This study contributes towards understanding the complex dynamics that are inherent in the transformation of institutional culture in the higher education environment in South Africa. Innovative use was made of gender-based change as a case study of social transformation in a case institution, the University of Cape Town. A feminist, qualitative approach was used to map gender as a component of institutional culture and to explore how the institution's culture influences the dynamics of gender-based change. A gendered lens was focused on three different sources of data: the leadership discourse from 28 years of annual Vice Chancellor's Reports, and interview and documentary data around two purposively selected feminist initiatives to further women's career development in the higher education environment. The integration of analyses of different types of data from these three sources proved to be a powerful tool for exposing contested meanings and highlighting discrepancies between the logic of the organization and experienced realities. My research corroborates numerous previous studies of universities worldwide and reveals the case institution to have a conservative, patriarchal culture. In addition to the formal hierarchical and collegial structures typical of many universities, aspects of the institutional culture that contribute towards its marked conservatism were identified. The analyses revealed how the hegemony of academic and androcentric discourses resulted in a culture which 'others' people into differently empowered groups and how this interacts with a dominant liberal discourse that values and privileges individualism. The resultant mystification is exhausting and confusing to those who are not part of the dominant group, and combines with fragmented understandings of purpose to stifle institutional change and thus strengthen conservatism. Beyond the male hegemony, the most significant aspect of the gendered institutional culture is the persistent vanishing of gender on the campus. There is little evidence of any ability to engage seriously with gender or any recognition that this might be a priority. The gender-based change initiatives that were studied were the result of spontaneous action of tempered radicals, insiders within the institution who felt alienated by aspects of its culture and thus were positioned also as outsiders. Both initiatives have resulted in successful programmes but an analysis of the dynamics around their establishment shows the power of the institutional culture to neutralize and de-politicize their impact on the gendered culture, despite the pervasiveness of the liberal discourse. I suggest that for change to succeed it is necessary to purposely reduce the power that the conservative institution can exert. This can be achieved by avoiding direct confrontation with the dominant patriarchal culture and by forging appropriate, sympathetic external alliances with those who have influence and access to resources. My research suggests that transformation of the institutional culture is unlikely to be led by those who, by conforming to the culture, have attained hierarchical leadership positions and are thus most threatened by change. Transformation is most likely to be brought about by those who question norms, seize opportunities and focus on small wins. The liberal discourse common to many universities leads to a tolerance of mavericks, and I suggest that this can provide opportunities to surface the silent voices that must inform debates around transformation. However I have revealed how resistant the sector can be to cultural change. My analyses have shown how even ostensibly very successful initiatives can be assimilated and how their ability to result in institutional change can be disempowered using political structures and micropolitics. Effecting transformation of the complex institutional culture in higher education will require a deep engagement with these powerful conservative forces.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. Ed.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-90). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1990. / Title from title page screen, viewed November 21, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Larry D. Kennedy (chair), Ann E. Nolte, Michael A. Lorber, Kenneth H. Strand. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 68) and abstract. Also available in print.

This study represents qualitative, historical research. The study documented the origins, milestones, and development of the Southern Bible Institute in Dallas, Texas. This study provided data leading to a better understanding of the impact of segregation on the African American religious community in Dallas, Texas. Data from this study also shows how African Americans responded to segregation in the area of theological higher education through the establishment of the Southern Bible Institute. The research methodology was heavily dependent on oral data from various sources and pertinent data were extrapolated from oral history interviews and historical, internal and external institutional documents. Analysis was based on accuracy, consistency and authenticity. Triangulation was the method used to determine the accuracy and authenticity of the oral interviews. The data were also analyzed for extrapolating factors that lend themselves to inclusion on an institutional assessment. Based on the factors extrapolated from the data and from a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, an internal institutional assessment checklist was created to assist the leadership in evaluating various aspects of the school. It was concluded that the future seems bright for the Southern Bible Institute, but it is recommended that the administration leverage off identified strengths and establish a plan for addressing the weaknesses noted as a result of this study. The Southern Bible Institute warrants further research that will use the factors identified in this study as the basis for quantitative studies that will clarify the impact of particular factors on institutional growth.

