Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2014, History

The period after World War II was the high point for American Foundations abroad. This was especially true for the Ford Foundation, which was just emerging on the international stage, ready to use the benefits of American modernization techniques and institutional strategies for the newly independent nations in Asia. They believed that poverty caused instability and a rise in radical ideologies, which were a threat to democracies around the world. The Cold War heightened the Foundation's concern towards these outcomes. Consequently, the Ford Foundation decided to support the development programs of governments, especially in nascent democracies like India, in the 1950s. Foundation actions are criticized or lauded by scholars who primarily focus on Foundation motivation and expectations, not taking the recipients' realities and context into consideration. This study expands the study of Foundation programs in developing countries by adding the recipient's history and culture to the analysis thereby providing a fuller understanding of Ford Foundation's institutionalizing strategies in India and its expectations of these institutions in the area of administrative reform between 1950 and 1970. Due to the circumstances surrounding Indian independence, nationalist leaders decided to situate the new Indian nationalism in the centralized State and its development program. Consequently, they decided to continue the centralized bureaucratic structure of the colonial government. However, Prime Minister Nehru realized that this system needed to be reformed and asked the Ford Foundation and Paul Appleby to study India's administration and suggest changes. Given the constraints of the centralized administrative structure and Appleby's own beliefs, he recommended the setting up of an Institute of Public Administration, serving as a professional society for academic Public Administration and as a forum for scholars to study administrative problems and discuss possible s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Hammack C (Advisor); Kenneth Ledford (Committee Member); Rhonda Williams Y (Committee Member); Kelly McMann (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Modern History; Public Administration; South Asian Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Art Education

In American Canvas, Delaware's Arts Stabilization Fund, aka ArtCo, received national prominence as an innovate method to increase and leverage public and private dollars to support arts development at the state level. Arts endowment formation is not a new phenomenon, North Dakota and Montana both introduced endowments in the 1970s. Additionally, parallel or companion foundations as endowment strategies also have longstanding presence in public administration. The Indiana Endowment for the Arts, established in 1971, was among the first companion foundations at State Arts Agencies (SAAs) and the companion foundation in Ohio was created in 1995. Within the past twenty years, federal cutbacks, national disaster, and international crisis resulted in more SAAs shifting their foci to their own stabilization and sustainability through public and private arts endowments (PAE) development. This investigation is a collective case study of PAE supporting State Arts Agencies. Three reviews of fund development practices used in Delaware, Ohio, and Indiana identifies three examples of fund implementation approaches that are: Collaborative Management in Delaware; Project Management in Ohio, and Policy Management in Indiana. Similarities in purposes for United Arts Funds and companion foundations have also influenced collaborative endowment arrangements at SAAs with nonprofit arts organizations. Moreover, Arts Education, Artists Services, Professional Development, Leadership Institutions, workforce development, and ethnicity, diversity, and inclusion are issues related to fund development management, policy formation, and donor support. This research also illustrates how social, intellectual, and human capitals influence financial capital in PAE formation. Social Pluralism is introduced as a conceptual frame to further group and individual understanding about how cultural heritage and individualism are synthesized to develop a unique blend of ethnic and socio-economic cultural backg (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Wyszomirski (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, History

Education remains one of the most polarized areas in American society. However, this is not a new phenomenon. From the 1950s to 1980, Congress, the executive branch, and judicial branch significantly increased their funding and oversight in public education. 1965 marked the year Congress passed legislation with the hopes of creating a more equitable system for all socioeconomic classes. However, conservatives also began to coalesce in the 1970s over segregation, helping spur the 1980 Reagan Revolution. 1981 marked the first year in over two decades where Congress cut the education budget for integrative services and changed how the federal government funded programs for low-income students. These changes were integral to the Reagan administration and conservative Congress's goals to reduce social services in an effort to reduce the budget and expand the economy while simultaneously preserving tax loopholes and cuts for the wealthy. Federal funding for social services like education saw cuts that hurt many of the gains that low-income school districts had seen over the previous two decades. One often overlooked piece of legislation–the 1981 Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA)–caused many of these changes. This act removed the protective language and funding that had helped lower income, bilingual, and segregated communities receive federal aid for the previous fifteen years. While creator John Ashbrook's initial intent for the ECIA was to give more power to local and state governments over education– something that conservatives thought was an important goal–the ECIA also ended integration programs and removed barriers to ensure funding went to high needs schools. These changes have affected education to this day.

