The purpose of this project is to promote transformative change within a local church by establishing an ethos of mutuality built upon mutually shared religious beliefs rather than shared culture or age. The pastor of a predominantly African-American church of approximately two hundred members located in the City of Pensacola in the panhandle of Florida observed that there was no perceived cooperative and collaborative exchange between those who shared a culture (individuals bound together with certain beliefs, interests, and culture) or those who were from the same generation within the church. The church being studied is an urban inner-city ministry comprised of 71 % adults and 29% youths. Culturally, the differences among members are more geographical in their origin than racial. Pensacola, a city with a fluid population, attracts people from different communities within the nation. Utilizing the concepts of task competence, transactional commitment, and transformative consciousness (consistent mental awareness of transformative praxis) for the pastor and the membership, this project addresses transformative change (ministry involvement, organizational commitment, and membership retention) as well as attitudes, behaviors, and actions within the local church. The project includes the development of a four-lesson series that addresses the idea of mutuality (embracing shared core beliefs and ideas). The project enrolled twenty-one people representing each ministry subgroup within the church. The group completed a pre-test and post-test (questionnaire) and participated in all group session activities designed to develop mutuality in the areas of core shared beliefs such as spiritual growth, and the church's direction of ministry, vision, and mission. The effectiveness of the lesson plan series was evaluated based on increased unity, behavioral attitudes towards each other, and praxis in the ministry. The community known as the Greater True Vine Missionary Baptist Church of Pensacola, Florida is the project's primary focus. The hoped for outcome of the project was to create greater unity and organizational commitment among the church's members as a result of their renewed focus on their shared core religious beliefs.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the global age, grass-roots religious organizations seek to better collaborate across national and cultural borders. Through the theoretical lens of mutuality, this dissertation explores the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships inherent in faith-based, philanthropic partnerships between the United States and Cuba. Mutuality is a framework for understanding human relationships; it describes when people regard one another as whole persons and a relationship as something of inherent value. This study explores the value of relationships, the processes by which they form, how they relate to institutional structures, and the role of a common faith in bridging other cultural differences. Religious communities are considered the primary civil society institutions with national reach in Cuba. The research site for this study is a Protestant civil society organization on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba called Campo Amor. Campo Amor operates both nonprofit and for-profit activities and receives substantial American donations through a foundation in Spain. Over the past 20 years, Campo Amor has multiplied from two to more than 120 house churches. Before COVID-19 it welcomed more than 500 American partners each year. Using a co-created, phenomenological qualitative design, this study will provide knowledge into the role of relationships in philanthropic, faith-based partnerships, particularly between regions of geopolitical hostilities. It advances understanding of the role of religion and relationships in philanthropy across a variety of cultural differences. Among other findings, interviewees described mutuality as 1. the commitment to sharing; 2. Intersubjective relationships which enter into and care about the thoughts and feelings of another; and 3. the habitual approach that emphasized living one’s way into patterns of thought, versus thinking one’s way into patterns of life.

This study investigated the effects of crisis communication messaging strategies on the relationship between an organization and its key publics. This study found that none of the strategies tested had a significant impact on the relationship between an organization and its publics, however some strategies consistently influenced a relationship more than others.

ABSTRACT Organizations are working to establish and maintain relationships with their target publics using a wide variety of communication tools. How they work at developing this organization-public relationship (OPR) is open to the organization, but previous research suggests there are measurement scales that can indicate what factors an organization may be doing right and those they may need to improve on. This study examines relationship building efforts of the Tampa Bay Rays organization and the representation it has demonstrated through online content. Utilizing a content analysis, sample articles were collected and coded to examine if relationship components could be found through the organization's affiliated website and the target public's local newspaper. The structure and development of this study was created based on the relationship indicators that were established by Hon and Grunig (1999) and Huang (2001). Based on the analysis of the results, it was discovered that OPR indicators were being used by the Tampa Bay Rays. Examples of commitment, satisfaction, and control mutuality were the most frequent indicators throughout the online content. Trust and face and favor were the two remaining indicators that showed the lowest frequency of representation through the online content. From the study, the results revealed: (1) that differences in framing exist; (2) a representation of frequent OPR material and topics does occur; (3) there are thematic patterns on the part of the source; and finally, (4) the organization perspective of what may show up from online content may differ from the outside perspective.

In 1929, Edmund Husserl held a series of lectures at Sorbonne. These lectures were later published as a book called Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology (Méditations cartésiennes: Introduction à la phénoménologie). This book has engaged philosophers, but also psychologists, ethnologists and feminists among others. Still to this day, interpreters disagrees on what Husserl actually says. This is partly because his collected works are still being edited. But it is also because Husserl doesn’t really succeed in illustrating his efforts in a comprehensible way. That is why it’s possible to deduce ambiguities. This essay will focus on one of these ambiguities, namely, the relation of the ego-alter ego or my body and the body of the Other, in Husserls fifth Cartesian Meditation. Using the knowledge of philosophers as Dan Zahavi, Paul Ricoeur and Bernhard Waldenfels, we set out to reflect around this ambiguity in how the body is defined, how the Other body is defined, and in which way the Other is synonymous with the world. Thereafter, I consider whether Zahavi, Ricoeur or Waldenfels concepts of ambiguity exposes what I rather conceive as a mutuality. Consequently, the question at issue is; How can we understand the mutual relation between body and world in Husserls fifth Cartesian Meditation?

