The general subject of this study is the post war development of the decentralized YMCA:. the specific study in its application in a particular section of Vancouver (two "local communities" in.the south-eastern section of Vancouver). The Fairmount YMCA, established initially in Fairview-Mount Pleasant area, and the extension of *YT services to become, in I960, the Fraserview-Killarney.. Branch, are analyzed over a fourteen year period. The study is an historical analysis of community organization process, and of group work in meeting the recreational needs of the Fraserview and Killarney citizens. Decentralization of agency-administration as the principle of an individualized service, through the opportunity for local responsibility and control, is critically appraised in the light of results. The role of the professional worker, and the process of community organization for recreation, is analyzed through the use of process recordings. For the Fraserview-Killarney YMCA, as well as for other Branches of the Vancouver YMCA,.the study indicates that the role of the YMCA in the. residential community is to supplement public recreation and other community services. The changing social structure of the community, and the need for the YMCA to broaden and adapt "family type" services, both demonstrate that the YMCA,-as well as other private agencies, will need to retain a_flexible structure of operation if it is to retain the interest of the people concerned in voluntary participation. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study was undertaken to determine (a) the extent to which P.T.A's in the Vancouver area engage in activities designed to promote citizenship education for New Canadians and (b) the relative effectiveness and merit of citizenship programs by a comparison of what is being done with what might be accomplished. The study is based on (a) a questionnaire submitted to the 53 associations In Vancouver, (b) examination of records In the office of the Historian for P.T.A's and in the files of the Liaison Officer in Vancouver, and (c) on personal and telephone Interviews with executive officers of the associations and ethnic groups, with school principals and with officials of the Vancouver Council of P.T.A's. The questionnaire was designed to establish the different types of programs and projects used, and to find out, where applicable, the factors limiting their use. Interviews were used to gain information about program planning and association aims and purposes, with reference to whether or not these were oriented to citizenship education. Following a consideration of citizenship education from the viewpoint of implications for Canada as a nation, this study outlines briefly the history of the P.T.A. movement and then examines the focus of P.T.A. programs in the Vancouver area. These are found to centre around (a) interpretation of the school to parents; (b) parent-child relationship problems; (c) topics of current interest in the community and (d) programs portraying student skills and talents. Program planning is, with three exceptions, carried out with consideration for what is thought to be the purpose of the association and the predominating Interests of its members. Seventeen associations out of forty-five reporting, or 38%, do not use any citizenship programs or projects. The reasons given are (a) there are too few New Canadians in the area to warrant time being devoted to the subject and (b) there is no demand from their members for such programs. Three indicated they thought this was not a P.T.A. function. The remaining twenty-eight associations together devoted eighty hours or 6% of their total program time to citizenship activities. Of the twenty-eight, one association reported having devoted the full year's program to citizenship education for newcomers, using twenty hours. The programs used, in order of frequency, are: (a) Films about Canadian life and about other cultures; (b) social evenings and afternoon teas; (c) "New Canadians" evening and (d) plays, pageants or concerts. Examination of records and files showed a great variety of material available from which citizenship education programs could be readily developed. No appreciable cooperation was found to exist between P.T.A's and ethnic groups. This study indicates the need for cooperation and coordination amongst groups interested in citizenship education for newcomers. It is concluded that P.T.A's, organized as they are in practically every local school area, could plan effectively for programs and projects which would help newcomers get a better understanding of, and fit more easily and readily into, the community. Further study could be devoted, with profit, to the particular needs of each association with reference to the incidence of immigrant population and, consequently, the kinds of citizenship programs and projects most pertinent to each area. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis consists of two essays. Each essay addresses a research problem involving some aspects of uncertainty and financial economics. Essay 1 deals with the general question of whether classical results in risk aversion and portfolio choice based on expected utility hypothesis are robust with respect to recent works in nonlinear utility theories generalizing expected utility. We investigate the implications of an axiomatic generalization called weighted utility theory along with the weaker, but unaxiomatized linear Gateaux utility. We establish the equivalence among three definitions of individual global risk aversion, i.e., in terms of conditional certainty equivalent, mean preserving spread, and conditional risky-asset demand, without any differentiability assumptions about the preference functional. The only requirement is that the preference ordering be complete, transitive, consistent with first-degree stochastic dominance, and continuous in distribution. The equivalence between the first two definitions is also extended to a comparative context. We also identify the necessary and sufficient condition for the single risky asset to be a normal good to a weighted utility maximizer with concave lottery-specific utility functions. Unlike its expected utility counterpart, which depends only on the agent's initial wealth and preferences, this condition also depends on the characteristics of the risky asset. The second essay examines the role of a sequential competitive bidding process in the endogenous determination of interest rates and the corresponding allocation of loans and savings in a widely observed class of informal financial markets called the 'rotating credit association'. Optimal bidding strategies are obtained for individual agents with concave and time-additive utility functions. After deriving some comparative statics and efficiency implications of the individual optimal bidding strategy, we impose further restrictions, including risk neutrality, to obtain a tractable form of a Nash equilibrium bidding strategy. This yields, for each agent, an ex post borrowing, as well as lending, interest rate depending on the history of the realized winning bids, including the one for the period in which he won the auction. Weighted by the Nash equilibrium-induced probability of winning in each period, ex ante borrowing and lending interest rates result. