Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Local Government Responses To Festivals: An Exploratory Study, Andrew Grozelle

MPA Major Research Papers

This study explores the dynamics of ‘bottom-up’ policymaking at the municipal level by analyzing the policy response of the local government to unsanctioned events, such as the annual Port Dover Friday the 13th Motorcycle Festival (PD13) from May 1981 to November 2019. Using this event as a case study, the project seeks to answer the following questions: what has been the local government’s policy approach to PD13? What factors explain this approach and are there alternative approaches to the one chosen? To answer these questions, the paper adopts a multi-method research strategy, which involved a historical review of relevant literature, …

The Successful Implementation Of O. Reg. 588/17: Organizational Factors That Contribute To The Success Of Asset Management Planning For Municipal Infrastructure In Small Ontario Municipalities, Jenna Campbell (Shultz)

MPA Major Research Papers

Asset management planning in Ontario has evolved since the early 2000s and Ontario Regulation 588/17: Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure came into effect on January 1, 2019. The requirements of the regulation are different for small municipalities, being those having a population of less than 25,000, than for large municipalities. The burden of undertaking large-scale change initiatives, specifically those that are externally initiated, can be especially difficult for small municipalities that often lack the resources and specialized staff to address these changes. This paper explores the organizational factors that contribute to the success of local government asset management planning …

Peer Coaching For Leadership Development In The Public Sector: A Case Study From Local Public Health, Tammy Mackinnon

MPA Major Research Papers

Leadership development is critical for the future of public sector organizations. Its impact on employee satisfaction, collaboration and organizational performance has been well documented. But how do we best develop leadership in the public sector? Trends in the literature call for a shift to more shared, distributed approaches which argue that leadership capacity is necessary at all organizational levels, regardless of positional authority. This study will examine the efficacy of a peer coaching model at imbedding leadership capacity throughout the layers of an organizational structure. Using a case study of leadership development in local public health, this study contributes to …

Canada’S Feminist International Assistance Policy And Private Sector Engagement In Education: Considering Action For Girls’ And Women’S Education In Asia, Deanna Matthews, Prachi Srivastava

Education Publications

This brief aims to inform potential action in view of two significant developments in Canada’s international assistance strategy — the $400 million commitment to girls’ and women’s education in response to the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries and the strategy for engaging in private sector partnerships in the Feminist International Assistance Policy. The brief is based on original analysis of data on activity by private foundations and private sector impact investors in girls’ and women’s education in East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, drawing on a larger regional-level …

Development And Application Of A Teen-Informed Tool For Measuring The Power Of Food-Related Advertisements In Canadian Environments, Drew Bowman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Food environments are influential in shaping dietary behaviours of adolescents. Exposure to food and beverage marketing is known to impact food knowledge, behaviours, and health outcomes, yet food environment research largely overlooks advertisements. Given that marketers tend to advertise less healthy foods to teens and teens predominantly purchase low-nutrient foods, it is crucial to study the information environment in the context of secondary school environments. This thesis uses a sequential mixed-methods approach, including environmental audits and teen consultations, to develop and apply a teen-informed tool to measure the power of advertisements surrounding secondary schools. Results indicate that exposure to and …

Interrogating Discourses Of Global Education: Reconceptualizing Education As A Common Good?, Prachi Srivastava

Education Publications

This contribution analyses UNESCO's framework of education as a common good in the context of the Global South. It argues that dominant conceptions view education in a narrow, instrumentalist perspective. Despite its promise to reorient education as a broader social endeavour towards human wellbeing to lead meaningful lives (Sen, 1999), UNESCO's framework has failed to gain significant traction. I argue this is linked to challenges associated with: education and unemployment; global mobility and learning assessment systems; citizenship education; and the global governance of education policymaking.

Police Prevention Of Domestic Homicide: Missed Opportunities And Barriers To Change, Michael D. Saxton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This integrated-article dissertation focused on the critical role of police in responding to domestic violence (DV) and recognizing the potential risk of adult and child homicides. The first study examined the police role in domestic homicide through an analysis of cases reviewed by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee in Ontario, Canada. Homicide cases with police contact were found to have 1.6 times more risk factors compared to those without police contact. Cases also show an overall scarcity of formal risk assessments, even when there was prior police contact. The second study was a national survey on the types of …

Factors That Contribute To Good Food Box (Gfb) Program Sustainability: A Survey Of All Known Existing And Discontinued Gfb Programs In Canada, Ellen Pezzetta

