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For the past decade, sub-post offices (POs) in the UK have been subject to intensive pressures to marketise their business. Actual or threatened closures have led charities to become involved in projects to preserve community post offices. This paper aims to investigate the attitudes of the trustees and staff involved in six charity-backed POs to answer the research question “Do those involved with charity-backed POs prioritise profit generation or community resourcing?”

This research adopted a neo-empiricist stance on the collection and interpretation of data. The authors treated “attitudes” as real phenomena that are subjectively experienced and concretely expressed through activities in an objectively real world. Data were gathered from four or more people in each of six POs by sampling their services and conducting face-to-face interviews. The emphasis was on achieving verstehen – a rich understanding of a specific approach to social enterprise grounded in interpretations of human activity under conditions of naturalistic inquiry.

The authors found that charity-backed POs were focussed on preserving POs as a community resource but articulated this by framing profitability in three distinct ways: as a PO generating a surplus that can be gifted or reallocated to a (parent) charity’s other activities; as an activity that offsets a charity’s fixed costs; or enables or promotes its public benefit aims.

There are few peer-reviewed studies of the potential of sub-POs as sites for social enterprise, and none (that could be located) on the role of charities. In this study, the authors contest Liu and Ko’s view (2014, p. 402) that the key task is “to install market-oriented managerial beliefs and values into the charity retailer’s decision-making”. A counter view is offered that trading can represent a further diversification of the innovations used to support charitable endeavours.

This is the first academic study to confront the complexities of differentiating “profitability” from “profit generation” in charity-backed POs. The subtleties in the articulation of this difference by study participants helped to account for the findings of the study and to make sense of the strong consensus that POs should be seen primarily as a community resource while responding to marketisation pressures.

I. Introduction In their recent pastoral letter, the Catholic bishops of this country have reputedly taken a new approach in rooting their moral imperatives in the Bible. As opposed to the established, official convention of “proof‐texting”, the US bishops focus on certain biblical themes which presumably “speak to” contemporary issues and problems. Chief among these is the so‐called “preferential option for the poor”, which is attributed to both the Old and New Testaments and early Church (Christianity).

This article explores the thought of St Augustine and its relevancy to acceptance or rejection of the social service state. It notes Augustine’s emphasis on the transitory nature of modernity and the primacy of the spiritual. It examines Augustine’s pessimistic scenario concerning the secular state and its accomplishments. It suggests that Augustinianism would be fare less receptive to the social state and its strengthening of secular power than the more optimistic and more “incarnational” Thomism.

Examines Russian Orthodoxy, focusing on its historical background, religious ethos, institutionalization and dogmatic affirmation. Evaluates the record of the Russian Church during the Communist period and speculates about its future. Cites the limitations of Russian Orthodoxy in performing the “priestly” and “prophetic” functions. Finally, given the similarities of Russian Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, recommends “Uniate option” for the contemporary Russian Church. Suggests that such an option would strengthen Russian Orthodoxy and compensate for those factors that made it so ineffective during the Marxist‐Leninist period.

Community informatics can be defined as a strategy or discipline that focuses on the use of information and communication technologies by territorial communities. This paper analyzes the emerging community informatics evaluation literature to develop an understanding of the indicators used to gauge project impacts in community networks and community technology centers. This study finds that community networks and community technology center assessments fall into five key areas: strong democracy; social capital; individual empowerment; sense of community; and economic development opportunities. The paper concludes by making recommendations for future community informatics evaluations.

Authenticity is being real and true to oneself and outwardly expressing that truth. Authenticity is not a leadership style, but rather a practice that will empower you and others each time you choose to reveal it. It is also not about bearing your soul or sharing every intimate part of yourself to those you lead. Rather, it is consistently demonstrating your concerns, enthusiasm, strengths, weaknesses, learning, and vision.

Choosing to be authentic as a leader will reward you with a deeper connection with those you lead and foster courage in them. Discovering your authenticity can be painful and sometimes awkward, but even those moments of pain and discomfort can be powerful model of healthy vulnerability for others. Authenticity and vulnerability are not generally rewarded and are often challenged in our society. Therefore, it is easy to slide back into staying hidden and stoic. True authenticity then is a daily, sometimes moment by moment, choice.

This chapter describes an experience of finding authentic expression as a leader and how challenges will test that authenticity. Values, vulnerability, and vision are described and presented as anchors for choosing authenticity as a daily practice.

Attempts to explain the survival and success of the American Amish community by examining its history, tenets, structures and life style. Concludes by stressing the importance of the community’s unambiguous value system, its clear borders/boundaries, its emphasis on integration and continuity, its commitment to the “work ethic”, its techniques of separation, and its meaningful and efficacious rites and rituals.

A series of online searches of the Harvard University Library System – which includes the Baker Library, Houghton Library and the Radcliffe Institute’s Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library – on the History of Women in America revealed nearly 1,000 archive and manuscript holdings on advertising and related topics. This paper aims to investigate the extent of these holdings, to assess their value to advertising and marketing historians and to explore their potential for encouraging future research on under-investigated topics and questions.

Described are the extensive and valuable special collections and other holdings related to advertising, business and marketing of the Harvard Library System. Also described are the availability of the holdings and recommendations for accessing and studying the collections and artifacts.

The research reported here supports an overall conclusion that the Harvard Library System holds an important place among the world’s repositories of valuable historical advertisements and marketing ephemera. The research also supports four specific conclusions regarding the historical value of Harvard’s collections and archives. First, some of the collections offer access to artifacts and items from an under-investigated period – the first half of the 19th century. Second, many of the collections are international in scope. Third, the collections represent a wide array of 19th century non-periodical advertisements and ephemera, such as trade cards, posters and theatrical playbills. Fourth, and most important, the collections offer significant potential for addressing, among other under-investigated topics, the important role of women in the development of modern advertising theory and professional practices.

A prior search for the world’s largest and most historically significant archives and collections of advertisements and marketing ephemera (promotional objects or media executions created for a one-time, limited purpose) revealed a handful of library and museum collections of exceptional size or topical importance meriting further investigation. This paper adds to an extensive line of research published in the marketing and advertising historical literature exploring and describing the breadth, depth and historical value of the world’s important collections of historical advertisements and ephemera.

Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon which focuses predominantly on globalised multi-national corporations of the late twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of the corporate responsibility and community involvement tracing the development of corporate behaviours in the UK from medieval guilds to the modern form of corporation seen at the end of the last century.

The analysis considers the institutional forces which have shaped responsible business behaviours in a context of changing power and influence.

Drawing on Weber's notion of the ideal-type, this paper demonstrates that many “modern” corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts such as codes of conduct, stakeholder consultation, and corporate donations have considerable heritage.

This paper develops an important precedent by examining the evolution of CSR and other aspects of corporate engagement. It develops a long-term instrumental context for corporate donations, whilst revealing that practices such as employee volunteering are considerably more recent, and less institutionally developed.