Residential crowding is frequently associated with impoverished segments of the population, often living in distressed neighbourhoods, and with detrimental consequences for crowded households. The aim of this thesis is to apply a sociological and historical perspective on residential crowding by analyzing Swedish governmental texts and quantitative survey data. Politically defined welfare standards, as well as the subjective experience of crowding are analyzed and interpreted through sociological welfare and governmentality theory. The arguments justifying the official governmental standards on residential crowding – first formulated in the mid-1930s – are explored in a discourse analysis. The analysis shows that there is a strong link between what is regarded to be appropriate dwelling space and what is regarded to be morally good housing conditions. In the 1930s and 1940s experts’ decided on what was adequate dwelling space, however in the mid- 1980s experts’ ability to decide on dwelling space was highly questioned. Instead it became an individual responsibility to decide on how to reside. Hence, what constitutes morally good and morally bad dwelling conditions is debated and dispersed on many actors. Two parallel discourses on crowding, a ”gentrified” and a “distressed” are further explored by analyzing the data from a survey study. Subjective as well as objective elements are analyzed by relating socio-economic profiles of the crowded residents in a distressed and a gentrified neighbourhood. Despite income differences within the crowded population, depending on what neighbourhood you live in, the crowded residents in all neighbourhoods experience less freedom regarding their dwelling situation than do non-crowded residents. The least amount of freedom is experienced by those who are crowded both according to the Swedish housing standard and according to a subjective measure of crowding.

<p> Within the past few decades, university-industry research centers have been developed in large numbers and emphasized as a valuable policy tool for innovation. Yet little is known about the heterogeneity of organizational structure within these centers, which has implications regarding policy for and management of these centers. This dissertation focuses on organizational structure heterogeneity and how it varies with characteristics of the research and development (R&amp;D) performed in university-industry research centers using a framework based on prior research in organization theory, economics of innovation studies, and strategic and knowledge management. This is addressed through 10 case studies of National Science Foundation (NSF) university-industry research centers in two research fields which are expected to vary along the examined characteristics of the research &ndash; seven centers in nanotechnology and three centers in information, communications, and computing (ICC).</p><p> Prior research has demonstrated that radical R&amp;D - that is R&amp;D that is divergent from existing practice - requires organizational forms with greater hierarchy and with more codified rules and procedures (e.g., for data use, knowledge dissemination) to ensure coordination and control among diverse actors (e.g., scientists and engineers with different backgrounds and training) when compared to incremental R&amp;D, or R&amp;D that is reliant on existing practice. The predominance of cooperative research centers engage in R&amp;D aimed at radical scientific and technical innovation and bring together diverse actors from industry, academia, and government labs for coordinated problem solving. However, there is still much to learn about organizational heterogeneity in organizations engaged in radical R&amp;D. Therefore the purposive sample of university-industry research centers addressed in this dissertation help to further theoretical understanding of organizational diversity across R&amp;D organizations. For R&amp;D management practice and policy, the dissertation findings support that university-industry research centers can or should use differing organizational structures depending on the characteristics of the R&amp;D conducted by the center. </p><p> Specifically, the findings of this dissertation arrive at four organizational structure approaches for R&amp;D managers working in university-industry cooperative research centers. </p><p> 1. Centers are more likely to be organized with an increased number of hierarchical levels, or increased vertical differentiation, and increased codification of rules and procedures, or increased formalization, when conducting research that cannot be readily replicated without prior hands-on experience, or R&amp;D characterized as having high tacitness, and when conducting research that does not draw on a commonly agreed core of knowledge and prior research, or R&amp;D characterized as having low cumulativeness. </p><p> 2. Centers are more likely to be organized with increased vertical differentiation, increased formalization, and increased concentration of decision-making, i.e., centralization, when engaging in R&amp;D projects that are planned to be dependent on the inputs or outputs of other R&amp;D projects conducted simultaneously, or R&amp;D characterized as having high interdependence. </p><p> 3. Centers are more likely to be organized with increased structural complexity &ndash; i.e., a combination of increased number of hierarchical levels, increased role specialization of center participants, or increased number and/or distance of separate locations - when conducting R&amp;D designed to involve researchers from a number of different research fields, or R&amp;D characterized as having high R&amp;D complexity. </p><p> 4. Centers are more likely to be organized with increased vertical differentiation and increased centralization when conducting research that is intended to be restricted from unauthorized use, or R&amp;D characterized as having high appropriability. With high appropriability, centers are also more likely to experience goal conflicts among the center actors (e.g., industry and faculty researchers). </p><p> Because in management science, practice and theory are closely linked, some of these recommendations also suggest theoretical propositions to address in future research on cooperative research centers and comparable R&amp;D organizations.</p>