MPA Major Research Papers

Access to healthy food, including an adequate supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, is a global health and social issue. The methods of accessing and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables has changed over the past several decades, with greater reliance on import and export of goods, changes in farming and agriculture industries and practices, and acknowledgement of the role of poverty and food insecurity issues. Good Food Box (GFB) programs, primarily intended to reach audiences most vulnerable to food insecurity, distribute fresh fruit and vegetables at affordable, lower than regular retail prices to voluntary participants. This paper explores the factors …

The Politics Of Where: The Federal Government And Canada's Urbanization, 1867-2017, Charles D. Crenna

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation responds to a single overarching research question: what is the nature and extent of the federal government’s influence on urbanization in Canada, both on its systems of cities and on their internal structure? Lessons learned regarding the federal role in Canada’s urbanization remain relevant and applicable to emerging conditions. They offer a sound, streetwise foundation for future urban policy development, based on understanding the vital politics of where.

Large, complex systems of cities are both self-organizing and responsive to strategic guidance by the federal government. Politically-difficult choices among competing urban locations can be made both by hiding …

Health Policy And Social Change: Women’S Advocacy Groups And Narrative Mobilization, Jill Moffatt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of this study is to systematically investigate the mobilization of co-created (storyteller and story-gatherer) narratives for policy and social change. A case study format investigated the mobilization of narratives by a women’s health organization in London, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews resulted in transcripts from key actors. These transcripts were thematically coded and analyzed. All interview participants emphasized that from their perspective the organization did influence health policy or social change through their narrative use. Specific policy change examples were provided by participants, and social change was subjectively recognized as realized through the creation of awareness and affirmed through audience …

Spatial Data Analysis: Examining The Quality Of Life For Ethiopians And Nigerians In The City Of Toronto And Edmonton, Ebyan Hassan

MPA Major Research Papers

Canadian cities have experienced an increase of immigrants, more notably, from Nigeria and Ethiopia. Both groups have settled in Canadian cities to improve their overall Quality of Life (QOL). Areas such as education, employment, safety, and housing conditions were top priorities in choosing a new location to live. Studies, however, show a large proportion of immigrants from Nigeria and Ethiopia have settled in regions that contradict their desires and actually obtain a ‘high’ standard of quality of life. The research findings show both groups have settled in areas with high unemployment rates; highly educated populates with lower-paying jobs; and lower …

An Examination Of Municipal Policy-Makers’ Responses Towards The Provincial Implementation Of Retail Cannabis Stores Within Ontario, Mark Dean

MPA Major Research Papers

The rationale for this study is founded on the important role of municipal governments within the domain of cannabis legalization in Canada. In Ontario, a strategy of privatization for physical cannabis stores was implemented by the provincial government. The policy gave municipalities the authority to decide whether they opted in or out of physical cannabis stores within their specific communities. This scenario of allowing local governments to determine the introduction of physical cannabis stores has demonstrated a need for a deeper understanding towards the various factors that influence the decisions of municipal policy makers. This is a unique situation that …

Investigating The Effects Of Telephone And Internet Voting On Election Administration In Rural Ontario Municipalities, Carson Lamb

MPA Major Research Papers

Existing research that has been conducted on telephone and internet voting in Canada has focussed almost exclusively on large, urban municipalities. Yet in Ontario, local governments of all sizes have adopted these modes of voting. As a result, very little is known about the effects of telephone and internet voting in rural municipalities and this is problematic. This paper attempts to address this gap in the literature by examining telephone and internet voting in the context of rural municipalities in Ontario. It relies on a qualitative multi-case cross-sectional design to generate exploratory findings on the effects that the adoption of …

Building A Smart City: Insights And Perspectives From The Winners Of Smart City Challenge, Andi Maloku

MPA Major Research Papers

When Canadian Government launched smart city initiative over 130 municipalities, large and small have submitted their innovative ideas. On May 14, 2019, the four winners of the Canadian Smart Cities Challenge were announced in Ottawa: Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia winning $5M Prize Category; the Nunavut Communities, Nunavut winning $10M Prize Category; the City of Guelph and Wellington County, Ontario winning $10M Prize Category and the City of Montréal, Quebec winning $50M Prize Category. This paper focuses on these four cities by exploring two main research questions: (1) what does “smart cities” mean for Canadian municipalities; and, (2) what are …

Public Policy Advocacy In The Canadian Context: A Review Of The Current Literature, Amy Lewis, Abram Oudshoorn, Helene Berman

Western Research Forum

Public Policy Advocacy in the Canadian Context: A Review of the Current Literature

Background: Public policy advocacy is an important competency for students from healthcare and social service programs to develop; however, integration of policy advocacy within university curricula remains inconsistent. Identifying the knowledge and skills that healthcare and social service professionals use in policy advocacy supports the development of educational competencies to achieve entry-to-practice objectives. A review of the literature published on the topic of public policy advocacy in higher education was undertaken to determine the current state of this evidence.

