No description available.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze homelessness in a medium-sized municipality from an organizational perspective. Some of the central questions in this study are: How is the cause of homelessness explained? How do different actors in the community address, prevent and combat homelessness? Who is responsible for the homelessness? This study is based on four semi-structured interviews with organizations that work with homelessness. The analysis is based on problem definition theory. The result of this study shows that homelessness is a problem in this medium-sized municipality even if it is not a big one and that it is often closely combined with substance abuse. The responsibility for the homeless is on the homeless themselves and the social service because that causes is, according to this study, individual based.

The issue of climate migration has long been struggling to make its way onto the international agenda. This study therefore set out to shed a light on eleven strategies for handling climate migration. The study builds on the work by Ransan-Cooper et al. (2015) where they allocate actors to four different frames depending on how the actor in question view the environmental migrant, either as; a victim; a security threat; an adaptive agent or; a political subject. This makes out an important comparative basis for the analysis done in this study. It also provides a background on problem definition and framing and the role it plays in policy making. This study then takes the step to also present solutions to the problem defined by presenting concrete strategies which can all be allocated to one of the four frames. The core ideas of the strategies and the solutions they provide are presented using a content analysis. In addition, the question of responsibility for climate migrants is discussed using three normative theories: contribution to the problem, ability to pay and beneficiary pays. The study concludes that there is a consensus among most actors that there is a need for global cooperation and shared responsibility for climate migration and climate migrants. It also concludes that the way a problem is defined or framed plays a highly important role.

This body of research focuses on supporting problem-stakeholders, decision-makers and problem-solvers faced with an ill-defined and complex real world problem. An ill-defined problem has a characteristic trait of continual refinement. That is, the definition of the problem changes throughout the problem investigation and resolution process. The central theme of this research is that a support system should provide problem stakeholders with a problem definition model for constructing and manipulating a representation of the definition of the problem as they understand it. The approach adopted herein is to first develop a problem definition model for ill-defined problems— the 6-Component problem definition model. With this model, it is then possible to move on to identifying the types of changes or modifications to the problem definition that problem stakeholders, decision makers and problem solvers may wish to explore. Importantly, there must be a connection between the surface representation of the problem and the underlying implementation of the support system. This research argues that by focusing the support system around the problem definition, it is possible to reduce the mismatch between the problem objectives and the representation of the problem that the support system offers. This research uses the Unified Modelling Language to record and explore the requirements that problem stakeholders, faced with an evolving problem definition, place on a support system. The 6-Component problem definition model is then embedded within a design for an evolutionary support system. This embedding, supported by collaboration diagrams, shows how a system using the 6-Component problem definition model will support stakeholders in their exploration, evaluation and resolution of an ill-defined and complex real-world problem. A case study provides validation of the effectiveness of the 6-Component problem definition model proposed and developed in this work. The case study uses the 6-Component problem definition model as a basis for implementing the Integration Workbench, an evolutionary support system for land-use planning. Stakeholders explore, communicate, evaluate and resolve the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement problem with assistance from the Integration Workbench.

Widespread accessibility to the Internet and the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies has led to the growth of online tools for educational content creation, delivery, and assessment. Maintaining high quality of assessment using this medium is made more practical by using tools to author and represent a broad range of assessment problems. A survey of existing problem-authoring tools uncovered two main deficiencies: (a) lack of support for authoring "dynamic" (parameterized) problems, and (b) lack of tools that are independent of a specific publishing format, persistence format, and/or authoring platform. Dynamic problems are assessment problem templates that support parameterization of the problems by the use of variables. Variables dynamically take values assigned at random to generate different instances of a problem from a template. This provides for greater diversity of authored problems, and permits students to practice with different variations of a problem. In existing problem authoring tools, the problem types supported are often limited to static problems. A formal definition of an assessment problem structure is presented. This formal definition served as a design aide for a new problem authoring system named QBank, a web-based tool that supports authoring dynamic problems. The proof-of-concept implementation of QBank supports export of questions in CSV format and the Khan Academy Exercise format. The extensible nature of the framework allows future development of features supporting export of authored problems into other publishing and/or persistence formats. / Master of Science

