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The skills of the designer are at once specific and general, pertaining to issues at the technical scale as well as at the cultural scale, as architects are specifically positioned to affect the built fabric. However, on the cultural scale, the negative effects of non-inclusive, top-down architecture have been documented for decades.1 The realm of architecture that is responsive to the needs of those who will be most affected by it's implications has been gaining momentum as well as popularity, with the emergence of Community Design Centers who are concerned with spatial agency as it applies to design.2 While who is deemed to be the public and what is considered to be in their interest varies, there are always power dynamics at play when a designer interacts with a group or a public client. Practitioners concerned with the effects of public architecture attempt to deal with the issues that inevitably arise in the complicated interplay between power structures and public service. The guiding question; How can architecture best be of service?, leads to a multitude more such as; who is being served? and how is that group being defined? Perhaps the most important question for the architect becomes; What is the role of the architect in a design process that aims to encourage and facilitate participation? And can community-designed projects, however effective, truly be defined as architecture if not fully designed by an architect? The practice of participatory design requires a re-framing of what is considered to be the architect's expert knowledge. As practitioners develop strategies for implementing this more engaged, transparent process, more projects are being seen that encourage user involvement and investment. Through engaging in a critique of current participatory design models and identifying areas in which they succeed as well as fail, a overview of the work currently being done in the field emerges. The identification of these issues serves as a basis for their potential resolution, both through a revised set expectations for the role of the architect as well as recommendations for a more functional process. The process is then tested through a series of scenarios which demonstrate its effectiveness while portraying a realistic set of characters and events. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

This thesis analyzes Canadian NGOs’ relationship with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in the context of the competitive funding mechanism. It captures NGOs’ perspectives on the changing CIDA-NGO relationship, noting the range of NGO responses regarding advocacy efforts, public engagement, organizational priorities and overseas partnerships. The findings indicate that the relationship between CIDA and NGOs cannot be defined as partnership, but rather as one that spans the categories of “contracting” and “extension” in the Brinkerhoff (2002) partnership model. Additionally, employing Elbers and Arts’ (2011) typology, the thesis concludes that NGOs seek to “influence” CIDA through meetings with officers and politicians, “buffer” their partners from negative CIDA impacts, “shield” themselves by limiting their level of CIDA support and “compensate” by funding advocacy and public engagement from internal sources. Moreover, I include “innovation” as an additional strategy that NGOs can employ as a response to donor conditions.

The Southern And Eastern Africa Rainwater Network (SEARNET) seeks to promote rainwater harvesting as a risk reduction strategy and means to improve livelihoods through its member national rainwater harvesting associations. SEARNET is an important channel of international donor funding from the Swedish and Dutch governments, and exists to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experiences of rainwater harvesting through networking. To identify the environmental and organisational issues affecting SEARNET, a questionnaire was sent to SEARNET members that asked open-ended questions about the value of rainwater harvesting to their country and the value of SEARNET to their association. Respondents raised issues that were pertinent to both their association and to SEARNET. Issues were also identified in a survey of Annual Country Status Reports (country reports) presented by national rainwater harvesting associations at the annual SEARNET conferences. Issues included water scarcity and sustainable water supplies; registration as a barrier to funding; a mismatch between donor funding and institutional requirements; and the need for better networking at the SEARNET conference. Several recommendations are made to improve both the promotion of rainwater harvesting by SEARNET members and the networking of SEARNET itself.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the degrees of proneness to the self-conscious emotions of nonruminative guilt, ruminative guilt, and shame and several indices of psychological functioning, including depression, narcissism, anger, dysphoric affect, cooperation, need for affection, and self-inspection, in a college population. Gender differences were also examined. A measure of psychological functioning (the Rorschach) and a measure of guilt- and shame-proneness (the Test of Self-Conscious Affect--Modified) were administered to 91 college students (43 males and 48 females). Females reported higher levels of all three self-conscious emotions. The only gender difference found among the psychological functioning variables was higher levels of narcissism for males. For the total sample, cooperation was related to nonruminative guilt, whereas an unhealthy level of need for affection was related to ruminative guilt and shame. When males and females were considered separately, depression was related to ruminative guilt in males, but not in females. Narcissism was related to all three emotions for males, but not for females. An absence of dysphoric affect was associated with nonruminative guilt in females. Cooperation and self-inspection both correlated with nonruminative guilt for females, but not for males. The predominant emotion related to unhealthy levels of need for affection was shame for males but ruminative guilt for females. Preliminary results from 21 subjects with positive DEPI scores differed from the results of the entire sample in the relationships between the self-conscious emotions and dysphoric affect, self-inspection, and cooperation. Study results were discussed in light of the different levels of awareness at which the Rorschach and the TOSCA--M assess emotions and psychological functioning. Socialization of gender differences in guilt- and shame-proneness was also discussed. Implications for treatment, future research, and creation of future assessments of guilt- and shame-proneness were examined.