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Machine learning algorithms can be used to analyze large datasets and to identify relationships and patterns that otherwise might be missed by more traditional scientific and statistical approaches. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of machine learning algorithms to classify mineral systems and provide insights into the geological processes operating on Earth. This study examines the potential of machine learning algorithms as interpretive tools for the identification of geological processes and additional approaches are implemented to predict how geological processes may have evolved at tourmaline-bearing localities in the United States. Tourmaline mineral occurrence data for localities in the United States were retrieved from mineral databases and exploratory machine learning algorithms, such as market basket analysis and hierarchical clustering, were used to identify geological and geochemical processes. Common geological processes operating in sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic, and hydrothermal systems were all identified based on the presence of diagnostic mineral assemblages such as actinolite-wollastonite-dravite in metamorphic rocks or microcline-schorl-beryl in igneous deposits. Several different iterations of supervised machine learning algorithms were used with models incorporating different combinations of mineral occurrence data, environmental data, and geological process labels in order to learn how to predict the geologic evolution of tourmaline-bearing localities. A test dataset was generated by selecting different locations within the United States randomly and mineralogy was assigned to each site by using interpolation methods. Decision tree and random forest algorithms were both then used to classify the randomly generated test dataset. Cross-validation approaches show that the decision trees likely performed better when classifying the test dataset. The results discussed throughout this study highlight how machine learning algorithms can be very effective and accurate supplementary tools when characterizing tourmaline-bearing deposits. The models discussed in this paper were able to classify different geological processes with over ~90% accuracy and they were able to predict how geological processes evolved at different tourmaline-bearing localities with an estimated ~70% accuracy. The most accurate classification of tourmaline-bearing localities occurred when analyzing deposits that were subjected to higher temperatures and pressures which in turn generates more distinct mineralogies that allow machine learning algorithms to identify patterns with greater confidence. The analysis of tourmaline localities associated with low-temperature hydrothermal and sedimentary environments results in much more error-prone classifiers which can be attributed to a lack of tourmaline-bearing sedimentary deposits in mineral databases and because sedimentary deposits can have a record of processes from multiple geologic environments that may or may not be related. The strengths and limitations of the models trained are detailed throughout this paper.

The purpose of this study was to explore how members exit totalistic organizations. Existing organizational communication research has treated employee membership in an employment institution as the universal organizational relationship. This study argues that certain organizational relationships are best understood not by the presence or absence of pay, however, but in relation to the extent of organizational reach into the member's life outside the organization. This study advances the notion that such totalistic organizations share important characteristics including value-based memberships, centrality of organizational values to the member's life, the involvement of primary relationships, and a requirement of organizational fealty. This study advances the study of organizational exit within this totalistic context. A microstoria narrative analysis was used to examine the exit narratives of members of both paid and unpaid totalistic organizations (police officers and firefighters: N = 50, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: N = 50) to gain a better understanding of exit from totalistic organizations. The findings of this study suggest several contributions to the study of organizational communication and exit. First, the findings of this study expand our definition of organizational memberships beyond current literature, which defines memberships based on payment. Second, consideration of totalistic exit challenges existing models of role/vocational socialization, suggesting that foundational values can originate from an organizational source. Third, the process of exit revealed by the narratives of this study suggests a view of exit that was unlike both current phasic models or considerations of volunteer exit. The process of exiting a totalistic organization was less linear and more prolonged than exit describe by existing literature, and was marked by deep personal doubts and fears. Finally, members of totalistic organizations described active concealment of both their decisions to exit, and the doubts about both the organization and the self that contribute to exit, suggesting a communicative pattern during the exit process that diverges from the expected announcement/exit phase of Jablin's (2001) model.

