Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Filters

2001 - 200912010 - 20201

Settings

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Church and social problems

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The context and enactment of faith-based social entrepreneurship : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Borquist, Bruce R.
    Faith-based organisations have been at the forefront of efforts to meet human need and effect positive social change for centuries, and they continue to make significant contributions to social welfare. However, a paucity of empirical research into the nature of faith-based social entrepreneurship limits knowledge and theory development and hinders the effectiveness of faith-based initiatives. In response, this thesis explores how a religious worldview intersects with values, gender and institutional logics to influence social entrepreneurial activity. The thesis thereby aims to develop new theoretical insights into the contextual embeddedness of the process of social entrepreneurship. Qualitative, interpretive research based on a social constructionist paradigm was conducted to explore how a religious faith context influences the enactment of social entrepreneurship. Comparative multiple case studies of eight social entrepreneurial organisations located in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were undertaken during the period 2016-18. Faith-based, faith-inspired and secular organisations participated in the research. Multilevel thematic analysis of data employed theoretical lenses of universal human values, gender and institutional logics. The research showed that faith-based social entrepreneurship is a distinct, contextually embedded expression of social entrepreneurship. Findings suggest that a religious worldview, values and gender are discrete contexts that influence the what, where, how, who, when and why omnibus contexts in which social entrepreneurship is enacted. In a religious worldview context, social entrepreneurial organisations respond not only to well-documented social welfare and commercial logics but also to a religious metalogic. Consequently, faith-based social entrepreneurial organisations illuminate how organisations experience institutional complexity and manage paradoxical interlogic tensions. The key insight and contribution of the thesis is that contexts of a Christian religious worldview and gender underscore the values-based nature of social entrepreneurship. Further, these contexts reveal the influence of faith, altruistic love and the logic of gratuitous giving on how social entrepreneurship is experienced and enacted.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Social policy in a Christian frame of meaning : a world-view, ethic and theoretical framework for the analysis, choice, & design of social policy : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Policy, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2001) Warner, Gerald John
    This thesis is about how one might think, read, and approach, the analysis, choice, and design of social policy from a Christian world-view, ethic, and theoretical framework. This theoretical, normative, and explorative study is based on the propositions that all polities operate within some kind of frame of meaning, and that all social judgement is ultimately influenced by the presuppositions contained in one's broader world-view. In response, the thesis examines the Christian Realist, the Reformed/neo-Calvinist, and the Catholic social teaching traditions as contributors to the development of a Christian communitarian theoretical framework. Upon the exploration of the social, political, and moral theory, and the theological underpinnings of these three Christian traditions, this thesis approaches the theory eclectically focusing primarily on their mutually supportive aspects. The study finds a triangular relationship between the three traditions, such that each tradition supplements, informs, and complements the other. The Realist tradition maintains a consistent account of human nature and vitality, explicating human self-interest and power in social life, and thus appends both the Reformed and Catholic traditions. The Reformed tradition complements the Realist and substitutes Catholic social theory with a systematic theory of the structure of society. Moreover, the Catholic tradition provides the Reformed and Realist traditions with the systematic moral and ethical ends to which Christian social action ought to be orientated. The study also develops an approach to social policy indicative of the major ethos and orientation that characterises each tradition. The study therefore approaches the analysis of social policy from a responsible and realist frame of mind, recognising the plural nature of distinct spheres and jurisdictions within society, whilst maintaining a compassion for, and the centrality of, the human person. After orchestrating the theory into the construction of a Christian theoretical and normative frame, the study seeks to apply and utilise the Christian frame for the analysis, choice, and design of social policy. In response, the investigation examines a method for the inquiry of political frames of meaning (frame-critical policy analysis), employing the normative Christian communitarian frame as a counter-system. This policy analysis method dialectically critiques contesting policy viewpoints as grounded in their wider ideological social choice.