4 research outputs found
An Analysis of the Nonprofit and Volunteer Capacity-Building Industries in Central Texas
Based on a Collaboration of
The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin
&
The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M
UniversityRecent research has identified explosive growth in the nonprofit sector and an increased
interest in evaluating and improving nonprofit performance through organizational capacity
building. The growing emphasis on capacity-building services for nonprofits nationwide has
resulted in the need for better information about support services for the sector. Considering the
burgeoning role of capacity building in nonprofit operations, it is important to understand more
about the industry that provides support and resources to nonprofits, including in the growing
communities located in Central Texas. This report represents the first comprehensive study of
nonprofit and volunteer capacity-building activities in Central Texas.
The result of a unique collaboration between graduate students at the Bush School of
Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of
Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, this study was conducted under the
supervision of Dr. Angela Bies at the Bush School and Dr. Sarah Jane Rehnborg at the LBJ
School. Twenty-three graduate students in both programs conducted the research and analysis for
this report from September 2005 through April 2006. The Bush School and the RGK Center for
Philanthropy and Community Service at the LBJ School provided funding for the study. The
project also partnered on a pro bono basis with two client organizations, the United Way Capital
Area and the Texas Nonprofit Management Assistance Network.
The primary research objective was to replicate two recent studies. The first was Millesen
and Bies 2004 report for the Forbes Funds, An Analysis of the Pittsburgh Region s Capacity-
Building Industry. The second was an examination of volunteer management capacity
modeled on a nationwide volunteer management study (Hager, 2004) conducted by the Urban
Institute in collaboration with the Corporation for National and Community Service. Because our
research took place in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, we also explored
nonprofit capacity issues related to emergency interventions, particularly how crises affect
organizations needs for and uses of capacity building.United Way Capital Area; Texas Nonprofit Management Assistance Networ
Joint action aesthetics
Synchronized movement is a ubiquitous feature of dance and music performance. Much research into the evolutionary origins of these cultural practices has focused on why humans perform rather than watch or listen to dance and music. In this study, we show that movement synchrony among a group of performers predicts the aesthetic appreciation of live dance performances. We developed a choreography that continuously manipulated group synchronization using a defined movement vocabulary based on arm swinging, walking and running. The choreography was performed live to four audiences, as we continuously tracked the performers’ movements, and the spectators’ affective responses. We computed dynamic synchrony among performers using cross recurrence analysis of data from wrist accelerometers, and implicit measures of arousal from spectators’ heart rates. Additionally, a subset of spectators provided continuous ratings of enjoyment and perceived synchrony using tablet computers. Granger causality analyses demonstrate predictive relationships between synchrony, enjoyment ratings and spectator arousal, if audiences form a collectively consistent positive or negative aesthetic evaluation. Controlling for the influence of overall movement acceleration and visual change, we show that dance communicates group coordination via coupled movement dynamics among a group of performers. Our findings are in line with an evolutionary function of dance–and perhaps all performing arts–in transmitting social signals between groups of people. Human movement is the common denominator of dance, music and theatre. Acknowledging the time-sensitive and immediate nature of the performer-spectator relationship, our study makes a significant step towards an aesthetics of joint actions in the performing arts