Dissertations / Theses: 'Public participation and community engagement'

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Sung, Hui-Yun. "An exploration of the essential elements of community engagement in public libraries." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2012. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/9277.

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This research aims to explore and identify essential elements of community engagement in the public sector, including library services. Previous research has highlighted public libraries objectives in undertaking community engagement, in terms of tackling social exclusion, promoting democracy and contributing to social/cultural/human capital. However, it is also apparent that there is a lack of shared vision and strategy for community engagement in public libraries. Furthermore, little systematic research has examined the community engagement process in practice. Hence there is a need for a systematic, comparative and empirical investigation into essential elements of community engagement in public libraries. The study was qualitative, involving three case studies in England. Research methods employed to gather data included semi-structured interviews, direct observation and document analysis. Both the viewpoints of service providers and service users were captured. Essential elements of community engagement were initially identified in case specific contexts. The discussion of the relationships between elements then identified two key underlying variable drivers (i.e. influence of authority and willingness to learn ) that had a fundamental impact on community engagement. Influence of authority was defined as the extent that the initiative was led by the service or the community. Willingness to learn was defined as the extent that the service was willing to embrace a community-driven approach or a library-based approach for implementing community engagement. The empirical investigative results identified the essential elements of community engagement as comprising of: accountability , belonging , commitment , communication , a flexible approach , genuineness , relevance and sustainability . The significance of this research is the identification, based on empirical data, of arguably the essential elements of community engagement in the public library context. However, it is likely that these elements are key to forms of community engagement both within and outside the public sector. Recommendations are made in conclusion for the promotion of genuine community engagement, where the community-driven approach and the organic nature of the community engagement process are seen as being paramount to engagement.

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Reed, Luke Terrence, and res cand@acu edu au. "The Effect of Participation in School-Facilitated Community Service Programmes on Students’ Self-Esteem, Sense of Community Engagement and Attitudes to Christianity." Australian Catholic University. School of Education, 2006. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp142.17052007.

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Increasingly, student orientated service outreach programmes (community service) are being incorporated into the broad curriculum of Australian High Schools. The assumption made is that such programmes have tangible benefits for students, the community and the schools themselves. Schools that operate out of a Christian paradigm have the added incentive of seeking to assist students give personal expression to religious commitment through the service of others. This study tests the assumption that participation in community service or service outreach activities has positive benefits for the students involved. It explores the effect that student involvement in school-facilitated community service programmes has on three personal domains; self-esteem, sense of engagement with community, and attitude to Christianity. This is a quantitative study utilising a questionnaire instrument to collect data from participants. The questionnaire is a compilation of three pre-existing and previously validated instruments, each of which focus on one of the three research areas. Combined, they provide 74 items which are answered using a Likert scale with response choices ranging along a six point continuum from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The sample consists of a total of 225 participants drawn from students across years 10 to 12 from five Catholic High Schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area. All of these schools have single sex enrolment. Male and female participants are equally represented in the sample. In total, 80% of the sample participated in their school’s community service/service outreach programme. Information related to students’ community service involvement, the type of service undertaken, the duration of such service, and prior community service experience, was also collected from participants. No treatment is being introduced or manipulated in this study; rather, the research examines ‘between-participant’ and ‘within-sample’ differences associated with students’ participation (or non-participation) in existing community service/service outreach programmes in their schools. As such, the research is ex post factor in nature. Initial confirmatory factor analysis is undertaken to validate the integrity of the combined instrument. This is followed by a Cronbach’s alpha reliability study of the 12 component scales of the combined instrument; the results of which prove to be consistent with those previously reported. In subsequent analysis of the data, significant correlations are identified between six pairs of dependent variables. With statistical significance set at the 95% level, MANOVA is then utilised to determine the effect of a number of factors on scale scores. In addition to the primary focus on the effect that participation/non-participation in school community service programmes has on student selfesteem, engagement with community and attitude to Christianity, other influencing conditions explored include; type of community service, duration of community service, prior community service involvement, and gender. The principal finding of this research is that a statistically significant relationship is evident only between students’ participation in school-facilitated community service programmes and their attitude to social justice. Attitude to social justice is a constitutive element of the larger construct, ‘sense of engagement with community’. Analysis of the data reveals no significant association between community service participation and either self-esteem nor attitude to Christianity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings in the light of the earlier review of relevant literature.

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Rood, Jason Alexander. "Public Participation in Emergency Management." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/333.

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With disasters increasing in frequency and costs each year, this study seeks to explore ways greater public participation can assist emergency managers in their mission to keep communities safe. Specifically this study examines the policy process and administrative functions of emergency management to illuminated the benefits and hindrances involved in greater participation. This study conducted a qualitative analysis of governmental documents, disaster case studies, international research, as well as political science and administrative doctrines, to arrive at its conclusions. The results of this study reveal that the public is a largely untapped resource in the emergency management field. Engaging the public dialogically in early policy stages and emergency management phases is essential to successful inclusion for both administrators and communities. Specifically, public inclusion creates expanded knowledge, shared learning, personal responsibility, and increased social capital. Faced with the growing threat from disasters, emergency management can create communities that are both more resilient and sustainable by increasing public participation.

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Harris, Wesley Brian David. "Expanding Planning Public Participation Outreach Through Social Networking." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2011. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/567.

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Public participation is not a form of civic responsibility that it once was. With not only fewer people taking part in the public participation process, there is a trend towards an older (45 years and older) group of residents that come to such meetings or workshops. Plans, such as Specific Plans or General Plans often take years to implement and require all generations to give feedback on what is needed for the future. Additionally, within the last decade, there has been a rise in social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These websites emerged as informal virtual places for friends to connect, but have slowly evolved into a tool for businesses, and more importantly, government to connect with constituents. This study explores the relationship between the decline of public participation with findings to support the reasons residents do not take part in the process, and the rise of social media as a tool for engagement with findings to support how cities nationwide use Facebook. Social media provides a two-way form of communication between the community and the local government which aides in promoting genuine participation. Additionally, social media allows for efficient outreach and noticing of meetings or public workshops. As opposed to newspaper or website noticing, websites such as Facebook allow for local governments to target a specific audience by location, age, or interests. Findings indicate that although many cities developed a Facebook Page to engage the “younger generation”, all ages became fans of the City operated Facebook Page. In addition, the findings show that the true potential of Facebook as a participatory tool have not been discovered. cities are developing their own ways of using it as a tool as there is no formal best practices manual for City planning departments. The findings of this study have provided the necessary information to develop a best practices manual for planning practitioners to utilize. The manual provides information on developing a Facebook Page as well as the implications of the technology.

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Khaleghi, Kerahroodi Mehraz. "Meaningful community engagement in public-private partnerships: a case study of Manhattan’s downtown redevelopment project." Diss., Kansas State University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/20590.

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Doctor of Philosophy
Environmental Design and Planning Program
John W. Keller
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become a vehicle to deliver products and services internationally. It is a favored strategy widely adopted for implementing complex urban developments in the United States. However, the complex nature of such partnerships raises serious concerns about meaningful community engagement. Meaningful community engagement is a result of the presence and quality of transparency and public participation elements that are strongly correlated. The following research describes how the community was involved and contributed to an urban development PPP project in Manhattan, Kansas. The research goal is to understand the mechanism of the community engagement in a PPP project and to evaluate the quality of the process at the local level from a planning perspective. With an in-depth case study and an understanding of meaningful community engagement processes, this research will contribute to the body of knowledge in the area of PPPs and meaningful community engagement at the local level and evaluate local PPP policies and practices. The first objective is to evaluate the participation opportunities with a developed Community Engagement Attribute Evaluation System (CEAES) based on the recognized metrics of quality practices. Attributes are drawn from the identified characteristics of quality transparency and quality public participation of meaningful practices. The second goal is to interview the key stakeholders of the project from the public sector, the private sector, and the community and add depth to the findings that complements the overall evaluation. Through both technical evaluation and open-ended personal interview, this study attempts to describe the design and the process of public participation practices. Analysis will show whether or not the community was meaningfully engaged and if the technical aspects of a quality community engagement practice were present. Finally, this study aims to inform future similar planning practices. The result serves two local purposes of planning governance and policy. For the former, it will help those with no record of PPP to better design and implement the engagement process; and for the ones with PPPs’ experience, it will contribute to the quality of the future partnerships. For the latter, it will guide the local governments and policy makers to better address PPPs’ ongoing issue of community engagement.