<p> Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a major role in disasters around the world. As they carry out disaster work NGOs are often grouped together as the "NGO sector," although their varied size, scope, focus and country of origin make generalizations difficult. Coordinating NGO disaster work has been an ongoing challenge for governments and for NGOs themselves for reasons ranging from the wishes of NGO funders to uncertainty about what coordination means to competition for funds. </p><p> This thesis uses a complex adaptive system (CAS) framework to understand how NGOs may coordinate their own work. A complex adaptive system is made up of a set of independent agents that interact with each other to form a whole entity without the benefit of an explicit central control mechanism. </p><p> The qualitative study carried out semi-structured interviews with 16 NGOs active in disaster in Honduras to explore to what extent their interactions conformed to six characteristics of complex adaptive systems - 1) schemata; 2) self-organization; 3) communication and information; 4) rules; 5) learning and adaptation; and 6) aggregate outcomes, and relations with government. </p><p> Results of the interviews showed that many NGOs have multiple links among themselves with active communication channels that depend heavily on personal relationships. Interviews showed that collaboration among NGOs has increased over the past decade, although the degree of cooperation among them was inconsistent. Interviewees found it difficult to name an aggregate system-wide outcome. Government relations were found to be mixed - many NGOs had both positive and negative things to say about their relationships with government. </p><p> The NGOs were found to have both characteristics of a CAS and factors that did not fit a CAS description. NGOs must continually invest energy to maintain a system because entropic forces away from increased organization remain strong.</p>

<p> Tens of thousands of youth in communities across the United States are engaged every day in out-of-school time (OST) programs. These young people seek opportunities to recreate and socially engage, enhance academic and leadership skills, express themselves creatively, explore important issues in their communities, and work toward affecting change. These programs provide important institutional learning environments in which young people begin to assimilate their roles as political actors and citizens. As the delivery of social services and public programs has increasingly devolved from the government to the nonprofit sector, these programs also shape how young people come to understand their role and function in the public policy arena. Yet it is unclear what configuration of program designs and organizational environments might make for effective development of political engagement attitudes among youth participating in these out-of-school time programs. </p><p> Working with community-based organizations in Boston, this exploratory research looked at how out-of-school time (OST) program designs and implementations were related to the development of political engagement attitudes among youth age 14 to18. Using multiple case sites with multiple embedded units of analysis, the research examined the relationship between program features and elements, organizational environments, and youth served with an eye toward understanding more fully the interplay between these elements and the development of political engagement attitudes. The research looked at how organizational leadership, resource development strategies, organizational values, program design, pedagogical approaches, organizational structures, and youth development perspectives work to create environments that communicate to young people what role or roles they might play in the political life of their community. </p><p> This study contrasted two out-of-school time (OST) programs with clearly articulated youth engagement development orientations (e.g., social justice youth development and community youth development) with two OST programs with no clearly articulated youth development model. The research found that none of the programs was an exemplar. Programs that aimed to build strength in the individual, group, and community domains and those that used a variety of development models (not just youth engagement) were most likely to result in positive political engagement attitudes. Certain program and organizational features examined here also yielded positive results. This research is intended to assist nonprofit agencies, private foundations, and government agencies in evaluating programs that seek to strengthen and improve the lives of young people through political engagement. It is also intended to illuminate how important policy domains that affect youth (e.g., criminal justice, education, workforce development, public health) might work to engage youth constituencies through out-of-school time programming delivered by the nonprofit sector. </p>

