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- Creators: School of Life Sciences
Description
Mixed-income housing policy has been an approach to address the problem of concentrated poverty since the 1990s. The idea of income mix in housing is founded on the proposition that economic opportunities of the poor can be expanded through the increasing of their social capital. The current in-depth case study of Vineyard Estates, a mixed-income housing development in Phoenix, AZ tests a hypothesis that low-income people improve their chances of upward social mobility by building ties with more affluent residents within the development. This study combines qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze information including analysis of demographic data, resident survey and in-depth semi-structured interviews with residents, as well as direct observations. It focuses on examining the role of social networks established within the housing development in generating positive economic outcomes of the poor. It also analyzes the role of factors influencing interactions across income groups and barriers to upward social mobility. Study findings do not support that living in mixed-income housing facilitates residents' upward social mobility. The study concludes that chances of upward social mobility are restrained by structural factors and indicates a need to rethink the effectiveness of mixed-income housing as an approach for alleviating poverty.
ContributorsDurova, Aleksandra (Author) / Kamel, Nabil (Committee member) / Pfeiffer, Deirdre (Committee member) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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
Individual behavior change is a goal of many public policies directed at people of low socioeconomic status. Without evidence of behavioral change, these policies cannot be considered a success: a process of co-production where some level of cooperation between the client and program administrators is required to successfully meet program objectives. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), is one example of a co-production design. WIC encourages women to engage in healthy behaviors by providing healthy food along with nutrition education to improve the health status of low-income families. However, while WIC is one of the most studied nutrition programs, little attention has been paid to the nutrition education portion or to interactions between staff members and participants. This research draws on the public policy and administration literature about street-level bureaucrats and co-production, which provides a framework for understanding the purposeful, inter-dependent relationships between front-line service providers and clients. However, neither literature explicates the process of interactions that is expected to lead to client behavior change and co-production. The primary contribution of this research is the creation of a grounded theory that identifies and explains the WIC interaction process as one of "negotiating healthy self-government". Based on analysis of three months of observations of WIC encounters in two clinics, this research finds that participants and staff members enter into tacit and explicit negotiations concerning the degree to which participants should govern their family's nutrition-related behavior. Clients actively shape the interactions by demonstrating their discipline and efforts to feed their families, while staff members refine and reinforce self-governing behaviors through assessing action, and providing advice to ensure behaviors meet recommendations. Finally, participants and staff members distinctly link self-governing behavior to identity: "good mothers" feed their children healthy food and govern their behaviors to meet nutritional recommendations. This research has implications for the study of behavior change promotion in public programs by introducing the concept of identity as a mechanism for governance and explicating the interaction process between front-line service providers and clients
ContributorsHand, Laura Catherine (Author) / Catlaw, Thomas J. (Thesis advisor) / Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Committee member) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Cross-sector interactions are regularly seen in healthcare, education, defense, public safety, and other social service contexts where the public interest and the private individual intersect. While interest in cross-sector relationships is neither new nor novel, the organizational dynamics and contexts continue to change and challenge our understanding of what is meant by partnership, alliance, collaboration, or cooperation between independent organizations from different sectors. One type of cooperative arrangement between nonprofits and government are affiliated foundations, which are part of the landscape of emerging organizational hybrids and expanding government-nonprofit relationships. Affiliated foundations are nonprofits designed to support a specific entity by generating charitable resources. This dissertation looks at one specific context for affiliated foundation/ "parent" relationships through a multi-case study of local educations in Florida. Specifically, this research examines how local education foundations carry out a partnering relationship with the school district. Through a combination of three instrumental case studies of local education foundations, and fifteen other purposely selected foundations, this dissertation presents the results of a cross-case analysis of the partnership between local education foundations and school districts. Partnership is conceptualized across four dimensions: 1) attention, 2) successive engagement, 3) resource infusion, and 4) positional identity. This research reveals that through the four dimensions of partnership, we can account for the variation across embedded, interdependent, or independent local education foundations in relation to the school district, or their "parent" organization. As a result, local education foundations reflect different relationships with school districts, which ultimately impacts their ability to carry out their work as charitable organizations, derived from the community in which they operate, and designed to generate resources and support for public education. By looking at this specific context, we can consider the complexities of an affiliated relationship between two structurally separate but linked organizations assumed to act as partners, but working to achieve a partnership. Where cooperation, collaboration, and innovation are intended outcomes of affiliated foundation/government relationships, this research considers the role of affiliated foundations among more traditional cross-sector relationships where services and contracts tend to dominate.