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Crutchfield, Nicole Boudreaux. "Multi-Disciplinary Review and Comparison of Project Management for Social Engagement Practices." Master's thesis, North Dakota State University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10365/25989.

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This paper explores the practices of natural resources management, community development, and public arts by comparing the integration of social engagement as part of project management. All three of these practices originate from goals of social change and continue to advance in their disciplinary fields. Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) is framed in the natural resources management discipline. Community Development (CD) practice is framed in public participation and city planning disciplines. Creative Placemaking (CP) practice is framed in the public art discipline. These disciplines point to the intent to transform existing culture with the goal of becoming more democratic, socially just, transparent, and inclusive. Through the analysis of project management traits, key components are identified for successful project implementation with the goal of resulting in healthy and vibrant communities.

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Bodland, Tove. "Lokalsamhällets resiliens mot katastrofer i en svensk kontext. : Möjligheter och hinder gällande att involvera allmänheten i katastrofriskreduceringen. En explorativ fallstudie av Örebro kommun." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Fakulteten för hälsa, natur- och teknikvetenskap (from 2013), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-68876.

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Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Resiliens är ett begrepp som används i allt större utsträckning inom risk och katastrofforskningen för att beskriva samhällets motståndskraft mot, förmåga att återhämta sig från samt utvecklas positivt efter större naturhändelser. Forskning visar på vikten av att involvera alla nivåer i samhället för att skapa resiliens vilket även uttrycks i internationella ramverk för katastrofriskreducering, klimatanpassning och hållbar utveckling. Det är framförallt på den lokala nivån som konsekvenserna av extrema naturhändelser manifestera och måste hanteras vilket innebär att allmänheten anses vara viktig att involvera i det katastrofriskreducerande arbetet för en ökad resiliens. Detta innebär ett så kallat ”bottom-up” sätt att arbeta. En faktor som enligt forskningen påverkar risken för katastrofer är olika sårbarheter i samhället. Hur sårbart ett samhälle är påverkas bland annat av ekonomiska, ekologiska och sociala faktorer och hur resurser är fördelade. Vissa grupper i samhället pekas ofta ut som mer sårbara, och ett led i att skapa resiliens är att tillgodose dessa gruppers specifika behov i relation till katastrofrisker. Teorier och modeller gällande samhällets resiliens mot katastrofer är ofta framtagna med fokus på miljöer med mer frekventa och dramatiska naturhändelser, och samhällen som präglas av en högre grad av socioekonomiska skillnader än vi har i dagens Sverige. Ett förändrat klimat och andra globala processer påverkar även det svenska samhället. Svenska staten och dess myndigheter påtalar allt mer vikten av att arbeta utifrån ett resiliensperspektiv i samhällsbyggandet. I den svenska kontexten ligger ett stort ansvar gällande risk och krishantering på den kommunala nivån, samt även på den enskilda individen, vilket kan tänkas borga för att involvera allmänheten i katastrofriskreduceringen och tillika skapa ett resilient lokalsamhälle. Syfte: Syftet med studien är trefaldig. Primärt syftar den till att få en övergripande förståelse för hur personer som är verksamma inom risk och krishantering på lokal nivå i en svensk kommun ser på att involvera allmänheten i det katastrofriskreducerande arbetet utifrån ett resiliensperspektiv. Sekundärt syftar studien till att undersöka hur man förhåller sig till olika gruppers behov i arbetet utifrån ett sårbarhetsperspektiv samt att undersöka relevansen av ett befintligt teoretiskt ramverk för community resilience i en svensk kontext. Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ explorativ fallstudie av Örebro kommun med en abduktiv ansats. Genom en kombination av strategiskt urval och snöbollsurval har nyckelpersoner som är verksamma inom kommunal verksamhet samt frivilligorganisationer inkluderats i studien. Datainsamlingen bestod av semistrukturerade intervjuer som transkriberats och vidare analyserats genom kvalitativ textanalys. För att stärka studiens validitet har även kommundokument studerats för att möjliggöra en triangulering. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån teorier om resiliens, risk-governance och sårbarhet för katastrofer samt ett teoretiskt ramverk för community resilience. Resultat: Resultatet visar på: 1) en positiv syn hos respondenterna på att involvera allmänheten, framförallt som en resurs i den akuta krishanteringen genom att nyttja frivilliga, 2) möjligheter med att involvera allmänheten genom relationsbyggande nätverk och ökad samverkan med civilsamhället för att få information om hur människor upplever sin verklighet och vilka behov allmänheten har gällande information och stöttning, 3) hinder avseende kommunikation och samverkan mellan kommun och allmänhet vilket delvis kopplades till att det saknas användbara verktyg och att ny teknik inte nyttjas fullt ut, 4) brist på kontinuitet i samverkan mellan civilsamhället och kommunen och låg frekvens av större händelser, 5) ett bristande engagemang från allmänhetens sida. Resultatet pekar även på att resiliensramverket är relevant i den svenska kontexten.
Summary Background: Resiliens is a concept that is increasingly used in risk- and disaster research to describe society's resistance to, ability to recover from and to develop positively after major natural events. Research shows the importance of involving all levels of society in order to create resilience against disasters and is expressed in international frameworks for disaster risk reduction, climate change and sustainable development. Since the consequences of extreme natural events primarily manifests at the local level, they need to be locally managed. The importance of involving the public in disaster risk reduction, also called the “bottom-up approach” with the aim of building resilience is thus highlighted. One factor affecting societal disaster risk is vulnerability. How vulnerable a society is to disasters is influenced by economic, ecological and social factors and the distribution of resources. Certain groups in society are often referred to as more vulnerable and one part of building resilience against disasters is to cater to the specific needs of these groups in relation to disaster risks. Theories and models of societal resilience against disasters are often developed with focus on environments with more frequent and dramatic natural events and societies that are characterized by a greater degree of socio-economic differences than that of today's Sweden. But a changing climate and other global processes also affect the Swedish society. The Swedish state and its authorities increasingly emphasize the importance of taking a resilience perspective on societal development. The responsibility for risk and crisis management in Sweden is primarily focused at the municipal level, as well as on the individual, which could warrant the involvement of the public in disaster reduction in order to build a resilient local community. Purpose: The purpose of the study is threefold. It primarily aims at gaining an overall understanding of the views of individuals, involved in risk and crisis management at local level in Sweden, upon involving the public in disaster risk reduction from a resilience perspective. Secondarily, the study aims at investigating how the needs of different groups in the community is incorporated into the work, based on a vulnerability perspective, and thirdly to investigate the relevance of an existing theoretical framework for community resilience in a Swedish context. Method: The study was designed as a qualitative exploratory case study of Örebro municipality with an abductive approach. Through a combination of strategic selection and snowballing, key people working in the local council and non-governmental organizations have been included in the study. The data collection consisted of semistructured interviews that were transcribed and further analyzed through qualitative text analysis. In order to strengthen the validity of the study, municipal documents were studied to enable triangulation. The results were discussed through theories of resilience, risk governance and disaster vulnerability as well as a theoretical framework for community resilience by Norris et al. (2008). Results: The results show: 1) a positive view upon involving the public, primarily as a resource in emergency crisis management by using volunteers, 2) opportunities for involving the public through relational networking and enhanced cooperation with civil society, in order to gain information and knowledge on how people perceive their reality and the needs of the public regarding information and support, 3) communication and cooperation barriers between the municipality and the public are linked to the lack of useful tools and that new technologies are not fully utilized, 4) a lack of continuity in civil society and municipality collaboration, low frequency of major events, and lack of widespread commitment among the public. The result indicates that the resilience framework is also relevant in the Swedish context.

