Global Development Governance in the ‘Interregnum’: Legitimacy and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) was created to address two deficits within the field of global development cooperation. First, through its inclusive and multi-stakeholder composition, the GPEDC was created to redress the legitimacy deficit associated with the ‘old' Northern, donor-dominated governance of global development cooperation. Second, by leveraging the strengths of the ‘new’ actors that now comprise the field, the GPEDC was created to enhance the effectiveness of development cooperation. However, the GPEDC has faced consistent criticism, and currently, there is no space where all actors can convene to advance progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. This thesis explores stakeholder perspectives on, and dynamics within, this highly politicised and unique global partnership. This thesis is research-driven, drawing primarily upon interviews with key public, private, and civic representatives, and it is complemented by insider-insight derived from having worked for the GPEDC. The thesis explores: how stakeholders evaluate the legitimacy of the partnership; whether it constitutes a transformative governance arrangement, or whether it re-inscribes power relations, and; what these perspectives tell us about broader prospects for global multilateral cooperation. This thesis finds that the field is characterised by competing dispositions towards multilateralism, approaches to ‘development’, and diverse perspectives on what legitimate and effective governance demands. This thesis contributes to two debates. First, it contributes to debates on the possibility for legitimate governance beyond the nation-state. In this regard, the thesis provides an original framework that can be used to explore diverse stakeholder perspectives. Second, it contributes to debates on the promises and pitfalls of multi-stakeholder governance within the field of development cooperation. Here, the thesis provides several policy recommendations that, if implemented, could provide more legitimate and effective governance in the post-2015 development era

Discourses of Diversity: A Qualitative Case Study of World Language Pedagogies Through an Intersectional Lens

Schools are becoming more linguistically and racially diverse in K-12 settings, yet there is relatively little research that explores how language teachers incorporate student and community diversities in their pedagogies. Situated at one, northeastern public secondary school in the United States, this research offers a qualitative case study of language pedagogies through an intersectional lens to investigate the mechanisms and contexts through which inequities arise. Data is collected from the following sources: teacher interviews, classroom observations, teachers’ syllabi, and student de-identified work. This study employs intersectionality (Collins & Bilge, 2016; Crenshaw, 1989, 2010) as a primary theoretical lens and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010; Gee, 2014a, 2014b) as a methodological strategy to study the construction and function of discourse in language pedagogies. In each of these analytic contexts, this study examines how intersectional perspectives can illuminate language pedagogy and inform educational research. This work is grounded in the transnational history of the community that carefully depicts the rich cultural, linguistic, and ideological diversity of its residents from pre-colonial eras to the present day. This research offers insight into the power and privilege established by the English language throughout the community’s history and the conflicting values of different groups of residents who established themselves in the area. Findings in this study suggest that language teachers position themselves as sensitive to multilingual student abilities and identities, report limited connection with the local community, and articulate constraints to the operationalization of student race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identities in their language pedagogies. The use of intersectionality reveals that teachers’ avoidance of characteristics such as gender, sexual identities, race, and ethnicity tends to position White, heteronormativity as advantaged. Additionally, teachers’ distancing from these characteristics suggests that their pedagogies may de-privilege students who do not identify with these identities and can serve as a basis for perpetuating inequity, invisibility, and a lack of inclusion of certain student characteristics. This research intends to inform and support educators, teacher educators, and stakeholders in education as they consider cultural and linguistic plurality, inequalities that arise, and inequities that are sustained or persist across contemporary educational settings

Impact of supervisors’ person-centered listening on sense of belonging among occupationally minoritized healthcare professionals

Significant gender and racial disparities are evident when comparing the composition of the U.S. healthcare workforce to the general U.S. population. Latinx individuals are underrepresented across all professions, while non-White individuals and women are occupational minorities in executive roles and in physician, surgeon, and advanced practitioner roles. Lack of diversity poses problems for underrepresented healthcare professionals, their organizations, and their patients. While diverse professionals experience various forms of microaggression, discrimination, prejudice, and diminished sense of belonging in their fields, these conditions can compromise communication among the various healthcare professionals involved with a patient, in turn, potentially threatening patient safety and diminishing the quality of care. Supervisors’ behaviors affect the organization individually and collectively. Therefore, supervisors play central roles in whether an underrepresented individual feels a sense of belonging. This study investigated the impact of supervisor listening behaviors on diverse healthcare professionals’ sense of inclusion. Data gathering occurred via semi-structured interviews with 14 physicians, advanced practitioners, or leadership-level individuals who are occupational minorities in their profession working and living in the United States. Participants were asked about their experiences of inclusion and lack of inclusion, the contributors to those experiences, and the role supervisors’ behaviors, specifically listening behaviors, in those experiences. Study data were reviewed using content analysis. Study data were reviewed using content analysis. Study findings indicated that critical supervisory behaviors for enhancing inclusion among occupational minorities are seeking to understand and engage subordinates and actively supporting subordinates’ development. Person-centered listening was found to improve inclusion through a variety of intrapersonal, interpersonal, team, and organization-level impacts. Based on these findings, organizations are advised to create and deliver person-centered listening based cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness training and to institute accountability and enforcement measures to ensure that inclusion is actively and deliberately achieved

Political and Economic Theory of Standards..