Committee: Peter Shulman (Committee Chair); Renee Sentilles (Committee Member); John Flores (Committee Member); Timothy Black (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Education; Education History; History; Public Policy

Master of Public Administration (MPA), Wright State University, 2020, Public Administration

As the dominant public management paradigm today, performance measurement and management systems are fundamental to increasing efficiency, accountability, and service quality in the public sector. Research into the practice at all levels of government has been expanding for decades in developed countries. However, the small local governments that comprise most U.S. municipalities are frequently overlooked as a topic of academic inquiry in public administration. This study aims to shed light on the extent to which the performance measurement methods prevalent at the state and federal levels have spread to small municipalities. Using elite interviewing methods and the four-point approach to sampling for interview-based research, 15 public officials were randomly recruited from Ohio communities with populations of 5,000 and less to participate in semi-structured interviews focused around performance measurement use in their municipalities. Key findings reveal low levels of familiarity with the concept, minimal use of performance measures in service areas, no use of measures in partnerships and service agreements, and low levels of familiarity with formal strategic planning methods. Participant perceptions of citizen engagement and participation in the governing process were mixed. The study concludes with a discussion of results, limitations of the study design, and implications for future research.

Committee: Mary V. Wenning Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Daniel N. Warshawsky Ph.D. (Committee Member); David M. Bukovinsky Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2017, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

What is meant by "science" and whether it is an appropriate model for public administration has been a subject of debate since Woodrow Wilson called for a science of administration in 1887. This dissertation introduces another voice into that debate, the voice of a world-renowned physical chemist named Michael Polanyi. Polanyi's sharp criticism of positivism reinforces the arguments of those questioning the legitimacy of an administrative science, but instead of rejecting it, he constructed an alternative definition of science that recognizes the indeterminacy of reality, the personal nature of knowledge, and the centrality of "the logic of tacit knowing." Because all knowledge is tacit or rooted in tacit knowing, we can know more than we can tell, and tacit knowing becomes evident in the dynamic order of polycentric entities and in their reliance on tradition and the person, constrained by community, and morally responsible for discovery and practice.

Committee: Michael Spicer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Helen Liggett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Walter Gulick Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology; Philosophy of Science; Public Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1975, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Health Sciences

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2014, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to examine professional hurt across the public services of the Commonwealth Caribbean with a view toward creating what could probably be the first body of knowledge that will offer insights into its nature and relationship with the practice of leadership. The study also sought to explore an understanding of professional hurt that could inform the design of leadership development programs to help develop leaders who can navigate or avoid hurt. I utilized the biographical research approach to access the lived experiences of 20 public sector leaders across 9 independent Commonwealth Caribbean islands. Narrative thematic analysis data from the experiences are summarized and presented using six emergent themes, illustrated with thick narrative descriptions. The findings suggest that professional hurt is a combination of the deep hurt a leader experiences as a professional, pooled with the undermining of his/her sense of professional pride, dignity, confidence, capability, credibility, and worth as a leader. While all facets of the leaders' hurtful and humiliating experience are sometimes stretched over a period of time, there is actually an identifiable point at which professional hurt occurs. The findings suggest that professional hurt is not necessarily a planned attempt to destroy a leader, but the result of a poorly managed complex social system. This study may thus offer some useful insights for a holistic and transformative change in the practice of public service leadership in the Caribbean. A video author introduction in MP4 format accompanies this dissertation. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETDCenter, http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Member); Lisa Booysen DBL (Committee Member); Paula Kibbelaar PhD (Other) Subjects: Caribbean Studies; Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Public Administration