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Norman, Spencer A. "THE TEA PARTY VERSUS PLANNING: A STUDY OF TEA PARTY ACTIVISM AND ITS IMPACT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING." VCU Scholars Compass, 2017. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5029.

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The Tea Party movement’s effect on local and regional planning in Virginia has received little study. This work identifies how conservative political activism has impacted planning in the Commonwealth and how planners have responded. The study relies on a qualitative approach involving 22 semi-structured interviews with activists, planners, and citizens, as well as textual analyses of planning documents, local and regional news reports, and Tea Party social media. The resultant findings show that Tea Party activism is rooted in deep seated ideals about private property rights and individualism. It also reveals that planning processes that increased the amount of public input had the effect of mitigating the impact of activism. The study concludes by suggesting that strategies based in the communicative style of planning offer an effective way to overcome such opposition while enhancing the many benefits of having significant citizen input in the planning process.

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Bennett, Kellie. "Outcomes of community engagement in neighbourhood renewal: community confidence, participation and asset based community development." Thesis, Bennett, Kellie (2017) Outcomes of community engagement in neighbourhood renewal: community confidence, participation and asset based community development. Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University, 2017. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/41318/.

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Ndlovu, Nontobeko Nontando. "Participation of wards in Operation Sukuma Sakhe activities within the city of Umhlathuze." Thesis, University of Zululand, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1531.

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A thesis submitted to the Faculty Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Development Studies in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2017
The study set out to obtain information on the nature and level of participation of community members in the implementation of Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS). A case study research design was adopted. A sample of 125 respondents was selected using the purposive sampling method for the key informants such as the traditional leadership, officials deployed by the government to the programme, fieldworkers and CSO. A convenience sampling method was also used for focus groups and to select participants from the community. An interview schedule which had both structured and unstructured questions, was used to gather the required data. For data analysis, the thematic analysis method was used. It was discovered that there are various methods used to engage the community in the programme, namely: mass community meetings, door-to-door visits, household visits and participation of the community as walk-ins. The most commonly used method to engage community members was found to be the door-to-door visits where the CCGs were actively involved. The respondents participated only in the identification of issues affecting them and not in identifying possible solutions to the problems. The decisions were seemingly taken by external members, something which has negative implications on community development of projects. The participation of community members in the form of ‘walk-ins’ raised concern, as this is taken as a sign of lack of commitment, which could result in people not viewing the programme as a learning process which could lead to growth and change. The method cannot be considered as a reliable or effective way of ensuring adequate participation in any service delivery or community development programme. It basically suggests low levels of participation and that the actual implementation does not encourage the development of what is referred to as the ‘we feeling’ or ownership of the programme in participation circles. It is also concluded that gender-specific capacitation and empowerment programmes have to be instituted, because the programme predominantly comprises women. The group that was found to be actively involved is usually characterised by inadequate access to assets and productive resources, and a lack of knowledge or skills. Among the officials in the WR, limited knowledge on roles and responsibilities was noted in certain wards, and this has implications for service delivery and may be somehow responsible for the lack of participation in WR activities.

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Palmen, Rachel L. "Participation, power and democracy : a comparative study of community engagement processes." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2007. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19714/.

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Participatory arenas have been a growing feature of governance and public policy in the 'North' and 'South' as attempts are made to involve local communities in decision-making processes. These developments have been accompanied by a proliferation of research examining these community engagement processes from a variety of different perspectives. Despite the similar themes addressed in the development studies literature and urban regeneration literature in the U.K., there are few studies that compare participatory spaces in the global 'North' with those in the global 'South'. The main debate highlighted in both bodies of literature pivots around the tyranny-transformation dichotomy. Participatory processes are portrayed as either spaces facilitating the increased regulation of the population, or enabling transformation in favour of a social justice which benefits the poorer sections of society. This thesis considers the tyranny-transformation dichotomy in two empirical case studies at the neighbourhood level: a New Deal for Communities Regeneration Programme, in the North of England; and the Participatory Budgeting Process, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The research conducted fell within a grounded theory research framework, utilising a qualitative research strategy. This enabled a focus on the experiences of key players and community representatives within these spaces. The research findings highlight the necessity of taking into consideration the following three elements when evaluating the transformative potential of participatory processes. Firstly, the twin-track construction of the participatory process, in terms of perceptions, conceptions and interpretations whilst also taking into consideration the institutional mechanisms of the participatory process. Secondly, the governance and democratic nature of participatory spaces, as regards how different democratic models are imbued in these spheres. Thirdly, power relations and the practice of participation in terms of how power can operate as a 'constraining' yet also at the same time an 'enabling' force. These findings enabled the development of a framework that was able to transcend the tyranny- transformation dichotomy as elements of 'tyranny' and 'transformation' were in fact present in both case studies.

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Boakye-Agyei, Kwame. "Fostering civic engagement stakeholder participation in rural projects in Ghana /." Fairfax, VA : George Mason University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1920/4543.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2009.
Vita: p. 233. Thesis director: Susan Crate. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science and Public Policy. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-232). Also issued in print.

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Thordin, Sofia, and Mihaela-Adriana Nițu. "Community Gardening Initiatives - Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Community Gardening Participation in Sydhavn." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21725.

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The waterfront community of Sydhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark is architecturally praised, but also criticized for its lack of public green space. Residents in the area have self-organized a community gardening initiative to combat this lack of greenery. The thesis aims to explore this occurrence by providing an analysis of the attitudes and behaviors towards social and environmental aspects of sustainability and individual residents’ resistance or support towards community gardening initiatives. The research design is based on quantitative methods with an exploratory purpose, using an online survey methodology. The main findings show that there is an association among knowledge of sustainability concepts, sustainable attitudes and behaviors, and interest in community gardening participation in the study population. Moreover, individuals who indicate no interest in community gardening lack a desire to join in the future, although they may be encouraged to do so with more education and advertisement. Generally, the study population feels positively towards community gardening and feels there is a need for it in the area. Further research may investigate aspects such as politics and policies related to community gardening and replicate a similar study in a different sociodemographic context to see how the results differ. The results of this study have practical implications for academics, built environment practitioners, and community gardening organizers.

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Coleby, Alastor Merlin. "Public attitudes and community participation in windfarm development." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/129.

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Rodgers, Christienne. "Visioning: A Public Participation Process for Community Building." The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/555223.

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Offenbacker, Beth S. "Inclusive Management in Action: An International Study of Public Engagement." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28276.

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The purpose of this study is to define and apply an engagement framework built upon Inclusive Management theory to examine the practice of participation as understood by administrators, elected officials, NGO leaders and public participation practitioners across multiple countries and to illustrate the framework through three case studies. Specifically, it asks how does Inclusive Management guide us in understanding participation as practiced by managers/leaders with responsibility for this work? It also considers the potential connections between management and participation as demonstrated in the data, and further, it seeks to identify how IM as a theory may be enriched or empirically elaborated as a result of this examination. This research examines the observation of phenomena identified by study participants ordinarily not considered a consequence of efforts that engage the public. Using inclusive management theory, the resulting engagement framework includes clusters of outcomes, continuous events and capacity-building as its core elements. The framework shows inclusive management in action and offers a different way of knowing (Feldman, Khademian, Ingram, & Schneider, 2006; Gomez, Bouty, & Drucker-Godard, 2003; Nicolini, Gherardi, & Yanow, 2003) participation in government decision making than generally is depicted in the public participation literature or characterized anecdotally. The engagement framework also corresponds in several ways to the techniques of dialogue, deliberation and appreciative inquiry. As the data will demonstrate in this dissertation, the engagement framework may draw upon these techniques, and moreover, that the relational, informational and stewardship dimensions of engagement reinforce one another. This dissertation also addresses a longstanding gap in the participation literature, in that it provides strategies that connect management theory and practice with participatory principles.
Ph. D.

