Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons^™

From Activism To Invested Scholarship: When Outsiders Are Insiders (Abstract), Kristi Heather Kenyon, Tal Nitsán

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Social science methodologies frequently assume that the researcher is ahistorical, bringing no background or investment to the topic they study. Yet, as activists and scholars of human rights activism we are drawn to the movements we study precisely because of our engagement with these groups, places and topics. How does our research and teaching change if we are viewed as participants rather than outside observers in the movements we study? How do we navigate interviews with people who know us as activists rather than scholars? How do we interpret materials in which our own words and images appear?

Coming to …

Fostering Empathy Through Visual Culture Art Intergration (Abstract), R. Darden Bradshaw

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Our lives are mediated through the visual (Mirzoeff, 1999; Freedman, 2002). This mediation informs, in multiple and conflicting ways, our views, our beliefs, attitudes and mores, our choices, and thereby our resulting actions. This barrage of the visual impacts the postmodern student encountered in K-12 education. Students readily gain access to information that was once the sole domain of adults (Kincheloe, 2004) yet the prevailing system of education has not adapted. Visual culture is seldom used as an engagement strategy in school despite its ubiquitous role as hidden curriculum and ever-present place in the world beyond the school. Learners are …

Practicing Human Rights: How Human Rights Practitioners Shape The Field (Abstract), Robin Redhead

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This working paper summarises my initial findings of a study into the politics of human rights practice looking specifically at how practitioners shape the human rights field. Through a series of interviews with lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats and activists I have mapped the ‘work’ that takes place within the field of human rights and analysed how this ‘work’ shapes what Nash (2009) refers to as the cultural politics of human rights. Within the national and international arenas, human rights practices are cultural capital that practitioners trade for political gains. In order to assure the future of the human rights movement we …

A Human Rights Lens On Full Employment And Decent Work In The Post-2015 Development Agenda (Abstract), Diane F. Frey, Gillian Macnaughton

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Since the turn of the Millennium the elimination of global poverty has been a top priority of the international community. In the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the leaders from 189 nations committed to work together for poverty eradication, human rights and global peace. Toward these ends, the Declaration was transformed into Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and targets that aimed to unify governments, international organizations, foundations and nongovernmental organizations to focus their expertise, efforts and funds on achieving specific targets in the areas of poverty reduction, education, gender equality, health and other areas of human development.

Yet, the MDGs failed to …

Global Human Rights Direct: Connecting Human Rights Voices From Around The Globe (Abstract), William Simmons

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Scholars and activists (e.g., Simmons 2011, Baxi 2007, Ife 2009) have increasingly argued for a larger role for on-the-ground stakeholders, especially marginalized populations, in defining and implementing human rights around the globe. This paper describes the Global Human Rights Direct (GHRD) initiative at the University of Arizona that seeks to connect and empower human rights stakeholders from across the globe through videoconferencing. GHRD is a searchable database of human rights stakeholders willing to participate in videoconferences with interested individuals and groups from around the globe. It will be used by university instructors, high school teachers, community groups, and government officials …

The Normative Implication Of The B Corp Movement In The Business And Human Rights Context (Abstract), Cindy Woods

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Over the past decades, issues of corporate accountability and social responsibility have risen to the forefront of international debate. The U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles), endorsed by the U.N. HRC in June 2011, lays out authoritatively the state duty to protect and the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. In an effort to operationalize the Guiding Principles, the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights has called on all states to develop a National Action Plan (NAP) regarding domestic implementation of the Guiding Principles. A key first-step in the creation of a NAP is …

Exploring Public Opinion On The Role Of Human Rights In Foreign Policy (Abstract), Michelle Allendoerfer

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Much of the literature on human rights foreign policy assumes - sometimes explicitly but usually implicitly - that constituents want foreign policy conditioned on human rights or that human rights policy is a political “good” for policymakers to pursue. Yet, little scholarly work has been done to support this assumption, either in terms of providing theoretical foundations for this assumption or assessing the empirical support for it. And this assumption matters not just for the academic literature but also for the practice of human rights advocacy. One tool to promote human rights norms globally and to improve conditions is through …

Cultural Differences In Support For Human Rights (Abstract), Sam Mcfarland, William Hornsby

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This article reviews cultural (and country) differences in support for human rights through multiple conceptual and theoretical lenses. This review will include (a) discussion of the difficulties that language translation imposes of measuring human rights support consistently across countries, (b) studies of whether persons in different cultures have a common understanding of the meaning of human rights, (c) the general level of support for human rights across the world, (d) the stability of cultural differences in support for human rights across the years, and (e) evidence related to whether events that happen within a country (e.g., a terrorist attack) alter …

Promoting Human Rights Through The Professions (Abstract), Debra Delaet, Emily Sadecki, Holly Atkinson

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the ways in which professionals in a range of fields—the health professions, education, journalism, and law to name just a few—have the capacity to engage in critical work in the promotion of human rights. Whereas the scholarly study of human rights focuses largely on formal law and governance processes, this paper explores how strategies for promoting human rights might be integrated into the everyday work lives of professionals. Our focus on this everyday lever for human rights promotion seeks to broaden the vision of what constitutes human rights and justice work by exploring the capacities of actors …

Campus Tour

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Shuttles will pick up attendees at selected hotels; tour begins at Fitz Hall, home of the University of Dayton Human Rights Center. Maps are available as well:

• One is included in your registration materials.
• Download one using download button above.
• Link to an interactive map here >>>.

