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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.

Xing-ju literally means 'New Theatre' in Mandarin and denotes the non-traditional performing style in Taiwan. Xing-ju is regarded as the product of colonisation in Taiwan. The thesis began with the first emergence of Xing-ju in the Japanese colonial era at the beginning of the twentieth century, and went on to examine the development of Xing-ju and its sub-forms within a colonial historical context. Having gone through different colonial regimes, Xing-ju has developed into the local theatre form characterizing the hybridity of Taiwanese culture. My study aims to fill a gap in Taiwanese contemporary theatre history, to look at Xing-ju and its sub-forms from a post-colonial perspective, and to provide a continuous and complete Xing-ju history within a theoretical context. In addition, how Xing-ju has exemplified ‘Taiwaneseness’ while presenting multiple cultural characteristics is also examined. This thesis also draws on primary source data, obtained via field research, to analyse the characteristics of Xing-ju performances. Finally, while addressing my research questions through theoretical analysis, I also examine them through the lens of practical work. Inspired by critical syncretism, I experiment with an alternative way to explore the nature of Taiwanese culture and theatre form. With its hybrid cultural characteristics including Japanese Shinpa-geki, Chinese Peking Opera, Ge-zai Xi and Western theatre styles, I discuss how a definition of ‘Taiwaneseness’ emerges through Xing-ju.

Cardiac clients do not have limitations in their body movements, but they can experience physical fatigue and weakness when they perform daily routines and may experience psychological distress and uncertainty about their heart conditions and bodies. Sometimes the people around cardiac clients can become overly protective due to concerns about unexpected cardiac crises (Albarran et al., 2004; Alsen & Brink, 2013; Altiok et al., 2015; Condon & McCarthy, 2006; Eckhardt et al., 2014; Fredriksson-Larsson et al., 2015; Hellem & Bruusgaard, 2020; Husser & Roberto, 2009; Jeon et al., 2010; Johansson et al., 2003). Such issues are related to cardiac clients’ restricted activity participation, and they need ongoing activity guidance to resume safely their desired activities. A clinical approach that facilitates safe participation in all activities for the cardiac population after discharged was developed in this doctoral project, and this author created an individualized, occupation-based, occupational therapy-led outpatient treatment program. Cardiac clients are encouraged and instructed in ways to manage their stress during activities, and they are empowered to actively participate in their own care. The outcomes of this project will contribute to increasing numbers of occupational therapy referrals for cardiac clients, increased recognition of the distinct role of occupational therapy in cardiac care, and the inclusion of occupational therapy in the continuum of post-discharge care.

My dissertation examines the intersection of low-income housing programs and housing insecurity among the poor, taking an econometric approach to program evaluation and a sociological approach to examining organizational decision making in program implementation and its implication on economic inequality. First, I examine longitudinal pattern of housing insecurity and the role of housing assistance programs in reducing it. In the years immediately following the Great Recession, social program administration in the United States was extremely challenging. Income and employment instability among housing assistance recipients grew, as did the ranks of people who qualified for assistance, and local public housing authorities were not necessarily prepared to accommodate this volatile situation. Using the first two waves of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study (2009-10 and 2011), a population-based sample of working-age adults in the three counties in the Detroit metropolitan area, I conducted a propensity score analysis to examine whether housing assistance recipients are less likely to experience housing insecurity events over follow up than income-eligible respondents who do not receive housing assistance. Results suggest that housing assistance was a powerful way to reduce hardship in the wake of the Great Recession and provide empirical support for the continued support and expansion of these programs. Second, I examine the allocation of limited federal resources for low-income housing programs and how it may affect stratification amongst the poor has received less attention. While scholars have acknowledged that shrinking federal resources for low-income housing programs increase stratification among U.S. society as a whole, whether the allocation of these resources exacerbates stratification amongst the poor has received little attention. My study presents a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporates both local discretion in program implementation and an algorithm of rationing to advance our understanding of the distributional outcomes of federal low-income housing programs. The administrative plans local housing agencies in Michigan use to administer the Housing Choice Voucher program reveal two dominant forms of waitlist preference systems that promote the greater loss from these waitlists of applicants who are experiencing residential instability. Third, I juxtapose this finding with results from the American Community Survey suggests that low-income housing programs are likely to purge applicants from the waitlist in deep poverty, rather than income-eligible applicants with higher incomes.

The central idea of this study is to establish a principle of Power Check. It identifies a need to reject the form of power totality in a socialist state like China, and affirms a necessity to keep state power checked by the meams of law. To this end, the Constitution of the People's Republic of China [PRC] should play a major role in providing both the principle and the legal framework for imposing limits and mutual checks on the state apparatus as public power. However, due to the current totality of power structure, the law lacks the independence and authority required for this task. There is therefore a need for a structural change through the Constitution.