Panhandling (also called begging and mendicancy) has been a problem for lawmakers. Although current crime control measures (based on the broken windows theory) have identified a perceived link between disorders (i.e., panhandling) and crime, previous attempts to ban panhandling were deemed unconstitutional. The purpose of this work was to investigate the impact of the latest attempt to curb panhandling in Hampton Roads, Virginia, known as the Public Education Campaign. This phenomenological inquiry examined the perceptions and work-related experiences of service delivery agents to explore the impact of the panhandling policy on panhandling and policy enforcement. Purposive sampling was used to recruit, interview, and record 7 service delivery agents (social workers and law enforcement officers). After the interviews were transcribed, member-checking and triangulation were used to contribute to the trustworthiness of this project. Results indicated ineffective communication and duplication of services were issues. Therefore, positive social change may result from an improved screening process for the Department of Social Services personnel. Furthermore, educating the public concerning the legality of panhandling may eliminate the duplication of services for the Housing Crisis Hotline personnel.

Over the past sixty years, many cities in the United States have experienced the evaporation of independently owned neighbourhood grocery stores and the proliferation of large, full-service suburban supermarkets, leaving behind 'grocery gaps' in central cities. This phenomenon, influenced by powerful economic forces, has made access to healthy food a challenge for some in these food insecure areas. In addition, easy access to fast-food restaurants, higher food prices, lower quality food and the lack of transportation has contributed to glaring health disparities where higher incidences of diet-related diseases are evident in low income and largely minority communities. Often policies designed to address the negative health outcomes and co-related 'grocery gaps' focus on availability, affordability and quality of food in neighbourhoods. Few address other psychosocial components of food access. This mixed-methods study extends our understanding of access by exploring five dimensions of access: acceptability, accessibility, accommodation, affordability and availability in a study of four neighbourhoods in Louisville, Kentucky. Through spatial analysis, analyses of stakeholder interviews and ANOVA tests of questionnaire results, I found that the neighbourhood and living in an initiative area affected residents' perception of availability of fruits and vegetables. In addition, residents' perception of accommodation was affected by age. Race, sex, income, food cost, receiving food assistance and vehicle access did not significantly affect access as perceived by participants. Furthermore, access is enhanced through cultural norms and relationships, including relationships among corner stores, corner stores and families, and among neighbourhood residents. Successful corner store initiatives to improve access to healthy food in urban areas should include objective and perceived components of access as well as a temporal component that incorporates inter- and intra-community relationships among neighbourhood residents, corner stores and wider community stakeholders. This relationship amongst the objective, perceived and temporal components of access is conceptualised as the 'Three Pillars of Access'. Finally, this study also holds saliency for communicative action in critical theory of urban planning as a path to move us towards authentic and qualitatively deeper perspectives concerning healthy food access. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 9, 2015. / critical theory of urban planning, five dimensions of access, food desert, healthy corner store, objective access, perceived access / Includes bibliographical references. / Timothy Chapin, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; William Butler, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Keith Ihlanfeldt, University Representative; Christopher Coutts, Committee Member.

The purpose of this research was to identify factors related to citizens' levels of risk acceptability and examine how these factors influenced each other during the policy making process of selecting a site for a nuclear facility in the city of Samchuk, South Korea. The factors used in this study were citizens' perceptions of risk, citizens' perceptions of benefit, regional nuclear stigma, and citizens' attitudes towards government at the local and national level. Few studies have brought these factors together in one model although each variable has been studied separately. We addressed how risk theories developed from other social sciences might be applied to PA research and argued that objective-scientific research in cognitive psychology has been mostly limited to the applications within Beck's Risk Society (1992). In results of testing, first, perceived benefit was shown to significantly affect the acceptability of the risk policy. Second, although local government capacity has no direct influence on acceptability, it had an indirect effect on acceptability, as long as there was perceived economic benefit. From these findings, perceived benefit was revealed to have the only direct effect on the acceptability of the risk policy. Since perceived benefit was the essential factor influencing the acceptability of policy, it was necessary then to explore the factors that were affecting perceived benefit. Also, both perceived risk and local government capacity directly influenced perceived benefit. However, regional nuclear stigma did not directly influence perceived benefit. Instead, regional nuclear stigma indirectly influenced perceived benefit through its relationships with two linking variables: local government capacity and perceived risk. We expected that the level of trust in national government (low vs. high) would affect the relationship between regional nuclear stigma and perceived local government capacity. The results of this study confirmed our expectations: the effect of regional nuclear stigma on perceived local government capacity was different depending on the level of trust in national government. In the past, the relationships between trust in national government and the perceived local government capacity were unacknowledged in nuclear power policy research. In other words, previous studies typically did not distinguish one level of government from another in research on the acceptability of risk and these studies mostly neglected to examine how perceived local government capacity may be functioning in conjunction with trust in the national government. It is one of the key features of this study that citizens' perceptions of government were measured separately according to the level of government (local and national), a distinction that had not been made to date in prior studies of risk policy. The findings of this study showed that regional nuclear stigma had conditional negative impact on perceived local government capacity only if trust in national government was low. Conversely, if the level of trust in national government was high, regional nuclear stigma had no impact on perceived local government capacity. One theoretical implications of this study is that acceptability of policy should be reconsidered in terms of citizens' attitudes to two levels of government. The extant studies in risk analysis of acceptability have not necessarily utilized the full capabilities of a full structural SEM model. This dissertation reported all the required elements: acceptable model fit indices, the evaluation of the constructs representing validity indices and the use of reliability relevant to a full structural SEM model, and the assessment of common method bias (CMB). A lesson that this research taught us is that trust in national government has an important influence on the relationship between regional nuclear stigma and perception of local government capacity. Local residents value local government's capacity when it comes to the acceptability of risk; however, if there is a low level of trust in national government, even the positive perception of local government capacity may have little or no influence on the acceptability of risk. Notwithstanding the contributions of the present study regarding the importance of perceived risk and benefit associated with social, cultural and psychological factors and governmental factors on acceptability of risk, this study is limited in scope to one region in South Korea. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / March 30, 2015. / Acceptability of Risk, Benefit Perception, Perceived General Trust in Government, Perceived Local Government's Capability, Regional Stigma Effect of Nuclear, Risk Perception / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ralph S. Brower, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Daekwan Kim, University Representative; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

