In this thesis, I seek to advance our knowledge about the factors that make people start and stop volunteer work, thus shedding light on the capacity of volunteering and voluntary associations to foster social cohesion. In particular, my goal is twofold: first, to reveal to what extent voluntary associations function as meeting places for people from different social backgrounds, and second, to assess the resilience of civic participation in the face of labor market experiences that might undermine such engagement. I make three core contributions to the literature on voluntary association involvement. First, I pay special attention to the organizational contexts in which volunteers are embedded. Second, I adopt a dynamic approach, analyzing decisions to start and stop volunteering. Third, I attempt to disentangle alternative mechanisms that could drive the associations observed between volunteering and its potential determinants. Analyzing data from The Netherlands and the United States, my findings expose limits to the integrative capacity of voluntary association involvement. As it turns out, the civic landscape is strongly segregated. People tend to sort into voluntary associations where they mostly meet people with similar characteristics as themselves. Such sorting occurs along multiple social dimensions, including educational attainment, religiosity, gender, and ethnicity. This constrains the opportunities for building relationships that cut across existing social boundaries. Indeed, these sorting processes can reproduce in the civic domain fault lines that dominate other spheres of life. Furthermore, civic engagement and participation in the labor market are shown to be strongly intertwined, with the former breaking down when labor force exits occur. Voluntary association involvement is, therefore, of limited value for drawing labor force outsiders into public life. However, this chain of events does not necessarily unfold, as long as labor force outsiders retain aspirations to participate in social life.

Thesis (M.A.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on Apr. 21, 2009. "March 2009." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Arts in History." "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." Major professor: Thomas R. Trice, Ph.D. Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-103). Also available on microfiche.

The increase in voluntary activities in both public and private sectors of the U.S.A. has begun to make it clear that information is needed concerning models for new or different ways of working with people in volunteer agencies. This study attempted to develop a model for a Human Resource Center for Voluntarism which began with three objectives. They were to: 1. stimulate and/or provide avenues for closer working relationships among existing agencies and organizations involving volunteers, 2. broaden the base of citizen participation in community services, 3. reinforce the relationship between adult education and community service by allowing for individual growth and task completion as interdependent goals. Fundamental statements underlying the purpose for developing a Model included the following: 1. Involvement of citizen volunteers is a valuable facet of the American cultural heritage, and is unique in its application. 2. An adult's responsibility as a citizen is to become involved in the community to work toward improvements for all individuals. 3. Education is the principal avenue by which this can be accomplished becasue: (a) learning results in behavior change, (b) behavior change is necessary for cultural growth and progress. From this, a Model was developed which described in general terms what tones, atmosphere, and relationships were necessary to achieve the goals. In addition, a proposal was made for more specific details for the requirements of the Directing Group and its components. Data for the study was obtained from documented literature primarily from 1960 to 1970, as well as personal experiences of both the writer and many colleagues in the field of voluntary community service agencies. The writer concluded that the proposed Center could have some lasting, positive effects on a community by being both a model for other community service agencies as well as an action agency which could develop innovative and experimental ways of work.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study examines the essential features of women’s experiences as members of a service association. It uses a qualitative method to understand how women make meaning from their membership in an all-female association and a mixed-gender association. The experiences were examined in comparative contexts. The study finds three common features in each association: joining, volunteering, and leading. In the mixed-gender association, women also experienced a process of assimilating into membership activities. The study provides scholars and association practitioners insights into the complex blend of members’ personal and professional interests with implications for membership recruitment and retention.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation argues that the Edison Institute (presently known as The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan) survived internal and external challenges through the evolution of the Ford family’s leadership and the organization’s funding strategy. Following Henry Ford’s death, the museum complex relied upon the Ford Foundation and the Ford Motor Company Fund as its sole means of philanthropic support. These foundations granted the Edison Institute a significant endowment, which it used to sustain its facilities in conjunction with its inaugural fundraising program. Navigating a changing legal, corporate, and philanthropic landscape in Detroit and around the world, the Ford family perpetuated Henry Ford’s legacy at the Edison Institute with the valuable guidance of executives and staff of their corporation, foundation, and philanthropies. Together they transitioned the Edison Institute into a sustainable and public nonprofit organization by overcoming threats related to the deaths of two generations of the Ford family, changes in the Edison Institute’s administration and organizational structure, the reorganization of the Ford Foundation, the effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, and legal complications due to overlap between the Fords’ corporate and philanthropic interests. The Ford family provided integral leadership for the development and evolution of the Edison Institute’s funding strategy and its relationship to their other corporate and philanthropic enterprises. The Institute’s management and funding can be best understood within the context of philanthropic developments of the Ford family during this period, including the formation of the Ford Foundation’s funding and concurrent activity.   This dissertation focuses on the research question of how the Edison Institute survived the Ford family’s evolving philanthropic strategy to seek a sustainable funding and management structure. The work examines its central research question over multiple chapters organized around the Ford family’s changing leadership at the Edison Institute, the increase of professionalized managers, and the Ford’s use of their corporation and philanthropies to provide integral support to the Edison Institute. In order to sustain the Edison Institute throughout the twentieth century, it adapted its operations to accommodate Henry Ford’s founding legacy, its legal environment, and the evolving practice of philanthropy in the United States.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the early 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower encouraged citizens to “Wake Up! Sign Up! Look Up!” to the Soviet atomic threat by joining the Ground Observer Corps (GOC). Established by the United States Air Force (USAF), the GOC involved civilian volunteers surveying the skies for Soviet aircraft via watchtowers, alerting the Air Force if they suspected threatening aircraft. This thesis examines the 1950s response to the longstanding problem posed by the invention of any new weapon: how to adapt defensive technology to meet the potential threat. In the case of the early Cold War period, the GOC was the USAF’s best, albeit faulty, defense option against a weapon that did not discriminate between soldiers and citizens and rendered traditional ground troops useless. After the Korean War, Air Force officials promoted the GOC for its espousal of volunteerism and individualism. Encouraged to take ownership of the program, observers appropriated the GOC for their personal and community needs, comprised of social gatherings and policing activities, thus greatly expanding the USAF’s original objectives.