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(1 - 12 of 12)
- Title
- Outlining a theory about the practical use of theory: A discourse-practice theoretic analysis of academic public administration symposia genre.
- Creator
- Jaja, Cheedy, Florida Atlantic University, Miller, Hugh T.
- Abstract/Description
-
Academic public administration (APA) supposedly provides theoretic and programmatic guidance for bureaucratic public administration (BPA). But in reality, a relationship best characterized as a gap between "theory" (APA) and "practice" (BPA) is deemed to exist between the two social practices. Scholars who have analyzed APA theoretic literature ascribed the theory-practice problematic to methodological inadequacies, the implication being that investment in appropriate social science methods...
Show moreAcademic public administration (APA) supposedly provides theoretic and programmatic guidance for bureaucratic public administration (BPA). But in reality, a relationship best characterized as a gap between "theory" (APA) and "practice" (BPA) is deemed to exist between the two social practices. Scholars who have analyzed APA theoretic literature ascribed the theory-practice problematic to methodological inadequacies, the implication being that investment in appropriate social science methods would enhance the intellectual rigor and social utility of APA discursive works. To provide a much richer perspective on the theory-practice problematic, this study conceptualizes theoretic discourses as social actions. When scholars theorize, they invariably want to get things done, thus they are involved in social actions linked to some purposes, interests, and issues. As individuals with disciplinary affiliations and commitments, APA scholars bring purposes and interests to their work. So, what kinds of purposes underpin APA theoretic works? Since actions are meaningful within social practices, a corollary question is: What disciplinary influences constrain or authorize APA discourse, and why? To answer the questions posed: first, a discourse analytic method is utilized to analyze textual cohorts (i.e., authorial intentions, issues, themes, genre forms, and methods) in symposia articles published in five mainstream APA journals over a fifteen-year period. Second, a conceptual framework for understanding the disciplinary conditions authorizing and restricting theoretic discourse is outlined using the parameters of practice theory. Discourse analysis and practice theory are complimentary methodological and analytic tools. Discourse analysis focuses on discourse systems, whereas practice theory seeks to explain the relationships that obtain between human actions and social systems. In other words, discourse-practice approach focuses on the individuals' choices of discursive activities and explains how these choices are shaped by the social practices within which the discursive activities unfold. Using insights from practice theory, a speculative perspective relating the failure to reconfigure the discipline's telos in light of changed objective conditions is offered as the basis for the theory-practice problematic in academic public administration.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2001
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/11970
- Subject Headings
- Public administration, Policy sciences, Discourse analysis, Critical theory
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The three fallacies of Pandora: The case against nuclear power.
- Creator
- Glynn, Simon, Comparative Studies Program, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
- Date Issued
- 2008-10-24
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT165366p
- Subject Headings
- Science -- Philosophy -- Congresses, Nuclear industry -- United States, Nuclear energy -- United States, Energy policy -- United States
- Format
- Set of related objects
- Title
- Beyond sustainability: justice and complex systems thinking for just sustainable viability.
- Creator
- Best, Andrea Leigh., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Philosophy
- Abstract/Description
-
The dominant definitions of sustainability are too various and neglect essential elements necessary for effective sustainability discourse. This project considers what current understandings of sustainable development mean to those who subscribe to them and how those understandings affect public policy for sustainable development. I begin by presenting a timeline on the evolution of the term 'sustainability'. Then, I offer narrative policy analysis as a methodological tool for investigating...