This dissertation examines the influence that political institutions have had over Florida's growth-management policy process at two levels of government during dissimilar periods of environmental conditions. It is an advancement on extant public administration research in several ways. First, by modeling a local political market as an evolving system in which equilibrium policy output may be more an exception than the norm, I demonstrate that political institutions do moderate political exchange but the strength and direction of this effect may be conditional on interactions between form of government and environmental circumstances. Public administration researchers have been divided for years over whether the structural reform of council-manager government at the local level continues to have an influence over a range of social outcomes. I find evidence that specific to community planning and development, managerial form does matter, but largely at the margins. Secondly, by applying models of disproportionate information processing and multi-model approaches to capture emerging patterns of land-development policy change, I advance our understanding of the effectiveness of the policy of growth management and its implications for sustainable communities. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 1, 2015. / environmental protection, growth management, local government management, political markets, public administration, urban politics and policy / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Timothy S. Chapin, University Representative; Frances Berry, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

In Florida, Medicaid expenditures have grown more quickly than Medicaid caseloads. Since the Medicaid program comprises a large share of all state budgets, controlling Medicaid spending has been the first priority for state governments. To manage spending and improve access to healthcare, states have adopted a managed care approach to Medicaid services. When states pursue Medicaid managed care, they believe that managed care can control Medicaid spending and maintain budget predictability through a capitated payment system. Medicaid beneficiaries are also guaranteed access to care through contracts with managed care health plans and/or providers. Several studies that have investigated the impact of Medicaid managed care using nationally representative data have often yielded inconclusive or contradictory results. Despite the growing interest in Medicaid managed care in Florida, only a few studies have examined the impact of managed care programs on preventable hospitalization, length of stay, and cost of inpatient care for Florida's Medicaid enrollees. In addition, only a few studies have examined the impact of Medicaid managed care in the context of different market structures. The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold. First, this study examines the effects of a Medicaid managed care program on preventable hospitalization, length of stay, and cost of inpatient care for Medicaid patients. Second, the impact of market structure on preventable hospitalization, length of stay, and cost of inpatient care is a subject of interest. Finally, this dissertation extends the existing literature methodologically. This study uses multilevel modeling to estimate variables at different levels simultaneously. Agency theory and transaction cost economics provide a useful framework for understanding the effects of different insurance schemes on incentives that affect the behavior of both patients and providers. In addition, the model of market structure provides a theoretical framework for predicting the market behavior of Medicaid managed care organizations under market contexts ranging from monopoly to perfect competition. The study included 1,957,072 Medicaid patients aged 18 to 64 years who were discharged from a short-term general hospital in Florida from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2012. The researcher used two-level hierarchal models to predict the probability of preventable hospitalization, length of stay, and inpatient cost in Medicaid patients. The results show that Medicaid managed care patients had a higher probability of preventable hospitalization than Medicaid fee-for-service patients. In addition, Medicaid managed care patients were more likely to have shorter lengths of stay and lower inpatient costs compared with fee-for-service Medicaid patients. This study found that market competition moderates the relationship between Medicaid insurance type and dependent variables. The study supports a spillover effect of Medicaid managed care on inpatient costs for Medicaid fee-for- service patients. In conclusion, the dissertation discusses several policy implications. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / November 3, 2014. / Competition, Inpatient Cost, Length of Stay, Managed Care, Medicaid, Preventable Hospitalization / Includes bibliographical references. / Keon-Hyung Lee, Professor Directing Dissertation; William G. Weissert, University Representative; Frances Berry, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how horizontal and vertical governance structure affects energy and sustainability policymaking at the local level. Although sustainability is an important issue at all levels of government in the American federal system, local governments increasingly play a major role in the development and implementation of policies directed at enhancing environmental outcomes such as energy conservation. Accordingly, sustainability research is beginning to shift more of its attention to municipalities, developing a framework for understanding global climate change as a local issue, and examining the influence and corresponding effects local institutions have in the implementation of sustainability policies. However, previous studies tend to overlook the importance and impact of intergovernmental relations on urban sustainability outcomes. The dissertation particularly analyzes how the relations between local and higher-level governments influence local institutional structures in addressing energy conservation and climate change concerns, as well as "green" energy policy outcomes at the local level. This research advances our theoretical understanding of interlocal collaboration and the impact of federal grant programs on local implementation efforts. This dissertation contains three essays. The first essay examines how state laws and institutions influence interlocal collaboration. The second essay analyzes how federal rules and regulations affect local governmental decisions to engage in collective action. Finally, the third essay determines the direct impact of a federal grant program on local green policy outcomes. / A Dissertation submitted to Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / November 4, 2014. / Climate change protection policy, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations, Interlocal Collaboration / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Tingting Zhao, University Representative; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member; Keon-Hyung Lee, Committee Member.