Bachelor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2005, School Of Interdisciplinary Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies

Wildlife enclosures are argued by environmentalists and politicians alike as being beneficial entities for surrounding indigenous groups. These areas provide environmental, economic, educational, and cultural opportunities as well as promote eco-tourism and conservation values. However, negative consequences of these spaces must not be abandoned. While biodiversity positively affects the tourist sector, increasing biodiversity increases parasitic reservoirs and, thus, parasitic loads. Accordingly, health status and quality of life are in jeopardy for nearby populations. This thesis explores the methodology and importance of combining environmental and public health policy in the case of Leishmania in Kenya's game reserves.

Committee: Terry Perlin (Advisor) Subjects: Biology, Microbiology

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2008, Levin College of Urban Affairs

Women in Kuwait were traditionally excluded from the formulation of public policy because they lacked political rights. In mid 2005, women received the right to vote and to run for office. There is little known today about the influence of these political rights on women who work with the implementation of public policies in the higher administrative levels of government. Little is known specifically about the influence of the franchise on promotion of women to high administrative posts. The purpose of this study is to lay a foundation for research on the factors that encourage women's access to high positions in government by exploring the experience of high-level women both before and after enfranchisement. The experiences of leading women who work for the public sector are critical to understanding any relationship between women's political rights and their access to high positions. The interpretation of female work experiences provides suggestions to help expand and enhance women's access to high positions in public administration. This study employs the phenomenological method for data collection and interpretation. The findings of this study support the argument that political participation exerts a positive influence on high-level women in government. This study shows that Kuwaiti high-level women agree that they have started to experience a positive influence in their work since the franchise due to the new political power that they have gained. I argue that whether or not high-level women have personally experienced any positive change in their work due to gaining their political rights, they still affirm the occurrence of this positive change. This study finds that this positive influence is reflected in better representation in official meetings, more interactions with state leaders, an increasing ability to express concerns to top levels, and enhancing their self-confidence to lead. This study notes other significant factors that should be considered by (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Camilla Stivers PhD (Committee Chair); Dr. Jennifer Alexander PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Ralph Hummel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2009, Urban Studies and Public Affairs

Problem: Recent research indicates a need for consumer participation in program decision-making and allocation of public funds. Traditionally, funding for social service programming relied on input from public administrators, policy makers, and the providers themselves; consumers were not necessarily included in this process. This study tests the implicit assumption that public “professionals” or “experts” have the knowledge and can adequately address the needs of the consumer. The question addressed is, “does consensus exists among the stakeholders who participated in Ohio's Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination Project?”Methods: The survey concentrated on perceptions of Ohio's adolescent alcohol and drug treatment and the identification of treatment system gaps. The stakeholders are: the (1) Treatment providers (2) Referral agencies, and (3) Families of youth who received Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Treatment services. The sample was composed of 182 family respondents, 103 treatment provider respondents, and 321 referral agency respondents. Findings: In this study, the assumption that the treatment provider and referral agency stakeholders are the ‘experts' and know consumer perceptions of alcohol and drug treatment barriers was not supported. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results indicate that there is not consensus among consumers, treatment providers, and referral agencies. In addition, when all the barriers were regressed in a Structural Equation iii Model the results show that there are significant differences in the perceptions of treatment barriers between the consumers and the referral and provider groups. Treatment providers and consumers agree on only two barrier issues and referral agencies and consumers do not agree on any issues. These findings indicate that consumers offer a different perspective than the other stakeholders and therefore should be an active participant in the decision-making process. Recommendations: The Ohio Department of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Stephens PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Health Care; Public Administration; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2007, Public Administration