Show moreThe dominant definitions of sustainability are too various and neglect essential elements necessary for effective sustainability discourse. This project considers what current understandings of sustainable development mean to those who subscribe to them and how those understandings affect public policy for sustainable development. I begin by presenting a timeline on the evolution of the term 'sustainability'. Then, I offer narrative policy analysis as a methodological tool for investigating communities of meaning with contending views on sustainability. This provides a foundation for the analysis of case studies using Harrisonian Sustainability Narratives-efficiency, equity, and ethics-as lenses through which three corresponding U.S. case studies are explored, each representing different levels of analysis-corporate, state, and individual. First, the Business Roundtable, a lobbying organization comprised of the CEOs of top U.S. companies exemplifying the efficiency narrative, claims that the problem of sustainable development can be addressed through free markets, which continually increase eco-efficiency and encourage technological advancement. Next, the Environmental Protection Agency, a state organization mandated to protect water and air and to manage toxic and solid wastes and representing the equity narrative, sees the problem of sustainable development as ensuring the just distribution of natural limits so as to reduce the impact of those limits on individuals within communities. Lastly, the ethical anthropology of Anna Peterson, philosopher of religion, points to the power of ethical narratives in creating wide-scale changes to our ideas about humanness and human nature as they relate to our relationship with our environment for sustainability., What I found in common with both the efficiency and equity narratives, representing both the political and corporate perspective and having significant influence on policy formation, is that they are pro market-based solutions of ecoefficiency and technological advancement. What they blatantly lack is guidance on what we ought to do, ought to value. I conclude that a humanist ethic is missing from both these narratives. Neither narrative sees matters of justice as co-equal partners with sustainability for sustainable development. Policy resulting from these narratives may offer efficiency and process but fails to include a robust humanist ethics necessary for a true sustainability. The way we think about our relationship to the environment shapes our behavior towards it. Just Sustainable Viability combines a complex systems approach that views human societies as complex adaptive systems and aims at optimizing social adaptive capacity with notions of distributive and procedural justice. With the inception of this new vision for sustainability, a new narrative must follow that firmly places humanity within the context of complex social and environmental systems.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2684310
- Subject Headings
- System analysis, Policy sciences, Sustainable development, Social structure, Urban ecology (Sociology)
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Policy entrepreneurship: a descriptive portrait of higher education leaders.
- Creator
- Felsher, Rivka A., Pisapia, John, Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
- Abstract/Description
-
As the gap between the haves and have-nots widens, the call for reform in higher education in the United States intensifies. Policy actors, philanthropists, and academics from across the political spectrum work on various policy solutions, creating a policy environment that is complex and often contentious. Incrementalists claim that major policy reform is unlikely since unknown variables and inexplicable events can stall or dismantle policy initiatives. In such environments, policy...
Show moreAs the gap between the haves and have-nots widens, the call for reform in higher education in the United States intensifies. Policy actors, philanthropists, and academics from across the political spectrum work on various policy solutions, creating a policy environment that is complex and often contentious. Incrementalists claim that major policy reform is unlikely since unknown variables and inexplicable events can stall or dismantle policy initiatives. In such environments, policy entrepreneurs—those individuals who advocate for policy innovation, work for change, and help shape policy solutions from within and without government—try to break through the barriers of incremental politics. As important as this role is to the influencing and structuring of higher educational policy, it has not yet been explored. This study fills this gap in the extant literature by cataloging the characteristics and skills that enable higher education policy entrepreneurs at the state and national levels to persevere and accomplish sustainable and innovative higher education reforms over time.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004367, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004367
- Subject Headings
- Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives, Educational leadership, Entrepreneurship, Organizational effectiveness, Policy sciences, Strategic planning
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Epistemology and networked governance: an actor-network approach to network governance.
- Creator
- O’Brien, Mariana G., Miller, Hugh T., Florida Atlantic University, College of Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
- Abstract/Description
-
This dissertation suggests that network governance theory may have reached an impasse, and in order to pursue its advance, new methods need to be used. It tests the viability of actor-network theory on providing new insights on network governance, which could contribute to the strengthening of network governance theory. The author suggests that actor-network theory may offer both an epistemology and ontology that intents to not impose current definitions and divisions of traditional social...