Standards are increasingly important in the global market system. Consumers rely progressively more on public standards (set by governments) as well as private standards (set by firms) to make their consumption decisions. Similarly producers rely heavily on standards to gear their production systems to one another and to increase transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain. Standards address a large variety of issues in consumption and production such as nutritional (e.g. low fat, vitamin-rich), safety (e.g. pesticide residues, small toy parts), quality (e.g. minimum size requirements, life span guarantees), environmental (e.g. low carbon dioxide emissions, waste management), and social concerns (e.g. no child labor, fair trade). While the above examples illustrate some of the potential benefits of standards, their implementation also entails costs and affects prices. The second chapter of this dissertation illustrates that standards may therefore have different positive or negative welfare impacts on different actors in the market. Additionally, standards may increase or decrease social welfare. These potentially different impacts on various groups in society have caused suspicion that standards may be captured by lobby groups to serve their individual interests instead of the public. Despite standards potential benefits, fears have arisen (a) that these public regulations may be used as strategic trade-protectionist tools to shelter domestic producers; (b) that private standards may be introduced by retailers as devices to extract rents from other agents in the supply chain; and (c) that certain (groups of) producers in developing countries may be excluded from these production systems governed by high standards and high quality. Each chapter in this dissertation addresses one of these concerns. To analyze the first concern that standards may serve as protectionist instruments, the third chapter develops a political economy model of public standards in which both consumers and producers try to influence the governments standard-setting behavior through lobbying. The model shows that public standards nearly always affect imports and can be either catalysts or barriers to trade, even if standards are optimal from a social welfare perspective. Hence a public standards impact on trade cannot be directly linked to protectionism since the change in imports may be optimal from a (domestic) social welfare perspective. Additionally, even if public standards deviate from the social optimum, this does not necessarily amount to producer protectionism as producers may be hurt by suboptimal public standards as well. Importantly, the model does not refute the possibility that public standards may serve protectionist intentions, but it nuances the argument that all standards are pure protectionism. Hence an important implication of this chapter is that one should be careful in categorizing standards as protectionist instruments or not, and that standards may be welfare optimal while negatively affectingtrade. Additionally, this model contributes to explaining the observed positive correlation between standards and development, and demonstrates that this relation not necessarily implies that protectionism through standards rises with development as well. The fourth chapter addresses the same concern of standards-as-protectionism but from a strategic and dynamic perspective. The chapter advances a dynamic political economy model of technology regulation in which two countries governments strategically decide which of two technologies to allow by setting a public standard. We show that a temporary difference in consumer preferences between those countries may trigger differences in initial technology regulations, and thus different investments by producers. Due to these technology-specific investments, producer interests in both countries shift in favor of maintaining the regulatory status quo which excludes foreign imports, although producers were initially indifferent towards the technology choice. Consequently, if governments are responsive to domestic producers pressures, regulatory differences may be long-lasting even if consumer preferences are identical between countries in the long run. Hence producer lobbying may create hysteresis in (differences in) technology regulation. These results fit well the differences in biotechnology regulation between the EU and the US, and illustrate that both consumer preferences and protectionist motives play a crucial role in explaining these differences. The main factor that causes producer lobbying and thus regulatory persistence is the cost related to switching between different technologies. If producers could adjust their production technology without losing profits to foreign producers, their incentives to lobby in favor of a regulatory status quo would disappear and hence the hysteresis in technology regulation as well. This holds the important policy implication that to overcome the status quo bias, adjustment costs need to be reduced. This would effectively reduce the capture of public standards and technology regulation by interest groups that aim at protecting their home markets from foreign imports. The fifth chapter tackles the second issue, namely that retailers may employ private standards to extract rents from other agents in the supply chain. The model shows that several factors may cause retailers to set their private standards at more stringent levels than public standards. Retailers are more likely to set relatively more stringent and rent-extracting private standards if (a) the rent transfer from the retailer to producers is smaller such that producers bear a larger share of the standards implementation cost; (b) the producers interest group has a larger political power when producers interests are opposite to those of the retailer; (c) the standard creates a smaller efficiency gain for consumers; and (d) the standard entails larger implementation costs for producers. We also show that retailers market power is crucial in this argument: if retailers have no market power, private standards are never set at higher levels than public standards. Hence when producers use their political power to obtain lower public standards, retailers may apply their market power to set higher private standards. In combination these factors may contribute to explaining why industry-wide private standards may be more stringent than their public counterparts. Importantly, the model also demonstrates that, in general, the optimal private standard differs from the socially optimal one. This sub-optimality generates additional profits for retailers at the expense of consumer and/or producer welfare. Therefore government intervention that regulates the use of private standards could be warranted. However, doubts might be cast on the optimality of government intervention in the domain of private standards because, as demonstrated in the third chapter, also politically optimal public standards may differ from their social optimum due to interest group lobbying. Finally, the sixth chapter addresses the issue that certain (groups of) producers may be excluded from a high-quality economy (HQE) and supply chains governed by high standards. The partial equilibrium model developed in the sixth chapter shows that the initial production structure (in terms of productivity heterogeneity) affects who is able to participate in the HQE and who is not. The most productive producers switch first to the HQE, and in countries with a more heterogeneous production structure this process is more likely to lead to an initial exclusion of producers, although the emergence of the HQE occurs faster in terms of rising incomes. In countries with a more uniform production structure, the emergence of the HQE, although delayed, can be expected to be more inclusive. We also demonstrate that, depending on their nature, transaction costs may or may not reinforce the disadvantaged position of less productive producers. Additionally, our model shows that contracting between producers and processors i.e. processors supplying credit to producers may induce the HQE to be more inclusive towards less efficient producers. The model thus lays out three different mechanisms by which a HQE can be made more inclusive towards different groups of producers, namely (a) by reducing heterogeneity in the initial production structure through raising productivity of the least productive producers; (b) by reducing transaction costs in general and especially those transaction costs that reinforce productivity disadvantages; and (c) by creating an institutional environment that is favorable to contracting between producers and processors or that facilitates producers access to credit.

