Matching Items (23)
Description
A void exists in public administration, criminology, and criminal justice research as it relates to the study of power in American policing agencies. This has significant ramifications for academia and practitioners in terms of how they view, address, study, and interpret behaviors/actions in American policing agencies and organizations in general. In brief, mainstream research on power in organizations does not take into account relationships of power that do not act directly, and immediately, on others. By placing its emphasis on an agency centric perspective of power, the mainstream approach to the study of power fails to recognize indirect power relationships that influence discourse, pedagogy, mechanisms of communication, knowledge, and individual behavior/actions. In support of a more holistic inquiry, this study incorporates a Foucauldian perspective of power along with an ethnographical methodology and methods to build a greater understanding of power in policing organizations. This ethnography of an American policing organization illuminates the relationship between the exercise of power and the objectification of the subject through the interplay of relationships of communication, goal oriented activities, and relationships of power. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that sworn officers and civilian employees are objectified distinctly and dissimilarly. In summary, this study argues that the exercise of power in this American policing organization objectifies the civilian employee as a second class citizen.
ContributorsBentley, Paul C (Author) / Catlaw, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Musheno, Michael (Committee member) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In many respects, the current public child welfare system closely resembles that of over 100 years ago. Then, as well as now, nonprofit child welfare agencies are the critical providers of service delivery to vulnerable children and their families. Contemporary nonprofits, however, are confronted with social and fiscal pressures to conform to normative practices and behaviors of governmental and for-profit organizations. Simultaneously, these agencies may also feel compelled to behave in accordance with a nonprofit normative ethic. Yet, scholars and practitioners are often unaware of how these different forces may be shaping the practices of child welfare agencies and, the nonprofit sector in general. This multi-paper dissertation examines how managerial and organizational practices of child welfare nonprofits are influenced business, government, and other nonprofit organizations and the extent to which processes process of institutional isomorphism in child welfare nonprofits are happening. Data was collected from a national ample of 184 child welfare administrators to explore marketization practices, collaboration behaviors, and managerial priorities of these agencies. Multinomial logistic, ordered logistic, and ordinary least squares regression, and historical analysis help shed light on the contemporary practices of these agencies. The results reveal that these agency's behaviors are shaped by government control, influences from the business community, identification with a nonprofit mindset (i.e., nonprofitness), funding streams, and various other factors. One key finding is that identification with a nonprofit mindset encourages certain behaviors like collaboration with other nonprofits and placing greater importance on key managerial priorities, but it does not reduce the likelihood of adopting business management strategies. Another important finding is that government control and funding does not have as strong as an influence on child welfare nonprofits as expected; however, influence from the business community does strongly affect many of their practices. The implications of these findings are discussed for child welfare agencies and the nonprofit sector in general. The consequences of nonprofits operating similarly to business and government are considered.
ContributorsRobichau, Robbie Waters (Author) / Catlaw, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Nahavandi, Afsaneh (Committee member) / Gustavsson, Nora (Committee member) / Wang, Lili (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Cecil Rhodes said, "I would annex the planets if I could." This attitude epitomized the views of the white people who colonized Zimbabwe starting in 1890, and thus society was built on the doctrines of discovery, expansion, and subjugation and marginalization of the Native people. For white Zimbabweans in then-Rhodesia the institutionalization of racism privileged their bodies above all others and thus they were collectively responsible for the oppression of black people through white complacency in allowing that system to exist and active involvement in its formation. For my family, who has a four-hundred year history in Southern Africa, coming to this realization - this critical consciousness of their positionality as oppressor - has been a difficult road. Through their struggle made evident is the potential for change for both individuals and nations fighting to overcome the effects of colonization
ContributorsNielsen, Karen (Author) / Quan, H.L.T. (Thesis advisor) / Elenes, C (Committee member) / Simmons, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This dissertation focused on the links among micro-enterprise development (MD), social capital building, and the accompanying social lives of Chinese female entrepreneurs in two China's urban areas—Nanjing and Haikou. It engaged with a few important discussions concerning China’s liberal politics during the reform era, the global trend of neo-liberal capitalism, and the social construction of a new worker-subject—the Chinese urban female entrepreneur shaped by the hybrid marriage of state politics and global capital. The research findings from this research project contributed to the tradition of feminist theories, which endeavors to explore the relationship between neo-liberalism and gender. In particular, gender was found to concretize the ways in which neo-liberal ideological forces have attempted to capture and exploit the productivity of women’s labor
Drawing upon the data from in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and secondary data gathering, I examined the diffusion of the Western-centric concept and phenomena of social capital building in order to answer the question how Chinese women's life was inscribed in the larger context of China's relationship to global capitalism. My research findings manifested that the respondents considered affections (e.g., inter-dependence, obligation, and mutual trust) to be the foundation of establishing and maintaining their social networks regardless of the government's emphasis on market principles and the utility-based social capital conception. This opened up a new way of re-theorizing social capital. This dissertation also focused on how China’s integration with the global economy has affected women’s social identity construction. It emphasized the interaction between gender and class as one of the most salient sites where ideal citizens of China are imagined. Drawing from the perspectives of the respondents, I found that femininity has never been eliminated by the Chinese government. It has existed in China’s MD to challenge the government’s attempt of promoting the agendered (gender-neutral), universal model of women’s participation in self-employment. Moreover, I asserted that class was individualized while penetrating into other dimensions of identity (especially gender). The transformed dimensions of identity constituted a set of stratification schemes that constantly reshuffled social stratifications for maximizing the state’s profits from the control of citizens.