Show moreThis dissertation suggests that network governance theory may have reached an impasse, and in order to pursue its advance, new methods need to be used. It tests the viability of actor-network theory on providing new insights on network governance, which could contribute to the strengthening of network governance theory. The author suggests that actor-network theory may offer both an epistemology and ontology that intents to not impose current definitions and divisions of traditional social science. By doing so, actor-network theory focuses on the performance of associations rather than on the traditional categories of structures, institutions, individuals or groups -- characteristic of most network governance studies.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004456
- Subject Headings
- Actor network theory, Policy networks, Public administration, Social groups, Social sciences -- Network analysis, Social structure
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Utopian/Dystopian Thought Experiments and the Potential For a New Strateb')' of Inquiry in Public Administration.
- Creator
- Pressley, Cindy L., Florida Atlantic University, Patterson, Patricia M., College for Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
- Abstract/Description
-
The purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a utopian/dystopian...
Show moreThe purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a utopian/dystopian viewpoint, by engaging in a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment is developed in this dissertation by bringing together elements from utopian literature and scientific thought experiment literature using a public administration point of view. The research approach used in this dissertation is a three-phase process that involves reviewing and connecting pertinent literatures, using imagination and the process of writing to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment, and illustrating and examining a utopian/dystopian thought experiment in public administration. In this dissertation, I seek to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment as a new strategy of inquiry that is developed specifically for public administration. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide an additional tool to the researcher who is seeking to expand the viewpoints through which the researcher can examine administrative activities.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000610
- Subject Headings
- Public administration--Philosophy, Place (Philosophy), Policy sciences--Economic aspects, Political planning--United States, Postmodernism--Social aspects
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Outreach communication by grassroots environmental organizations: a case study.
- Creator
- Estep, Kimberly L., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
- Abstract/Description
-
The negative impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystems has gained more attention in the last few decades; in turn interest and scholarship in the area of environmental rhetoric has also grown. This case study provides an in-depth examination of outreach material generated by Tampa Bay Watch to determine if grassroots environmental organizations are using rhetorical appeals that recent scholarly literature argues are ineffective. Alternative rhetorical appeals are also examined for...
Show moreThe negative impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystems has gained more attention in the last few decades; in turn interest and scholarship in the area of environmental rhetoric has also grown. This case study provides an in-depth examination of outreach material generated by Tampa Bay Watch to determine if grassroots environmental organizations are using rhetorical appeals that recent scholarly literature argues are ineffective. Alternative rhetorical appeals are also examined for their persuasiveness. Using an open coding approach, the analysis finds that the organization used persuasive appeals which varied from those predicted by the literature, and that a combination of appeals produced better results that any one appeal alone. The group also varied its appeals based on the type of outreach. The study reveals that qualitative study of one organization's persuasive appeals renders more nuanced findings than have quantitative studies of multiple organizations or analyses of single rhetorical documents.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2975243
- Subject Headings
- Communication in the enviornmental sciences, Ecocriticism, Enviornmental policy, Green movement, Discourse analysis
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The Sisyphusian predicament: existentialism and a grounded theory analysis of the experience and practice of public administration.
- Creator
- Hollar, T. Lucas., College for Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
- Abstract/Description
-
Public administration addresses issues that competing and aligning groups determine to be meaningful enough to address. However, there seems to be no shared universally objective ways of remedying anything. Everything is up for argument. Additionally, attempting to solve one set of problems often creates other connected problems and/or unintended consequences. So, public work ever [sic] never ends. This dissertation's purpose was to contribute a new theoretical understanding of the experience...
