A research report submitted to the faculty of Commerce, Law and Management University of the Witwatersrand in partial fufilment of the requirements for the Degree Masters in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2017 / This research report seeks to explore the organised behaviour of faith-based enterprises as a sub-function of social entrepreneurship. By assessing the moral intricacies which form the building blocks of social enterprises, the research report will use literature based on social entrepreneurship to draw parallels between social enterprises and faith-based ventures to suggest that the core of faith-based ventures (FBVs) is to make a social impact not just through disseminating faith, but acting as social agents. Therefore, this research will attempt to explore the extent of faith-based enterprises as a function of social entrepreneurship, identifying the opportunities and capabilities which are seen to be generated by faith, but that have a social impact that goes beyond the faith-based organisation. Using the qualitative research approach, data was collected from six faith-based entrepreneurs in Yeoville, through face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which were conducted over a period of three months to understand the role of the faith-based venture and its social impact. By conducting a qualitative inquiry to facilitate the meaning-making process, face-to-face interviews were conducted to create a naturalistic understanding of the study, particularly assessing their role and their function in society. Biases, feelings and thoughts were recorded in order to understand the participants’ motives, purposes and the causes that underlie these actions. The findings of the study suggest that the role of FBVs acting as social agents are dependent on the reach of their audience, including the extent of their scalability which they have developed which would provide insights into the degree that the faith-based venture can have social impact. This research will conclude having suggested that the “new-age” faith-based ventures have transitioned from only providing the basic faith, to now mimicking a social enterprise, therefore implying that FBVs are another dimension of social entrepreneurship. / MT2017

Thesis (M Social Work (Social Work))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / The welfare of communities depends to a large extent on the successful mobilisation of the voluntary contributions (manpower, time, money) by religious based organisations. Poverty and all the other social problems like unemployment and HIV/AIDS, that are associated with it, can only be addressed effectively if volunteers are empowered by social workers to handle the problems in a sustaining way (Annual report, Unit for Religion Development Research: 2002). In order to empower the volunteers, it is important that social workers understand their role in the empowerment process. The aim of the study is to clarify the task of the social worker regarding the empowerment of volunteers at religious based organisations. This study is a descriptive study, seeing that the empowerment of volunteers are described at the end of the research (Mouton, 2001:54). The study also contains elements of an exploring (investigation) study, seeing that the situation has been explored in practice. After completion of a literate study, an empirical investigation was done with the aim to investigate principles of empowerment in practice. For the purpose of this study, the universe is regarded as the social workers who work at religious based organisations in the working area of the Valcare Trust. Deliberate selection, according to the non-probability test sampling as described by Babbie and Mouton (2001:166-168) was used to obtain the test sample. The type of test sample selection is applicable where the researcher is conversant with the research problem and the universe (Rubin and Babbie, 1993). Deliberate selection is therefore based on the researcher’s judgement and the aim of the study (Rubin and Babbie, 1993). The researcher is well conversant with the universe, seeing that the social workers are working at religious based organisations that are registered on the database of the Valcare Trust. Questionnaires, consisting of structured questions were compiled after completion of the literate study for the purpose of the empirical study. The self administered questionnaires were supplied to the respondents. Thirteen respondents took part in the empirical study.

Essa dissertação de mestrado é o resultado de pesquisa de campo realizada com grupos de Folias de Reis da região da Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais, com enfoque principal na vivência religiosa dos sertanejos, nos seus rituais, narrativas e performance devocional. Neste trabalho, a documentação etnográfica, a discussão bibliográfica sobre o denominado catolicismo popular e a contextualização histórica articulam-se com a finalidade de compreender algumas facetas das relações entre os homens (devoto/folião) e divindades do catolicismo não institucionalizado. Por meio da devoção, os homens estabelecem com os santos um elo de reciprocidade em que o processo comunicacional passa muitas vezes pela linguagem do corpo. Assim, a performance ritual sacraliza o espaço cotidiano e atualiza o contato entre mundos distintos, de modo a promover a circulação não só de bens e de homens, durante os dias de Folia, como também de símbolos, concepções e memória coletiva. / This masters dissertation is the result of a field research conducted among groups of Folias de Reis of the region of Serra da Canastra, in Minas Gerais State. The main focus was the religious experiences lived by its participants, their rituals, narratives and devotional performances. In this work, the ethnographic documentation, bibliographic discussion about the so-called popular catholicism and the historical contextualization were articulated to understand some features of the relation between men (participants) and the deities of a non institutionalized catholicism. By means of devotion, men often establish a reciprocity relation with the saints in which the communication process is done through body language. Thus, the ritual performance sacralizes the ordinary space and renews the connections between different worlds, and, by doing so, it promotes the circulation not only of goods and men but also of symbols, concepts and shared memories.