According to the 2010 census, the number of African Americans rose from 34.7 million in 2000 to 38.9 million in 2010; this represented a 12% increase in ten years. Similarly during the same time period, Latinos accounted for more than 50 percent of the nation's total population growth (Flores & Oseguera, 2011; U. S. Census Bureau, 2010; U. S. Census Bureau, 2010). Yet, both groups remain underrepresented in higher education. A major determinant of college participation for underrepresented racial minorities is the availability of funding. While individual states and institutions provide financial resources, via various measures, the federal government provides a substantial amount of need based funding in the form of Pell Grants. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA) mandates yearly increases to Pell Grant starting in 2008 and continuing until 2017. The main purpose of CCRAA is to reduce college costs and increase access. However, there is no preliminary evidence that this was accomplished for students once CCRAA was enacted, particularly those who are underrepresented and depend most on Pell Grant funding. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to investigate the enrollment patterns of African American and Latino students after the enactment of the CCRAA. Multiple regression and fixed effects models were used to examine the enrollment of both minority groups using an institutional level analysis of four-year, degree granting postsecondary institutions. Findings from this study provided a first glimpse into the effectiveness of CCRAA in increasing first-time full time enrollment. Pell Grant increases were found to have a positive effect on Latino student enrollment at four-year institutions, both public and private. These findings have implications, particularly for policy makers and potential students, but also for higher education research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / July 28, 2014. / African American, College Costs Reduction and Access Act of 2007, enrollment, financial aid policy, Latino, underrepresented populations / Includes bibliographical references. / Tamara Bertrand Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Tandberg, Committee Member; Lara Perez-Felkner, Committee Member; Toby Park, Committee Member.

This dissertation research is a study of the dynamics of continuous change in Florida's public higher education system between 1998 and 2009. There are three subsidiary questions used to explore these events in greater detail: What is the impetus for changes in the structure of Florida's education system? What are the key dynamics of social change outlining this period of history of governance in the higher education system? How have these changes affected the ability of the individuals and boards responsible for education to be effective, legitimate, accountable, autonomous and authoritative? Since the Florida Legislature abolished the Board of Regents (the board statutorily directed to oversee the public state university system) in 2000, three separate entities were at one point or another charged with the task of overseeing the system before the Board of Governors and university boards of trustees were constitutionally created in 2002. Since that time, the myriad stakeholder groups have struggled to clearly define their own powers within the confines of constitutional and statutory law. Moreover, these groups have been unsuccessful in defining their own powers in such a way where agreement with other stakeholder groups is achieved. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, the perspectives of representatives of the various stakeholder groups on the historical changes of the system during this time period, their feelings about the changes and the results of these changes on the relationships between the stakeholder groups will be explored. Additionally, historical information outlining the events that have taken place in Florida will be obtained through the review and examination of documents, such as state laws, proposed and approved legislation, task force meeting minutes, relevant court cases and news articles. This study will employ grounded analysis and pattern matching as tools to inductively identify emergent patterns and relationships as identified by the examination of the behaviors and reactions of those individuals intimately involved in this issue. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / March 22, 2010. / Board of Regents, Board of Governors, Autonomy, Authority, Accountability, Governance, Higher Education, Florida / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member.