This study assesses public trust in various government officials, including public administrators, elected executives, politically appointed agency officials, and legislatures, across the three levels of United States government. The study utilizes primary data from a random sample telephone survey conducted in 2004 of 1,078 adult residents of Stark County, Ohio. The study yielded evidence to support the assertion that the general public has a higher level of trust in federal and state public administrators compared to elected and politically appointed officials, but this was not the case for county government public administrators. Although public administrators tended to be trusted more than other government officials, they were trusted less than people in general. Likewise, most groups of government officials were trusted less than people in general. The study also yielded evidence to support the assertion that government officials are trusted more at the local level compared to similar officials at the state and federal level. For instance, county public administrators were trusted more than their state and federal counterparts, while state public administrators were trusted more than federal administrators. General support for government was found to be directly related to public trust in elected executives and their appointed agency executives, regardless of the level of government. When controlling for the effects of trust in other government officials, trust in public administrators had no significant relationship to government support, regardless of the level of government. Another finding of the study was that trust in public administrators was a function of respondent trust in people in general and support for the associated level of government, with societal trust being the dominant variable. This model held for all three levels of government with no other explanatory variables influencing trust in public administrators. Explanatory variables for public (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Raymond Cox III (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Public Policy and Management

The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program is a grant and loan program funded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The objective of the program is to promote access and use of high speed Internet in communities that have been and continue to be underserved or unserved by Internet service providers. In 2010 the Louisiana Board of Regents along with four other agencies collectively applied for a grant under the newly formed ad hoc organization of the Louisiana Broadband Alliance. The National Telecommunications and Information Agency, and agency under the US Department of Commerce, awarded a BTOP grant to the Board of Regents in February, 2009. Roughly eighteen months later, the grant became the only of its kind to be rescinded by the federal government. This dissertation tells the story of how the grant was managed and the administration of it leading up to the rescission. The target area of the grant is one of the most persistently impoverished parts of the country, an area that has a history of being subjected to failed efforts for development and security. It is a mostly rural community still served by electric cooperatives created by the Rural Utilities Service to provide electricity to the households. The grant targeted this area with over 75 percent of the dollars requested, but the Governor of Louisiana and his Administration openly opposed the plan. They explicitly argued in favor of allowing the private sector to provide the necessary services despite ample evidence that this was not feasible. Private companies opposed the plan because they considered the government to have overstepped its role and to have entered into a competitive environment without justification. The Governor declared that the federal government was trying to become a public telecom. Despite the open opposition, the grant was awarded to the Board of Regents, but the story of the grant only begins at the point when the Division of Administration became involved in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anand Desai (Committee Chair); Jos C.N. Raadschelders (Committee Member); David Landsbergen (Committee Member); Adam Eckerd (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2024, Levin College of Public Affairs and Education

Over time, Public Administration (PA) practitioners' problem-solving approaches have evolved alongside society. Recently, governments have been embracing a Collaborative Governance (CG) approach, attracted to its potential to address wicked problems. However, PA scholars have challenged the depth of this evolution, questioning whether the underlying paradigm has shifted beyond positivism in ways that enable CG to be fully realized. Transdisciplinarity (TD), an emergent paradigm that transcends silos, is more suitable for CG. To understand the extent to which PA has evolved toward TD, this empirical research used the institutionalization of CG as a proxy for paradigm shift. This qualitative, comparative case study examined three municipal governments and the institutionalization of CG in the context of allocating once-in-a-generation federal funds. Findings indicated that all three cities were in the process of institutionalizing CG but none had reached full institutionalization. The research also suggested that cities are embracing an adaptive pragmatic TD paradigm.

Committee: Nicholas Zingale (Committee Chair); Meghan Rubado (Committee Member); Sue McGregor (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Administration

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

A system-wide training program in a large, urban public library system is sought relating to library administration's expectations of branch manager roles in the field while developing library leaders. This study employed a qualitative phenomenological methodology to investigate branch manager perspectives on the needs of front-facing managers and their prospects as leaders within the library system. Emergent themes of the study included communication issues between site managers and system-wide administration, subject matter areas for the proposed program, and the viability of engaging branch managers through sustained leadership development. The study proposes a relevant action research plan to develop, implement and maintain a leadership development and management training program.