The 1996 welfare reforms were part of a bipartisan consensus led by Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress about the downfalls of the existing United States welfare system. Under these reforms, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which was an entitlement program that had been in effect since 1935. Similar to AFDC, TANF intended to serve as a safety net that provides cash assistance to needy families, but it also aimed to reduce government dependence by attempting to instill values in welfare recipients through stricter work requirements and eligibility criteria. The goals of TANF included promoting job preparation, reducing the incidence of births to unmarried mothers, and increasing the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. Many of TANF’s goals were driven by the theory that family structure is important for economic and social stability, but states have a lot of freedom in how they choose to distribute TANF funding and implement the program. This research examined TANF funding allocation and social outcome differences between predominantly Republican (red) and predominantly Democratic (blue) states in order analyze TANF’s ability to reduce out-of-wedlock birth rates and divorce rates. There was limited, but interesting, evidence that there were differences in how red and blue states were funding TANF programs. On average, red states allocated greater proportions of their funding to categories that were inconsistent with the purposes of TANF than blue states. Most states provided very little funding to goals associated with family structure. So, while out-of-wedlock birth rates and divorce rates were different in 1996 (pre-TANF) and 2016 (post-TANF), these changes are unlikely associated with the program. Similarly, blue states had significantly less divorces than red states, but it is unlikely that TANF is responsible for this difference.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine whether a significant correlation exists between a locally-elected supervisor’s perceptions about their local community college and their education level and the level of local tax support provided to the community college in their area. There were 3 research hypotheses established. A self-developed survey was used to gather supervisor perceptions in the following areas: 1) community college courses, programs, and workforce training services, 2) job attainment of students after attending the local community college, and 3) how well the local community college manages its resources. Additional information was gathered for inclusion in the research analysis in the areas of a supervisors’ educational level and the last time a supervisor visited the campus of the local community college. The study showed that, of the 5 predictor variables analyzed, only 1 was statistically significant. A supervisor’s perception on how well a community college does in promoting the courses, programs, and workforce training services has a statistically significant relationship to the amount of millage supported by that supervisor for allocation to the local community college. The remaining predictor variables of job attainment of students after attending the local community college, how well the local community college manages its current resources, a supervisor’s education level, and the last visit a supervisor made to the local community college all showed not to be statically significant in predicting the financial level at which a supervisor may support the local community college.

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No / There is no doubt that increasing amounts of funding are needed to provide a full package of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and mitigation interventions to Africa. However, even the existing funding flows are posing considerable challenges at a national level. In the quest for rapid results, donors have too often chosen to alleviate the lack of local capacity by bringing in foreign technical assistance or building parallel systems for delivering commodities such as drugs that may not be sustainable over the long term once external assistance stops. Even when such interventions may be relevant, they do not address the biggest challenge, namely how to build up the capacity and the systems needed for large-scale implementation of the AIDS response. This article argues that to attain the needed efficacy in HIV/AIDS mitigation programmes, further sustainable increase in external financing is certainly required (particularly for treatment programmes), but even more important is the need to implement them.

Understanding the evolution of charter school legislation and the expectations of legislators adopting this legislation is important to school boards and school administrators in Virginia. The purpose of this research project was to delineate the historical development of charter school legislation in Virginia. A non-emergent research design was used with two steps of data collection. The first step was a review of all charter school legislation, which covered the General Assembly Sessions 1994-2000, and the second step was a series of open-ended interviews with legislators and others who participated in the charter school legislative development. This study addressed the following research questions: 1. What changes did charter school legislation undergo before members of the Virginia General Assembly finally approved it for implementation? 2. What were the expectations of the legislators who sponsored charter school legislation? 3. What, if anything, either internal or external to the Virginia General Assembly, influenced the presenters of charter school legislation? 4. Did the enacted legislation that was adopted meet the expectations of the legislator who initiated charter school legislation? 5. Are legislators and others satisfied with the current status of charter school development in Virginia? Charter school legislative bills and related amendments from 1994 to 2000 were analyzed. Purposive and snowball sampling identified certain legislators as primary respondents, who were interviewed. After the interviews, the data were transcribed and analyzed using QSR NUD·IST. A total of eight interviews were conducted, and all respondents gave permission to record the interviews. Six themes emerged from the interviews. These themes are 1) Partisan Politics, 2) Local Autonomy, 3) Accountability, 4) Choice, 5) Funding, and 6) Opposition. Charter school legislation is unique to each state. Also, one delegate individually championed charter school legislation in Virginia. There were some external influences (outside the Virginia General Assembly) opposing charter school legislation; primarily the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA), and the Virginia Education Association (VEA). Equally important, partisan politics and the opposition of the Black Caucus in the General Assembly were the two strongest internal factors in defeating early attempts at charter school passage. All interviewees reported being satisfied with the outcome of charter school legislation; however, several legislators indicated dissatisfaction with the apparent slow pace of school boards in each locality of holding public hearings to determine whether they will accept charter school applications. Additionally, accountability based upon student results, an alternative schooling opportunity for public school students, and a lottery method for student selection were important charter school characteristics for adoption. / Ed. D.