This collective qualitative case study explores the ways American urban school districts engage in image management and reputation building activities to sustain their on-going organizational improvement efforts and maintain public support. The study catalogues the internal and external communication and media relations strategies utilized by three urban districts to manage their public image, identity, and reputation. District officers were found to be generally aware of their district's image in the community, their own role in projecting and improving that image, and the positive or negative identity of the employees in relation to the district's image. The concepts of organizational adaptive instability and mutability were found to be most important to urban district leaders as they all described their response to organizational challenges by sharing information with internal and external stakeholders and focusing on long-term improvement efforts. Accountability for effectiveness and efficiency was found to be the most dominant theme related to reputation. This study suggests that urban districts need to manage their public image through a well developed communications plan that focuses on projecting a district image of continuous improvement, clearly defines roles in district communication, and utilizes professional communications expertise.

This paper analyzes a contentious road-building project by elucidating the different values involved and articulated in the decision-making process, delineating the various networks of institutions, individuals, organizations and materials formed around these values, and describing the outcome of the conflict as a function of the interactions between and among these networks. The project in question is the South Lawrence Trafficway, a section of Kansas Highway 10 (K-10) intended to route traffic south around the City of Lawrence, as opposed to its current alignment through the local streets of the city. This particular project has been contested for decades, primarily because of the historical, cultural and environmental values placed on the land through which the road is routed, known as the Wakarusa Wetlands, Baker Wetlands, or Haskell/Baker Wetlands. The analysis focuses on moments of value articulation- critical points during the conflict during which actors and networks of actors express their values with the intent of affecting the outcome of the decision. This paper’s analysis of the conflict draws on Henrik Ernstson’s framework for studying environmental justice and ecological complexity in urban landscapes, along with research on place meaning and desired outcomes for land-use decisions and natural resources planning efforts. The report will examine the decision-making process behind the proposal and approval of the South Lawrence Trafficway, taking into consideration the various institutional and individual actors (and networks of actors) involved, the positions, motivations and strategies of these actors, and the documents used in arguments for either side (maps, documents, court decisions, reports, etc.). The paper begins with an introduction, which includes a condensed summary and chronology of the South Lawrence Trafficway project. Literature review and research design sections follow. The next chapter discusses the actors, networks, values and materials involved in the conflict, as well as the legislative and institutional context within which the conflict occurs. The paper concludes with a summary of findings, and the proposal of future research questions. / text

For years, West Eugene, Oregon residents have struggled for acknowledgment of unjust government practices in the area, while agencies have been slow to acknowledge the negative social and environmental health outcomes experienced by the neighborhood. Examining land use/zoning and air quality agencies in Eugene, this study identifies the way the “state” engages in discourses regarding inequity that are used as a means to deflect political criticism and maintain social order, effectively insulating its actions from public input or scrutiny. By examining discourses from the ‘top’, this study finds the “state” deflects criticism and insulates its actions through four processes presented by Habermas: use of scientific discourse in development of government policy, management of political demand through neocorporatist decision-making, prioritization of capital accumulation in organizational structure, and increase of decision-making power within the state. Adding to the literature, this study finds a fifth process: “homogenization” of the public.

abstract: A pressing question in public policymaking is how best to allocate decision-making authority and to facilitate opportunities for input. When it comes to science, technology, and environmental (STE) policy decisions, persons impacted by those decisions often have relevant information and perspectives to contribute yet lack either the specialized, technical knowledge or the means by which to effectively communicate that knowledge. Consequently, due to a variety of factors, they are frequently denied meaningful involvement in making them. In an effort to better understand why this is so, and how this might change, this dissertation uses an activity systems framework to examine how three factors mediate the circulation of information in STE public engagement mechanisms. In this project, I examine the transcripts of a 2015 administrative hearing and community meeting about the Santa Susana Field Lab—a former nuclear- and rocket engine-testing facility 30 miles from Los Angeles, where an experimental nuclear reactor suffered a partial meltdown in 1959. Specifically, I identify (1) who was designated as an "expert" versus a member of "the public," (2) the structural features, and (3) the stylistic features of participants' remarks at these events; and I study how these factors mediated the flow of information at each. To do so, I view "expert" and "public" as what Michael McGee has termed ideographs, and consider the structural and stylistic features that prior scholarship has identified to impact information flow. Based on my analysis, I theorize that role designations, structural features, and stylistic features work together to mediate whose, what, and how information flows in public engagement mechanisms. Based on my findings, I also suggest that this mediation impacts policy outcomes. As such, I contend that better understanding the relationships among these mediational means, information flow, and policy outcomes is an important step towards developing public engagement mechanisms that most effectively use the relevant knowledge and other insights of all who have a stake in policy decisions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