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Escobar-Rodriguez, Oliver. "Transformative practices : the political work of public engagement practitioners." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9915.

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Participatory and deliberative democracy have attracted global attention, both as a field of research and practice. This interest reflects ongoing experimentation with ideas and practices of stakeholder governance, collaborative policy-making and citizen participation. The institutionalisation of such practices in Scotland is taking place through local partnership arrangements and public engagement processes. In particular, the Scottish Government’s Community Planning policy mandates local authorities to develop partnerships where various sectors and organisations are summoned to engage in collaborative policy-making. Central to this agenda is the involvement of citizens and communities through an increasing number of official local forums. In this sense, Scotland resembles other countries where public authorities seek working combinations of strategic partnership governance and local citizen participation. Despite burgeoning interest and developments, however, scarce attention has been paid to the role of public engagement officials tasked with turning participatory and deliberative ideals into everyday practices. Indeed, we still know little about the policy work of official ‘public engagers’ who organise participatory processes by negotiating a contested milieu of actors and agendas, while being constrained and enabled by an evolving ecology of participation. Consequently, this thesis presents findings from two years of ethnographic fieldwork shadowing public engagers in a Scottish Local Authority Area. The uniqueness of these policy workers is that their expertise is not on a particular policy area, but on stakeholder and citizen engagement across policy domains. That is, their expertise is on process, and their job is to facilitate deliberative forums to inform local policy-making. The fundamental question addressed here is not whether participatory policy-making works, but rather how does it work, what kind of work does it take, and what kind of work does it do. By foregrounding the ‘how’ question, this thesis provides a new practice-based analytical framework to both understand and inform participation processes. The findings highlight the importance of the engagers’ political work, thus illustrating the disciplinary force of engagement practice and the contested nature of participatory policy-making. Understanding these dimensions offers insight into new political spaces for the renegotiation of the relationship between authorities and citizens. Accordingly, the research shows how public engagers work to open and develop such spaces in order to foster new relationships through a new ‘politics of process’. In addition, it explores the impact that this work has on the engagers’ community of practice, as well as the challenges they face as engagement work gets institutionalised. Therefore, the thesis offers a distinct ethnographic account of the role of agency in developing official local spaces for participatory and deliberative democracy in Scotland.

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Hendriks, Carolyn Maree. "Public deliberation and interest organisations : a study of responses to lay citizen engagement in public policy /." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2004. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20050921.103047/index.html.

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Rådelius, Elias. "Community Radio 2.0 - Reinventing Participation, Empowerment and Community in Converging Public Spheres." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23049.

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New technologies, such as social media and web services, are becoming increasingly common and important tools for community radio stations. The convergence of community radio, social media and web services opens up new opportunities for participation from the audience and challenges previous conceptions of community, participation, empowerment and the public sphere. This study focuses on how this convergence affects notions of participation, empowerment, community and the public sphere as well as the resulting challenges and opportunities. The study was conducted at three community radio stations in the Western Cape, South Africa and used a mixed-methods approach of qualitative interviews, a survey and netnographic observations of social media and web presence.The findings show that social media and web services increases and changes participation by extending possibilities to interact independently of spatiotemporal limitations of radio broadcasts. It has direct effects on the content of the radio shows and the audience is empowered as co-producers and contributors of content. Additionally, the interaction itself creates new content in other mediums, such as blogs. The study also shows how the converging public spheres of community radio and social media are contradictory as participation becomes economized and exclusionary and relies heavily on financial means, access and digital literacy of the community. The expanded, global reach of community radio also challenges the notion of community as it includes distant and diasporic communities. However, the presence in the global mediascape harmonizes with community radio values of self-representation and self-expression. The study concludes that community radio stations need to both strategize their social media use while balancing their mandate to be a voice of the voiceless that lack access and/or digital literacy to participate.

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Bennett, Amanda. "Honors Participation at a Two-Year Community College: Academic and Student Engagement Outcomes." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2021. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3856.

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The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative, comparative study was to compare academic outcomes (final GPA, retention, graduation rates) and student engagement measures of students who enroll in an honors program at a Tennessee community college versus those who were honors-eligible but did not participate in an honors program. Findings will help determine whether or not honors programs are associated with gains in various student outcome and engagement measures. Archival data at the participating institution were used to explore retention rates, GPA, and graduation rates. The sample for this study included 333 honors students at a community college in Tennessee from 2015 through 2019. To participate in honors, students must obtain a 3.5 or higher high school GPA or a 25 or higher composite ACT score. The sample also included 2,970 ACT and high school GPA matched peers who were eligible to participate in honors but who did not participate. Additionally, Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) survey data were used to explore student engagement measures. Independent-samples t test or a two-way contingency table using crosstabs were utilized to evaluate each of the respective research questions. Findings from this study demonstrate there are significantly improved academic outcomes and engagement measures for students who participate in honors at the participating community college when compared to eligible nonparticipants.

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Danielsons, Amy L. "Edible Urbanism: Fostering Growth and Community Engagement Through Food." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397476517.

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Jakubowski, Susan L. "Public Participation in Urban Development: Case Studies from Cincinnati, Ohio." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397736487.

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Nampila, Tutaleni. "Assessing community participation : the Huidare informal settlement." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2238.

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Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
This study evaluates community participation in the Huidare Informal Settlement (HDIS) as a case study. The hypothesis is that the breach of trust between the previous community leaders of the HDIS and the current community members has an effect on community participation in issues affecting them and their community today. The research methodology employed is explained as well as the policy context for community participation both on an international level and in Namibia, is reviewed. The legislation on community participation that has been enforced by the City of Windhoek contradicts what happened in the HDIS. The possibility will be investigated as to whether these policy documents of the City of Windhoek are only another form of tokenism.

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Feehan, Michael. "Community participation in the development of local policing policy and practice : the Community Policing Forum model of engagement." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.546052.

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Bea, Alexander. "TreeHugging users: Engagement in an online green community." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32870.

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The study of blogs up to this point has primarily, though not exclusively, covered â A-listâ and political or campaign blogs. Large filter blogs have not yet been the focus of communication research and offer an exciting new area of scholarship in online communication. This study examined if and how the environmental blog, TreeHugger, works to engage and maintain the online environmental community by potentially acting an online environmental public sphere and interacting with users who make up the community. Through a content analysis of two constructed weeks of blog posts (N=336) and their comments (N=1342) from the first half of 2008, this study examined the discussion of issues, use of interactive feature, and presence of the metacommunication frame in both groups. Results showed significant influence of topic and tone in the blog posts on the subsequent user comments. They also showed how commentersâ discussion can operate quite independently as well. In particular, comments were found to have a negative valence significantly more than the posts. Also, the focus of external metacommunication frames in each differed significantly, with posts referencing other mass media more often. Overall, this thesis concludes that writers for blogs like TreeHugger have limited influence on the discussion in the comments. Greater understanding of that influence could help bloggers engage readers better and promote active dialogue.
Master of Arts

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Saul, Zamani. "Developing a Community Engagement Model as a Normative Framework for Meaningful Engagement During Evictions." University of the Western Cape, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6255.

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Doctor Legum - LLD
The research problem of this study is the jurisprudential inconsistency in the application of the right in section 26(3) of the South African Constitution's Bill of Rights. The inconsistency is due to inadequate conceptualisation of the substantive requirements of meaningful engagement (ME) by the South African Constitutional Court (ConCourt). The central argument is that the development of a community engagement model based on the substantive requirements of ME will enhance the application of section 26(3). This study commences by illustrating the disempowering nature to the squatters of the apartheid evictions in South Africa. To tighten influx control, the apartheid regime introduced a battery of laws that disempowered the squatters. The apartheid-induced disempowerment of the squatters penetrated into the democratic dispensation. In the examination of the normative context of evictions post-1994, this study identifies six primary drivers for substantive involvement of the occupiers during evictions. The six primary drivers seek to address the disempowering trajectory during evictions.

