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How do government and nonprofit organizations adapt as emergent network organizations? Drawing on the author's dissertation, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for an emergent network organization based on recombinant archetypal attributes of market, state, and civil society. Research is grounded in case studies of three hybrid government/nonprofit Boston One-Stop Career Centers that function as network organizations linking firms, government, nonprofit organizations within a changing local workforce development system. Economic restructuring, federal policy shifts, and evolving government/nonprofit relations, and "new social movements" are transforming labor market institutions. Emergent responses include new labor market intermediaries that help connect job-seekers with employers. Low-skill job-seekers are particularly dependent on mediating organizational networks in navigating the low-wage labor market. Despite growing research and policy interest about this topic, little is known about the role of publicly-funded new labor market intermediaries. Despite burgeoning research on networks in public management and among nonprofits, there has been limited study of network-specific strategies related to the planning, practices, and performance of hybrid public/nonprofit network organizations. This paper helps address these gaps current scholarship by investigating how emergent governmental/nonprofit institutions are being transformed by changing federal welfare, labor, and housing policies and the new economy. The paper combines qualitative analysis of interviews with representative organizational actors and quantitative analysis of job-matching results derived from administrative data. The paper provides a framework for examining the planning, practices, and performance of One-Stop Career Centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does art and culture contribute to community building? The paper examines the relationship between community-based art and culture and community development processes involving networks such as social capital formation and neighborhood revitalization. The paper argues that narrow definitions of art/culture, limited data, and underdeveloped theories contributed to an under-emphasis of cultural dynamics in explaining urban processes. The paper describes individual and organizational networks connecting activities such as public housing, crime prevention, community development, and arts/culture. Findings are drawn from a 6-year study by The Urban Institute on indicators of arts/culture in community building in United States. Methods included field interviews and focus groups that involved 300 people, and participatory research projects in Los Angeles, Boston, Providence, Chicago, Oakland, Denver, and Washington DC. The paper also draws on two other Urban Institute studies: 1) an exploration of support systems for artists in 6 cities; and 2) a telephone survey of 4000 residents in four cities about participation in art/culture activities and in civic activities. References: Florida, Richard L. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books. Landry, Charles. 2000. The Creative City. London: Earthscan. Miles, Malcom. 1997. Art, Space and the City. London: Routledge. Adams, Don and Arlene Goldbard. 2001. Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development. New York: The Rockefeller Foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the evolving public policy environment of decentralization and privatization, organizational connections public and nonprofit organizations are complicated by blurred boundaries between governmental, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations. This phenomenon challenges theoretical and managerial conceptions of public and nonprofit management and organizational processes that emphasize distinct organizational types. This paper contributes to theory about public and nonprofit relations by critically reviewing literature regarding nonprofit relationships with government; presenting three cases of nonprofits operating in the workforce development arena; and offering a conceptual framework that helps explain the advantages and disadvantages of different sector-based relationships between nonprofits and the state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]