Essa dissertação de mestrado é o resultado de pesquisa de campo realizada com grupos de Folias de Reis da região da Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais, com enfoque principal na vivência religiosa dos sertanejos, nos seus rituais, narrativas e performance devocional. Neste trabalho, a documentação etnográfica, a discussão bibliográfica sobre o denominado catolicismo popular e a contextualização histórica articulam-se com a finalidade de compreender algumas facetas das relações entre os homens (devoto/folião) e divindades do catolicismo não institucionalizado. Por meio da devoção, os homens estabelecem com os santos um elo de reciprocidade em que o processo comunicacional passa muitas vezes pela linguagem do corpo. Assim, a performance ritual sacraliza o espaço cotidiano e atualiza o contato entre mundos distintos, de modo a promover a circulação não só de bens e de homens, durante os dias de Folia, como também de símbolos, concepções e memória coletiva. / This masters dissertation is the result of a field research conducted among groups of Folias de Reis of the region of Serra da Canastra, in Minas Gerais State. The main focus was the religious experiences lived by its participants, their rituals, narratives and devotional performances. In this work, the ethnographic documentation, bibliographic discussion about the so-called popular catholicism and the historical contextualization were articulated to understand some features of the relation between men (participants) and the deities of a non institutionalized catholicism. By means of devotion, men often establish a reciprocity relation with the saints in which the communication process is done through body language. Thus, the ritual performance sacralizes the ordinary space and renews the connections between different worlds, and, by doing so, it promotes the circulation not only of goods and men but also of symbols, concepts and shared memories.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a descriptive survey to determine the status of health promotion activities in religious organizations in Delaware County, Indiana. After 223 surveys were distributed and reminder postcards mailed, 77 (35%) usable responses were received. Follow-up telephone calls on 30 non-respondents yielded similar results to those who did respond.The health knowledge level of the respondent, religious affiliation of the religious organization, and racial composition of the congregation appear to be associated with the health promotion activities offered by a religious organization, though the strength of the associations are not clear. However, such associations indicate a need to provide Delaware County religious leaders with connections to secular agencies to provide the social support necessary for health promotion within the congregations.Information from this study could lead to the development of an ecumenical module and/or an oral presentation script addressing health, wellness, and prevention issues that could be utilized by a health educator to inform congregations. This may in turn close the disparity gap in health status for those who may be poorly-served, under-served, or never-served. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

"This work examines the fundamentalist controversy in Texas from 1920 until 1929. Stressing the role of J. Frank Norris as the state's fundamentalist leader, it studies the manifestations of the controversy in both the religious and the secular institutions of the state. Since the movement met little organized resistance in Texas, the fundamentalists won significant victories. The study is organized topically. The first part is a general introduction to the controversy on both the state and national level. The second part portrays Norris as the leader of fundamentalist forces. The third and fourth parts examine the conflict within the Protestant denominations especially among the Baptists and Methodists and its impact upon secular institutions. "-- leaf 1

A handful of studies have shown that National Inter-religious Councils (NIRCs) contribute to electoral violence prevention. However, no quantitative study has evaluated the impact of their interventions and the conditions under which they lower electoral violence. Using data on African national elections from 1992-2019, I examine whether NIRCs' electoral-related peacebuilding interventions lower the severity of electoral violence and if their ability to do so depends on NIRCs' social power. The results in this thesis indicate that the presence of NIRCs' interventions during electoral rounds lowers the likelihood of severe electoral violence. The findings also reveal a significant disordinal interaction between NIRCs' interventions and their power, where the predicted probability of severe electoral violence reduces by 42% when powerful NIRCs implement peacebuilding interventions and, on the other hand, increases by 20% when less powerful NIRCs intervene. While this thesis fails to explain the disordinal interaction effect, it details this study's methodological tools and limitations and contributes an original dataset of NIRCs' interventions and power for future research.