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Lew, Marna R. "Building an educational community : the participation of international graduate students in civic engagement projects." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99731.

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In the next few years, the number of international students, including graduate students, in Canada is expected to increase considerably (Cudmore, 2005). Simultaneously, recent funding cuts to higher education in a more neoliberal policy climate leave these students with fewer services to facilitate their integration into the host community (Hellsten & Prescott, 2004; Trice, 2004). One important way in which students become integrated is by participating in civic engagement projects. This study examined how, in the current policy climate, international graduate students are taking part in such projects.
Based on semi-structured interviews with six international graduate students in the field of education in Quebec, the study showed that students embraced a more Deweyan perspective of education and successfully participated in civic engagement projects despite many challenges, such as an academic culture that provides little active support for their involvement in civic engagement activities. The study concludes with recommendations so that universities can provide such support.

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Bone, Ilithyia. "An evaluation of the impact on social capital of community participation in planning." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2021. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209306/1/Ilithyia_Bone_Thesis.pdf.

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Participation of affected communities in the planning process is mandatory under Australian law. Research suggests this is often problematic; stakeholder objectives diverge and conflict, and there is little to suggest non-powerful participants benefit from their involvement. The practice is frequently characterised by dissatisfaction, mistrust and perceptions of placation – and research reveals this has been the case since such policies were adopted.

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Goliday, Angelique M. "Identifying the relationship between network governance and community action program participation." ScholarWorks, 2010. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/799.

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The relevant literature consistently suggests that understanding citizen participation in community action programs is needed to maximize network governance efforts. Yet, there is no empirical evidence demonstrating a relationship between levels of network governance (NG) and citizen participation rates. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which levels of NG is correlated with levels of citizen participation in community action agency (CAA) programs, and whether variations in NG or variations over time in average income level is more strongly related to participation. The research was guided by the integrative model of democracy, which emphasizes citizen participation and is seen in Moynihan's theory of self-governance through community action agencies. The study utilized a secondary analysis of data retrieved from on state's Department of Development website. Participation rates of 10 state CAA programs were drawn from these public records and correlated with number of collaborative NG partnerships and mean state income levels over a 5-year period (2004-2008). Pearson's r tests indicated that number of network partnerships was positively correlated with participation in 8 out of 10 CAA programs including workforce development, education, housing, transportation, medical and food assistance, financial management, and maximum feasible participation programs. Participation in medical and food assistance programs was not related to partnerships. Additionally, variations in average income level were not correlated with program participation. The findings can contribute to positive social change by informing new NG practices to maximize collaborative community efforts to increase community participation, thereby possibly increasing self-sufficiency and reducing poverty.

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Proctor, Nicholaus. "The Added Value of Community Engagement in Public Design for Landscape Architecture Professionals." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/74982.

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This thesis examines three uniquely different community engagement methods that explore the relationship between community values and the physical landscape in two Appalachian communities; Austinville, VA and St. Paul, VA. Each community engagement method is 1) introduced via literature review/case study, 2) modified from the case study to suit local conditions, and 3) analyzed for effectiveness in connecting local values and the physical landscape. I then reflected on this academic research through the lens of a three-year employment as a community development and natural asset planner with a 501(c)3 non-profit in southwest Virginia. The professional experience revealed five community systems that impacted the overall effectiveness of community engagement processes and had the potential to position communities, and their public projects, for a higher level of success. The community systems included: Capacity and Readiness, Involvement, Leadership, Communication, Frame of Reference and Community Vision. Research and professional practice together suggested that an intentional effort to understand and incorporate community values via community engagement ultimately led to more meaningful designs in the public sector.
Master of Landscape Architecture

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Weeks, Harry Jasper James. "'A unique epochal knot' : negotiations of community in contemporary art." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/16182.

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This research identifies the negotiation of inherited understandings of the term ‘community’ as an increasingly widespread concern within the field of contemporary art since 1989, particularly in the wake of art’s communitarian turn during the 1990s. The thesis examines these artistic investigations in connection with the work of philosophers such as Maurice Blanchot, Roberto Esposito and Jean-Luc Nancy during the 1980s and 1990s, where we find the most thorough interrogation of the term ‘community’ since the nineteenth century. Contending that art has significantly contributed to a discourse long established in philosophy, the thesis reflects on what precipitated the widespread shift from an artistic interest in ‘this or that community’ to ‘community as such’ during the 1990s, and on what art has offered to the negotiation of community that philosophy has not. These dual concerns have been developed in the two sections that comprise the thesis, entitled ‘Untying the “Unique Epochal Knot”’ and ‘Collaboration, Participation, Performance and the Negotiation of Community’. An important issue the thesis broaches is whether art can (despite concerns about its co-optation within neoliberal institutions) constitute a potent site for the negotiation of community. The affirmative, if critical, answer given considers the unorthodox forms, logics and strategies that art is permitted to employ, art’s ability to enact material interventions into social relations and, overall, art’s operation as an alternative/complementary mode of articulation to that offered by philosophy. Through the analysis of pertinent case studies, the thesis examines how collaborative, participatory and performance practices have been particularly employed by artists including Tania Bruguera, Kristina Norman and Artur Żmijewski, seeking to scrutinise factors crucial to the rethinking of community. These factors include singularity, commonality, temporality and ethics. Springing from interviews, research trips to key case studies, and a thorough literature review, as well as implicating a range of work from diverse geographies and spread over the past two decades, the thesis situates the move towards the negotiation of community in art both historically and theoretically. In doing so, the analysis develops an important reconsideration of contemporary art’s widely noted attendance to the social. In privileging a conceptual framework for the discussion of this tendency in art, as opposed to the more prevalent formalist model, greater critical purchase may be gained on this urgent development in contemporary art history.

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Tam, E.-man, and 譚依文. "Public satisfaction and community participation in urban renewal in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47308643.

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The premise of this thesis is the relationship between community participation and public satisfaction in urban renewal projects. Public satisfaction is different from those evaluation indicators used in most previous studies. Public satisfaction level evaluates performance of renewal projects based on public’s perspectives instead of a set of standards. Performances of renewal projects in satisfying the public personally, in environmental and social aspects were appraised. Both quantity and quality of community participation of the renewal projects and other factors believed to have effects on people’s perception were studied. Quantity of community participation was measured as community participation level based on the variety of community participation activities organized in the renewal projects, while quality of community participation was assessed by the satisfaction level on community participation perceived by the public using questionnaire survey. Also, public satisfaction levels of renewal projects in different aspects were collected by questionnaire survey. The relationship between community participation and public satisfaction was examined by linear regression analysis. Data was collected from 181 respondents responding to 5 sample projects regarding their satisfaction level towards the renewal projects in different aspects. Quality of community participation and public satisfaction level of urban renewal projects are positively related in different aspects while negative effect of quantity of community participation on the public satisfaction level was found. It is anticipated that if the public are satisfied with the community participation activities organized in a renewal project, they will also be satisfied with the project itself. However, results unexpectedly showed that public satisfaction level would increase as less community participation activities were organized in the renewal projects. This thesis gives insights into the optimum practice of community involvement in renewal projects and that of urban renewal to satisfy the public’s needs. The results are suggestive to the ideas that private developments can better formulate the needs of the public and the public concern more about the quality of community participation than the variety or number of it.
published_or_final_version
Real Estate and Construction
Master
Master of Philosophy

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Garland, Vaughn. "Participation in the Digital Public: New Media Art as Online Community." VCU Scholars Compass, 2013. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/561.

