Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "Young men's christian associations, finance"

To comprehend how republican Victorians in the Gilded Age became liberal moderns in the Progressive Era we must grasp the tensions between gender and class in shaping identity. Thomas Winter in Making Men, Making Class aids in our understanding of this fundamental shift by providing a study of the middle-class men who ran the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). YMCA secretaries, Winter argues, attempted “to transcend class lines and unite men on the basis of manhood [which] ultimately led them to articulate new definitions of manhood structured by class difference” (p. 7). Making Men is the story of YMCA leaders' desire to quell working-class radicalism by promoting an idea of manhood rooted in hard work, loyalty to employers, and Christian fellowship.

The author is currently President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of San Francisco , and also Vice-President of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE). Following his studies and receipt of his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Williams College, his Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his Juris Doctor from the Harvard Law School, and his diploma in Ekistics from the Graduate School of Ekistics of the Athens Technological Organization in Athens, Greece, where he studied with C.A. Doxiadis under a fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, he practiced law with the firms of Steinhart & Falconer (Piper fìudnick) and Berkeley & Rhodes; as Deputy Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency for the State of California, he coordinated the management and policy direction of the Department of Housing Community Development and the Department of Real Estate. He served on the Board of the California Housing Finance Agency, and also secured an extensive city planning background, having worked with Sedway/Cooke and Associates. Among his major responsibilities was directing a comprehensive study for the City and County of San Francisco incorporating economic and fiscal considerations, land use planning, transportation systems, and housing requirements for downtown San Francisco. Following this earlier period of his life, Mr Collins was Chairman and President of WDG Ventures, Inc. and Managing General Partner of WDG Ventures, Ltd which comprise the WDGV family of companies, all of which are engaged in the investment and development of commercial and residential real estate. He has also directed business development, corporate and equity finance and access to capital markets for the companies and affiliated partnerships.

Abstract Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) appeared in Poland in 1918. Three years later, the American branch of the organization ceased its activity in this country. In its place the Christian Young People Association ‘Polska YMCA’ (The Polish YMCA) was established. This organization, although maintained contact with the centers of organizations in other countries, remained fully independent. The Polish YMCA was most active in large cities and centers of particular symbolic and economic importance for the Second Republic of Poland – Warsaw, Cracow, Łódź and Gdynia. The Polish YMCA was one of the most active and efficient social organizations dealing with physical education and sport in interwar Poland. It gained considerable popularity and was one of the most important institutions offering extracurricular activities for young people. One of the reasons for its success was its excellent material base. The Polish YMCA successfully built three representative buildings in the center of Cracow, Warsaw and Łódź in the interwar period. Their construction was partially financed by American funds. There were sports equipment, rare in interwar Poland, such as indoor swimming pools, sports halls and indoor tennis courts located in there. The Polish YMCA also developed the infrastructure of summer camps.

ResumoEste estudo procurou compreender a organização do Curso Comercial e seu propósito no projeto de formação intelectual das Associações Cristãs de Moços Brasileiras, no período de 1893 a 1929. Associação criada em 1844 na Inglaterra, inseriu-se no Brasil em 1893, no Rio de Janeiro, através do missionário norte-americano Myron A. Clark. Essa pesquisa trabalhou com panfletos, cartilhas, revistas, relatórios, atas e estatutos da instituição. Foi possível perceber que a formação intelectual foi parte integrante do projeto acmista. A oferta de ações que proporcionariam tal formação, em especial o Curso Comercial, foi realizada pela ACM como o principal curso que poderia contribuir com a ascensão social dos seus associados, especialmente ancoradas em argumentos relativos à utilização do tempo ocioso com coisas úteis. As ACMs atuaram, dessa forma, como um lugar de preparação, formando o associado para o trabalho, para novos hábitos, comportamentos e sensibilidades de uma formação intelectual acmista.Palavras-Chave: história da educação; curso comercial; associação cristã de moços.The Commercial Course in intellectual formation offered by Young Men’s Christian Associations, in Brazil (1893-1929)AbstractThis study aims to understand the organization of the Commercial Course and its purpose in the project of intellectual formation of the Young Men’s Christian Associations Brazilian, from 1893 to 1929. Association created in 1844 in England, was inserted in Brazil in 1893, in Rio de Janeiro, by north American missionary Myron A. Clark. This research used periodicals, pamphlets, booklets, minutes and statutes of the institution. It was revealed that the intellectual formation was part of acmista project. The offering of shares that would provide such formation, in particular the Commercial Course was held by ACM as the main course that could contribute to the social advancement of its members, especially anchored in arguments relating to the use of idle time with useful things. The YMCAs acted thus as a place of preparation, forming the associate to work, to new habits, behaviors and sensitivities of a acmista intellectual formation. Keywords: history of education; commercial course; young men's christian association

