Energy is part of everyday life and renewable energy technologies are increasingly becoming part of our lived environments. Social scientists are responding to renewable energy technologies by investigating what people think about wind turbines (Aitken, 2010; Pasqualetti, 2011a, 2011b) and the distribution of community benefits (Cowell et al, 2011; Bristow et al 2012). This thesis adds to this body of research by describing Udny's renewable energy project and its capacity to effect change. More specifically, I examine what this community-owned wind turbine does with other situational elements to transform life within the community. Using the cartographic methods developed by Adele E. Clarke (2005), I map out the situation by drawing out the elements – this includes objects, people, organisations and discursive practices – and tracing their relations. Thinking sociologically about situational elements and their relational effects provokes a move towards ecological sociology and re-imagines social life as the effect of interconnected entities, such as materials and meanings, thoughts and actions, people and objects (Morton, 2007, 2010). Mapping the interconnectedness of societal ecologies depicts social life as neither distinct from the natural world (Catton and Dunlap, 1978, 1980) nor symmetrical with natures (Callon, 1986; Akrich and Latour, 1992; Asdal, 2008) but, rather, as part of relationally emergent ecologies. Udny's community renewable energy project illustrates the relational emergence of a social ecology, as the turbine and trust work with existing and emergent entities to enact change (Barad, 2007; Harman, 2009; Bennett, 2010; Morton, 2010, 2016). It is by doing things together that situational elements transform life within Udny (Clarke, 2005; Yusoff, 2013).

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Dwight F. Burlingame, Philip V. Scarpino, Frances A. Huehls. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-154).

Yes / This study aims to build on the understanding of social commerce in the emerging markets and how it influences online community engagement. The conceptual model was proposed using theories including the social support theory, the trust theory, the social presence theory, the flow theory and the service-dominant logic theory. Using Facebook online community, the data were collected from 400 respondents from Jordan and analysed using AMOS based structural equation modelling. Results revealed that social commerce constructs positively influence social support, community members’ trust and social presence. Furthermore, it was found that social support and social presence positively affect community members’ trust. We also found that community members’ trust positively influence flow whereas both community members’ trust and flow positively influence community engagement.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A historical analysis of the philanthropic response to the Great Depression by community foundations; the thesis uses the individual story of the Indianapolis Foundation as a case study to provide detailed examples of how community foundations modified their grant-making behavior in response to the Great Depression’s economic effects.

The use of online brand communities and its effect on brand loyalty has been heavily researched in previous studies. However, online brand communities in the context of motorsport, which is inherently different from other sports, has not been thoroughly researched previously and currently remains unknown. The study aims to understand how motorsport followers become brand loyal within their brand communities and if their identification with the brand has an influence on the process. The following research questions were developed to find these answers: RQ1: "How does involvement in online brand communities affect brand loyalty among motorsport fans?" RQ2: "How do online brand communities influence brand identification for motorsport enthusiasts?" RQ3: "How does member participation in online brand communities contribute to the connection between online brand communities and brand loyalty in motorsport?" A quantitative research design was followed, using a survey with questions developed based on previous research. The final sample size was 403 after the data was cleaned. The findings from the survey suggest that concepts such as brand community engagement had a direct effect on the development of brand loyalty. Other findings also showed that brand identification had a mediating role between certain brand community belonging characteristics and brand loyalty. Additionally, the study found that brand community participation had no moderating effect between brand community belonging characteristics and brand loyalty, however did have a direct link between brand identification and brand loyalty. Further research includes testing the study’s model in other brand communities within the motorsport context to provide more information into this unknown field of sport and its members. / Användningen av online varumärkesgemenskaper och dess effekt på varumärkeslojalitet har undersökts noggrant i tidigare studier. Online varumärkesgemenskaper inom motorsport, som är fundamentalt annorlunda från andra sporter, har dock inte tidigare undersökts ingående och är för närvarande okända. Studien syftar till att förstå hur motorsportföljare blir varumärkeslojala inom sina varumärkesgemenskaper och om deras identifiering med varumärket har inflytande i processen. Följande forskningsfrågor utvecklades för att hitta dessa svar: FF1: "Hur påverkar deltagande i online varumärkesgemenskaper varumärkeslojalitet bland motorsportfans?" FF2: "Hur påverkar online varumärkesgemenskaper varumärkesidentifiering för motorsportentusiaster?" FF3: "Hur bidrar medlemsdeltagande i online varumärkesgemenskaper till kopplingen mellan online varumärkesgemenskaper och varumärkeslojalitet inom motorsport?" En kvantitativ forskningsdesign följdes med hjälp av en enkät med frågor utvecklade utifrån tidigare forskning. Den slutliga provstorleken efter att data rengjorts var 403. Resultaten från undersökningen tyder på att begrepp som engagemang i varumärkesgemenskap hade en direkt effekt på utvecklingen av varumärkeslojalitet. Andra resultat visade också att varumärkesidentifiering hade en medierande roll mellan vissa egenskaper för varumärkesgemenskap och varumärkeslojalitet. Dessutom visade studien att deltagande i varumärkesgemenskap inte hade en modererande effekt mellan egenskaper för varumärkesgemenskap och varumärkeslojalitet, men hade en direkt länk mellan varumärkesidentifiering och varumärkeslojalitet. Vidare forskning inkluderar att testa studiemodellen i andra varumärkesgemenskaper inom motorsportkontexten för att tillhandahålla mer information om denna okända sport och dess medlemmar.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This history investigates the beginnings of community foundations in general and the creation of the Indianapolis Foundation specifically and its eventual funding of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. My findings reveal that, contrary to previous histories that have been written, the creation of community foundations was not driven by benevolence but by changes in federal and state banking laws starting in 1913 that allowed banks to have trust departments that broke the monopoly that trust companies had long enjoyed. In response, trust company executives chartered community trusts to publicly position themselves as benevolent, community-minded businessmen. This distinguished them as trustworthy compared to the greedy bankers of the day, which helped trust companies gain trust customers. Community trusts were responsible for identifying and disbursing funds to deserving beneficiaries, thereby relieving trust companies of a costly and time consuming burden. Even more important, the trust companies retained control over the community trusts by appointing surrogate board members. In addition, none of the trust companies that chartered the Indianapolis Foundation donated their own money, yet appeared charitable. All of these factors made community foundations a very lucrative arrangement. Funding the areas of arts and culture was not designated in the Indianapolis Foundation’s original purpose statement, yet the Indiana State Symphony Society was funded at the height of the Great Depression while many Indianapolis citizens went hungry. The love of music played a very small part in efforts by the wealthy elite to garner support from the Indianapolis Foundation for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The public justifications for funding the symphony began with giving psychological relief to the citizens of Indianapolis from the pressures of the Great Depression, to the need of employment for musicians, then the importance of musical education of children, expanding to the importance of the symphony to the city’s reputation, and finally, in the 1980s, the symphony as a community asset that helped rejuvenate downtown Indianapolis. However, the real reason for funding was that the wealthy elite wanted the symphony to use as a flattering cultural institution that would elevate their social status and attract fellow elites and businesses to Indianapolis.