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本研究运用地方政治经济特征来解释商业协会与威权国家关系的分化,以及商业协会之间的系统差异，主张在地方政治经济结构中理解商业协会的角色及其之于威权政体的意义。本研究说明了在转型中国商业协会政治角色的新经验进展，探讨了社会利益能够成功地以制度化的方式输入威权政体的条件。 / 在国家一面，本项研究说明了支撑地方威权国家维持支配的制度基础。激励地方政府开拓财源的财政制度和刺激官僚追求政绩的晋升制度，促使地方政府及其组成部门利用商业协会来提供必要的财政补给、提供公共品和帮助政府执行治理职能。在社会一面，中国的地方政治经济发展模式并非消弭而是加深了私营企业主之间的利益分化，破坏了商业协会的同质性基础。大型私企、中小型私企、个体与地方政府的互动模式具有本质差别，形成了分化的利益诉求。但是当前的商业协会体系并不能处理这种分化了的社会利益诉求，试图将它们都聚集到同一个结社中，既破坏了结社的内部凝聚力，也阻碍了制度化利益传输的可能。 / 商业协会与威权国家的关系取决于政府渗透与结社凝聚力两大条件的交互作用。本研究将当下商业协会与威权国家的关系概括为四种类型：“合作型，“对抗型，“支配型和“庇护型。不同类型协会表达利益诉求的能力不同，“合作型与“对抗型都可以曲折的方式实现利益中介，但它们都还不是制度化的利益中介过程。通过“去政治化的政治整合过程，当前中国的商业协会对威权政体的政治稳定起到了正面作用。基于上述分析，合理的推论是：若地方政治经济特征存在系统差异，则商业协会的整体状况也应存在系统差异。本研究所建立的关于商业协会政治影响力的Logistic回归模型说明，商业协会的层级越高，组织凝聚力越高，与政府的“合作型关系越强，其被政府咨询以及实际影响政策的可能性也越高。在中国，在更高的政府层级上商业协会具有更可见的政治影响力。 / This research reveals how the differentiated relation between business associations and authoritarian state and the systematic organizational variations are configurated by local political economy, and argues the political significance of business associations in authoritarian state should be located in the specific political economic structure. This research displays recent development of business associations' political role in transitional China, and identify the conditions that facilitate organizational social interest pursuits to be successfully inputted into authoritarian state. / On the one hand, this research discusses the institutional bases which motivate the local authoritarian state to maintain continuing domination over society. Both the fiscal institution driving local state to expand revenue incomes and the bureaucratic promotion institution driving officials to accumulate political achievements motivate the local government to achieve following benefits from penetrating and dominating business associations: extract money from society, provide public goods, and facilitate the governance functions. On the other hand, the specific developmental pattern of local market economy actually has deepened the fragmentations among emerging private entrepreneurs instead of remedying them, which further discourage the associational cohesion of business associations. The big, middle, and small private entrepreneurs are characterized by essentially different interactions with the local government and diversified interest pursuits. However, the current associational arrangements forcing these interest pursuits into one single association do harm to the formation of organizational cohesion and the possibility of successful interest intermediation. / This research regards the relations between business associations and authoritarian state as the result of interactions between the governmental penetration and the associational cohesion. Four types can be identified from the empirical cases studies, the corporatist type, the oppositional type, the dominated type, and the clientelistic type. Both the corporatist type and oppositional type can transfer collective interest pursuits into the polity through their leverages on the governments' benefits. However, whichever type do not embody themselves as stable institutional arrangements, but as the contingent negotiations on practical interests. Through the process of depoliticized political integration, contemporary business associations in China contribute to the stability of the authoritarian regime. / After clarifying the mechanism how local political economy configurates the characteristics of business associations, one reasonable hypothesis should be that business associations' characteristics should vary with the local political economy's characteristics. Considering the hierarchical governmental structure's prominent role in shaping politics, this research then concerns its influence on the political performance