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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Working Librarians' Perceptions Of The Role Of The Public Library In The 21st Century, Susan Smith Jul 2008

Working Librarians' Perceptions Of The Role Of The Public Library In The 21st Century, Susan Smith

Public Affairs Dissertations

Tax-supported public institutions with often-insufficient resources, public libraries in America can only provide a limited array of programs, services and materials. Recent surveys of the public show libraries are important, but there is a lack of understanding and awareness about what the library does and the source of library funding. Librarians have long known that they do a bad job of telling others about the library. An unclear mission would make communicating difficult, as it is hard to communicate what the library does if there is no clear role or purpose for the library. Examining current professional literatures shows little …


Working Librarians' Perceptions Of The Role Of The Public Library In The 21st Century, Susan Smith Jul 2008

Working Librarians' Perceptions Of The Role Of The Public Library In The 21st Century, Susan Smith

Public Affairs Dissertations

Tax-supported public institutions with often-insufficient resources, public libraries in America can only provide a limited array of programs, services and materials. Recent surveys of the public show libraries are important, but there is a lack of understanding and awareness about what the library does and the source of library funding. Librarians have long known that they do a bad job of telling others about the library. An unclear mission would make communicating difficult, as it is hard to communicate what the library does if there is no clear role or purpose for the library. Examining current professional literatures shows little …


Public Management Reform In Developing Countries: An Empirical Investigation Of Operational And Financial Efficiency Of Private Versus Public Airports In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alvin H. Brown May 2008

Public Management Reform In Developing Countries: An Empirical Investigation Of Operational And Financial Efficiency Of Private Versus Public Airports In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alvin H. Brown

Public Affairs Dissertations

Public enterprises in Latin American and Caribbean developing nations (LACDNs) are constantly struggling to make their public infrastructures in sectors such as banking, energy; telecommunications, trade, and aviation operate more efficiently and effectively. Public management reform is used to analyze the problems of government and provide solutions. The problems encountered are the growing cost of the public sector in conjunction with inefficient and unresponsive bureaucracies in LACDNs. Accordingly, the solutions involve governments focusing on ensuring that public enterprises are performing efficiently and effectively by adopting a holistic market approach for operating public enterprises. The purpose of this study is to …


The Irony Of Proving Discrimination, Rosalyn Wilson-Green May 2008

The Irony Of Proving Discrimination, Rosalyn Wilson-Green

Public Affairs Dissertations

Currently America courts require plaintiffs alleging discrimination to not only prove the existence of present day discrimination but to also prove the "discriminatory intent." This dissertation contains two applications of the theory of unconscious discrimination as it reveals the difficulty of prevailing in discrimination cases. The assumption applied is that policy-makers use theories that dismiss or render invisible the presence of subtle discrimination. This perpetuates the problem and hinders its adequate address. Since so many people suffer because of discrimination's invisible-yet present existence, measures must be taken to unveil the remedy this subtler form of discrimination. In this dissertation, I …


The Irony Of Proving Discrimination, Rosalyn Wilson-Green May 2008

The Irony Of Proving Discrimination, Rosalyn Wilson-Green

Public Affairs Dissertations

Currently America courts require plaintiffs alleging discrimination to not only prove the existence of present day discrimination but to also prove the "discriminatory intent." This dissertation contains two applications of the theory of unconscious discrimination as it reveals the difficulty of prevailing in discrimination cases. The assumption applied is that policy-makers use theories that dismiss or render invisible the presence of subtle discrimination. This perpetuates the problem and hinders its adequate address. Since so many people suffer because of discrimination's invisible-yet present existence, measures must be taken to unveil the remedy this subtler form of discrimination. In this dissertation, I …


Public Management Reform In Developing Countries: An Empirical Investigation Of Operational And Financial Efficiency Of Private Versus Public Airports In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alvin H. Brown May 2008

Public Management Reform In Developing Countries: An Empirical Investigation Of Operational And Financial Efficiency Of Private Versus Public Airports In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alvin H. Brown

Public Affairs Dissertations

Public enterprises in Latin American and Caribbean developing nations (LACDNs) are constantly struggling to make their public infrastructures in sectors such as banking, energy; telecommunications, trade, and aviation operate more efficiently and effectively. Public management reform is used to analyze the problems of government and provide solutions. The problems encountered are the growing cost of the public sector in conjunction with inefficient and unresponsive bureaucracies in LACDNs. Accordingly, the solutions involve governments focusing on ensuring that public enterprises are performing efficiently and effectively by adopting a holistic market approach for operating public enterprises. The purpose of this study is to …