Committee: Greg Smith (Committee Chair); Janel Henriksen Hastings (Committee Member); Nora Morales (Committee Member) Subjects: Information Science; Library Science; Management; Organization Theory; Public Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, Social Welfare

Nonprofit organizations occupy an increasingly prominent role in everyday life, often delivering vital services, assisting in governance, and providing auxiliary benefits; they may enhance civic capacity, social and economic networks, as well as communication and collective efficacy. Given the importance of nonprofit organizations in society, this three-paper dissertation sets out to address key questions related to the distribution of nonprofit organizations and their relationship with residents. Drawing on organizational demography and economic theories of nonprofit entrepreneurship, paper one, titled “Connecting Founding and Dissolution; A Demographic Study of The US Nonprofit Sector”, investigates key questions related to the relationship between rates of vital events and the size and structure of nonprofit markets. Paper two, titled “The Nonprofit Response to Neighborhood Conditions: Incorporating Space-Time Heterogeneity”, conceptualizes ecological processes at the neighborhood level and presents the first study of nonprofit founding events among neighborhoods, suggesting constituent legitimacy and developmental regimes explain racial and ethnic differences in nonprofit density while integrating critiques of the density dependence model that posit space-time heterogeneity. Finally, paper 3, titled “Revealed Preference for Nonprofit Organizations, A Hedonic Price Analysis,” tests resident preference for nonprofit organizations, as well as differences by organizational purpose.

Committee: Robert L. Fischer (Committee Chair); Francisca G-C Richter (Committee Member); Brian K. Gran (Committee Member); Claudia J. Coulton (Committee Member) Subjects: Organization Theory; Public Administration; Social Work; Sociology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this qualitative participatory action research was to explore how complexity is engaged and experienced in complex regulatory systems, and to understand how cannabis might be regulated in ways that lead to socially equitable conditions. This was accomplished by studying the lived experiences of governmental leaders charged with the responsibility of establishing regulatory frameworks for legalized cannabis where none previously existed. Using the learning history methodology, the study deeply explores the ways that complex systems coexist by capturing the lived experiences of research participants and enhance theoretical understanding of complex regulatory systems. Data collection occurred through reflective interviews, followed by distillation and thematic analysis. This resulted in the creation of a data table and a learning history artifact that were validated by distribution to research participants and used as both an actionable tool for participants and an analytical tool to distill and categorize research findings. The data table and the artifact established three main findings: complexity is both a property and characteristic of systems; complexity is not a behavior, characteristic or action of “leadership” or “leaders” in complex regulatory systems; and the interplay between social justice and social equity is complex and often oversimplified. Rather than directing, participants brought about change by building interactive trust through dialogue and relationship-building in interactive spaces across and between macro, meso, and micro systems levels. Complexity arose from these participatory human relationships when both the properties and characteristics of these systems were engaged, but the theoretical construct of complexity does not explain the presence of agency within this dynamic. By recognizing agency across all systems, structural barriers may be reduced, resulting in regulatory frameworks that may lead to more socially equitable con (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Chair); Harriet Schwartz PhD (Committee Member); Dennis Tourish PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology; Philosophy; Public Administration; Public Policy; Social Research

