Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-141).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of La Verne, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-296).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-258). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This thesis takes as its starting point the proposition that the restricted development of law centres in the United Kingdom has been a result of the exercise of power by the legal profession. This was based on the evidence of the legal profession's influence on the initial development of public legal services policy and the profession's active opposition to the emergence of the first law centres in the United Kingdom. However, law centres remained on the margins of public legal services policy, despite the retreat of the profession from its original position. Thus, it was suggested that the key issue was not simply the power of the profession, but also the power of the dominant paradigms of legal practice, legal needs and legal services. This is reflected in the private practice and casework orientation of the legal aid system. Law centres challenge the dominant paradigms in many ways. They offer a multi-faceted approach to the resolution of the legal and socio-economic problems of the poor and do so in a not-for-profit, community-controlled and often collectivist context. Through quantitative and qualitative techniques employed in a multiple case study setting, this study sought to test the 'power hypothesis' empirically. Focusing on all of the law centres operating at any time between 1974 and 1997 in Strathclyde and the West Midlands, detailed accounts of significant events and periods in each centre's birth, life and, where appropriate, death were constructed. The thesis provides for the first time a social historical narrative of the development of law centres in these two locations. These accounts reveal that the profession and the dominant paradigms have had an impact on law centres in many significant ways. However, several of the greatest difficulties faced by law centres cannot be explained by reference to this conceptual framework. Accordingly, the thesis concludes that a wider theoretical framework is required to explain the development of law centres. This wider framework must draw on several existing traditions. It should recognise the importance of community, local and ethnic politics; social exclusion and ethnicity; and organisational and change management. However, it must also recognise the power of the legal profession and the dominant paradigms, as the additional challenges this brings distinguish the experience of law centres from that of other radical, community organisations.

This study links both census and religious service data, aggregating them at significant geographical levels. This makes it possible to test (1) if there is empirical evidence of the Catholic Church prioritizing the pastoral service to the poorest population of Mexico, and (2) if the results at different levels of analysis are consistent. To answer these questions, I will introduce the analysis by an overview of the research and the conceptualization of poverty and the way the Catholic Church has faced this social condition, particularly in Latin America and Mexico. Following the overview, the research design is presented specifying research questions, hypotheses, data, and the procedures followed to process and analyze such data. In my analysis I will present the geographical distribution of five dimensions of poverty in Mexico (deprivation of material goods, lack of running water, limited access to health services, illiteracy, and ethnicity) and the main indicator of pastoral services offered by the Catholic Church (number of parishes). Data from different sources will be linked and aggregated at different geographical levels through statistical and GIS platforms. Two main innovative tools to achieve this are the Areas of Direct Pastoral Influence (ADPI) and the Maximum Historically Consistent Geographical Units (MxHCGUs). These resources help to distribute and link socio-demographic and pastoral data. ADPIs facilitate focusing on the detailed relationships whereas MxHCGUs can be re-aggregated to higher-level units of analysis. The analysis includes descriptive geo-statistical tools to identify geographic patterns and test for spatial autocorrelation. Negative binomial regressions test the correlation of poverty and pastoral services at different levels of aggregation of the data. Besides identifying the levels and dimensions of poverty where there is empirical evidence of the priorities of pastoral service, I address the consistency of the different geographical aggregations and explain the differences. I emphasize the analysis of the levels of geographical aggregation directly relevant to the organizational structure of the Catholic Church: the ecclesiastical circumscriptions and the parishes. I will explain in detail the characteristics of both administrative-territorial levels and their importance in order to understand the provision of pastoral care. Although former sociological studies have never considered these levels in the study of poverty, they are the very units of aggregation used by the Catholic Church in pastoral strategies and decisions. Therefore, these are the most pertinent levels of analysis for a study about the priorities of pastoral services. It should be noted that the main limitation of this research is the lack of longitudinal data that would be necessary to test causality. However, this study links these kinds of data for the first time and there is no source of more complete information: the data presented here are actually the basis for the official maps of the Mexican Catholic Church. Therefore this means a major advance in this kind of research. On the one hand, the dataset that I put together sets the basic structure to organize historical censuses and ecclesiastical data; on the other hand, although the results are limited to cross-sectional data, this exploratory step is crucial for my broader research agenda because this study will evaluate basic procedures that will enable the later incorporation and analysis of longitudinal data from more than 120 years. / text