The 1950s era appears to hold a nostalgic place in contemporary memories and current cultural practices. While the 1950s is a period that can signify a time from the late 1940s to the early 1960s (Guffey, 100), the era is often represented as a liminal space or dream world, mediated to reflect current desires. It is a dream-like world, situated half way between the mediated vision of the 1950s and today. Modern participants of 1950s culture need to negotiate what is authentic and what is not, because as Piatti-Farnell and Carpenter remind us ‘history is what we want it to be’ (their emphasis). The world of the 1950s can be bent to suit differing interpretations, but it can never be broken. This is because nostalgia functions as a social emotion as well as a personal one (Davis, vii). Drawing on interviews conducted with 27 women and three men, this article critically examines how the 1950s are nostalgically reimagined in contemporary culture via fashion and car festivals. This article asks: in dreaming of the past, how authentic is the 1950s reimagined today from the point of view of the participants?Liminal spaces exist for participants to engage in their nostalgic reimagining of 1950s culture. Throughout Australia, and in several other countries, nostalgic retro festivals have become commonplace. In Australia prominent annual events include Cooly Rocks On (Coolangatta, Qld.), Chromefest (The Entrance, NSW) and Greazefest (Brisbane, Qld.). Festivals provide spaces where nostalgia can be acted out socially. Bennett and Woodward consider festivals such as these to be giving individuals an “opportunity to participate in a gathering of like-minded individuals whose collective investment in the cultural texts and artefacts on display at the festival are part of their ongoing lifestyle project” (Bennett and Woodward, 15). Festivals are important social events where fans of the 1950s can share in the collective re-imagining of the 1950s.MethodologyEthnographic interviews with 30 participants who self-identified as wearers of 1950s style fashion. The interviews were conducted in person, via telephone and Skype. The participants come from a range of communities that engage with 1950s retro culture, including pin-up, rockabilly, rock'n'roll dancers and car club members. Due to the commonality of the shared 1950s space, the boundaries between the various cohorts can be fluid and thus some participants were involved with multiple groups. The researcher also immersed herself in the culture, conducting participant observation at various events such as retro festivals, pin-up competitions, shopping excursions and car club runs. Participants were given the option to have their real names used with just a few choosing to be anonymised. The participants ranged in age from 23 to their 60s.NostalgiaOur relationship with past eras is often steeped in nostalgia. Fred Davis (16-26) identified three orders of nostalgia: simple, reflexive and interpreted. Simple nostalgia “harbors the common belief that THINGS WERE BETTER (MORE BEAUTIFUL) (HEALTHIER) (HAPPIER) (MORE CIVILIZED) (MORE EXCITING) THEN THAN NOW” (Davis, 18, his emphasis). This is a relatively straightforward depiction of a halcyon past that is uncritical in its outlook. The second order, reflexive nostalgia, sees subjects question if their view of the past is untainted: “was it really that way?” (21). The third and final order sees the subject question the reasons behind the feelings of nostalgia, asking “why am I feeling nostalgic?” (24).Davis argues that nostalgia “must in some fashion be a personally experienced psst” rather than knowledge acquired second-hand (Davis, 8). Others dispute this, noting a vicarious or second-hand nostalgia can be experienced by those who have no direct experience of the past in question (Goulding, “Exploratory”). Christina Goulding’s work at heritage museums found two patterns of nostalgic behaviour amongst visitors whom she termed the existentials and the aesthetics (Goulding, “Romancing”). For the existentials, experiencing the liminal space of a heritage museum validated their nostalgia “because of their ability to construct their own values and ideologies relating to a particular time period in history and then to transpose these values to a time belonging to their own experiences, whether real or partially constructed” (Goulding “Romancing”, 575). This attitude is similar to Davis’s first order or simple nostalgia. In comparison, aesthetics viewed history differently; their nostalgia was grounded in an interest in history and its authentic reconstruction, and a desire to escape into an imaginary world, if only