Policy processes & networks: An examination of the diffusion of smokefree policies throughout the Kansas City area

The focus of this research is on the secondhand smoke (SHS) policy process that occurred over the course of two years (2006-2008) throughout the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Despite a strong statewide resistance to SHS policy adoption and overall anti-tobacco control climate across Missouri, the Kansas City Metropolitan Area was successful in an initiative to implement SHS policies. This research aims to understand the possible factors that allowed SHS policies to penetrate the public agenda and diffuse across the Kansas City region.;The research process employed in this dissertation involves a mixed method approach using qualitative interviewing, archival review, and social network analysis. The research model was designed using the theoretical paradigms of Kingdon's Multiple Streams and Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Theory to examine the policy process, and factors that affect the process, specifically identifying how individuals and their relationships (networks) influence the processes of agenda setting and policy consideration within communities and diffusion across the area. The results from this research will serve to aid in the following: (1) the theoretical approach in studying the policy process from agenda setting to diffusion; (2) the use of network analysis to understand policy processes; and (3) identifying the key people, roles, and relationships in health policy promotion and policy diffusion.