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Background: The problem of poverty in Hong Kong is worsening, particularly the disparity between the rich and poor. Although much of the public concern about this problem has concentrated on the physical development of children, the effect of disparity between the rich and poor on their psychological well-being remains relatively underexplored. A review of the literature revealed that most studies on the psychological effect of disparity between the rich and poor have been conducted in Western countries only. This study aimed to bridge this gap. Its objectives were (1) to compare the self-esteem, depressive symptoms and quality of life (QoL) of children from low- and high-income families, (2) to identify the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics affecting the psychological well-being of children, (3) to compare the livelihoods of children from low- and high-income families, and (4) to examine the effectiveness of adventure-based programme in promoting the psychological well-being of children living in poverty. Methods: This study consisted of a survey study and a pilot RCT. The survey study was conducted in 12 primary schools from the three highest and the three lowest median household income districts. A total of 1,725 children were recruited, with 898 from low-income families and 827 from high-income families. The self-esteem, depressive symptoms and QoL of them were assessed and compared. Additional 42 children were chosen to have semi-structured interviews. As for the pilot RCT, it was conducted in two primary schools in Kwai Chung Estate. A total of 120 children were recruited, of whom 56 were randomly assigned to the experimental group to receive adventure-based programme and 64 to the control group to have placebo programme. Results: For the survey study, the results showed that the children from low-income families scored significantly lower on self-esteem and QoL, and higher on depressive symptoms than the children from high-income families. Moreover, the disparity between the rich and poor was found to have the greatest impact on children's self-esteem. Regression analyses showed that housing type made the largest contribution to children's self-esteem, depressive symptoms and QoL. Additionally, the daily lives of children from low-income families were seriously affected in terms of living environment, physical health, social lives and ability to function at school. Concerning the pilot RCT, mixed between-within subjects ANOVA showed that the children in experimental group scored significantly lower on depressive symptoms and higher self-esteem than those in control group. However, such a significant effect was not found on QoL. Conclusion: The survey study provides further evidence that disparity between the rich and poor has a negative effect on children's psychological well-being. Additionally, the pilot RCT demonstrated the effectiveness of adventure-based programme in promoting the psychological well-being of children living in poverty. Implications for practice: It is vital for healthcare professionals to develop and implement appropriate interventions that promote the psychological well-being of this vulnerable group. Moreover, healthcare professionals should go beyond their normal roles to build multidisciplinary partnerships with schools and the community to promote psychological well-being among children living in poverty. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Galactic formation models have long sought to reproduce the observed chemical and kinematical properties of the Milky Way's stellar halo and disk. Recently it is the so-called "intermediate population", the stellar thick disk, that is driving advances in our understanding of the formation of spiral galaxies. The thick disk is kinematically more like the thin disk than the halo, for all the thick disk has a velocity dispersion twice that of the thin disk and rotates ~40 km/s more slowly. It is generally accepted that the thick disk's metallicity distribution function peaks at a lower metallicity than the thin disk but at higher metallicity than the halo. The lower bound of the thick disk is still uncertain, as many observational studies have found only a few thick disk candidate stars or clusters that are more metal poor than (Fe/H)=1. Beers et al. (2002) have so far proposed the largest sample of metal poor thick disk candidates, presenting 9 stars at (Fe/H)= -1.2 or lower and 46 more stars at (Fe/H)= -1 or lower, all of which are believed to belong to the thick disk. Beers et al. (2002) present possible thick disk stars as metal poor as (Fe/H)~ -2.5, roughly 1 dex lower than is suggested by current Galactic formation models (Brook et al., 2005). This study is a high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up of 29 of the stars Beers et al. (2002) and Chiba & Beers (2000) identify as potential metal poor members of the thick disk and an additional 40 stars from the cannonical thick disk, halo, and thin disk. None of the very metal-poor stars identified by Beers et al. (2002) can be confirmed as members of the thick disk and many are not metal poor at all. Only two stars more metal poor than (Fe/H)= 1.2 retain their thick disk membership. These two stars exhibit some of the chemical characteristics of the cannonical thick disk: high α-element abundances and a relatively low s--/r-- process element ratio. Also of interest are six stars with thin disk kinematic signatures but thick disk α-element abundances. That only a small number of metal poor thick disk stars could be confirmed in this study indicates that the thick disk is neither as populous nor as metal poor as has been proposed by Beers et al. (2002). / text

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