for an hour or two. However, they were more critical of the realism presented to them and aware of the limits of accuracy in reconstruction.Second-Hand NostalgiaFor the participants interviewed for this research, second-hand nostalgia for the 1950s was apparent for many. This is not very surprising given the time and distance between now and then. That is, a majority of the participants had not actually lived in the 1950s. For many their interest in the 1950s connected them to key family members such as mothers, fathers and grandparents. Two participants, Noel and Charlie, discussed fathers who were keen listeners of 1950s rock'n'roll music. Women often discussed female family members whose 1950s fashion sense they admired. Statements such as “I look back at the photos now and I think it would have been awesome if I had grown up in that era” (Noel) were common in interviews; however, many of them later qualified this with a more critical analysis of the time.For some, the 1950s represented a time when things were ‘better’. The range of indicators ran from the personal to the social:Curves and shapeliness were celebrated a little bit more in that era than they are now … when you look at the 50s woman they were a little bit curvier, when you think of pin-up and that kind of stuff, like Marilyn Monroe and Betty Page and all that sort of style, whereas for so long that hasn’t been where fashion has been at. So the average woman is bigger, or is curvier, or… So that’s kind of, it just works with my body shape in a way that modern stuff just doesn’t necessarily. (Ashleigh)I get treated differently when I wear Rockabilly as opposed to modern clothes. People will treat me more like a lady, will open doors for me … . I think people respect more people that dress like ladies than girls that let it all show. People have respect for people who respect themselves and I think Rockabilly allows you to do that. Allows you to be pretty and feminine without letting it all show. (Becky)For others, their fascination with the 1950s was limited to the aesthetic as they drew a more critical analysis of the era:There’s a housewife’s guide. I’m sure you’ve read that a housewife is expected to have a bow in her hair when her husband gets home from work. And should have the children in bed or silent. And we should be appreciating that he’s had a very hard day at work, so he should come home and put his feet up and we should rub his feet and provide him with a hot meal … . The mindset was different between then and now, and it’s not really that big a gap in history. (Belinda)The majority of women interviewed noted that they would be unwilling to relinquish modern social attitudes towards women to return to an era where women were expected to remain in the domestic sphere. They cited a number of differences, including technology (modern washing machines, dishwashers, etc.), gender relations (one participant noted rape in marriage), expectations to marry and have children young, careers, own finances etc.Nooooo! Absolutely not. Nooooo! No way! Oh my gosh! The labour in housework. Almost daily I’m grateful for the dishwasher and the stick Dyson for the floors and I don’t know, the steam iron. So many of the conveniences that you know, you go down stairs in the rush before the walk to school, throw the clothes into the washing machine and know that in 30 minutes it’s done. … No way would I go back. I absolutely would not want to live in the 50s regarding the social mores. It’s a little bit too repressive … . Love the look though! (Anna)Despite this, ‘outsiders’ (those who do not participate in 1950s subcultures) will often assume that since adherents are dressed in fifties style they obviously wish they could return there:And it sometimes will open a conversation where people will say “you should have been born earlier” or “I bet you wished you lived in the 50s” and I always say “no, I’m glad I live in an era where there’s less racism and sexism and I can work. (Emma)In contrast, men who were interviewed had expressed fewer barriers to living in the 1950s. Both Charlie and Noel were quick to say yes when asked if they would be happy to live in the actual 1950s. Even Ashley, a homosexual man who dresses in 1950s drag as a woman on the weekends would “give it a go”. This perhaps reflects the privileged position that white heterosexual men enjoyed in the era. Ashley could, like many homosexual men at the time, easily disguise his sexual orientation in order to fit into this privileged position, keeping his overt drag behaviour to “safe gay spaces” (Cole, 45). Further, all three men are white, although Charlie, being from a Cypriot background, may experience a different social response if he was to return to the actual 1950s. Immigrants from southern Europe were not welcomed by all Australians, with some openly hostile to the immigrants (Murphy, 156-64). Women, on the other hand, would experience a retrograde transformation of their position within society; women of colour even more so. This echoes other studies of historically based cohorts where women in particular hold progressive modern views and are reluctant to return to time periods such as the 1960s (Jenss) and the 1970s (Gregson, Brooks, and Crewe).Popular Cultures as a Conduit to the PastNostalgia is often mediated through popular culture, with many participants referencing popular icons of the fifties such as Elvis, Rita Hayworth, and Marilyn Monroe. This