L'histoire de la genèse des institutions religieuses musulmanes diverge de celle des autres institutions particulièrement chrétiennes. En l'absence d'un pouvoir central puissant comme l'Empire byzantin, les premiers musulmans ne s'étaient pas pliés aux ordres d'une autorité politique dominante en dehors de l'islam. C'est ainsi que se développaient très tôt des institutions politico-religieuses qui ont pris en charge, tout à la fois, l'administration de l'Etat et la règlementation des affaires religieuses. A cet amalgame s'ajoutait l'aspect dogmatique de l'islam qui refusait toute sorte d'intercession ou clergé entre Dieu et les hommes. Cette émergence continue jusqu'à nos jours à être sujet de polémique entre les défenseurs d'une séparation nette des deux domaines et les défenseurs d'un Islam totalisant englobant le spirituel et le temporel. L'Empire Ottoman, comme ses deux prédécesseurs, a admis une collaboration étroite entre les deux domaines. Les Etats modernes se partagent entre trois tendances : Une qui supprime ou affaiblit les institutions religieuses, une autre qui les intègre à l'appareil de l'Etat et une troisième qui exerce une neutralité vis-à-vis d'elles. Le Liban adopte cette troisième voie. Pour connaître ce mécanisme chaque communauté religieuse est coiffée d'un appareil religieux central qui exerce des compétences législatives, exécutives et judiciaires en tout ce qui touche à ses affaires religieuses et à la gestion de ses biens-waqf. Comment fonctionnent ces institutions religieuses ? C'est le sujet de notre contribution à l'étude des institutions religieuses islamiques. / The history of genesis of the Muslim religious institutions diverges from that of the other institutions, particularly the Christian ones. In the absence of a powerful central power like the Byzantine Empire, the first muslims did not consent to the orders of a dominant political authority outside of Islam. This is how political-religious institutions developed very early, and those took in charge, all together, the administration of the State and the ruling of the religious matters. To this amalgam was added the dogmatic aspect of Islam, that refused to the clergy any sort of intercession between God and men. This emergence continues in our present days to be a subject of polemic nature between the defenders of a clear separation of the two domains, and the defenders of a totalitarian Islam grouping the spiritual and the temporal. The Ottoman Empire, like its two predecessors, have admitted a close collaboration between the two domains. The modern States are divided between three tendencies: One that cancels or weakens the religious institutions, another that integrates them to the State operation and a third one that exercises neutrality in their regard. Lebanon adopts this third way. To know this mechanism, every religious community has its own central religious engine that exercises legislative, executive and judiciary competencies in all what relates to its religious matters and to the administration of its properties- waqf. How do these religious institutions function? This is the subject of our contribution to the study of the Islamic religious institutions

Univ., Diss.--Hamburg, 2004.

Orientador: Alexandre Soares Carneiro / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T00:48:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cesarino_Michel_M.pdf: 982667 bytes, checksum: 68875905efd598fa317ae80bdac20754 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Este trabalho é um estudo sobre algumas das temáticas de La Religieuse (A Religiosa), de Diderot, baseado numa abordagem pictórica. Conceitos como o de anamorfose e o de naïveté na pintura, presentes na arte do século XVIII são usados nessa abordagem. A trajetória de Suzanne Simonin, protagonista do romance, expõe histeria, homossexualidade, melacolia e loucura através de três conventos, como conseqüências do corpo submetido a bloqueios em suas tendências naturais; parte disto é aqui desenvolvido. Além disso, abordo a questão do pathétique e da ilusão naquele romance, utilizados para cativar e comover o leitor como se ele estivesse num espetáculo teatral. / Abstract: This work is about La Religieuse (The Nun) of Diderot, based on a pictoral approach. Concepts like anamorphose and that of naïveté, both of them presents in the art the 18th century were used in such approach. The course of Suzanne Simonin, protagonist of the novel, exposes hysteria, homosexuality, melancholy and madness through tree convents as consequences of the submited body to obstructions in its natural tendencies; part of this is developed here. Besides that, I make an approach to the subject of pathétique and illusion in that novel, both used to captivate and move the reader as if he was at a theatrical spectacle. / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestre em Teoria e História Literária