The proposed doctoral dissertation research is a survey of local human relations commissions (HRCs) in California. The project involves conducting interviews with directors of each of the 45 commissions throughout the state, informed by an ongoing case study of one such commission in southern California. The subject of research is the shifting institutional nexus within which HRCs operate and upon which they rely for support. That nexus is shaped generally by the interaction of the various social movement and associational organizations, state agencies and bodies, and market-based institutions with which they interact. Research will inquire into the nature of the effect which those institutions exert upon the political agendas emerging within HRCs. The theoretical framework which links institutional alignment to political agendas focuses on organizational adaptation to their environment. HRCs represent strategic sites for such inquiry, as they represent political "mediating institutions" in the arena of race/ethnic relations. It is a propitious era of transformation for the more general investigation of institutional effects, given the contemporary shifts most evident in the ongoing state-market realignment. The geographical setting is also strategic given California's national leadership in socio-demographic and political-economic transformations.