was complicated by references to popular culture films and music which were themselves a product of 1950s nostalgia, such as the movie Grease (1978) and the band the Stray Cats (1979-present). The 1950s has been the ongoing subject of revivalism since at least the late 1960s (Reynolds, 277), and this layering complicates social understandings of the decade. One participant, Charlie (in his late 50s), notes how the 1950s revival in the 1970s gave him the opportunity to immerse himself in the culture he admired. For Charlie, popular culture gave him the opportunity to wear authentic 1950s clothing and surround himself with 1950s memorabilia, music, and cars.Alternative clothing allows people to create an identity outside the parameters of contemporary fashion. For women, the thin body, replete with small breasts and hips, has been held up as the ideal in both mass media and fashion from advent of Twiggy in the 1960s to the present day (Hackett and Rall). Yet, 1950s style clothing allows wearers the freedom to create a fashionable identity that presents a different body ideal; that of the hyper-feminine woman who is characterised by her exaggerated hour-glass figure. This body shape has recently become fashionable again with influencers such as Kim Kardashian promoting this as an alternate to the thin body ideal. For men, the clothes represent the complimentary ideal of the hyper-masculine man: tight shirts, worker jeans, working class suits. Some participants, like Charlie, wear original 1950s clothing. I’ve got my dad’s sports coat, and I still wear it today … that song … [Marty Robins – ‘A white sport coat and a pink carnation’] … it explains that coat. My dad had it when he first came to Australia … I’ve still got it today and I still wear it proudly. (Charlie)However, due to the age of available authentic clothing, complicated by the fact that many garments from that era have already been recycled, there remains limited supply of true 1950s clothing for today’s fans. Most rely upon reproduction clothing which varies in its level of authenticity. Some reproduction brands remake styles from the fifties, whereas others are merely inspired by the era. In her study of costume, Valerie Cumming argued that it was “rare for clothing from previous eras to be worn in an unaltered state as it offered an alternative construction of identity” (Cumming, 109). Contemporary body sizes and shapes are different from their mid-century counterparts due to range of issues, particularly the average increase in body size. Women’s bust and waist measurements, for example, have increased by about ten percent over the last century (Etchells, Kinkade, and Henneberg). Further, technological advances in fabric coupled with changing social mores around undergarments mean that the body upon which garments sit is shaped differently. Most of the women in this study feel no need to wear restrictive, body modifying undergarments such as girdles or merry widows beneath their clothes. This echoes other research which reports that re-enactors wear clothes that are not really authentic, but “approximations created for twenty-first century” fans (Kiesel). Despite this diluting of 1950s style to suit modern sensibilities, the superficial look of the clothes are, for the participants, strongly reminiscent of the 1950s.I have a very Rubensesque body shape, so when I was younger that was the sort of styles that was better on me. So I like the pencil skirts enhanced a bit that weren’t supposed to be enhanced because I came from a very conservative Christian background. But then the A-line skirts were what my mom put me in to go to church and everything. Anyway it just looked really nice. As I watched television and saw those styles on some of those older shows that my parents let me watch, that is what I got drawn too, that sort of silhouette. (Donna, early 40s)The act of dressing in this way separates participants from the mainstream. Here fashion, in particular, differentiates this look from subcultural style. Dick Hebdige argued that subcultures are rooted in working class struggles, creating an alternate society away from the mainstream, where clothing becomes a critical identifier of group membership. Some participants extend their consumption of 1950s goods into areas such as homewares, cars and music. 1950s cars, particularly large American cars such as Cadillacs and Australian-made Holdens, are lovingly restored. Charlie, a mechanic by trade, has restored numerous cars for both himself and other people. Restoring cars can often be an expensive endeavour, locking out many would-be owners. A number of participants spoke of their desire to own an original car, even if it was out of their budget.Cars too are often modified from their original incarnation. Sometimes this is due to comfort, such as having modern day air-conditioning systems or power-steering installed. Other times this is due to legal requirements. It is not uncommon to see cars at festivals installed with child safety seats, when children during the actual 1950s often rode in cars without seatbelts even installed. Like clothing, it appears for cars that if the aesthetic is strongly reminiscent of the 1950s, then the underlying structural changes are acceptable.Identities and SpacesRetro festivals as liminal spaces provide the opportunity for participants to play at being in the actual 1950s. As a shared space they rely upon a critical mass of people to create