Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-269).

In an effort to make Appalachia a more acceptable and productive region to the rest of the country, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was created in 1965. This agency continued some of the efforts began by other redevelopment agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), and the Area Redevelopment Agency (ARA). What was not in the original plan, however, was keeping an enormously rich existent culture alive. Having effected tremendous advancement in infrastructure, followed by continued industrial growth and health, social, and educational reform, Appalachia continues to experience the repercussions of those changes on the cultural level. Using personal interviews with volunteers who are older-generation, native Appalachians, regarding their experiences of life before, during, and after the ARC was introduced, this thesis explores the significance of cultural preservation, not only for rural Appalachians, but also for other groups threatened by cultural extinction.

This thesis is the first systematic history of the Geelong Regional Commission (GRC), and only the second history of a regional development organisation formed as a result of the growth centres policy of the Commonwealth Labor Government in the first half of the 1970s. In particular, the thesis examines the historical performance of the GRC from the time of its establishment in August 1977 to its abolition in May 1993. The GRC Commissioners were subject to ongoing criticism by some elements of the region's political, business, rural and local government sectors. This criticism focused on the Commissioners' policies on land-use planning, their interventionist stance on industrial land development, major projects and industry protection and their activities in revitalising the Geelong central business district. This thesis examines these criticisms in the light of the Commission's overall performance. This thesis found that, as a statutory authority of the Victorian Government, the GRC was successful over its lifetime, when measured against the requirements of the Geelong Regional Commission Act, the Commission's corporate planning objectives and performance indicators, the corporate performance standards of private enterprise in the late 1990s, and the performance indicator standards of today's regional economic development organisations in the United States of America, parts of the United Kingdom and Australia. With the change of Government in Victoria in October 1992 came a new approach to regional development. The new Government enacted legislation to amalgamate six of the nine local government councils of the Geelong region and returned regional planning responsibilities to the newly formed City of Greater Geelong Council. The new Government also made economic development a major objective of local government. As a result, the raison d'etre for the GRC came to an end and the organisation was abolished.

This project critically evaluates liberal development plans created for Central Appalachia by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) through a historical materialist lens. It demonstrates that these plans and their explicitly liberal origins are not sufficient for the working classes in the region to achieve a sustainable 'post-coal' future. Central Appalachia is one of the most impoverished regions in the United States and its political economy was shaped largely by coal mining that was overseen by absentee proprietors. This mono-economic structure has bred unique political conditions in the region. The economics of coal have historically influenced most political decisions. As the coal industry has declined, the region has been subjected to multitudes of economic development plans from the ARC. However, Central Appalachia still exists as an impoverished peripheral zone within the United States' political economy. This thesis is motivated by the decline of coal and the economic and ecological hardships this has created for the region's working-class, and the urgent need to begin envisioning a post-coal future for the region which avoids the insufficiency of liberal economic development. The thesis is not purely an attack on the ARC as an organization, but is rather a critique of the methods they use to enact economic development and shows how these methods are not only inadequate for the Appalachian working class, but all working classes subjected to the liberal economic development model. / Master of Arts / This paper evaluates the efficacy of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) economic development plans. The ARC is the federal agency tasked with reducing poverty in the Appalachian region and was created in 1965. They have enacted over 28,000 development plans and spent $4.5 billion since 1965, but Appalachia is still relatively impoverished in comparison to the rest of the United States. This impoverishment is largely due to the prevalence of the coal industry in the region and the fact that most political and economic decisions were influenced by the coal industry. However, the industry has been declining for several decades now, and this has created economic hardship for many in the region, as there are very few industries that have taken its place, leading to widespread unemployment. This paper focuses specifically on the Central Appalachian region of Southeastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Northeastern Tennessee, and West Virginia. These states had the highest amount of people employed in the coal industry during its heyday, so they have borne the brunt of its decline. I offer a critique of the ARC's model of development and suggest solutions for mitigating the difficult situation in Central Appalachia and explore how the region can achieve a 'post-coal' future that does not rely on the current mechanisms of the ARC's model of development. This critique is informed by historical perspectives that highlight how Central Appalachia was structured as a peripheral zone in the larger US economy that served only to enrich the metropolitan areas of the US and world at great cost to the people of Central Appalachia and their natural environment. I perform my analysis through a historical overview of the economic structure of Central Appalachia as well as a content analysis of six ARC documents that outline their frameworks and methodologies for achieving economic development. While the paper is a critique of the ARC, the emphasis is more so on the particular method that the ARC uses to achieve economic development in the region.