Developing Collaborative Leadership: A Study Of Organizational Change Toward Greater Collaboration And Shared Leadership

Implicit in leadership behavior is the ability to work with others, to be in relationship, and to collaborate. Contemporary theories about leadership have shifted from a focus on the individual “leader” toward the collective act of “leadership.” A concrete understanding of collaborative leadership remains somewhat underdeveloped in the literature and theoretically. This dissertation is a case study of organization\u27s efforts to change from autocratic organizational leadership to a more collaborative working environment. Taking the form of a literary portrait, the study analyzes an example of action learning about collaborative leadership. The portrait will be of the agency\u27s change, with special attention given to the issues facing the leadership team as it wrestles to change from top-down to collaborative leadership practice. The primary research question is: In today\u27s shifting landscape, what practices and conditions will optimize the development of a collaborative working environment? Findings were that the development of a collaborative working environment can be optimized through the careful cultivation of the ten themes that emerged from the study: (1) on-going learning and continuous development, (2) flexibility, (3) trust, (4) respect/esteem/ positive regard, (5) willingness/commitment, (6) facilitative process (establishment of norms, ground rules/agreements, inclusivity, process capability/tacit knowledge of functional group process), (7) realistic optimism/positive personality/resilience/solution/strength/future focus, (8) communication skills, (9) social intelligence (ability to transcend the ego and to self-organize and motivate) and (10) an appropriate level of technical competence. The electronic version of this dissertation is available at the OhioLINK ETD Center www.etd.ohiolink.edu

Interpreting Belonging in People with Developmental Disabilities: A Case Study, Photovoice Exploration

In this qualitative study, the social construct of community citizenship as perceived in the worldviews of adults with developmental disabilities living in a large eastern city was explored. While authors report government-sponsored institutionalization and custodial care is no longer as common, the voices of people with developmental disabilities are still to be heard on what they think about being participating members of their communities rather than segregated as they once were. This study provided a group of adults with developmental disabilities an opportunity to help others better understand their thoughts about belonging. A combined case study and photovoice research approach was used in the study. Five adult participants were supplied with cameras with which to take photographs of what they felt best represented their interpretation of belonging and community citizenship. Each was later interviewed to provide descriptions of their pictures. The data were then evaluated with the assistance of qualitative analysis software to determine themes. The findings indicated the participants placed high personal value on gainful employment and expressions of respect from others. In keeping with Maslow\u27s hierarchy of needs thesis as well as the self-actualization and self-determination theories, a sense of belonging is vital to emotional health and well-being. The results of this study contribute to social change by affirming what participants communicated an inclusive community is one that promotes and provides equitable opportunities for employment, respect, decision-making, and participation

Un camino de conocimiento: a marimacha's meditation on an LGBTQ inclusive charter school

