Literature suggests that community-based multi-stakeholder coalitions are a useful tool for building consensus around food systems futures. But what kinds of futures? Home Grown Springfield is a school food initiative aimed at reducing hunger in Springfield, MA by serving healthy, homemade, and locally-sourced meals via the Culinary and Nutrition Center, a brand-new full-service commercial kitchen and storage facility. This qualitative case study examines the engagement process of the Culinary and Nutrition Center’s Advisory Council, a multi-stakeholder coalition convened in 2018 to guide the project. The engagement process was envisioned by the Springfield Food Policy Council, Springfield Public Schools, and Sodexo, and funded by the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. Research findings suggests that engagement of diverse actors promotes expanded project visions, which results in more holistic, progressive, and potentially transformative food systems change. In addition, it reveals challenges around the process of authentic community engagement and the dynamics of power-sharing between project leaders and community members. This research has multiple objectives: 1) to document the first year of the Advisory Council’s process for its own reflection; 2) to demonstrate the need for planners to help facilitate diverse cross-sector engagement for more holistic and progressive regional planning; and 3) to highlight the critical need for community leadership and decision-making in planning for sustainable and equitable community development.

Abstract in English / The overall aim of this study was to construct and describe a conceptual framework that can serve as a frame of reference for organisational stakeholders to sustain a community coalition to manage alcohol misuse as a risk factor of HIV infection in a specific community in the North West Province, South Africa. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) design that was qualitative and theory generative in nature was followed in this study. A phased approach with specific objectives aligned to the PAR cycle, namely observe (Phase One), reflect (Phase Two), plan (Phase Three) and act (Phase Four), was followed. These phases were actualised through an exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design, guided and theoretically influenced by critical theory. Data in Phase One were collected through 10 key informant interviews. Data were collected in Phases Two to Four through 10 dialogue meetings. Data collected in the four phases were used to construct and describe the conceptual framework that was evaluated by five experts in the field of mental health and substance misuse for refinement (Phase Five). Thematic data analyses was done to identify emerging themes. Key issues identified were that the community is characterised by fragile community coalitions that hamper the management of alcohol misuse as a risk factor of HIV infection. Factors to be considered to sustain the coalition were identified as sharing a common vision, promoting a trusting relationship, formalising the coalition, transformational leadership, strengthening organisational unity, and access to financial resources. This research adds knowledge in the field of mental health and substance misuse by providing a sustainable community coalition conceptual framework for organisational stakeholders to manage alcohol misuse as a risk factor of HIV infection. The conceptual framework could be used to inform policy, further research, education and improve practice in the field of mental health and substance misuse. Although the study was limited to a specific geographical area of a community in the North West Province, South Africa, the findings can be adapted to fit a specific setting. / Health Studies / D Litt et Phil. (Health Studies)

À travers une ethnographie militante au sein des coalitions québécoises revendiquant une augmentation du salaire minimum à 15 dollars l’heure, cette thèse étudie les relations entre les organisations syndicales et communautaires impliquées dans des coalitions agissant dans une optique de transformation sociale. Les coalitions observées sur une durée de trois ans regroupaient de nombreuses organisations qui se différenciaient tant par leurs formes organisationnelles — centrales syndicales, syndicats locaux, partis politiques, comités citoyens et des organisations communautaires plus ou moins institutionnalisées — que par leurs stratégies d’action. Conceptualisant les coalitions comme étant à la fois un lieu de transformation culturelle pour les organisations, dans le prolongement des écrits abordant les coalitions comme une stratégie de renouveau syndical, et un lieu de compétition interorganisationnelle, tel que l’appréhendent bien souvent les travaux issus du champ de la sociologie des mouvements sociaux, cette thèse interroge les tensions internes et les rapports de pouvoir au sein des coalitions syndicales-communautaires. En mobilisant une approche interactionnelle et culturelle des coalitions inspirée des travaux de Cefaï et de Goffman pour penser l’action collective, la thèse démontre comment les organisations syndicales exercent un pouvoir d’influence important au sein des coalitions, ce qui vient limiter leur potentiel transformateur et comment les coalitions peuvent contribuer à marginaliser les personnes concernées, dont les travailleur·euse·s précaires, dans les espaces de prise de décision au sein des mouvements sociaux. La thèse met ainsi en relief que, dans les coalitions pour le 15 dollars de l’heure, le travail d’organisation et de mobilisation des travailleur·euse·s non syndiqué·e·s et à bas salaire a été assumé par des organisations non syndicales, lesquelles ont le plus souvent moins de ressources, alors que les actions mises en place au sein des coalitions se rapprochaient davantage du répertoire d’action traditionnelle des organisations syndicales, dont l’organisation d’actions médiatiques et d’actions dites « de visibilité ». En mobilisant cette fois le concept de « solidarité de coulisse » de Goffman et la conception des pratiques discrètes de résistance de Scott, la thèse expose comment, les personnes impliquées dans les coalitions, conscient·e·s du déséquilibre de pouvoir existant entre les organisations syndicales et les organisations communautaires, créent des espaces de concertation alternatifs, en coulisse des coalitions, pour résister et contester la hiérarchie au sein de la coalition. En s’éloignant ainsi de la perspective syndicalo-centrée prédominante dans la littérature, la thèse démontrent comment les coalitions transforment davantage les modes de fonctionnement et les pratiques des organisations communautaires et parasyndicales que ceux des syndicats. / This thesis examines the labour-community coalition for the $15 minimum wage in Quebec using a militant ethnographic research approach. Forged in the aftermath of similar mobilizations in the United States and Ontario, these coalitions brought together a variety of organizations that differed both in their organizational forms — local unions, political parties, activist groups, citizens' committees, and community organizations — and in their strategies of action. Defining coalitions as both a vector of cultural change for organizations — in continuity with the literature on coalitions as a strategy for union renewal — and as an arena for inter-organizational competition — as often considered in the sociology of social movements literature — this dissertation examines the internal tensions and power dynamics within labour-community coalitions. Based on an interactional and cultural approach to coalitions inspired by Cefaï and Goffman's framework for analyzing collective action, the thesis shows how trade union organizations wield considerable influence within coalitions, which limits the transformative potential of coalitions, particularly with respect to practices that promote the participation and organization of precarious workers. It also reveals that in the $15 coalitions, the work of organizing and mobilizing non-union and low-wage workers was assumed by non-union organizations, i.e., organizations with fewer resources, while the actions undertaken within the coalitions were closer to the traditional repertoire of actions of union organizations, including visibility actions. Drawing on Goffman's notion of "backstage solidarity" and Scott's notion of infrapolitics and everyday forms of resistance, the thesis also shows how coalition participants created alternative spaces for concerted action in the backstage of coalitions that enabled them to resist and challenge the hierarchy within the coalition. As such, this thesis moves away from the union-centric perspective that dominates the literature and demonstrates how coalitions transform the practices of community and para-union organizations more than those of trade unions.