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

“The opportunity is there, this is what I think of when I think of role models, I think of my experience” (Anthony—a participant in this study—commenting on the effectiveness of advocating for his child). Black children encounter racism in American schools and parents need to advocate for them. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how Black parents developed and used their voice to advocate for their children in a predominantly White educational system with a history of racially disparate outcomes. Particularly, this study drew on the experiences of 15 participants, two men—one was a grandfather—and 13 women, whose children had successful outcomes in graduating from high school and going on to post-secondary education. The findings reflect Black parents' understanding of the need to advocate to support their child's success in getting through school: all related incidents of discrimination where they needed to speak up on behalf of their child in response to inequitable treatment within the educational system including in the classroom, participating in extracurricular activities, and in access to resources. Parents facilitated their use of voice on behalf of their children by cultivating engagement with the school, getting to know teachers and administrators, and being involved in their children's activities, making sure they were seen to make sure they would be heard when needed. Most parents in the study recalled role models in their own families as inspirations for their sense of voice in countering experiences of racism. These participants urged other Black parents to be involved and speak up for their children, and to connect with and draw on the social support of other Black parents of children in school. These findings suggest that as we continue to work to address systemic racism disadvantaging the most vulnerable of our community, our children, parental voice by individuals and within the Black community contributes to getting heard at the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: J. Beth Mabry Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adriennie Hatten Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Academic Guidance Counseling; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; Communication; Education; Education History; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Educational Theory; Personal Relationships; School Administration; Secondary Education

Master of Science in Engineering, University of Akron, 2021, Civil Engineering

Traffic safety is a continued concern among numerous agencies in the United States. Traffic safety agencies at the national and state level have made it their priority to decrease the number of traffic related fatalities and injuries each year. In order to see a decrease in the number of traffic related fatalities and injuries each year, grant money is applied to programs that are developed around traffic education, enforcement, engineering, and emergency medical services. These traffic safety agencies coordinate with one another to identify the key traffic related problem areas for which to apply the grant money. After reviewing the applicable criteria for developing the Highway Safety Plan, it was determined that the traffic safety problem identification procedure used to allocated traffic safety resources could be enhanced. Multiple methods were reviewed to analyze the accuracy and efficiency of traffic safety problem identification. These methods were applied to a case study to test the transferability of these problem identification methods. The research team found that the newly developed problem identification methodology may be used at a state level as well as a county level to identify traffic safety problems and problem areas for which resources should be allocated to improve traffic safety.

Committee: William Schneider Dr. (Advisor); David Roke Dr. (Committee Member); Teresa Cutright Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Civil Engineering; Engineering

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

The research examines whether and how performance-based funding formulas adopted by state policymakers for their public colleges and universities influence administrative behavior, both across and within institutions in states where the formulas are in place. The research builds from the public management literature and argues that despite the formulas being premised as a way to improve college and university performance, they must first influence administrative behavior at the institutional-level. If the formulas do not influence administrative behavior, there is little expectation for improved performance. However, if administrators do respond, how they respond can have a conditional effect on the success of performance-based funding and college and university performance. The research examines administrative responsiveness through a variety of managerial behaviors and decision-making, such as changes in budgetary patterns and capacity-building efforts.

Committee: Daniel Hawes (Committee Co-Chair); Anthony Molina (Committee Co-Chair); Mark Cassell (Committee Member); Alisa Hicklin-Fryar (Other); Mark Kretovics (Other) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2019, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

In The Administrative State, Dwight Waldo challenges the discipline of Public Administration to remember the purpose of or meaning behind the discipline. In response to Waldo's question “efficiency for what?”, this dissertation interprets the motivating values of the calls for reform to the process of governance at the turn of the twentieth century in Chicago. The research uses a narrative analysis of archived and published texts of Progressive reformers from the City of Chicago. Philip Selznick's concept of the process of institutionalization, or to infuse with value, merged with Anthony Giddens's concept of contextuality guides the interpretation of the actions of the reformers. The concept of institution as a process that infuses a social structure with values at a specific time in a specific place allows for an interpretation of the motivating values of reformers within a physical environment or community. The motivating values of reformers reflect the meaning of the calls for reforms in Chicago.

Committee: William Bowen PhD (Committee Chair); Robert Gleeson PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Alexander PhD (Committee Member); Camilla Stivers PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Public Administration