Organizations responding to humanitarian crises often have different organizational cultures and observational lenses, presenting barriers to collaborative efforts at the outset of a crisis. The inherently chaotic nature of these crises exacerbates this problem, slowing the speed of response and the degree of efficacy of the response effort. Researchers have examined these organizational differences but have not defined barriers to mutuality and possible ways to overcome those barriers presenting a gap in knowledge. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by offering areas to focus on to improve cultural awareness between disparate organizations. The central research question investigated the extent to which intrinsic value descriptions of organizational cultures provide opportunities to mitigate barriers between the military and humanitarian aid workers. A qualitative study using narrative ethnography was applied in answering this question. Two Participants were recruited from the military and two from civilian aid organizations based upon their experience and insight and their commensurate ability to relate the need for mutual understanding between their organizations. Data were collected through descriptive interviews of the participants' lived experiences in crisis response. The data were coded using existing theory on cultural dimensions from Project GLOBE and then analyzed using relational theory. The results confirmed a need for more effective coordination and unity of effort, which may be achieved through cultural understanding and which can result in a more efficient crisis response. These findings may ease the suffering encountered in humanitarian crises by improving the collaborative education of both military and civilian responders to these crises.

This study presents the moratorium debate as a phenomenon of its own time. The challenges the moratorium debate poses to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Southern African/Central Diocese come under the spotlight. The AICs have taken the lead in attempting to live up to the “four selves” principle, that is, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating and self-theologizing, and areas which ELCSA/CD can learn from the AICs are highlighted. Finally the study explores issues of mutuality and interdependence, and few guidelines are proposed for ELCSA/CD. / Christian Spirituality / M. Th. (Missiology)

Background: This research was designed to explore the experience and understanding of counsellors' and psychotherapists' engagement with metaphors in the therapeutic process. The aim is to reflect on the experience of therapists involved in therapeutic metaphors from differing perspectives. Methodology: In a heuristic study a group of seven therapists (counsellors and psychotherapists) shared their use of metaphors in their therapy practice. Data were collected through an informal conversational interview that supported the participants to share their experiences in a natural dialogue. Findings: The experience of using metaphor in therapy appears to involve a multi-faceted web of generation, construction and development between the therapist and client. Various levels of depth of metaphor in therapy were identified along with links to transferential and cultural issues. Metaphors of hope also appear to be potentially important. Discussion: The findings suggest that the use of metaphors in therapy is pervasive. Metaphors that reflect an empathic connection and encounter between therapist and client were identified. Dualistic thinking around the origination of metaphors in therapy is challenged and the concept of co-creation and the mutual development of moving metaphors is discussed. Environmental and cultural influences are considered alongside transferential aspects. Conclusion: It appears that the use of metaphor in therapy is pervasive and offers an opportunity for therapeutic change. The consideration of the construction of metaphors and their mutual development may be useful for therapists to consider. This research highlights the need for more investigation with regard to client perspectives, the environmental impacts on metaphors in therapy and who the therapist and client stand for metaphorically for each other.

La division sociale actuelle pousse à réfléchir sur la capacité d'un individu à vivre avec autrui dans un monde commun pacifié. Nous soutenons qu'un processus pré-psychique est à l'œuvre au sein de la relation intersubjective : l'être-soi et l'être-ensemble se créent par la dynamique de reconnaissance mutuelle des consciences (le phénomène de réciprocité). La « figure de référence » en est l'initiateur. Cette thèse a été mise à l'épreuve dans le champ du sport. La première série d'études a montré que le don de soi authentique de la figure de référence, l'être-auprès-de, préserve l'être-ensemble. Une deuxième série d'études a montré que la conscience d'intersubjectivité de la figure de référence permet d'amorcer le mouvement de réciprocité. Enfin, une recherche-action dans un atelier à médiation sportive a montré comment la lutte pour la reconnaissance, si la figure de référence est « atmosphériquement bonne » et reconnue comme telle, performe l'agressivité primitive d'un jeune délinquant vers la mutualité des consciences, par la création d'une unité soi-monde. L'ensemble des résultats permet de conclure que le phénomène de la réciprocité dégage en même temps un phénomène corporel passif (la réception) et un phénomène corporel actif (le don et le par-don). / The present social division urges to think about humans's competence to live side by side on a peace common world. We assert that an intersubjective psychic process that would operate in intersubjectivity's relationship: human being and being together are created by a dynamics of mutual recognition of consciousnesses (reciprocity phenomenon). “Reference figure» initiate that. This thesis was put to the test in the field of sport. The first study showed that an authentic self-sacrifice by the reference figure, being-next-to, keeps safe from being-together. A second study showed that a consciousness of intersubjectivity of the reference figure allows a start of the reciprocity movement. Finally, a research-action into sportive-mediated workshop showed how a fight for recognition, if the reference figure is “atmospherically good” and is recognized as such, shows how the primitive aggressiveness of a young delinquent perform towards a mutuality of consciousnesses by a oneself-common world ‘s unity creation. All the results allow to conclude that the reciprocity phenomenon releases a passive physical phenomenon (reception) together with an active physical phenomenon (giving, for-giveness).