ContributorsFernandez, Kandyce Michelle (Author) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis advisor) / Hager, Mark A. (Committee member) / Maroulis, Spiro J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study uses the ontological lenses of discourse theory to conduct a critical mixed-methods analysis of state statutes related to prostitution and sex trafficking. The primary research question of the study was, "How do state laws communicate and reinforce discourses related to sex trafficking and prostitution and how do these discourses reinforce hegemony and define the role of the state?" A mixed methods approach was used to analyze prostitution and sex trafficking related annotated and Shepardized statutes from all fifty states. The analysis found that not all prostitution related discourses found in the literature were present in state statutes. Instead, statutes could be organized around five different themes: child abuse, exploitation, criminalization, place, and licensing and regulation. A deeper analysis of discourses present across and within each of these themes illustrated an inconsistent understanding of prostitution as a social problem and an inconsistent understanding of the legitimate role of the state in regulating or criminalizing prostitution. The inconsistencies in the law suggest concerns for equal protection under the law based upon a person's perceived deservingness, which often hinges on his or her race, class, gender identity, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality. Implications for the field include insights into a substantive policy area rarely studied by policy and administration scholars, a unique approach to mixed methods research, and the use of a new technique for analyzing vast quantities of unstructured data.
ContributorsMayo, Andrea, Ph.D (Author) / Herbst, Chris M. (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis advisor) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Government performance and accountability have grown to be predominant areas within public administration literature over the last forty years. The research presented in this dissertation examines the relationship between citizen satisfaction and local government performance. Citizen review of service delivery provides vital feedback that facilitates better resource management within local government. Using data from a single jurisdiction, two aspects of citizen satisfaction are reviewed. This includes citizen review of overall city performance, and citizen satisfaction with individual service delivery. Logit regression analysis is used to test several factors that affect citizen evaluation of service delivery in local government, while ordinary least squares regression is used to test the relationship between personal factors and citizen evaluation of specific local services. The results generated four major findings that contribute to the scholarly body of knowledge and local government knowledge application. First, citizens who are predisposed to supporting the local jurisdiction are more likely to rate service delivery high. Second, customer service is important. Third, those who experience government services similarly will collectively react similarly to the service experience. Finally, the length of residency has an impact on satisfaction levels with specific services. Implications for the literature as well as for practice are discussed.
ContributorsMcNamara, Catherine (Author) / Alozie, Nicholas O (Thesis advisor) / Cayer, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The inherent risk in testing drugs has been hotly debated since the government first started regulating the drug industry in the early 1900s. Who can assume the risks associated with trying new pharmaceuticals is unclear when looked at through society's lens. In the mid twentieth century, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published several guidance documents encouraging researchers to exclude women from early clinical drug research. The motivation to publish those documents and the subsequent guidance documents in which the FDA and other regulatory offices established their standpoints on women in drug research may have been connected to current events at the time. The problem of whether women should be involved in drug research is a question of who can assume risk and who is responsible for disseminating what specific kinds of information. The problem tends to be framed as one that juxtaposes the health of women and fetuses and sets their health as in opposition. That opposition, coupled with the inherent uncertainty in testing drugs, provides for a complex set of issues surrounding consent and access to information.