Show morePublic administration addresses issues that competing and aligning groups determine to be meaningful enough to address. However, there seems to be no shared universally objective ways of remedying anything. Everything is up for argument. Additionally, attempting to solve one set of problems often creates other connected problems and/or unintended consequences. So, public work ever [sic] never ends. This dissertation's purpose was to contribute a new theoretical understanding of the experience and practice of public administration. Its research addressed if and how a grounded existential theoretical framework could emerge that would help practitioners and scholars understand and describe public administrative efforts and experiences. Currently, there is no existential theory of public administration. This dissertation sought to initiate work in that direction. This dissertation employed a grounded theory methodology to collect information from Senior Executive Service (SES) members, to analyze the information for emerging concepts and theoretical relevance through constant comparison, and to discover/construct a theoretical framework for understanding public administrative efforts and experiences. "The grounded theory approach is a general methodology of analysis linked with data collection that uses a systematically applied set of methods to generate an inductive theory about a substantive area" (Glaser, 1992, p. 16)., This dissertation identified the emergence of three categories/themes that organized what the SES members were saying, doing, and perceiving. These categories include "the environment," "the work," and "the individual." The core category/theme, "the Sisyphusian predicament," theoretically unifies these categories/themes through a metaphorical application of existential concepts. It describes the issues administrators experience (never-endingness, boundedness, and finitude in the face of infinitude (managing the scope and scale of one's intentions; generating and authoring relevance, significance, and meaning; and the choice for metaphysical revolt/ microemancipation). There are scholarly and practicable applications of this framework. This dissertation contributes exploratory work towards developing a new theoretical alternative within public administration. It provides an alternative approach for viewing and understanding organizational processes within public organizations. Additionally, an existential approach facilitates a plurality of competing schools of thought wherein administrators can select approaches to decision making and acting on the basis of context and utility.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/165673
- Subject Headings
- Public administration, Philosophy, Public administration, Moral and ethical aspects, Administrative agencies, Management, Policy sciences, Public administration, Research, Methodology
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Policymaking on violence against women in the United States: A multi-theoretical perspective on the terrorization of women.
- Creator
- Meyer-Emerick, Nancy, Florida Atlantic University
- Abstract/Description
-
The purpose of this study of policymaking on violence against women in the United States was to examine beliefs about the causes of violence against women through alternative theoretical lenses in order to compare competing theories of problem definition. An initial multidisciplinary review of the roots of the problem indicated that public policy on violence against women, specifically the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, was limited in its response. The primary components of VAWA...
Show moreThe purpose of this study of policymaking on violence against women in the United States was to examine beliefs about the causes of violence against women through alternative theoretical lenses in order to compare competing theories of problem definition. An initial multidisciplinary review of the roots of the problem indicated that public policy on violence against women, specifically the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, was limited in its response. The primary components of VAWA were to further criminalize violent physical abuse and educate law enforcement and the courts to address violence after it had occurred. The application of three competing theoretical perspectives on socio-cultural beliefs about sexuality, the limits of government, and sexual violence as a means of maintaining male domination yielded new information about the nature of the problem. With this information, interviews were conducted with the federal policymakers who drafted VAWA, local practitioners in programs pertaining to violence against women, and focus groups with citizens, survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence. This dialogue provided a check on the researcher's biases and unique perceptions on sexuality, intimate violence and the role of government. A written questionnaire using pertinent questions from the 1992 National Election Studies was used to determine whether the opinions of the focus groups were representative of national opinion on these issues. The research confirmed the working hypothesis that VAWA was limited due to the socio-cultural nature of the problem. The participants identified some common misperceptions about intimate violence. The research also revealed a difference between men's and women's trust of government. The participants' testimony moderately supported the proposal that male dominance is preserved through sexual violence. The study implies that policymaking on violence against women must address the roots of the problem in the socio-cultural system where people obtain their beliefs. This may not be possible through government policy because the state is limited in its ability to change that system.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1998
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12560
- Subject Headings
- Women--Crimes against--United States, Policy sciences, Women--Legal status, laws, etc --United States, Abused women--United States
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Trilling R's: meditations on immigration, assimilation, and language.