of business associations. Based on Logistic regression models, this research identifies the determinants contributing to business associations' political influence in contemporary China. The statistical model reveals following patterns: (1) business associations from the higher level get more political opportunities than those from the lower level; (2) business associations from the higher level are more likely influential on policy decisions than those from lower level. These variations indicate that in the national politics the business associations in contemporary China exert most significant institutional political influence. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 纪莺莺. / "2013年7月". / "2013 nian 7 yue". / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-149). / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Ji Yingying. / 中文摘要 --- p.i / 英文摘要 --- p.ii / 全书结构 --- p.vi / Chapter 第一章 --- 导论 --- p.1 / Chapter 一、 --- 问题 --- p.2 / Chapter 二、 --- 翻转视角：以地方政治经济特征作为分析出发点 --- p.6 / Chapter 三、 --- 研究方法 --- p.12 / Chapter 四、 --- 研究概览 --- p.14 / Chapter 五、 --- 研究框架 --- p.15 / Chapter 第二章 --- 当代中国的商业协会：经验、理论与近期发展 --- p.16 / Chapter 一、 --- 当代中国的商业协会体系 --- p.16 / Chapter 二、 --- 公民社会视角中的商业协会 --- p.20 / Chapter 1、 --- “公民社会视角与问题意识 --- p.21 / Chapter 2、 --- 1990年代的经验研究 --- p.22 / Chapter 3、 --- 经验研究的近期发展 --- p.24 / Chapter 三、 --- 法团主义及其批评 --- p.28 / Chapter 1、 --- 法团主义的涵义 --- p.28 / Chapter 2、 --- 经验研究的证据 --- p.30 / Chapter 3、 --- 经验研究的挑战 --- p.32 / Chapter 四、 --- 既有研究的缺陷 --- p.34 / Chapter 1、 --- 单一维度自主性的“陷阱 --- p.34 / Chapter 2、 --- 缺乏对分化经验现象的解释 --- p.36 / Chapter 3、 --- 缺乏对组织内部特征的分析 --- p.37 / Chapter 五、 --- 近期发展：增长 --- p.37 / Chapter 1、 --- 商业协会的增长模式 --- p.38 / Chapter 2、 --- 结构自主性的分化 --- p.41 / Chapter 3、 --- 功能自主性的分化 --- p.43 / Chapter 4、 --- 讨论 --- p.47 / Chapter 第三章 --- 威权国家支配的制度基础 --- p.48 / Chapter 一、 --- 问题 --- p.48 / Chapter 二、 --- A市素描：国家主导下的市场化转型 --- p.50 / Chapter 三、 --- A市社会组织的近期发展 --- p.53 / Chapter 四、 --- 制度视角：地方政府的制度约束 --- p.57 / Chapter 1、 --- 目标：“追求发展与“维持稳定 --- p.58 / Chapter 2、 --- 财政限制 --- p.59 / Chapter 3、 --- 官僚晋升制度 --- p.60 / Chapter 五、 --- 碎片化地方政府的持续支配 --- p.62 / Chapter 1、 --- 财政补给 --- p.64 / Chapter 2、 --- “政绩与“公共品 --- p.66 / Chapter 3、 --- 有利于政府部门的管理职能 --- p.67 / Chapter 六、 --- 反思国家的角色 --- p.68 / Chapter 第四章 --- 结社的社会基础：内部分化与组织原则 --- p.70 / Chapter 一、 --- 问题：被忽略的结社内部 --- p.70 / Chapter 二、 --- 商业协会的社会基础 --- p.72 / Chapter 1、 --- 分化的私营经济 --- p.73 / Chapter 2、 --- 主导的分化维度：企业规模 --- p.75 / Chapter 三、 --- 商业协会的内部分化 --- p.78 / Chapter 1、 --- 工商联：大型企业与中小企业的分化策略 --- p.78 / Chapter 2、 --- 个民协会的双重组织逻辑 --- p.81 / Chapter 四、 --- “理事会支配：谁是结社里的积极分子？ --- p.85 / Chapter 1、 --- 谁成为“理事 --- p.86 / Chapter 2、 --- 商业协会里的“党支部：政治整合的强指标 --- p.88 / Chapter 五、 --- 讨论 --- p.89 / Chapter 1、 --- “去政治化的政治整合 --- p.90 / Chapter 2、 --- “关系与公民社会：促进或是阻碍？ --- p.91 / Chapter 第五章 --- 国家与社会之间：商业协会的类型学分析 --- p.92 / Chapter 一、 --- 新的分析框架 --- p.92 / Chapter 二、 --- “合作型：微型“卡特尔--文化娱乐行业协会 --- p.94 / Chapter 三、 --- “对抗型：维权者--代理商联合会 --- p.98 / Chapter 四、 --- “支配型：出租车行业协会 --- p.103 / Chapter 五、 --- “庇护型：水产协会 --- p.107 / Chapter 六、 --- 商业协会的行动策略及其政治后果 --- p.108 / Chapter 七、 --- 假设 --- p.110 / Chapter 第六章 --- 商业协会的层级分化 --- p.111 / Chapter 一、 --- 问题 --- p.111 / Chapter 二、 --- 文献回顾 --- p.112 / Chapter 1、 --- 为何讨论“层级差异 --- p.112 / Chapter 2、 --- 既有答案：可能的机制 --- p.115 / Chapter 3、 --- 重构既有研究 --- p.116 / Chapter 三、 --- 个案研究 --- p.117 / Chapter 1、 --- 两个工商联：政治经济特征的差异与后果 --- p.117 / Chapter 2、 --- 一个化工企业的游说策略 --- p.125 / Chapter 3、 --- 研究假设 --- p.127 / Chapter 四、 --- 统计检验 --- p.128 / Chapter 1、 --- 变量说明 --- p.128 / Chapter 2、 --- 回归结果 --- p.130 / Chapter 五、 --- 总结：“法团主义何以可能？ --- p.132 / Chapter 第七章 --- 结论 --- p.133 / Chapter 一、 --- 理论适用性的再评估 --- p.135 / Chapter 二、 --- “去政治化的政治整合 ：理解威权政体的稳定性 --- p.137 / Chapter 三、 --- 有关改革 --- p.139 / 参考文献 --- p.141 / Chapter 后记： --- 关于研究的“研究 --- p.150