The Problem With Words: Plain Language And Public Participation In Rulemaking, Cynthia R. Farina, Mary J. Newhart, Cheryl Blake

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article, part of the special issue commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Administrative Conference of the United States (“ACUS”), situates ACUS’s recommendations for improving public rulemaking participation in the context of the federal “plain language” movement. The connection between broader, better public participation and more comprehensible rulemaking materials seems obvious, and ACUS recommendations have recognized this connection for almost half a century. Remarkably, though, the series of presidential and statutory plain-language directives on this topic have not even mentioned the relationship of comprehensibility to participation until very recently. In 2012, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) issued …

Policy Recommendations For Alleviating Homelessness In Chittenden County, Vermont, Brittany E. Nevins

Capstone Collection

Chittenden County, Vermont is suffering from increasing homelessness and poverty among both individuals and families. Residents of Chittenden County face an urban rental vacancy rate of less than .5% in Burlington, VT where the majority of jobs are located and only a 3% vacancy in suburban towns. Residents face waiting lists for rental subsidies of up to 8 years, and decreasing access to services for working class populations who are facing rent to income ratios of nearly 70% and utility costs of 30% of their income. The market rent is increasing and the state budget faces deep cuts to services. …

Gender Integration Into The Military: A Meta-Analysis Of Norway, Canada, Israel, And The United States, Jeff Wooten

All Theses And Dissertations

Over the past 15 years, the Global War on Terrorism has necessitated an examination of the military’s practices and the way that they meet the complexities of new and different types of war and tactics. Vital to this examination are policies related to the inclusion and deployment of women in combat. Burba stated war is not a setting for social testing, but the American Military must embrace the social subtleties of gender differences in an effort to meet the Armed Services requirement for an ever-changing asymmetrical battlefield. This study compares and contrasts the American current policy divergent to three other …

Hopeful Losers? A Moral Case For Mixed Electoral Systems, Loren King

Political Science Faculty Publications

Liberal democracies encourage citizen participation and protect our freedoms, yet these regimes elect politicians and decide important issues with electoral and legislative systems that are less inclusive than other arrangements. Some citizens inevitably have more influence than others. Is this a problem? Yes, because similarly just but more inclusive systems are possible. Political theorists and philosophers should be arguing for particular institutional forms, with particular geographies, consistent with justice.

Les démocraties libérales encouragent la participation citoyenne et protègent nos libertés. Pourtant, ces régimes élisent des politiciens et décident de problèmes importants via les systèmes électoral et législatif, qui sont moins …

Civic Meanings: Understanding The Constellations Of Democratic And Civic Beliefs Of Educators, Elizabeth A. Lowham, James R. Lowham

Democracy & Education

There is little doubt of public school’s role in the enculturation of youth into American democracy. There are several aspects about which little is known that should be addressed prior to seeking options to understand and address civic education for the 21st century: first, the desired civic knowledge, skills, and predispositions are not clearly identified; and second, little is known about the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of the faculty, administration, staff and board of education members about democracy or the patterns of congruence among adults connected to K–12 education. In this pilot study, we investigate the patterns of beliefs through …

The Effect Of Women In Government On Government Effectiveness, Abigail L. Tootell

Student Publications

A critical factor of gender and development is the political empowerment of women. Beyond this equality, however, what are the effects of women in government? This paper investigates these effects by examining the relationship between the percentage of women in parliament and overall government effectiveness. The research strongly supports the theory that women are more effective political leaders than their male counterparts.

From Tools To Toolkits In Policy Design Studies: The New Design Orientation Towards Policy Formulation Research, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee, Jun Jie Woo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A roadmap for `new policy design' studies now exists in the orientation which has emerged in recent years towards the formulation of complex policy mixes.The new design orientation focuses on bundles or portfolios of tools and the interactive effects which occur when multiple tools are used over time in policy packages designed to address multiple goals, and upon more complex multi-policy and multi-level design contexts.This review article examines the differences between the `old' instrument orientation and the `new' design one, setting out the current research agenda in this field and its rationale.

Guide To The 1948-1990 Archive Of The Inter-University Case Program, Edwin A. Bock

Public Administration - All Scholarship

Between 1948 and 1990, the Inter-University Case Program (ICP)—named during its early years “The Committee on Public Administration Cases” (CPAC)—published five case books and 170 individual studies of government policy-making and administration. The Program was created by educators who had spent over three years working in Washington wartime agencies. They wanted to show their post-war university students an aspect of public administration that was largely ignored by prewar textbooks: namely, the civil servant’s role in the making and carrying out of public policies. And they wanted to demonstrate to professors of public administration who had not had personal experience at …

Waste And Duplication In Nasa Programs: The Need To Enhance U.S. Space Program Efficiency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The U.S. Government faces acute budgetary deficits and national debt problems in the Obama Administration. These problems have been brought about by decades of unsustainable government spending affecting all agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NASA). An outgrowth of this fiscal profligacy is the presence of wasteful and duplicative programs within NASA that prevent this agency from achieving its space science and human spaceflight objectives. These problems occur due to mismanagement of these programs from NASA and the creation of these programs by the U.S. Congress and congressional committees. This occurs because congressional appropriators tend to be more …

"The Classical School, Deterrence Theory, And Zero Tolerance" An Analysis Of A Mandatory Zero Tolerance Sanctioning Policy In Relation To The Classical School Of Criminology And Deterrence Theory, Adam Saeler

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Mandatory sentences, and especially those that promote severe detention lengths, have become a popular mechanism in the fight against crime, but are they effective? Certain Sanctions, an adult probation-based sanctioning mandate, is an example of one such mandatory policy that emphasizes harsh sanctions in order to promote reduced future criminality. The philosophy behind such a device fits well into the theoretical framework of deterrence theory in that quick, severe sanctions ought to reduce future criminality. However, little research exists regarding the effectiveness of such a mandatory probation-based sanction policy with regards to the reduction of future criminality. Furthermore, the impact …