Methods: For this scoping review, CINAHL, Scopus, and …

Dating Violence And Homicide With Younger Adults: Are We Taking The Dangers Seriously Enough?, Corinne Qureshi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A significant proportion of domestic violence involves dating partners, however little research has examined domestic homicides in this context. The purpose of the current study was to examine domestic homicides in the context of dating violence in comparison to cohabiting and married couples. The dataset for these comparisons was derived from the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC). The study hypothesized that dating partners would differ from their cohabiting and married counterparts in several areas due to the unique nature of dating relationships, whereby they are less likely to be characterized by legal, economic, and familial ties to their …

Services, Systems And Policies Shaping Community Mobility For People With Mobility Impairments: A Case Study From Northern Iceland, Sigrun Kristin Jonasdottir

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Community mobility, or the act of moving around within the community, can be thought of as an occupation, but also as a means to occupation, because it is essential for people to have opportunities to participate in society. People with mobility impairments do not have the same opportunities as other people to move around because of multiple challenges in the environment. This research aimed to enhance understanding of how services, systems and policies shape community mobility of people with mobility impairments in the town of Akureyri in northern Iceland. This dissertation further raises awareness about human rights, occupational rights and …

Homelessness In London, Ontario: Assessing The Sustainability Of Housing First In Light Of A Shift To Models Of Prevention, Kayla May

Western Research Forum

Background: Housing First (HF) is internationally recognized as an evidence-based model for the development of programs that target homelessness. In London, Ontario, there are a handful of HF programs and research has investigated their efficacy. However, HF is only effective for "managing" homelessness, whereas prevention is also needed. Through a recent update of Canada’s national funding for homelessness, municipalities are seeing an increase in resources to prevent homelessness. With additional funding on offer, research needs to move beyond questions of HF efficacy and instead ask how to fully evolve a system of both responsive and preventative models.

Objectives: (1) Assess …

The Association Between Child And Youth Mental Health Service Urgency And Exposure To Childhood Interpersonal Trauma, Catherine Marshall

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children/youth with a history of maltreatment experience a variety of different developmental, psychiatric and health problems and ensuring there is streamline access to services is imperative to their recovery. Yet, there are few reports of standardized methods for directing and prioritizing risk for children seeking services. The current study,utilizingretrospective data collected from theinterRAIChild and Youth Mental Health Screener (ChYMH-S), aimed to address this gap and explore the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental health screening outcomes. A sample of 4-18-year-olds (N= 19,645) was studied to explore how differences in maltreatment history, gender, and legal guardianship impacted service prioritization. The findings …

Price Of Membership: The Effect Of Income On A Sense Of Belonging To Canada, Bertina Lou

2019 Undergraduate Awards

Liberal market capitalism permeates daily life and carries important social consequences for Canadian citizens. When social relationships between individuals are mediated by class position under a free market society, an interesting question about the relationship between individuals and society itself can be raised: does the amount of economic resources possessed by an individual influence their sense of belonging to Canada? This study examines Canadians’ economic positions, measured by annual personal income, as a determinant of their sense of belonging to Canada. It also investigates the role of known correlates of exclusion, such as being a victim of discrimination, having visible …

Rape Myths In Digital Spaces: An Analysis Of High-Profile Sexual Assault Cases On Twitter, Madelaine E. Coelho

2019 Undergraduate Awards

As demonstrated through the #metoo and Time’s up Movements, sexual assault has proven to be an inescapable facet of everyday life. While sexual assault literature has expanded to explore the digitization of sexual violence and rape culture, there has been less attention to how rape myths permeate digital spaces such as Twitter. To explore rape myths in online spaces, this paper analyzes over 10,000 tweets related to high-profile sexual assault cases in order to understand what Twitter users are saying about high-profile cases of sexual violence. Furthermore, these tweets are analyzed to understand their meaning in the context of rape …