<p> Scholars have used studies of &ldquo;street-level organizations&rdquo; to examine how policy is implemented, adapted, and changed through the practices of workers in real-world contexts. This dissertation follows in that tradition, tracing the ways in which Medicaid reforms work their way down to the street-level in a community mental health center with its origins in the clubhouse model of treatment. Based on twelve months of direct observation of street-level practices, interviews with workers, and analysis of agency documents and reports, I examine how new managerial reforms shape the strategies that workers use to provide access to community mental health services and to advance the clubhouse logic of recovery. These findings have implications for scholarship across the domains of community mental health practice, organizational studies, and policy research, suggesting the need for further investigation into how policy reform is produced through the everyday practices of street-level organizations.</p><p> This dissertation uses organizational ethnographic methods to study workers&rsquo; practices at Community Club, a community mental health center located in Chicago, Illinois. The clubhouse is based on the idea that individuals whose lives have been adversely affected by severe mental illness can benefit from treatment in a setting that functions as a social club, where members experience themselves as valued and needed. At the same time, community mental health reforms have been advanced largely by new managerial arrangements that emphasize accountability and performance measurement. These reforms in governance and management produced considerable uncertainty for workers in how Community Club would adapt to changes in policy. This site provides an opportunity to examine how reforms &ldquo;worked&rdquo; in this particular setting and what became of the clubhouse model under new managerial arrangements.</p><p> Data were collected from November 2009 until November 2010. I directly observed therapeutic interactions at Community Club and attended weekly team and managers meetings. Interviews were recorded with frontline workers, team leaders, and program administrators as questions emerged from my day-to-day observations of direct practices. I had access to multiple sources of organizational documentation, including corrective actions, internal notices, and training materials. I attended meetings, webinars, and teleconferences at the Illinois Division of Mental Health for a year. I also attended monthly meetings at the largest community behavioral health trade association in Illinois for two years. Interviews were conducted with key informants at the state and trade levels to better understand how community mental health policy reforms took shape in Illinois. Data were analyzed in an ongoing and iterative fashion for thematic connections. Multiple data sources allowed for triangulation and fact-checking as hypotheses emerged over the course of this study.</p><p> This study finds that workers adjusted to reforms in governance and management in ways that were not reducible to formal statutes alone. First, new managerial reforms restructured the tensions that played out at the street-level as workers negotiated the competing demands of access to care. This study suggests that reforms may place pressure on workers to limit flexibility and openness, may produce both direct and indirect forms of rationing, and may introduce barriers that unevenly affect individuals who are &ldquo;harder to serve.&rdquo; Second, reforms in governance and management restructured three key logics of the clubhouse. Street-level practices that advanced community participation, informal group arrangements, and client self-determination were reshaped by organizational incentives and penalties that increased the costs for workers of providing these services. These changes had observable implications for individuals&rsquo; access to&nbsp;services and for workers&rsquo; ability to act in consonance with manifest principles of the clubhouse and recovery models of treatment. </p><p> This dissertation supports the assertion that formal policy is changed through its implementation in real-world contexts of practice. By revealing the structures that shape most decisively what policy becomes in practice, this study enhances the visibility of social welfare reforms that may otherwise obfuscate how reforms &ldquo;work&rdquo; in practice. This study suggests that social policies should focus not only on accountability and performance measurement, but also on supplying workers with adequate resources to do their jobs well. If, as advocates and researchers have long suggested, there remains significant need for services that support social connection among people with severe mental illness, then it is important for scholars and policymakers to think about how to better equip organizations with the resources they need to facilitate this dimension of care. This dissertation is based on a single case study, which limits the generalizability of its findings. Street-level organizational studies build validity over multiple iterations of case selection, using a comparative perspective to distinguish particular from systematic features of organizational practice. More studies are needed that examine how community mental health policies are produced in the everyday life of organizations, in order to better understand how polices give shape to the nature and distribution of care.</p>

<p> This research contributes to the literature on evaluation practice, by reflecting on the role of internal evaluation within organizational communication systems as a whole. A systems theory approach is used to reflect upon the role of internal evaluation, as a means to provide and communicate feedback information. In particular, this study represents exploratory research on the topic of "organic evaluation". Organic evaluation activities are defined in this study as properties that emerge spontaneously within feedback communication systems. Evidence of its practice has been identified within nonprofit organizations operating in Los R&iacute;os, Chile. The findings suggest that organic evaluation is conducted to produce and/or communicate feedback information within nonprofit organizations. Findings are also shared regarding needs and constraints that nonprofit organizations face when internally attempting to access, process, and communicate feedback information. Finally, this research highlights the importance in recognizing organic evaluation being conducted within nonprofit organizations in order to formalize its practice and improve feedback communication systems.</p>

<p> Over the past forty years, responsibility for addressing poverty has shifted to the private sector, a result of elite interests and a changing political culture. Policy changes have eroded the state's effort at providing a social safety net, and replaced this effort with a nonprofit sector that is dependent on a complex mix of private and public funding. Using resource dependency theory, this research considers how grantmakers and field-level actors influence policies within nonprofit organizations. Ethnographic research in Bloomington, Indiana, a community that takes pride in its active citizenry and its robust social service sector, serves as a case study for examining how this mix of private and public effort address poverty. Using data collected from 35 social service agencies and in-depth studies of four nonprofit agencies that reflect the range of funding models, this research examines how the external environment affects participation, governance, and advocacy efforts within agencies. In terms of participation, this research shows that some agencies that rely on volunteers and community donations reflect an empowerment organizational culture, but that the complexity of government funding presents a major challenge to agencies, requiring professional skills and knowledge that exceed what is found in the community. With regard to governance, as agencies have to devote more effort to securing and managing funding, missions shift, services are reduced, and empowerment cultures are threatened. Advocacy efforts, except when considered most broadly as securing additional resources for clients, are of minimal importance among agency directors and board members. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 17, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4696. Advisers: Wolfgang Bielefeld; Kirsten A. Gronbjerg.

Thèse (M.Serv.Soc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1554. Adviser: Clem Brooks. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."