and maintain this illusion. Participants who attended these events expressed a lot of enthusiasm for them:I just love the atmosphere, looking around, looking at the stalls and other people’s outfits. Listening to the music and having a dance. (Kathleen, early 20s)Oh, that’s my favourite weekend of the year … I’ve been to every single one since the first one. Yeah, I think this is the nineteenth year … And we all kind of, there’s a bunch of us that go and we stay near there and we are there for the whole thing. Yeah, and I’ve already started sewing my wardrobe. Planning my outfits. I don’t know, we just love it. There’s people that I only see once a year at Greazefest and I get to catch up with people. And I flit around like a social butterfly, like I’m running around, and I also have a thing where I call it the weekend of a thousand selfies. So I just take hundreds of selfies with people and myself and I do a big thing up every year. Yeah. But I love it, I love the music mainly. But it’s a good excuse, another good excuse, to make some nice outfits and get dressed up in something different. (Vicki, early 40s)So I’m at shows basically every weekend. Shows, swap meets and in the garage, there’s always something. And when you get into this car life, it drags the 50s in with you, if that is your decade. It just follows you in. (Ashleigh, early 20s)The festival space becomes liminal as it is not truly part of the past, but it is not of the present either. As Valerie Cumming's statement above notes, clothes from the past that are worn today are usually altered to suit modern sensibilities. So too are festivals which are designed and enacted within our contemporary paradigm. This can be seen in Pin-Up competitions which are present at many of the festivals. Rather than a parade of young beauties, modern interpretations feature a diverse vision of womanhood, representing a range of ages, body sizes, genders, and beauty ideals. For some participants this is an empowering liminal space.I went through a stage where I had severe depression and I found the thing that was making me happy was when I put on my 50s clothes and it’s an entire separate personality, because there is me, I’m a very quiet, normal person and there is Chevy Belle … and it’s this whole extra style, this extra confidence that I have and that was helping me through depression. (Ashleigh, early 20s)A Contested DreamIf the liminal space of a re-imagined 1950s is to succeed, members must negotiate, whether explicitly or implicitly, what constitutes this space. When is someone bending the rules, and when is someone breaking them? Throughout the interviews there was an undercurrent of controversy as to certain elements.The Pin-Up community was the most critiqued. Pin-Up style often references styles from both the forties and fifties, merging the two eras into one. Vicki questioned if their style was even 1950s at all:I don’t really understand where some of the pin-up looks come from. Like, sort of like, that’s not 50s. That’s not really 50s looking, so don’t call it 50s if it’s not … some of the hairstyles I sort of go “I don’t know what, what that is”. I’m not quite sure why everybody’s got victory … like got victory rolls when they’re not 1950s … I get a bit funny and I know it sounds really pretentious when I say it out loud. Yeah, I don’t know. I sound pretentious, I don’t want to sound pretentious. (Vicki, early 40s)Here Vicki is conflicted by her wish to be inclusive with her desire to be authentic. The critique continues into the use of tattoos and the type of people who entered these competitions:I found the pin-up competitions seem to be more for people, for the bigger ladies that wanted to wear the tattoos … rather than something that was just about the fashion ... (Simone, early 50s)Coinciding with Corrie Kiesel’s findings about Jane Austen festivals, “what constitutes the authentic for the festival community is still under negotiation”. The 1950s liminal space is a shared dream and subject to evolution as our changing contemporary norms and the desire for authenticity come into conflict and are temporarily resolved, before being challenged again.ConclusionVia 1950s fashion, cars, music, and festivals, the participants of this study show that there exist multiple liminal spaces in which identity and social boundaries are made malleable. As a result, there exists mostly inclusive spaces for the expression of an alternative social and cultural aesthetic. While engagement with 1950s culture, at least in this research, is predominantly feminine, men do participate albeit in different ways. Yet for both men and women, both are dreaming of a past that is constantly imaged and re-imagined, both on a personal level and on a social level.As the temporal distance between now and the actual 1950s expands, direct experience of the decade diminishes. This leaves the era open to re-interpretation as contemporary norms and values affect understandings of the past. Much of the focus in the interviews were upon the consumption of nostalgic goods rather than values. This conflict can be most strongly seen in the conflicted responses participants gave about pin-up competitions. For some participants the pin-ups were lacking in an essential authenticity, yet the pin-ups with their tattoos and reinterpretation of the past demonstrate how fluid and malleable a culture based on a past era can be. The 1950s scene promises to become more fluid as it undergoes further evolutionary steps in the future.ReferencesBennet, Andy, and Ian Woodward. “Festival Spaces, Identity, Experience and Belonging.” The Festivalization of Culture. Eds. Jodie Taylor and Andy Bennett. New York: Routledge, 2014. 