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Participation in The Digital Public: New Media Art as Online Community examines community online art projects— works of art produced and orchestrated by artists who employ the interconnected and participatory nature of the Internet. Garland contends, in part through a reevaluation of a statement made by artist Nam June Paik concerning a radio performance by John Cage, that community online art projects exist as the newest example of new media art because of a utilization and implementation of established and functioning technology. Through the application of Internet technology, contemporary artists, along with their collaborators and spectators, have the potential to create, build, engage, and exhibit new works of art and form new concepts for the production and practice of art making. This dissertation maintains that Community online art projects serve as the most current example of new media art because they examine the shared uses of the Internet. Participation in The Digital Public: New Media Art as Online Community includes examples and critiques of new online artworks as well as historical analysis of the theories of new media, participation, interconnectivity, and remediation in art through the 20th century.

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Heyward, Benjamin Rex, and ben heyward@baptistworldaid-au org. "A Comparative Study of Community Participation in the Philippines." Flinders University. Geography, 2006. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20070328.131827.

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Community participation takes place when community members act together as subjects. It is argued here that community participation empowers when community members take decisions, or negotiate an equitable share in making the decisions that affect them. However, since participation takes place within a network of power relations it is not necessarily empowering but can take a range of forms from enforcement to empowerment, whereby empowerment may involve not only willing cooperation, but also resistance to outsider project objectives. This thesis explores these issues through a study of how people in three Philippine upland communities participated in soil conservation and livelihood restoration projects initiated by three different NGOs. The principal aim of the study was to identify and examine the changing discourses of development and participation held by the NGOs and by the members of the subject communities. The development discourses revolved around socio-ecology, described as the relationship between the culture and society of Filipino subsistence smallholders and the ecological units of their local environment. The failure of this existing socio-ecology under the pressure of increasing population density on a limited upland resource base was the stimulus for change in the study communities. The thesis compares the NGOs practice of engaging with the communities with their discourses of participation, and examines the importance of the relationships between the NGOs, government agencies and the communities for the success of the projects. The study identified several key factors in the empowerment of subject groups. Firstly, the need for a discourse that enables them to embark on socio-ecological change. For the Filipino communities examined here, the discourse of sustainability was validated by enabling the restoration of their livelihoods. Secondly, outside agencies, either NGO or government, may be needed to catalyse community change processes. Thirdly, the subjects need leaders who have the vision and skills to work for the desired livelihood and social development outcomes. Training activities of livelihood restoration proved highly significant in expanding womens political space that led to opportunities for them to take up leadership, as well as giving capacity-building training for existing and future leaders which helped to equalize gender relations between men and women. Fourthly, the policy and program initiatives of host government agencies can synergize with community and partner agency activities at several levels, including resourcing and building the capacities of leadership.

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South, Susan E. "Contributing Factors to Engagement in Online Learning Environments: The Relationship Between Sense of Community and Participation." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194816.

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Since its inception, online continuing education programs have experienced great variation in the degree of participation among students. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that a sense of community is a possible predictor of participation in educational programs. Since online instruction is not conducted face-to-face, direct social interaction is missing. However, there exists a variety of online instructional methods that are designed to create social interaction and thus facilitate and foster a sense of community among participants in these programs.This dissertation sought to identify a model that would suggest what variables related to a sense of community might predict participation among students enrolled in an online continuing education program. This investigation included development of an instrument to measure participants' feeling of a sense of community, and examination of the relationship of the instrument scores with three components of participation (overall participation, interactive participation, and non-interactive participation).This investigation was conducted on a two-year online continuing medical education program at a university located in the southwestern United States. The participants were physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants representing three different cohorts.Item analysis of the instrument to measure sense of community revealed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .89. A principal components analysis using an orthogonal (varimax) rotation produced four factors (subscales) with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from .70 to .86.The overall sense of community and four subscale scores were then compared to participation scores of participants. Preliminary analyses revealed no gender or cohort differences. A significant correlation was found between communicating for understanding subscale scores and interactive participation scores. Significant positive correlation coefficients were also found between the overall sense of community score and overall participation score as well as interactive participation score.This preliminary investigation indicated that the sense of community instrument developed for this study is a reliable measure including four factors which constitute a definition of sense of community. Further, it revealed that interactive participation in the course may be predicted from communicating for understanding and that sense of community is positively correlated to overall participation and interactive participation, but not to non-interactive participation.

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Xali, Nomawethu. "Community participation in housing development : the Boystown informal settlement project." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1679.

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Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
One of the problems with development planning is a lack of community participation. This is due to the top-down approach that dominates development planning. To improve chances of sustainable development there is a need to shift from a top-down approach towards a bottom-up approach. The bottom-up approach promotes people-centred development. People-centred development focuses on people and enhances their capacity to influence the direction and implementation of the development process. Communities can only influence the development process through their participation. International bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank support the concept of community participation in development planning. The South African policy framework also provides for community participation. The change agents should utilise this opportunity by sharing knowledge and by learning from the indigenous knowledge of the community. This knowledge exchange between the community and the change agents creates a platform for social learning, capacity building and empowerment. It is through this platform that sustainable development could be achieved. This kind of development process accommodates the building blocks of development. This study examines the level of community participation in a housing development project at the Boystown informal settlement. It was found that there is a lack of community participation in this project and that the project could be a success if there is a higher level of participation by the beneficiaries.

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Kaminski, Amy Paige. "Sharing the Shuttle with America: NASA and Public Engagement after Apollo." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/79365.

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Historical accounts depict NASA's interactions with American citizens beyond government agencies and aerospace firms since the 1950s and 1960s as efforts to 'sell' its human space flight initiatives and to position external publics as would-be observers, consumers, and supporters of such activities. Characterizing citizens solely as celebrants of NASA's successes, however, masks the myriad publics, engagement modes, and influences that comprised NASA's efforts to forge connections between human space flight and citizens after Apollo 11 culminated. While corroborating the premise that NASA constantly seeks public and political approval for its costly human space programs, I argue that maintaining legitimacy in light of shifting social attitudes, political priorities, and divided interest in space flight required NASA to reconsider how to serve and engage external publics vis-à-vis its next major human space program, the Space Shuttle. Adopting a sociotechnical imaginary featuring the Shuttle as a versatile technology that promised something for everyone, NASA sought to engage citizens with the Shuttle in ways appealing to their varied, expressed interests and became dependent on some publics' direct involvement to render the vehicle viable economically, socially, and politically. NASA's ability and willingness to democratize the Shuttle proved difficult to sustain, however, as concerns evolved following the Challenger accident among NASA personnel, political officials, and external publics about the Shuttle's purpose, value, safety, and propriety. Mapping the publics and engagement modes NASA regarded as crucial to the Shuttle's legitimacy, this case study exposes the visions of public accountability and other influences -- including changing perceptions of a technology -- that can govern how technoscientific institutions perceive and engage various external publics. Doing so illuminates the prospects and challenges associated with democratizing decisions and uses for space and, perhaps, other technologies managed by U.S. government agencies while suggesting a new pathway for scholarly inquiry regarding interactions between technoscientific institutions and external publics. Expanding NASA's historical narrative, this study demonstrates that entities not typically recognized as space program contributors played significant roles in shaping the Shuttle program, substantively and culturally. Conceptualizing and valuing external publics in these ways may prove key for NASA to sustain human space flight going forward.
Ph. D.

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Roberts, Heather. "Promoting participation in health in the community using a health survey." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1993. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12598/.