This dissertation critically examines Java High, an LGBTQ inclusive charter school, using ethnographic methods to inquire if this school creates an institutional architecture that cultivates more positive academic and non-academic outcomes for LGBTQ youth. Java High is located on the north west side of the Midwest urban city of Hatfield and was established in 2005 as a public instrumentality charter school that serves approximately 175 students who can enroll by choice or force. The vision and ultimate creation of an LGBTQ inclusive charter school is implicated in the context of educational reform efforts that have become saturated with the ideology of neoliberalism pointing to an ongoing legacy of tensions between identity and school politics. Therefore, this dissertation sits at the nexus of the relationship between schools and society and offers a perspective on the evolving role schools can play in recognizing and better serving a growing heterogeneous LGBTQ student population. At the same time this study broadens the scope of the four dominant strands of LGBTQ research in education: decreased the pathologizing of LGBTQ sexualities, increased visibility and recognition of LGBTQ people, understanding spheres of intersecting student identities, and increased attention to institutional climates and experiences of LGBTQ youth in K-12 schools by generating new knowledges (theories, practices, curriculum, and policies) about how the architecture of a school can impact academic and non-academic outcomes of LGBTQ youth in secondary schooling. I made a decision to use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate Java High using what I call a queer Chican@ feminist lens; effectively opening up possibilities for me to think about and think through conceptualizations of LGBTQ inclusivity, at-risk youth, and school connectedness which emerged as significant themes during data collection and contribute to the three significant findings of the project overall. My findings reveal the intentional creation of an LGBTQ inclusive charter school opened up possibilities for positive academic and non-academic outcomes for students who identify as LGBTQ as well as those students who do not. My findings also indicate the conceptualization of at-risk youth was mapped on to LGBTQ and students of color differently at the same time curricular attempts to connect at-risk youth to Java High broke down intermittently as the cultural frameworks that students of color brought with them to school were not bridged to academic learning. Overall my findings underscore the LGBTQ inclusivity operating within Java High produced ambiguous and diffused effects; effectively pointing to the significant challenges and tensions that arise in organizing an educational institution through a particular framework of inclusivity in order to remedy a web of inequalities marginalized youth face. Lastly, this dissertation contributes methodologically to the field of qualitative studies by theorizing about what happens in the fleeting moments the ethnographer and the ethnographic “others’” bodies, genders, and racialized sexualities intersect; bringing to the forefront the methodological dilemmas of the politics of representation and the power relations embedded within the qualitative research process. In this dissertation I tell stories through my eyes as a marimacha researcher purposefully creating new knowledges that refuse deficit tropes of at-risk youth

Charting the Constellation of Science Reform

Over the past decade, a sense of urgency has been building in the scientific community. They have discovered that much of the literature body is unreliable and possibly invalid thanks to weak theory, flawed methods, and shoddy statistics. This is driven by a widespread competitive, secretive approach to research, which, in turn, is fueled by toxic academic incentive structures. Many in the community have decided to address these issues, coming together in what has become known as the ‘scientific reform movement’. While these ‘reformers’ are often spoken of a single, homogeneous entity, my findings underscore the heterogeneity of the reform community. In my dissertation, I explore the scientific reform group using ethnography and social network analysis tools. I primarily studied their online Twitter engagements to understand their culture, practices, and structure. With Wenger’s Community of Practice theory as an interpretive framework, I analyze scientific reform discourse playing out between reformers on Twitter. Using quantitative Twitter friend/follow data, I investigate which reform members engage online, using following behavior to understand aspects of their social structure. I link the quantitative exploration with my qualitative analysis, to conclude that while the reformers are united by their interest in improving science, they are better characterized as a constellation of small communities of practice, each with their own norms, priorities, and unique approach to the group enterprise of scientific reform. My investigation is an exercise in reflexivity as I have studied a community in which I am an active part

Examining the potentialities of an intercultural creative forum as a key driver for progressive social inclusivity: a design for a symbiotic creative precinct for Durban.

Master of Architecture. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2016.Since the Industrial Revolution, the way cities have been thought of and planned has changed dramatically. Everything is understood as a component of a greater whole, compartmentalised for ease of understanding and engagement. The persisting division and ordering of how the South African city was planned and how it functions today has contaminated other spheres such as social existence; as functional typologies are separated and concentrated, so too are Durban's diverse populations. Creatively thinking about the city of Durban raises potentialities from a diverse society that exists in the city. In order to understand how to experience this difference, an understanding of different spaces and an understanding of different people needs to be achieved by studying how people produce, rationalise and experience the space that they occupy and social differences that they experience. What this dissertation sets out to achieve is an architecture that brings Durban's creative diversity together through the energies of people and the medium of exchange. By examining the potential of the creative industry to bring people together with a common interest, the development of a possibility for an intercultural future comes to the fore, where differences are not distinguished as barriers but provide opportunity for growth towards Durban's society becoming more vibrant and inclusive