The political fragmentation that characterize federal systems –and the extreme example that the American system constitutes of such a fragmentation- has attracted great attention from scholars interested in the study of the conditions under which collaborative behavior is achieved among different political actors, including governmental authorities, agencies, and the myriad of non-governmental political actors that may play a role in designing and implementing public policy. While understanding how political actors arrive at collaborative outcomes is extremely important, it is also crucial to know how collaboration can be prolonged in time once it has been achieved. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of this issue by asking the question of what type of relationship is more effective in maintaining collaborative results in the long run after the initial obstacles for cooperation have been removed. In particular, I explain how the exchange of needed resources between two organizational partners in a common collaborative effort affects their willingness to sustain their collaboration. In so doing, I test the expectations of resource exchange theory in the inter-organizational relationships developed by partners in projects designed to protect water quality and natural systems, prevent flooding, and ensure water supply in southwest Florida. While resource exchange theory has been widely tested by sociologists interested in the effects that the exchange of resources has on inter-organizational behavior, the theory still has not encountered solid testing in political science, despite claims about its potential usefulness to aid researchers in the study of public policy (O'Toole 1997). This dissertation provides such initial test. Results show that the likelihood of sustaining collaboration between partners grows when specific resources are exchanged that increase the chances of success of the projects mentioned above, and suggest that the key for long-term collaboration might lay on the creation of structures of exchanges that secure the provision of such critical resources. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Political Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / November 6, 2006. / Resource Exchange, Southwest Florida, Water / Includes bibliographical references. / John T. Scholz, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce Stiftel, Outside Committee Member; T. K. Ahn, Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member; Christopher Reenock, Committee Member.

Despite the stereotype as a patriarchal region, several Latin American countries score higher in the global gender gap index than some developed countries. According to the UNWOMEN (2014), these countries are making substantial progress in terms of critical aspects of the feminist agenda, such as political and economic empowerment. In countries like Colombia, a unitary state, the path towards gender equality for women usually starts from nationwide mandatory laws to be implemented at the local level, where the only form of municipal government is that of a Mayor-Council system. Colombia has nominally strong laws that seek to advance gender equality. However, legalism does not necessarily lead to compliance and, for Colombia, achieving gender-responsive planning (GRP) is a matter that goes beyond the existence of good laws (Lozano-Torres & Doan, forthcoming). What are then the elements that lead to having a Gender Responsive City? What are the conditions that help address gender equality at the local level in countries where mandates come from a central national government? How do these efforts look like in a city’s governance scheme and planning activities? The feminist literature highlights several variables that play an important role in advancing progressive agendas to reduce gender inequalities (Burgess, 2008; Damyanovic & Zibell, 2013). I contend that responsiveness towards women’s needs is a function of the following four dimensions: (1) WHO is doing the planning, (2) for WHOM the plan is done, (3) the INSTITUTIONAL context surrounding the process, and (4) the planning APPROACH used. In other words, GRP depends on having women in power (Park, 2013), the community’s characteristics, the institutional readiness for gender equality, and the planning method. From a sample of 294 Colombian cities, I built an index (GRP) of gender responsiveness using Content Analysis and identified the variables that make a city more gender progressive, using an OLS regression. Results indicate that the responsiveness to women’s needs from a city highly depends on the institutional context surrounding the planning process and the characteristics of the people for whom the plan is done. The WHO dimension was found significant but negative, which needs further research because there was a lack of critical mass of women in power, at less than 20 percent. A Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of twenty-one cities found that the women’s agenda can be developed in many ways, but its pillars can be divided into crucial, basic, and empowering. The crucial refers to physical integrity of women, while the basic denotes to educational attainment and opportunity. Political participation is the empowering pillar. An analysis of the quantitative and qualitative results showed convergence between GRP level and cities’ program for gender equality for the cities at each end of the spectrum. Divergence was found for five cities that had mixed results. This confirms the importance that each analysis brings in shedding light to a different dimension of gender responsiveness for these cities. This study provides an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis that can help planners, public administrators, and decision makers not only understand the variables determining responsiveness to women’s interests, but also define what strategies can be used to achieve gender equality. It also helps to corroborate or dismiss some of planners' assumptions regarding what helps to advance gender equality. Key words: gender equality, gender-responsive planning, local planning, feminist planning, Latin America, Colombia, women, Latinx, representative bureaucracy. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / October 31, 2019. / gender equality, gender responsive planning, feminist planning, local planning,Latin America, Colombia, Latinx, women, representative bureaucracy / Includes bibliographical references. / Petra Doan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ralph Brower, University Representative; Rebecca Miles, Committee Member; Patrick Mason, Committee Member.