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Health promotion is an emerging discipline that seeks to enhance positive health and prevent ill health. This thesis is designed to inform practice in health promotion. It is based on an action research project that draws together interdisciplinary concepts of the measurement of health and community participation. In so doing it identifies the use of a survey, the Community Health Promotion Survey (CHPS). The thesis argues that when used creatively in this way a survey may simultaneously serve two purposes: first, measure health-related behaviour and, secondly, promote participation in health within a community. Thus, in this study, the survey process and its impact on the lay community were considered to be as important as the measurements of health-related behaviour obtained. Surveys to measure the health-related behaviour of whole populations have been well tested and standard methods were adopted. In this project two of the three local GP Practices gave permission for their FPC patients' lists to be used as a sampling frame which covered 75% of all Staveley's 13,420 adult patients. Lists were stratified by age and sex. A 20% systematic, random sample of 2,003 patients was drawn. The sample was shown to be representative by age and sex of the whole population. A postal survey of these patients, using two reminders, obtained a response of 59% after exclusions for non-delivery of 8%. Males and the elderly are under-represented in response. Teachers in all 3 local secondary schools agreed to administer the survey to their first and fourth year groups. Response from pupils attending school on the day on which the survey took place was 100%. Self-reported measurements of health-related behaviour were obtained, using reliable questions. For example, 23% of adult respondents were ex-smokers and 26% were daily cigarette smokers. 22% of respondents reported that they never drank alcohol and 18% of males had drunk more than 21 units of alcohol in the previous week. Analyses by chisquare and Mantel-Haenszel showed, generally, that the strongest influences on health-related behaviour were age and social class. For example, parental status was less strongly associated with levels of alcohol consumption than age. Re-administration of the adult survey to a matched sample identified changes in health-related behaviour, for example, there was a reduction in the frequency of egg consumption and younger people were more likely to have increased their frequency of drinking skimmed milk than older groups. The role of a survey in facilitating community participation is less well understood. Two crucial elements were therefore introduced and tested in the survey. These may be seen as early stages of community participation and contained key elements of "radical" survey methodology. First, the feasibility of surveying a range of non-representative "hard to reach" community groups was assessed. Of the 52 groups contacted 50 (96%) agreed to participate, with response being achieved from 47 (94%). Response rates from groups collectively was low (16%) but varied greatly between groups, reaching 86% in one instance. Groups producing the highest responses were social in nature, with a membership of 10 - 100. The study showed that many types of community groups will readily assist in the distribution and collection of questionnaires to group members. Secondly, extensive feedback from and about the survey to lay and professional individuals and groups was tested. Results showed that there was considerable lay interest in feedback. 62% of respondents selected, on average, three of the ten items offered. The summary of survey findings (38%) and healthy eating (36%) were of most interest, making up 40% of all feedback. Those often thought to be least interested in health, such as the unemployed, were just as likely to ask for information as others, although women requested 63% of all feedback. Information requested appeared to relate to the individual's circumstances with, for example, males in the "at risk" age group for heart disease asking for that leaflet. The impact of the CHPS on individual respondents and the lay community was measured. The study showed that awareness of the survey was raised amongst 40% of the community. Women (51%) were more likely to have heard about it than men (33%). The survey's ability to stimulate social networks was assessed. Friendships were shown to be the most important channels of information about the CHPS (37%). The family was of equal importance to posters (16%) in disseminating information about the survey. There was some evidence that, in a few groups, awareness of health issues had been raised and some activity had been generated. This appeared to be greater where contacts with a health promotion officer had been established. A surprising, and tentative, finding is that, in itself, the CHPS may have stimulated some change in a small number of individual respondents. Follow-through by professionals that builds on the surveying process and feedback may lead to more intensive levels of community participation. Practical opportunities for follow-through were identified, for example, systematic feedback about their own patients and school pupils to General Practitioners and teachers and feedback of a group's data to a participating community group. Response from health promotion professionals to follow-through opportunities were examined and found to be generally disappointing. The use of the method by policy makers, planners and practitioners was explored. Their dissemination of findings to other professionals and setting targets for changes in the population's health-related behaviour was similar to that observed elsewhere. However, practitioners' response to the implications of research for practice was negligible. It is recommended that health-related behaviour should continue to be seen as one limited but appropriate intermediate indicator for health promotion. The limitations of postal survey data need be recognised, for example, measurements often under-represent the health-related behaviour of some population groups, such as males and the elderly. Resulting bias in data are important considerations when using data in policy and planning, for example, setting targets for health promotion and monitoring population changes in health-related behaviour. Methods for increasing postal response from those known to be poorer responders are suggested, such as personalisation of postal contacts, telephone reminders and complementary data collection methods, including interviewing the elderly in their usual meeting places. It is recommended that, at a national level, reliable, standardised questions should be developed for use in postal surveys to facilitate comparison of data between populations. In terms of community participation in health it is proposed that, based on the CHPS experience, surveys in small areas to further examine their potential to promote participation in health should be carried out. Such studies should focus on examining ways in which surveys may activate social networks and innovative routes for feedback. Emphasis should be given to the use of data by practitioners and to identifying, carrying out and assessing the impact on the lay community of follow-through activities. It is recommended that training for health promotion staff in both research methods and community participation is required to underpin professional practice in community participation in health. The study demonstrated that a survey to measure health and, at the same time, promote participation in health was a feasible, coherent activity that was acceptable to the community. It may therefore be considered as one strategy by health promotion staff seeking economic and innovative methods for practice.

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Hentschel, Valerie. "Empowering Civic Engagement in Energy Concepts : Design Implications for Citizen Participation." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Medieteknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-41587.

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The threat of global warming calls for a major transformation of the energy system in the coming century. A positive and effective outcome of the development and implementation of municipal energy concepts relies heavily on public participation. Based on user research through qualitative interviews and an online questionnaire in Germany, this paper presents design implications regarding digital participatory technology for municipal energy concepts. The findings include reduction of barriers to enable participation, encouragement of discussion and debate, monitoring the progress and providing feedback. The proposed implications aim to increase public participation for municipal energy concepts and motivate citizens towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Further work is needed to validate if the design implications entirely fulfill their purpose.

Självständigt Examensarbete (Forskningsartikel)

Independent Master's Thesis (Research article)

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Bennett, Jhono. "Platforms of engagement : a process of critical engagement with a developing context." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/29870.

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The South African population has been experiencing an unprecedented rate of urbanization that has left government bodies struggling to meet the qualitative and the infrastructural demands of the emergent sector in undeveloped areas. This dissertation aims to focus on the intensive networks found in these developing areas of vulnerability that display strong cohesion due to activities surrounding the production process. The premise presented is that in order to intervene architecturally with these networks, designers should critically engage these networks through participative processes of research, design and ideally construction. Through the author’s process of engagement, several key Architectural principles for an intervention emerge. Primarily the concept that a built intervention in a vulnerable settlement should first seek to associate itself with a network for its initial survival, and then aim to exist in a symbiotic relationship with this network through a mutually beneficial relationship. View Jhono Bennett's blog. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bennett, J 2011, Platforms of engagement : a process of critical engagement with a developing context, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11272011-161354 / > C12/4/36/gm
Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Architecture
unrestricted

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Gauld, Don. "Public participation and the preparation of official community plans in British Columbia." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26818.

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Public participation in the planning process is a well established concept and an important one to municipal planners as they deal with the question of how to most effectively involve citizens in planning. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of techniques and processes used to involve the public in a specific planning process: the preparation of official community plans in British Columbia. Two principal methods are used to achieve this purpose: a literature review and a comparative analysis of the experiences of four municipalities located in the greater Vancouver region which have recently completed of official community plans. Data for this analysis came from municipal documents, interviews with planners and field observation. Six process-oriented objectives based on democratic principles are established as criteria of effective public participation. The six criteria are: (1) Accessibility - All citizens have the opportunity and are encouraged to participate; (2) Timing - The public is provided with information and opportunities to participate at crucial decision making points in the planning process. (3) Impartiality - No individual or group is permitted to dominate the participation process at the expense of others; (4) Comprehensibility - Important information is provided and is presented in such a way that it is understood by those whom it affects; (5) Alternatives - The public is presented with a range of alternatives; (6) Efficacy - Participators' views are considered in products of the planning process. The suitability of each participation technique and combination of techniques used in the four municipalities is assessed by these six objectives. Nine summary observations derived from the analysis are presented as suggestions to help planners effectively involve the public in future official community plan processes. It is found that effort to involve citizens in the preparation of an official community plan must go beyond the techniques required or suggested by legislation. A public hearing and an advisory planning commission are not sufficient to provide effective participation. It is not possible to state an ideal public participation program with a set of specific techniques that would be useful in all communities preparing an official community plan. However, by designing and implementing a participation program that strives to satisfy the process-oriented objectives, planners can obtain meaningful response from the public. Achieving these objectives depends foremost on administrative commitment.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

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42

Jupp, Eleanor Frances. "Making public space : community groups and local participation in stoke-on-Trent." Thesis, Open University, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.435919.