No description available.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2018. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Page 274 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-273). / This dissertation demonstrates a novel integrated electric power system planning framework that incorporates distributed energy resources (DERs), flexible and price-responsive demand, and distribution network losses and reinforcement costs. New methods are developed and demonstrated to derive the aggregate impact of demand and DERs on distribution network losses and upgrade costs from detailed distribution network simulations. The results from these simulations are used to parameterize a novel and tractable representation of distribution networks at an aggregate scale in a new formulation of the electricity resource capacity planning problem. A set of case studies demonstrate the utility of this modeling framework for modeling competition amongst distributed and centralized resources, exploring tradeoffs between economies of unit scale and locational value of various resources, assessing the value of price-responsive electricity demand, and considering the impact of policy or regulation that drives the adoption of DERs. Methodologically, this dissertation makes a set of contributions, including: 1. A new approach to using AC power flow simulations to accurately derive the effect of aggregate changes in power withdrawals and injections on resistive network losses in large-scale distribution networks. 2. A method for adapting AC optimal power flow simulations to identify the minimum quantity of net reductions in coincident peak demand (achieved either by demand flexibility or distributed generation or storage) necessary to accommodate demand growth in large-scale distribution networks without investment in new network assets (e.g., 'non-wires' alternatives). 3. A method for using a distribution network planning model to determine the cost of traditional network upgrades required to accommodate an equivalent increase in peak demand. 4. An integrated electricity resource capacity planning model that employs results from the above methods to incorporate DERs and flexible demand and consider key sources of locational value or cost, including impacts on transmission and distribution network costs and losses. Electricity system planning models provide decision support for electric utilities, insight for policy-makers, and a detailed techno-economic framework to evaluate emerging technologies. Collectively, the new methods demonstrated herein expand the capabilities of these important planning tools to keep pace with a rapidly evolving electric power sector. / by Jesse D. Jenkins. / Ph. D. in Engineering Systems

Thesis: Ph. D. in Science, Technology, and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Environmental assessments, such as those for biotechnology applications, are typically conducted by small groups of expert assessors, but scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in involving diverse stakeholders. In addition to other reasons for broader involvement, researchers have proposed that stakeholders could substantively aid assessment by (1) contributing system knowledge; (2) applying diverse conceptual models; (3) helping available knowledge keep pace with assessment needs; and (4) contributing based on their values, as do narrow expert assessors. Hypothesizing that these types of contribution, suggested theoretically or observed in single workshops, represent key sources of stakeholder contribution across processes, this study examines contribution in several diverse participant processes: an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workshop on testing schemes for some engineered microbes compared with another EPA office's testing requirements for other engineered microbes; an MIT-Wilson Center workshop series on synthetic biology environmental assessment research needs; and the Food and Drug Administration's engineered salmon environmental assessment along with diverse stakeholder comments and critiques. The study also identifies practical considerations for enabling multi-stakeholder contribution and applies lessons to broader societal processes. The study analyzes process documents, conversations with conveners and participants, and participant observation. It also reviews knowledge about biological processes representing important areas for assessment and research, discussing complexities of knowledge production and use for assessment. Stakeholders contributed in each of the four hypothesized ways across the cases, suggesting that diverse involvement could regularly contribute positively to assessment. Stakeholders also (5) challenged standard assessment approaches, challenges that could aid assessment as well. Practical considerations for enabling diverse participant contribution emerge from the cases: Process continuity over time; credible expectations of authority or influence in decision-making; and balance between predefined structure and flexibility and between technical tasks and enabling non-technical input may be key. Work developing approaches in these areas is needed, including on incorporating nontechnical inputs, on processes encompassing later assessment stages, on integrating diverse participant processes with governance, and on diverse involvement in other aspects of technology development and execution. Better and increased stakeholder involvement could, through substantive content and incorporation of values, enable science, technology development, and decision-making best to serve society. / by Shlomiya Lightfoot. / Ph. D. in Science, Technology, and Policy

Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2018. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-360). / China's rapid economic growth -- largely industrial, energy-intensive, and reliant on coal -- has generated environmental, public health, and governance challenges. While China now leads the world in renewable energy deployment, curtailment (waste) of wind and solar is high and increasing, generating much discussion on the relative contributions of technical inflexibilities and incomplete institutional reforms on integration outcomes. These integration challenges directly affect China's ability to meet long-term environmental and economic objectives. A second, related challenge emerges from how wind integration interacts with China's reinvigoration in 2015 of a three-decade-old process to establish competitive electricity markets. A "standard liberalization prescription" for electricity markets exists internationally, though Chinese policy-makers ignore or under-emphasize many of its elements in current reforms, and some scholars question its general viability in emerging economies. This dissertation examines these interrelated phenomena by analyzing the contributions of diverse causes of wind curtailment, assessing whether current experiments will lead to efficient and politically viable electricity markets, and offering prescriptions on when and how to use markets to address renewable energy integration challenges. To examine fundamentals of the technical system and the impacts of institutional incentives on system outcomes, this dissertation develops a multi-method approach that iterates between engineering models and qualitative case studies of the system operation decision-making process (Chapter 2). These are necessary to capture, respectively, production functions inclusive of physical constraints and costs, and incentive structures of formally specified as well as de facto institutions. Interviews conducted over 2013-2016 with key stakeholders in four case provinces/regions with significant wind development inform tracing of the processes of grid and market operations (Chapter 3). A mixed-integer unit commitment and economic dispatch optimization is formulated and, based on the case studies, further tailored by adding several institutions of China's partially-liberalized system (Chapter 4). The model generates a reference picture of three of the systems as well as quantitative contributions of relevant institutions (Chapter 5). Insights from qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined iteratively for more parsimonious findings (Chapter 6). This dissertation disentangles the causes of curtailment, focusing on the directional and relative contributions of institutions, technical issues, and potential interactive effects. Wind curtailment is found to be closely tied to engineering constraints, such as must-run combined heat and power (CHP) in northern winters. However, institutional causes -- inflexibilities in both scheduling and inter-provincial trading -- have a larger impact on curtailment rates. Technical parameters that are currently set administratively at the provincial level (e.g., coal generator minimum outputs) are a third and important leading cause under certain conditions. To assess the impact of China's broader reform of the electricity system on wind curtailment, this dissertation examines in detail "marketizing" experiments. In principle, spot markets for electricity naturally prioritize wind, with near zero marginal cost, thereby contributing to low curtailment. However, China has not yet created a spot market and this dissertation finds that its implementation of other electricity markets in practice operates far from ideal. Market designs follow a similar pattern of relying on dual-track prices and out-of-market parameters, which, in the case of electricity, leave several key institutional causes of inefficiency and curtailment untouched. Compared to other sectors with successful marketization occurring when markets "grow out of the plan," all of the major electricity experiments examined show deficiencies in their ability to transition to an efficient market and to cost-effectively integrate wind energy. Although China's setting is institutionally very different, results support implementation of many elements of standard electricity market prescriptions: prioritize regional (inter-provincial) markets, eliminate conflicts of interest in dispatch, and create a consistent central policy on "transition costs" of reducing central planning. Important for China, though overlooked in standard prescriptions: markets are enhanced by clarifying the connection between dispatch and exchange settlement. As is well established, power system efficiency is expected to achieve greatest gains with a short-term merit order dispatch and primarily financial market instruments, though some workable near-term deviations for the Chinese context are proposed. Ambiguous property rights related to generation plans have helped accelerate reforms, but also delay more effective markets from evolving. China shares similarities with the large class of emerging economies undergoing electricity market restructuring, for which this suggests research efforts should disaggregate planning from scheduling institutions, analyze the range of legacy sub-national trade barriers, and prioritize finding "second-best" liberalization options fit to country context in the form and order of institutional reforms. / by Michael R. Davidson. / Ph. D. in Engineering Systems

Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / The transmissibility of a given infectious disease is often described by its basic reproduction number (Ro) - namely, the average number of secondary infections caused by an index case in a fully susceptible population. Typical approaches to modeling transmission dynamics associated with infectious disease outbreaks frequently use Ro to produce deterministic case count projections, in effect treating the affected population as homogeneous (i.e. as if every individual in the population interest has an equal likelihood of passing on the infection of interest). As a result, such approaches often fail to effectively capture transmission dynamics during real-world outbreaks in heterogeneous populations. Here, we use analytical and simulation methods to show that the treatment of Ro as the mean of a random variable (thus permitting the estimation of non-deterministic case count projections) allows us to better assess outbreak trajectory and likelihood of disease propagation in non-homogeneous populations (Chapter 2). We then empirically investigate predictors of in-population transmission heterogeneity (i.e. the fact that some individuals in a given population are more likely than others to pass on the infection of interest) within the context of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea using a combination of statistical- and review-driven approaches (Chapter 3). Then, in Chapter 4, we explore how in-population transmission heterogeneity can be used to our advantage through the deployment of risk-informed interventions (i.e. in which individuals who are more likely to pass on the infection of interest are exclusively targeted to receive the intervention) during infectious disease outbreaks. More specifically, we use the analytical and simulation methods first introduced in Chapter 2 - paired with inpopulation transmission heterogeneity data from Chapter 3 - to compare the utility of a variance-informed deployment scheme against a traditional, uniform deployment scheme (i.e. in which every individual has an equal likelihood of receiving the intervention). Finally, building off of our findings in Chapters 2, 3, and 4, we recommend four interrelated policies in Chapter 5 that aim to (1) normalize the treatment and reporting of Ro as the mean of a random variable and (2) improve access to the data required to sufficiently capture population heterogeneity when modeling disease propagation. / by Maimuna Shahnaz Majumder. / Ph. D. in Engineering Systems