Drawing upon the data from in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and secondary data gathering, I examined the diffusion of the Western-centric concept and phenomena of social capital building in order to answer the question how Chinese women's life was inscribed in the larger context of China's relationship to global capitalism. My research findings manifested that the respondents considered affections (e.g., inter-dependence, obligation, and mutual trust) to be the foundation of establishing and maintaining their social networks regardless of the government's emphasis on market principles and the utility-based social capital conception. This opened up a new way of re-theorizing social capital. This dissertation also focused on how China’s integration with the global economy has affected women’s social identity construction. It emphasized the interaction between gender and class as one of the most salient sites where ideal citizens of China are imagined. Drawing from the perspectives of the respondents, I found that femininity has never been eliminated by the Chinese government. It has existed in China’s MD to challenge the government’s attempt of promoting the agendered (gender-neutral), universal model of women’s participation in self-employment. Moreover, I asserted that class was individualized while penetrating into other dimensions of identity (especially gender). The transformed dimensions of identity constituted a set of stratification schemes that constantly reshuffled social stratifications for maximizing the state’s profits from the control of citizens.
ContributorsZhang, Dongling (Author) / Jurik, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / Quan, H.L.T. (Thesis advisor) / Mackinnon, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation examines the way in which social capital, or productive networks, can be used to support downtown renewal. This case study examines the way in which Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) and Downtown Phoenix Partnership (DPP)--two, critical downtown-focused organizations ostensibly founded for civic improvement--use social capital to advance downtown urban development initiatives. This case study also explores how and the extent to which new social capital is generated by PCA and DPP through the processes of planning, designing, and implementing downtown development projects and the kinds of initiatives this social capital enables, whether and how the focus of downtown Phoenix development has shifted over time, the challenges facing contemporary downtown development and role PCA and DPP might play in addressing these issues, and recommended strategies for advancing future downtown development through social capital that evolves as downtown needs change. This dissertation contributes to the general understanding of how pivotal groups responsible for impacting downtown development and quality of life can become more effective in their roles by examining how they create networks pivotal to advancing urban downtown renewal. Research findings illuminate how community development groups can more effectively use networks to inspire downtown improvement. Findings emphasize the need to engage a broader downtown community, including both emerging and established organizations and those who desire to contribute to a diverse and exciting heart or city core.
ContributorsPoore, Carol Ann (Author) / Catlaw, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Ellin, Nan (Committee member) / Hall, John S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The utopian impulse represents hope for another world; a reflection of the injustices inherent to the hegemonic order that are understood as natural, necessary, desirable, and unchangeable. Those who challenge this orthodoxy are heretical utopians; pioneers of the counterintuitive who explore the types of relations that rather than reproduce the dominant order, shatter it, and manifest new ones based upon principles of justice. This project explores how ideological mechanisms of control embedded within the hegemonic fascist imaginary landscape of the United States render the visions of emancipatory social movements, that challenge dominant ways of knowing and being, as the "merely utopian" so as to instrumentalize the behavior of civil-society towards the maintenance of the established social order and the suppression of alternatives (Gordon 2004). In a rapidly changing world reeling under the pressures of late-stage capitalism, it is essential for those who value social and political justice to incessantly cultivate the cultural imaginary so as to shift the boundaries of what types of social relations are possible, feasible, and desirable through the process of struggle in heretical spaces.
ContributorsBrown, Andrew (Author) / Quan, H.L.T. (Thesis advisor) / Lauderdale, Pat (Committee member) / Romero, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation examines automobile title lending practices to interrogate debt as an embodied experience. Alternative financial services such as title lending provide a way to link socio-economic inequality to instruments of financial debt. The predominant research on inequality focuses on wage, income, and asset wealth; rarely is a direct connection made between socio-economic inequality and the object of debt. My interest lies beyond aggregate amounts of debt to also consider the ways in which different bodies have access to different forms of debt. This project examines how particular subprime instruments work to reinforce structural inequalities associated with race, class, and gender and how specific populations are increasingly coming to rely on debt to subsist. Using in-depth interviews, geospatial mapping, and descriptive statistical analysis I show the importance of recognizing debt not only as a conditional object but also as a lived condition of being. I conclude with discussions on dispossession and financial precarity to consider how the normative discourse of debt needs to change.
ContributorsSugata, Michihiro (Author) / Quan, H.L.T. (Thesis advisor) / Talebi, Shahla (Committee member) / Catlaw, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
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.