- Creator
- O'Brien, Shannon., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Immigration has become a hot button issue across the United States. Television newsmen dedicate hours of time to excoriate the "illegal invasion." I viewed the immigration debate as something not directly concerning me. I am a legal citizen of Hispanic descent. My mother is a naturalized citizen from Mexico. However, as the government conducted raids looking for illegal immigrants, my mother became more aware of her place as a Mexican woman living in the Midwest. She wondered whether people...
Show moreImmigration has become a hot button issue across the United States. Television newsmen dedicate hours of time to excoriate the "illegal invasion." I viewed the immigration debate as something not directly concerning me. I am a legal citizen of Hispanic descent. My mother is a naturalized citizen from Mexico. However, as the government conducted raids looking for illegal immigrants, my mother became more aware of her place as a Mexican woman living in the Midwest. She wondered whether people would assume she was illegal because of her accent and appearance. Our discussions prompted me to think about of my place in the story, and about my lack of connection with the Hispanic culture. I set out to interview migrants living in South Florida, and to document my and my mother's experience with immigration and assimilation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/186683
- Subject Headings
- Emigration and immigration, Assimilation (Sociology), Pluralism (Social sciences), Social adjustment, Hispanic Americans, Cultural assimilation, Emigration and immigration, Government policy
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- William Vaughan: Liberal Education and Voluntary Societies in the Age of Revolution.
- Creator
- Jones, Daniel Alexander, Kanter, Douglas, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
- Abstract/Description
-
This study examines the life of William Vaughan, a merchant in London during the revolutionary era, and the product of a new form of liberal education developed in England's Dissenting Academies. By taking full advantage of the innovative principles of liberal education developed by men like Joseph Priestley, Vaughan, as a professional, was able to wield social and political influence on behalf of a new merchant class previously excluded from the halls of power. Vaughan's success as governor...
Show moreThis study examines the life of William Vaughan, a merchant in London during the revolutionary era, and the product of a new form of liberal education developed in England's Dissenting Academies. By taking full advantage of the innovative principles of liberal education developed by men like Joseph Priestley, Vaughan, as a professional, was able to wield social and political influence on behalf of a new merchant class previously excluded from the halls of power. Vaughan's success as governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and promoter of the English shipping industry, as well as his service as a member of numerous civic and philanthropic organizations, demonstrated a commitment to gradual improvements in the material and moral circumstances of the British Empire that had relatively little to do with the partisan political categories typically associated with the revolutionary era.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004510, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004510
- Subject Headings
- Constitutional history -- Great Britain -- 18th century, Great Britain -- Economic policy -- 18th century, Great Britain -- History -- 18th century, Liberalism, Political science -- Great Britain -- 18th century, Royal Exchange Assurance (Firm), Vaughan, William -- 1752-1850 -- Influence
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- A philosophical analysis of America's transformation to universal health care: implications for responsibility and justice.
- Creator
- Mantoni, Jennifer Lynn., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Philosophy
- Abstract/Description
-
Human beings have two apparently conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, individuals have a right to health care as the United Nations declared in 1948. On the other hand, individuals have a right to liberty; that is, the freedom to make one's own health related choices, even poor ones. One goal of this essay is to show how to reconcile these two apparently conflicting core American values. This reconciliation is important, because a universal health care system that is fair and just...
Show moreHuman beings have two apparently conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, individuals have a right to health care as the United Nations declared in 1948. On the other hand, individuals have a right to liberty; that is, the freedom to make one's own health related choices, even poor ones. One goal of this essay is to show how to reconcile these two apparently conflicting core American values. This reconciliation is important, because a universal health care system that is fair and just must account for individual rights in tandem with attempts to address matters of social justice. In order for this reconciliation to occur, matters of individual responsibility, social responsibility, and social justice must be central to health care reform.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3171680
- Subject Headings
- Health care reform, Health services accessibility, Insurance, Health, Government policy, Political science, Philosophy, Health care rationing, Moral and ethical aspects, Social justice, Responsibility
- Format
- Document (PDF)