Hunger and food insecurity are lingering public health problems, made more challenging by their evolving definitions, broad landscapes of interest groups, and complex political solutions. There is an important role for public health professionals and congressional committees in shaping the discourse and fortifying their relevance in food security policymaking. In short, the what, when, and who of issue definition becomes a foundation for food security policymaking. This study used in-depth content analysis to examine the evolution of food security discourse and interest group mobilization between 1974 and 2009 in media coverage of the issue of food security. Additionally, over 200 congressional documents were analyzed to investigate the role of specialized congressional committees in sustaining political attention to the issues of hunger and food security. The findings of this three-paper dissertation indicated that the evolution of food security conceptualization is ongoing and less comprehensive than anticipated. The study also found public health groups' remained at the periphery of mobilization on the issue. Finally, results demonstrated that congressional attention to hunger was significantly sustained during periods when a select committee, along with prominent policy entrepreneurs, was dedicated to the issue. The chapters and conclusion of the dissertation discuss ways in which public health groups can refine their media presence and move from the margin of mobilization to more effectively drive food security discourse in both the informal media venue and more formal policymaking venue of Congress in order to positively influence public health policies and outcomes related to food security. / Public Health

Historically, the federal government has been the institution responsible for setting the nation's drug policy. Since 1996, however, the federal government's authority and legitimacy in this issue area has increasingly been challenged through state ballot measures introduced via the initiative process. While only eight percent of ballot measures historically are approved by voters (Initiative and Referendum Institute 2004), half of the 28 state ballot measures on illegal drugs have been approved by voters over the past decade. The stated goal of those supporting legalization through ballot measures is to "build a political movement to end the war on drugs" (Nadelmann 2004). Nadelmann (2004) suggests that victories in the states show that the "nascent drug policy reform movement" can win in the "big leagues of American politics" and that the successful models presented through the ballot measures will increase "public confidence in the possibilities and virtue" of regulating the non-medical use of illicit drugs. To date there has been no detailed examination of the issue framing strategies in this venue; nor has there been an effort to link the problem definition and direct democracy literatures. This dissertation links the problem definition and direct democracy literatures, using drug policy as the vehicle and applying Stone's (2002) analytic framework of problem definition to make descriptive inferences about the issue framing devices employed in state ballot measures on illegal drugs. The research examines a range of materials related to the state ballot measures on illegal drugs including the language appearing on voter ballots; the full text of the ballot measures, including ballot titles and political preambles; and the voter information statements and their authors. In addition, the dissertation describes the elements of legalization proposed by the ballot measures that were approved by voters and examines three key legal challenges to Proposition 215, one of the first ballot measures on illegal drugs approved by voters in California in 1996, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Distribution tables have become ubiquitous to the tax policy debates surrounding major legislative initiatives to change tax law at the federal level. The fairness of any proposed change to federal tax policy has become one of the most highlighted components of tax policy discussions. The presentation of tax data within distribution tables can hide or omit important information that is required in order to effectively evaluate the merits of any tax legislation. Many producers of distribution tables show only the information necessary to present their policy preferences in the best possible light. The different economic assumptions and presentations of data used by the various groups that release distribution tables have the inherent consequence of providing the public with numerous tables that are often used as political ammunition to influence and shape debate. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the tax policy research literature by exploring the limitations and biases inherent in specific designs of tax distribution tables and in specific methodological approaches to tax distribution analysis. This is done by means of a systematic examination of how different designs and methodologies provide an incomplete picture of a proposed change to federal tax policy. By comparing distribution tables as used by different groups to provide alternative perspectives of various tax proposals, the research shows how the use of tax distribution tables often provides misleading results about the impact of proposed tax legislation in order to influence and shape the issues surrounding a proposed change to federal tax policy. A method for evaluating tax distribution tables is proposed which highlights the deficiencies of design and methodology which characterize the present use of tax distribution tables. An index of questions is provided as part of this research project to serve as a new tool of policy analysis, an index termed the "Tax Distribution Table Scoring Index" (TDTSI). The TDTSI will assist in balancing the different perspectives presented via tax distribution tables by identifying the biases and limitations associated with different methodologies and presentations of data. / Ph. D.

Design brief is the descriptive and connective medium of design competitions. The main aim (design problem) of the design competition is explained by means of design brief which is setting up all needs and requirements or design program (specification) which is explaining the requirement list. The definition of design problem should be formulated to make clear statements in order to avoid misapprehensions by forming creative environment to enable creation of new ideas. The communication processes are composed between the participants of the competition, which are the client, competitors, jury and the public, by means of the formulation of design problem by the design brief. This thesis aims to understand the role of design brief as different from design program (specification) in the process and result of the urban design competitions by studying the nature and effects of design brief as the main communication tool in the design and evaluation processes in design competitions. Three urban design competitions are chosen as the main study areas of the thesis because of their different processes and results.