25-40.Cole, Shaun. “Don We Now Our Gay Apparel”: Gay Men’s Dress in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Berg, 2000.Cumming, Valerie. Understanding Fashion History. London: Batsford, 2004.Davis, Fred. Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: Free Press, 1979.Etchells, Nick, Lynda Kinkade, and Maciej Henneberg. "Growing Pains: We've All Heard about Australia's Obesity Crisis But the Truth Is, We're Getting Bigger in More Ways than One. 2014.Goulding, Chrintina. "Romancing the Past: Heritage Visiting and the Nostalgic Consumer." Psychology and Marketing 18.6 (2001). DOI: 10.1002/mar.1021.Goulding, Christina. “An Exploratory Studiy of Age Related Vicarious Nostalgia and Aesthetic Consumption.” NA-Advances in Consumer Research. Eds. Susan M. Broniarczyk and Kent Nakamoto. Valdosta, GA: Association for Consumer Research, 2002. 542-46.Gregson, Nicky, Kate Brooks, and Louise Crewe. “Bjorn Again? Rethinking 70s Revivalism through the Reappropriation of 70s Clothing.” Fashion Theory 5.1 (2001). DOI: 10.2752/136270401779045716.Hackett, Lisa J., and Denise N Rall. “The Size of the Problem with the Problem of Sizing: How Clothing Measurement Systems Have Misrepresented Women’s Bodies from the 1920s – Today.” Clothing Cultures 5.2 (2018): 263-83.Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Florence: Florence Taylor and Francis, 1979.Jenss, Heike. “Sixties Dress Only! The Consumption of the Past in a Retro Scene.” Old Clothers, New Looks: Second-Hand Fashion. Eds. Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark. Michigan: Bloomsbury Academic, 2005. 177-197.Kiesel, Corrie. “‘Jane Would Approve’: Gender and Authenticity at Louisiana’s Jane Austen Literary Festival.” Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal 33.1 (2012). 1 Mar. 2020 <http://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol33no1/kiesel.html>.Murphy, John. Imagining the Fifties: Private Sentiment and Political Cultre in Menzies’ Australia. Sydney: Pluto Press, 2000.Piatti-Farnell, Lorna, and Lloyd Carpenter. “Intersections of History, Media and Culture.” M/C Journal 20.5 (2017). 1 Mar. 2020 <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1323>.Reynolds, Simon. Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addition to Its Own Past. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.FundingLisa J. Hackett is supported by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Research Training Programme.

The basis for the thesis research was the examination of the extent to which YMCAs in the United States incorporate public relations skills and corporate mission statements into the training of their employees.A mail survey was sent to the total population of 913 corporate YMCAs which represent all 2,170 locations in the United States. The first of two mailings was sent on July 5, 1984. A total of 530 responses were received from forty-nine states representing 58 percent of the total population. Of the returned surveys, 514 were usable in all aspects of the study, or 56.2 percent of the total population.The findings show the typical YMCA is served by a male director with eighteen years of YMCA work experience who has been in his current position just less than ten years. He oversees the management of a YMCA serving an average of 6,700 individual members.Public relations duties are performed by an average of 2.5 persons in the responding YMCAs including the executive director himself. The training and preparation for handling these responsibilities most often comes in "learn-by-doing" situations. Workshops enhance on-the-job training in most cases. Fewer than 20 percent of the professional directors performing public relations functions have had university or college coursework in public relations.Approximately 70 percent of the responding YMCAs have made a specific attempt to determine how their organization is perceived by the community. Two-thirds of the associations which have attempted to measure community perception stated they used formal research methods to do so. Only 32 percent of the YMCAs responding have prepared a written statement of their mission with 28 percent having a formal action plan for achieving their goals and objectives.Just less than 60 percent of the 514 respondents budget public relations items as a planned expense at an average of 3 percent of the total operating budget.Three of the conclusions drawn from this research are:1. The lack of formal training of employees performing public relations functions, in the YMCAs responding, suggests some disparity between job preparation and the generally accepted guidelines for training public relations practitioners.2. The marked increase in the number of YMCAs which have formulated written mission statements and action plans since 1980 is one indication of an increased awareness of the need to operate these nonprofit organizations under traditional management principles.3. Not only must more YMCAs develop and implement formal action plans, but more employees at all job levels must be informed of these plans if their YMCA is to experience the degree of membership growth and the improved community image possible through a total organizational effort.