ContributorsMeek, Caroline Jane (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Social-emotional learning (SEL) methods are beginning to receive global attention in primary school education, yet the dominant emphasis on implementing these curricula is in high-income, urbanized areas. Consequently, the unique features of developing and integrating such methods in middle- or low-income rural areas are unclear. Past studies suggest that students exposed to SEL programs show an increase in academic performance, improved ability to cope with stress, and better attitudes about themselves, others, and school, but these curricula are designed with an urban focus. The purpose of this study was to conduct a needs-based analysis to investigate components specific to a SEL curriculum contextualized to rural primary schools. A promising organization committed to rural educational development is Barefoot College, located in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India. In partnership with Barefoot, we designed an ethnographic study to identify and describe what teachers and school leaders consider the highest needs related to their students' social and emotional education. To do so, we interviewed 14 teachers and school leaders individually or in a focus group to explore their present understanding of “social-emotional learning” and the perception of their students’ social and emotional intelligence. Analysis of this data uncovered common themes among classroom behaviors and prevalent opportunities to address social and emotional well-being among students. These themes translated into the three overarching topics and eight sub-topics explored throughout the curriculum, and these opportunities guided the creation of the 21 modules within it. Through a design-based research methodology, we developed a 40-hour curriculum by implementing its various modules within seven Barefoot classrooms alongside continuous reiteration based on teacher feedback and participant observation. Through this process, we found that student engagement increased during contextualized SEL lessons as opposed to traditional methods. In addition, we found that teachers and students preferred and performed better with an activities-based approach. These findings suggest that rural educators must employ particular teaching strategies when addressing SEL, including localized content and an experiential-learning approach. Teachers reported that as their approach to SEL shifted, they began to unlock the potential to build self-aware, globally-minded students. This study concludes that social and emotional education cannot be treated in a generalized manner, as curriculum development is central to the teaching-learning process.
ContributorsBucker, Delaney Sue (Author) / Carrese, Susan (Thesis director) / Barab, Sasha (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
As of 2019, 30 US states have adopted abortion-specific informed consent laws that require state health departments to develop and disseminate written informational materials to patients seeking an abortion. Abortion is the only medical procedure for which states dictate the content of informed consent counseling. State abortion counseling materials have been criticized for containing inaccurate and misleading information, but overall, informed consent laws for abortion do not often receive national attention. The objective of this project was to determine the importance of informed consent laws to achieving the larger goal of dismantling the right to abortion. I found that informed consent counseling materials in most states contain a full timeline of fetal development, along with information about the risks of abortion, the risks of childbirth, and alternatives to abortion. In addition, informed consent laws for abortion are based on model legislation called the “Women’s Right to Know Act” developed by Americans United for Life (AUL). AUL calls itself the legal architect of the pro-life movement and works to pass laws at the state level that incrementally restrict abortion access so that it gradually becomes more difficult to exercise the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. The “Women’s Right to Know Act” is part of a larger package of model legislation called the “Women’s Protection Project,” a cluster of laws that place restrictions on abortion providers, purportedly to protect women, but actually to decrease abortion access. “Women’s Right to Know” counseling laws do not directly deny access to abortion, but they do reinforce key ideas important to the anti-abortion movement, like the concept of fetal personhood, distrust in medical professionals, the belief that pregnant people cannot be fully autonomous individuals, and the belief that abortion is not an ordinary medical procedure and requires special government oversight. “Women’s Right to Know” laws use the language of informed consent and the purported goal of protecting women to legitimize those ideas, and in doing so, they significantly undermine the right to abortion. The threat to abortion rights posed by laws like the “Women’s Right to Know” laws indicates the need to reevaluate and strengthen our ethical defense of the right to abortion.
ContributorsVenkatraman, Richa (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Turbidity is a known problem for UV water treatment systems as suspended particles can shield contaminants from the UV radiation. UV systems that utilize a reflective radiation chamber may be able to decrease the impact of turbidity on the efficacy of the system. The purpose of this study was to determine how kaolin clay and gram flour turbidity affects inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) when using a UV system with a reflective chamber. Both sources of turbidity were shown to reduce the inactivation of E. coli with increasing concentrations. Overall, it was shown that increasing kaolin clay turbidity had a consistent effect on reducing UV inactivation across UV doses. Log inactivation was reduced by 1.48 log for the low UV dose and it was reduced by at least 1.31 log for the low UV dose. Gram flour had a similar effect to the clay at the lower UV dose, reducing log inactivation by 1.58 log. At the high UV dose, there was no change in UV inactivation with an increase in turbidity. In conclusion, turbidity has a significant impact on the efficacy of UV disinfection. Therefore, removing turbidity from water is an essential process to enhance UV efficiency for the disinfection of microbial pathogens.
ContributorsMalladi, Rohith (Author) / Abbaszadegan, Morteza (Thesis director) / Alum, Absar (Committee member) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05