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.
ContributorsChurg, Emily (Author) / Long, Elenore (Thesis advisor) / Hannah, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Catlaw, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Social equity research in public administration (PA) investigates different ways in which the practices of government intersect with the lives of socially marginalized individuals. However, due to limited direct engagement with marginalized groups; a predominant focus on formal state policies and institutions; and a lack of context-specific analyses of marginalization, there remain significant limitations in the existing PA research on social equity.
To address these theoretical gaps, this dissertation focuses on the Khawaja Sira of Pakistan – a marginalized group culturally defined as neither men nor women – to empirically investigate the multiple intersections between government and life on margins of the state. Specifically, this dissertation explores research questions related to legal and self-identity of the Khawaja Sira, impact of their changed legal status, their informal institutional experiences, and their interaction with front-line government workers through an interpretive research methodology.
The research design consisted of a ten-month long person-centered ethnography in Lahore, Pakistan during which in-depth person-centered interviews were conducted with 50 Khawaja Sira. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 frontline workers from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), social welfare department, and a local NGO and a group interview with 12 frontline workers of police. I coded the data collected from the fieldwork using qualitative thematic content analysis in MAXQDA. I then analyzed the main themes from the data using multiple theoretical perspectives to develop my findings.
My analysis shows that the legal identity of the Khawaja Sira, as conceived by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, has limited relevance and benefits for the Khawaja Sira most of whom instead choose to register as men. The analysis of administrator-citizen interactions reveals that the Khawaja Sira are exposed to hyper-surveillance, moral policing and higher administrative burden during these interactions. These interactions are also strongly mediated by formal public policy, social discourses about gender identity and informal institutions. I discuss the implications of my analysis that can contribute to a more inclusive society for the Khawaja Sira. In doing so, my research makes important contributions to research on administrative burden, everyday citizenship, and social equity in public administration.
To address these theoretical gaps, this dissertation focuses on the Khawaja Sira of Pakistan – a marginalized group culturally defined as neither men nor women – to empirically investigate the multiple intersections between government and life on margins of the state. Specifically, this dissertation explores research questions related to legal and self-identity of the Khawaja Sira, impact of their changed legal status, their informal institutional experiences, and their interaction with front-line government workers through an interpretive research methodology.
The research design consisted of a ten-month long person-centered ethnography in Lahore, Pakistan during which in-depth person-centered interviews were conducted with 50 Khawaja Sira. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 frontline workers from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), social welfare department, and a local NGO and a group interview with 12 frontline workers of police. I coded the data collected from the fieldwork using qualitative thematic content analysis in MAXQDA. I then analyzed the main themes from the data using multiple theoretical perspectives to develop my findings.
My analysis shows that the legal identity of the Khawaja Sira, as conceived by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, has limited relevance and benefits for the Khawaja Sira most of whom instead choose to register as men. The analysis of administrator-citizen interactions reveals that the Khawaja Sira are exposed to hyper-surveillance, moral policing and higher administrative burden during these interactions. These interactions are also strongly mediated by formal public policy, social discourses about gender identity and informal institutions. I discuss the implications of my analysis that can contribute to a more inclusive society for the Khawaja Sira. In doing so, my research makes important contributions to research on administrative burden, everyday citizenship, and social equity in public administration.
ContributorsNisar, Muhammad Azfar (Author) / Catlaw, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Feeney, Mary (Committee member) / Maroulis, Spiro (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
"Becoming Travesti: A Partial History of Ontoformation" explores the discursive production of the figure of travesti, defined broadly as male-assigned technologies of feminization, as it circulates within public discourse in Mexico. In other words, through ontoformation this project highlights the historical and sociopolitical associations that congeal, through repetition, to give an identitarian category -travesti- a sense of essence. In order to do so, this project analyzes articles within the mainstream Mexican press, ranging from the colonial period to the present. The first phase of this project involved the compilation and analysis of all twenty-first century articles mentioning travesti in the three newspapers with the widest circulation in Mexico in order to determine the primary constitutive elements of the contemporary figure of travesti. The second phase, in turn, involved a historical exploration of these constitutive elements by way of analyzing mainstream news sources dating back to the colonial period. As such, this project explores the work performed by ontoformative narratives that congeal to give the identitarian category of travesti a sense of essence. Among the narratives explored are the detravestification of homosexuality and continued homosexualization of travesti, the criminality of travesti, the spectacularization of travesti, the disposability of travesti, and the affective registers mobilized by and through travesti. Moreover, this project explores the consolidation of the contemporary figure of travesti in relationship to other identitarian categories of sexual and gendered non-normativity in Mexico, such as the homosexual, the transsexual and the transgénero (transgender), suggesting that travesti has been instrumental in the historical production and sanitization of these categories.
Contributorsde la Maza Pérez Tamayo, Andrea (Author) / Koblitz, Ann H. (Thesis advisor) / Quan, H.L.T. (Committee member) / Aizura, Aren Z. (Committee member) / Gomez, Alan E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017