This research provides insights into three aspects of social capital: the factors that influence its variability; its two-dimensional nature; and the relationship between social capital and membership in a YMCA. These insights have implications for social capital theory, for public policy, for organizational management and for individual well-being. Most social capital research treats the construct as a causal variable and analyzes the implications of different levels of social capital for certain aspects of individual and community well-being. This treatment implies that levels of social capital vary. Little research has been done to analyze the factors that cause social capital variability and therefore the understanding of social capital variability lacks insight. Before social capital variability can be explored, an intermediate issue must be addressed. Social capital is usually conceived of as a single-dimension construct. In fact social capital has two dimensions: the attitudes of social capital and the behaviors of social capital. Unidimensionality is sufficient when social capital is used exogenously but it is insufficiently nuanced when used for the purpose of recommending policies to increase it. This research analyzes the two-dimensional nature of social capital. Finally, a number of social capital behaviors have been studied but membership in the YMCA is not one of them. This research examines the relationship, ceteris paribus, between membership in the Central Florida YMCA and individual social capital. A survey questionnaire was mailed to 10,000 YMCA members in Central Florida and 21,000 residents who were demographically similar. There were 1,881 completed responses. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling and were guided by social capital theory and the theory of reasoned action. iv The results of the study indicate that the two most influential factors of social capital variability are personal educational attainment and the average educational attainment of the community. The study also confirms that social capital is a two-dimensional construct and the two dimensions are iterative. The study results also revealed that members of the Central Florida YMCA had higher levels of social capital ceteris paribus. This study is significant in four areas: social capital theory, public policy, management of social capital-generating organizations and for individuals. At the theoretical level, insight has been gained into both the causes of social capital variability and the two-dimensional nature of social capital. Regarding public policy, this research provides clear evidence that education provides a greater role in building a community than simply creating human capital; it also creates social capital. Both educational institutions and those organizations that create social capital should be supported. Furthermore, social capital promulgation through public policy should target both dimensions of social capital to be most effective. For managers of social capital-generating organizations social capital can be used as a metric for measuring organizational effectiveness and community impact. For individuals, there is now an evidence-based approach for developing a life plan for creating personal social capital. This research is unique because it simultaneously brings insights into four distinct spheres of social capital.
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Health and Public Affairs
Public Affairs

During the 1890s in the United States, Midwestern YMCA missionaries challenged the nexus of power between Northeastern Protestant denominations, industrialists, politicians, and the Association's International Committee. Under Kansas YMCA secretary George Fisher, this movement shook the Northeastern alliance's underpinnings, eventually establishing the Gospel Missionary Union. The YMCA and the GMU mutually defined foreign and domestic missionary work discursively. Whereas Fisher's pre-millennial movement promoted world conversion generally, the YMCA primarily reached out to college students in the United States and abroad. Moreover, the GMU challenged social and gender roles among Moroccan Berbers. Fisher's movements have not been historically analyzed since 1975. Missionary Millennium is a reanalysis and critical reading of religious fictions about GMU missionaries, following the organization to its current incarnation as Avant Ministries.

Dans cette thèse nous étudions, d’abord, le développement du Mouvement « universel » de la « jeunesse chrétienne » en tant que réseau transnational dans l’espace occidental au cours de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle. Nous y analysons ensuite l’interaction entre les agents de la branche américaine du Mouvement, la YMCA, et les représentants des élites politiques, économiques, religieuses et intellectuelles russes en Russie depuis la fin des années 1890, en Europe avec les émigrés russes dans l’entre-deux-guerres, ainsi que les tentatives faites par les agents de l’Association américaine pour se fixer en URSS dans les années 1920.Le Mouvement chrétien des jeunes était conçu comme un espace mondial dépassant les frontières nationales. Cette forme d’internationalisme avait pour ambition de surmonter les nombreuses barrières qui divisaient l’humanité en factions nationales, politiques, économiques, sociales, religieuses ou raciales. Il s’agissait d’un projet utopique construit sur la base du protestantisme évangélique. L’universalisme du Mouvement reposait sur l’idée de la « catholicité » de la « communauté chrétienne » et sur la logique des grandes religions de conversion. Les leaders du Mouvement propageaient le « christianisme vivant ». Réfutant une conception du religieux comme besoin mystique et du christianisme comme ensemble de croyances défini une fois pour toutes, centré sur un dogme rigide et sur un rite religieux, ils prônaient un activisme social des chrétiens et leur participation à la résolution de problèmes sociaux concrets. Initialement axé sur la mission d’évangélisation, ce projet universaliste était lui-même un résultat de la sécularisation à laquelle il devait faire face. Affirmant son « respect » vis-à-vis des structures ecclésiastiques « traditionnelles », le Mouvement était guidé par des laïcs. Manifestant une préoccupation relative aux moyens à utiliser pour soigner les malaises de la société industrielle moderne et pour assurer le progrès de l’humanité, ses leaders prétendaient élaborer un « modèle » de l’action chrétienne « moderne », « organisée », capable d’assurer le développement « intégral » (moral, intellectuel, physique et social) des individus, mettant un accent particulier sur la formation des élites. Dans une perspective de long terme, leur ambition était d’assurer une transformation sociale, politique et économique des sociétés humaines. Plusieurs problématiques sont explorées : 1. Le rapport entre, d’une part, les engagements « universalistes » et « nationaux » et, d’autre part, les facteurs qui influençaient les rapports de force entre des cultures nationales différentes et, donc, déterminaient les vecteurs de la circulation d’idées, d’expériences et de pratiques dans ce type de mouvance internationaliste ; 2. Le mécanisme de la pénétration de la YMCA américaine dans un autre pays, en l’occurrence en Russie, et les motifs invoqués pour le justifier ; 3. Le rapport entre la religion et la politique ; 4. Les relations entre les protestants et les chrétiens orthodoxes. L’étude de ces problématiques se décline en plusieurs dimensions structurées par quatre dichotomies principales : « universel » versus « national », « laïque » versus « religieux », « modernité » versus « tradition », « politique » versus « apolitique »
In this thesis we first investigate the creation of a transnational network by the advocates of the Young People’ Global Christian Movement in the West in the latter half of the 19th century. Secondly, we analyze the interaction between the agents of the American branch of the Movement, the American YMCA, and the representatives of the Russian political, economic, religious and intellectual elites in Russia from the end of the 1890s and in Europe with the Russian émigrés in the period between the two world wars. Attempts to implant the American Association in the USSR in the 1920s are also considered.The Young People’ Christian Movement was conceived as a global space transcending national boundaries. The ambition of the advocates of this form of internationalism was to break the barriers of nationalities, politics, economic and social inequalities, religion or race. This utopian project was founded on the values, beliefs and principles of Evangelical Protestantism. The Movement’s universalism was founded on the concept of Christian communities’ “catholicity” and was following the logic of religious conversion. Its leaders were propagating the Vital Christianity. Refuting the conception of religion as a mystic quest and that of Christianity as a set of beliefs defined once and for all and focused on the rigid dogma and on the performance of a religious belief, the leaders of the Global Christian Movement were calling for a social activism of Christians and propagating their capacity to engage in practical problem solving in their own communities. With an initial focus on the mission of evangelization, the Young Christians’ Movement should be a bulwark against the growing secularism of society. However this Universalist project was itself the result of the secularization. Affirming “respect” for the “traditional” ecclesiastical structures, the Movement was guided by laypersons. Demonstrating an active concern for the means to treat the ailments of the modern industrial societies and to assure the progress of humanity, the leaders of the Young Christians’ Movement had an ambition to elaborate a “model” of a “modern” and “organized” Christian action, capable of ensuring the “integral” (moral, intellectual, physical and social) development of the individuals, with a particular emphasis on the training of the elites. Set in a long-term perspective, the ambition of the leaders of the Movement was to assure a complete social, political and economic transformation of human societies. Several problematic issues were explored: 1. The relationship between the “globalist” and “national” commitments, and the factors affecting the power relations between the different national cultures and determining the direction of circulation of ideas, experiences and practices within this internationalist movement; 2. The mechanism of and the motives invoked to justify the penetration of the American YMCA in the other countries, i.e. in Russia; 3. The relationship between religion and politics; 4. The relationship between Protestants and Orthodox Christians. This study addresses four key dichotomies: “universal” versus “national”, “laic” versus “religious”, “modernity” versus “tradition”, “political” versus “apolitical”

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The narrative of the Fall Creek Parkway YMCA is central to the record of the historically black community northwest of downtown Indianapolis, which was established in the early 1900s, as well as reflective of the urban revitalization projects and demographic fluxes that changed this community beginning in the 1960s. This is because the conflict between administrators of the Fall Creek YMCA branch and Greater Indianapolis YMCA or Metropolitan YMCA over the viability of the branch at 10th Street and Indiana Avenue was a microcosm of the conflict between community and city leaders over the necessity of large-scale forces. This thesis specifically examines the large-scale forces of urban revitalization, defined in the study as the city’s implementation of construction projects in Indianapolis’ downtown area, and school desegregation, which was the focus of a federal court case that affected Indianapolis Public Schools. Delineating the contested visions held by Fall Creek and Metropolitan YMCA administrators about how the Fall Creek YMCA should have functioned within an environment changed by urban revitalization and school desegregation is crucial to understanding the controversies that surrounded major construction projects and desegregation measures that took place in the downtown area of Indianapolis during the late twentieth century. The study therefore understands the conflict between the Metropolitan and Fall Creek YMCAs over targeted membership groups and autonomy as a reflection of changes in the branch’s surrounding area. Moreover, the study utilizes such conflict as a lens to the larger conflict that took place in Indianapolis between the agents of citywide urban revitalization plans and community leaders who opposed the implementation of these plans, as well as school desegregation measures, at the expense of the historically black community located in the near-downtown area of the city. This thesis is informed and humanized, respectively, by archival research and oral history interviews with individuals who were involved in either the administration or advocacy of the Fall Creek YMCA between 1971 and 2003.