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Milk, Richard L. 1970. "Negotiating place : community participation and design in the planning of public schools." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68814.

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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-47).
Schools play key roles in land use, community development and public policy issues. The construction of new schools, in particular, has come to be seen as a critical growth factor with broad impacts. A participatory school design process is proposed as a model to plan, design and build schools that respond to multiple stakeholder interests. In order to describe how such a process would work, research in urban design, school design, educational facility planning, and participatory design is combined with local case interviews. The results of the research and interviews promote an understanding of the challenges a participatory school design process would face, as well as the support on which such a process could develop. Ideas drawn from consensus building models and from urban design theorists address many of the challenges to which the cases provide no clear prescriptive guidance. These include the organization of a participatory process and the key physical design questions. Combining these models produces a basic framework for a participatory school design process. The framework recognizes that the uncertainty of institutional change and tensions that arise from basic value differences remain to be addressed through testing of the framework.
by Richard L. Milk.
M.C.P.

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44

Brokenburr, Shenita. "The public-private partnership [electronic resource] : community college participation in workforce boards /." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2008.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 23, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-156). Also issued in print.

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45

Jupp, Eleanor Frances. "Making public space : community groups and local participation in Stoke-on-Trent." n.p, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/.

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46

Martin, Sarah Ruth. "Community Connections: Exploring the Constructive Potential of Facebook for Civic Engagement." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1987.

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Recognizing the importance of civic engagement to the health of local communities and the overall success of a democracy, this research sought to better understand the relationship between online media use and civic engagement. Specifically, the constructive potential of the social networking site Facebook was explored using the theoretical framework of communication infrastructure theory (CIT; Ball-Rokeach, Kim, & Matei, 2001). Results of a cross-sectional survey with a national sample of 375 participants indicated that Facebook does hold potential for civic engagement. The two most important findings of the research were that Facebook facilitated connection to neighborhood storytelling and that connection to storytelling was positively associated with civic engagement. As such, results indicated that Facebook holds potential for civic engagement insofar as the site facilitates connection to neighborhood storytelling. Additionally, Facebook was a regular part of participants’ daily routines, a means to maintain social capital, and a forum for occasional civic participation. Cumulatively, these results highlight a number of strengths that citizens and communities can build upon to improve social capital and increase civic engagement.

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47

McCall, Kimberly P. "Congregation for Public Health examines community engagement knowledge of Program Administrators and Community Health Advisors using social capital and community capacity." Thesis, Birmingham, Ala. : University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2006. https://www.mhsl.uab.edu/dt/2007r/mccall.pdf.

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48

Elsworth, Charlotte. "Community mobility and physical activity participation in individuals with mulitple sclerosis." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1518/.

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This thesis incorporates five studies investigating physical activity and community mobility in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). 1. Pedometer step count accuracy was investigated whilst examining activity levels in individuals with neurological disease (n=43). The pedometers significantly under-estimated counts in this group. 2. The test-retest reliability of the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) was examined. People with MS (n=20) were found to have low activity levels with a test-retest reliability coefficient total PASE score of 0.934 (95% CI=0.62-0.97). 3. An observational study examined physical activity levels in individuals with MS using the PASE. Participants appeared to be less active than healthy individuals (69.6±50.11, 154.3±80.4 respectively). 4. A questionnaire (n=80) and focus group discussions (n=24) were used to gather user opinions regarding physical activity participation. Emerging themes were the desire to be active and the barriers and facilitators to participation. 5. A phase II RCT investigated the feasibility of a physical activity provision support system in people with MS (n=18). The approach successfully resulted in attendance at fitness centres and increased activity levels (but did not reach statistical significance). The 5 studies each present new data in the field. The implications are discussed with suggestions for further research.

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Dabney, Unwanna. "Public Participation in Transportation Planning: How Does the Level of Engagement and Deliberation Affect Transportation Decisions in Virginia's MPOs?" VCU Scholars Compass, 2013. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3146.

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Federal, state and local laws entitle the public to have an active role in the transportation decision making process. However, it remains difficult to engage the public in the long range planning process. The laws requiring public involvement are intentionally vague and don’t prescribe specific approaches, so there is little consistency in public participation approaches and many state, regional, and local transportation agencies choose to do only what is necessary to meet minimum requirements (PBS&J, 2009). The purpose of this study is to examine public participation in transportation planning with specific focus on how the characteristics of public participation, the level of engagement, and deliberation affect the extent to which transportation planning decisions are reflective of public input received. A quantitatively driven mixed methods study was completed in three phases using secondary data, exclusively. Phase I included a review of each Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and a study of the public involvement procedures that were used to develop each MPO’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). Phase II focused on the input that was gathered by each MPO for public participation activities conducted during the development of the MTP. In Phase III, the results of Phases I and II were used to conduct a cross tabulation analysis to determine if there was a relationship between the characteristics of public participation, the level of engagement of participation, and the use of deliberation, and the degree to which public input was reflected in the MTP. The findings of this study indicate support for literature based in levels of engagement and the use of deliberation. Despite the design of the participation plan, transportation decisions reflect public input more often when MPOs have broad outreach to the public, higher levels of engagement, and use deliberative public participation techniques. Implications for policy and practice, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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Ajide, Olushola. "A critical assessment of corporate community engagement (CCE) in the Niger Delta." Thesis, Robert Gordon University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2449.

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This thesis makes a new contribution to the field of corporate social responsibility in the area of corporate community engagement (CCE) and public relations in the area of organization-public relationships (OPRs). The thesis focuses on the Nigerian oil and gas industry community relationship in the Niger Delta region. This study provides valuable insights into how CCE works for enhancing stakeholder relationship and other desirable outcomes and thereby contributes to the growing body of knowledge on CSR in public relations. For the practice of CCE, this study reinforces the importance of relationship management as a viable and robust strategy that can bring long-term benefits both to organizations and society in general. A qualitative approach was adopted as it is considered appropriate for the research, which focuses on assessing stakeholders’ views regarding the relationship between oil and gas company and their host community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Also, exploring how the stakeholders juxtapose their understanding of the relationship determinants between the oil and gas company and their host community. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary source of data collection from various stakeholders during fieldwork in Nigeria. Secondary methods served a crucial but minor role and were used primarily for the purpose of the researcher as a tool to double check the interview findings. Thirty-five respondents provided their views and opinions concerning the relationship between the oil and gas companies and communities in the region. The study uncovered the importance of culture, social awareness, social identity, corruption, insecurity, mediation and weak institutional structures as crucial predictors of relationship determinants for the oil and gas companies during engagement with their host communities. Moreover, this study explored the research on relationship success determinants key constructs (i.e. control mutuality, trust, commitment and satisfaction) to a qualitative assessment. Also, the developed framework emphasised the need for using these factors for assessing and building a successful long term relationship. Another key finding was that there is a significant difference between how multinational oil companies (MNOCs) and indigenous oil companies (INOCs) engage with the community. This finding suggests that the INOCs have a better approach in the engagement of host communities.

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