Shared Land Use Impacts Between Military Installations And Contiguous Communities (Post-Brac): Fact And Opinion Differences In Planning And Public Policy, Rumanda Kay Young Apr 2008

Shared Land Use Impacts Between Military Installations And Contiguous Communities (Post-Brac): Fact And Opinion Differences In Planning And Public Policy, Rumanda Kay Young

Public Affairs Dissertations

How a policy or planning tool (e.g. BRAC) contributes to real and perceived conclusions from policy implementation is the main focus of this research. This research examines differences between real and perceived encroachment issues and concerns through study of military installations and their contiguous communities using post-BRAC opinion data compared to conclusions drawn from pre-BRAC and post-BRAC empirical data. A study of six (6) supporting research topics from current literature leads to a hypothesis that there are no differences between the same variables using empirical data (reality) and opinions (perception) with respect to variable descriptors of encroachment in the post-BRAC …


Public Private Partnerships In International Development: The Challenge Of Engaging Civil Society In Development Ownership, Alexandra De Vito Jan 2008

Public Private Partnerships In International Development: The Challenge Of Engaging Civil Society In Development Ownership, Alexandra De Vito

Public Affairs Theses

Over the last sixty years, the field of international development has come full circle, returning to priorities that value people over GDP. Principles for successful development, such as institution building, managed competition to reduce corruption, human organization, the design of solutions to fit problems, and social, political and economic stability, have also emerged throughout the international development literature. This thesis proposes the use of public private partnerships as a means of implementing principles for successful development in international development practice.


Scenarios For Sustainable Conservation Planning And Development In Texas, John David Clear Jan 2008

Scenarios For Sustainable Conservation Planning And Development In Texas, John David Clear

Public Affairs Theses

This thesis reviews sustainable conservation development patterns of land use for potential adoption by Texas cities and counties. It will include a summary literature and professional reports' review, market analyses, and interviews for both existing conservation subdivisions as well as sustainable developments. This information will be balanced with a typical market analysis of future conservation and sustainable development within selected Texas cities and counties, with the intent of properly designating a future land use plan and subsequent zoning maps that can withstand challenges by developers with regard to economic feasibility. Various stakeholders of the development process will be interviewed to …


Growing Up Biracial And Gay In The Deep South: Living Between The Color/Gender Lines, Theresa S. Hoogacker Jan 2008

Growing Up Biracial And Gay In The Deep South: Living Between The Color/Gender Lines, Theresa S. Hoogacker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a critical inquiry into the stories of three generations of women living in the South. Through the stories my mother, my daughter and I have lived through, I critically reflect on my experience of being a first generation doctoral student growing up in-between the color lines of Black and White and raising a biracial and gay daughter growing up in the deep South. Building on the works of Kincheloe and Pinar (1991), Frantz Fanon (1963), Maria Root (1996), Henry Giroux (1992), Paul Gilroy (1993b), Phillion, He & Connelly (2005), and He & Phillion (2008), I explore the ways …


Collaboration Among Federal Managers: Administrative Conjunction In Faith Based And Community Initiatives, Michael Simmons Jan 2008

Collaboration Among Federal Managers: Administrative Conjunction In Faith Based And Community Initiatives, Michael Simmons

Public Affairs Dissertations

The role of government is less clear than ever in an increasingly complex world. As a result, working in government has also become more challenging. In this information driven society, government workers are asked to solve a variety of complicated problems using collaboration and networking skills. These skills help navigate within their own agency, across jurisdictions, or through the public policy partnerships with non- profit and private organizations. In general, the field of public administration faces the challenges of what Frederickson (H. G. Frederickson, 1999) calls a disarticulated state in which boundaries become less important and collaboration becomes the main …


Collaboration Among Federal Managers: Administrative Conjunction In Faith Based And Community Initiatives, Michael Simmons Jan 2008

Collaboration Among Federal Managers: Administrative Conjunction In Faith Based And Community Initiatives, Michael Simmons

Public Affairs Dissertations

The role of government is less clear than ever in an increasingly complex world. As a result, working in government has also become more challenging. In this information driven society, government workers are asked to solve a variety of complicated problems using collaboration and networking skills. These skills help navigate within their own agency, across jurisdictions, or through the public policy partnerships with non- profit and private organizations. In general, the field of public administration faces the challenges of what Frederickson (H. G. Frederickson, 1999) calls a disarticulated state in which boundaries become less important and collaboration becomes the main …