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Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / This dissertation explores the many, complex changes to educational policy making in recent years. I conduct a critical policy analysis of a Massachusetts law that limits seniority-based job protections for public K-12 teachers. Garnering considerable controversy, the law was the result of private negotiations between the state's largest teachers' union and Stand for Children, a national Education Reform Advocacy Organization (ERAO). I use data from interviews with policy stakeholders, observations of public meetings and policy artifacts to explore struggles over public engagement in what unfolded as a highly undemocratic policy development process. My theoretical framework combines Stephen Ball's "policy cycle" (Ball, 1993; Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992) with deliberative democratic theory. Aligned with Ball's work, I explore the ways that political discourses shaped struggles in various "contexts" of the policy development process. I demonstrate that policy development was a messy, non-linear process that involved complicated argumentation about teachers' unions, ERAOs, and community organizing. Informed by deliberative democratic theory, I focus on concrete efforts taken to include, or exclude, the public from the policy debate, and I highlight discourses that appeared to justify these political decisions. I argue that the case is indicative of what I am calling "neo-democratic" decision making, in which high-level interest group conflict leads to narrow forms of democratic engagement. I trace changes in each organization's political identity over the course of the conflict, and I demonstrate that identity was connected in important ways to underlying beliefs about policy making and public engagement. Fueled by interest group conflict, both Stand for Children and the Massachusetts Teachers' Association sought to promote the organizational identity that best suited their political interests. In the process, each organization pursued narrow forms of democratic engagement that clashed with their own organizational mission statements. I use findings from the case to offer suggestions for moving beyond the "neo-democratic" era and towards a system of policy making that aspires to higher democratic ideals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This study explores the option of stimulating cycling activity as part of the strife of the modern city towards adopting the principles of sustainable development in order to shape the everyday habits of its inhabitants. The case of the city of Glasgow was chosen as an appropriate example of the potential obstacles and benefits which the implementation of cycling policies is attributed with. The Scottish city’s cycling agenda was analysed and interpreted in light of a broader international context by offering similar instances. This paper is divided into two main parts. The first one focuses on reviewing and assessing the key aspects of Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 - 2025 and questions its applicability/capability on achieving the cycling rates (10% of all journeys) stipulated by the Scottish government. This is done via a literature review and supplementary interviews by local experts and suggests that there is a strong correlation between cycling levels and governmental/ local council policies while also indicating that historical, cultural or climate-related tendencies do not have such a strong influence. The paper identifies Glasgow’s cycling plan as inclusive and contributing to the evolution of urban planning towards sustainability. Additionally, it is established that the plan creates liaisons between the state, the private sector and civil society (in the form of NGOs and local community groups as well as individuals), which has led to lasting partnerships based on the collaborative planning and execution of projects. Lastly, the analysis implies that Glasgow’s plan for cycling distinguishes deftly between applying soft or/and hard measures according to the needs of the local residents, in particular, the local users. The second part of the paper investigates the successes and shortcomings of Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 - 2025 when it comes to the case of the South City Way Development Project by drawing links from the prior analysis and additional primary data sources. The thesis suggests that the main difficulties associated with the project would stem from the inconsistent cooperation with local community groups, the lack of opportunities for citizen participation and to a lesser degree the insufficient amount of supporting cycling infrastructure (cycle parking). Cycling-related policies have proven to be able to play a significant role in achieving sustainable urban development. Glasgow City Council’s cycling plan underlines the importance of combining governmental standards, environmental needs and communal necessities but at the same time fails to implement them in practice in order to achieve the fundamental shift in behaviour set as a target by the Scottish government. Sidelining the essential partnership and cooperation with local stakeholders as well as community involvement would likely bring about fractured public support, limited outreach and thus diminished results. Having pooled considerable financial and human resources into creating the 2016 -2025 Strategic Plan for Cycling, the paper suggests that Glasgow City Council has to follow its guidelines strictly in order to lead its community towards sustainability.

In recent years, much research has focused on the possibility of using arrays of turbines to generate clean and predictable power from tidal currents. The first such array is now in development but a number of important questions remain unanswered. Among these, how should turbines be arranged within a tidal stream to maximise their collective performance? And what impacts will such devices have on the marine environment? In beginning to address these questions, this thesis takes two important steps toward establishing best practice in the design of tidal turbine arrays. In the first part of the thesis, the social and ecological impacts of marine energy development are reviewed. This review highlights the importance of communication and public engagement in securing support for a marine energy project and identifies the effects of increasing noise and collision risk on marine life as the most pressing ecological issues to be addressed. In the second part, theoretical models of tidal turbines are examined and a simple numerical model is used to extend existing theories on optimal turbine arrangement. The shallow water equations are used to simulate flow through an idealised channel and an actuator disc model is used to represent a single row of tidal turbines as a line sink of momentum. Optimal turbine arrangements are then sought for different and increasingly realistic flow conditions. Results provide new and important insights into the dynamics of flow through partial-width arrays and suggest that arranging turbines unevenly within the flow cross-section can increase considerably their collective power output.