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Secretaria Municipal de Saúde / A governança é fundamental para a implementação das Redes de Atenção à Saúde, pois a sua efetivação é realizada por meio da interação entre atores interdependentes em processos de negociação e tomada de decisão coletiva. O presente estudo analisou a governança na implementação da Rede de Atenção às Urgências e Emergência na região do Médio Paraíba – RUE MP, localizada no estado do Rio de Janeiro. O estudo teve por objetivos: identificar os atores envolvidos, suas interações e suas influências no processo decisório da RUE; analisar o arcabouço legal que norteia o processo decisório da RUE; analisar a dinâmica dos espaços de processo decisório da RUE (Grupo Condutor Estadual da RUE e Comissão Intergestores Regional da Região do Médio Paraíba – CIR-MP); e identificar os dispositivos facilitadores e limitantes para a organização da RUE. Foi realizado estudo de caso em dois espaços de governança para a implementação da RUE, o Grupo Condutor Estadual da RUE e a Comissão Intergestores Regional da região do Médio Paraíba – CIR-MP. As fontes de informação foram as atas, deliberações, resoluções e outros documentos relativos à região, com a complementação de entrevistas semiestruturadas com informantes chave (gestores/representantes) dos dois espaços estudados. Foi feita a análise documental destas fontes tendo como base para análise da governança, o estudo de HUFTY et al (2006) que a sugere por meio de quatro dimensões de análise: os atores, as normas, os pontos nodais e os processos. Foram identificados os principais atores, suas interações e influências no processo de implementação da RUE, além da dinâmica de funcionamento dos espaços de processo decisório. Os resultados indicam que os dois espaços são importantes para a governança da RUE, favorecendo as discussões e a tomada de decisão apoiadas no interesse coletivo, porém o espaço da CIR teve um papel preponderante na implementação da RUE MP, considerando seu desenho regional e sua possibilidade de construção de políticas de saúde de caráter regional. Apesar disso, observou-se que estes espaços estão muito aquém do que os mesmos se propõem, necessitando avançar na cultura de elaborar projetos regionais que realmente considerem as especificidades locais. A falta de novos recursos financeiros foi outro desafio apontado no estudo, dificultando a ampliação da oferta da capacidade instalada para a região / Governance is critical to the implementation of the Health Care Networks, because its effectiveness is accomplished through the interaction between interdependent actors in negotiation and collective decision-making. This study examined governance in implementing the Care Network for Urgent and Emergency in the Middle Paraíba region - RUE MP, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The study aimed to: identify the players involved, their interactions and their influence in the RUE decision making process; analyze the legal framework that guides the decision-making process of RUE; analyze the dynamics of decision-making spaces of RUE (RUE Group of State Driver and Intergestores Regional Commission for the Middle Paraíba Region - CIR-MP); and identify facilitators and limiting devices for the organization of RUE. Case study was conducted in two areas of governance for the implementation of RUE, the State Driver Group of RUE and Intergestores Regional Commission for the Middle Paraíba region - CIR-MP. The sources of information were the meeting transcripts, decisions, resolutions and other documents relating to the region, complemented by semi-structured interviews with key informants (managers / representatives) of the two studied areas. It was made a documentary analysis of these sources. As governance analysis, we used the Hufty’s study et al (2006) that suggests that four dimensions of analysis: the actors, the rules, the nodal points and processes. The main actors were identified, their interactions and influences the implementation process of RUE in addition to the operating dynamics of decision-making spaces. The results indicate that the two spaces are important for the governance of RUE, favoring the discussions and decision making supported by the collective interest, but CIR space played a major role in the implementation of RUE MP, considering its regional design and its possibility of Constructing health policies that are regional in nature. Nevertheless, it was observed that these spaces fall far short of what they propose, requiring advances in the culture of creating regional projects that really consider the local specificities. The lack of new financial resources was another challenge pointed out in the study, making it difficult to increase the supply of capacity to the region

We all want to live in a healthy community. Each of us has his or her own image of what such a community should look like. That image is shaped, in part, by our reaction to the communities in which we now live or used to live. However we often take for granted the elements of communities that enable and sometimes disable many of us to remain active in a community for a lifetime. For older residents, a lifelong community would include elements that help them to maintain independence and quality of life. The physical characteristics of a community often play a major role in facilitating our personal independence. In order to combat the growing challenges and health concerns facing the American lifestyle this research proposes a set of design guidelines that promote sustainable lifelong communities that are universally designed for people of all ages and levels of physical ability. The purpose of developing a set of universal design guidelines for lifelong communities is to alleviate many of the physical barriers and challenges that prevent some Americans from active involvement in the community. The methods employed to develop these guidelines were based on literature review and analysis. This research was incorporated into a new body of practical standards that was tested against a real life community in Decatur, Georgia. These standards were edited and revised to appropriately accommodate the necessary adaptations that were discovered during the evaluation phase. The resultant guidelines are presented with the intention of becoming a usable guide for planning agencies such as the Atlanta Regional Commission and other local and national community design facilitators.