Last week I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the second post in the series.

This second post will mostly speak about the worldview and hierarchy of 6 men who I had the pleasure of interviewing for this study. Their names have been changed so that they remain anonymous, because of this I wont be able to post the complete interviews.

Worldview
The worldview of this sub-culture is as diverse as the people who make it up. The range of men that were interviewed made this evident with their different verbal responses. Another strong indicator of worldview, was how they go about living their lives.

In the interviews that were conducted, a theme of work being integral to their identity kept coming up for each of these men. But what was surprising to me was that it wasn’t just the work that they were doing that was important to them. The question of how they went about doing their work was also hugely important.

William and Richard are both from a working class background and therefore have a strong worldview and work ethic of success coming mostly from your own hard physical work. This is contrasted by the worldview of James, Tim and Anthony in which you gain success mostly through good decision-making. Completely different to these two groups is Tobias, who measures success, not by the possessions that he owns, but by the impact he has had on the world around him.

Ultimately, a prevailing worldview for this sub-culture could be described as an “improvement” worldview. This improvement worldview means that they are constantly striving to improve themselves and their achievements. This can be professional improvement or personal improvement, working towards their ideal job, or training for a marathon. Irrespective of area, they do these things with all their energy until it is completed. After completion, they will find something else to “succeed at”, and then work towards its fulfillment.

Hierarchy
The hierarchy in this sub-culture could be easily classified into two different spheres of life. These two spheres could be thought of as being a Professional sphere, and a Social sphere.

In the professional sphere, the hierarchy is easily defined. In each work place there is a set hierarchy in place. This hierarchy is based on both or either, length of employment and the level of qualification attained by the individual. Individuals in this sub-culture like this system, because it gives them a framework for their self improvement worldview. It also gives them set achievements in which they can work towards.

The social sphere is a little more difficult to describe. While the sphere is still concerned with achieving success, there are many different interests and hobbies with each individual involved in the sub-culture. Outside of the professional sphere, individuals prefer to do away with the rigidity of their Monday to Friday work structures. This might be because of their desire to be involved in activities that they find enjoyment from; training for a marathon, attending football games, playing sport or just spending time with their immediate families. Ultimately they wish to have the freedom to enjoy these activities in a less rigid way than they are used to at work.

It has been a little while. Just over two weeks in fact. I didn’t die, and there isn’t anything wrong. Ive just been super busy with a few things.

Last week I preached at church on Genesis 11:1-9, about the city of babel. Another thing I have been doing has been a project for college titled “Reaching Men, aged 40-54, living in St Ives, with the message of Jesus Christ”. It was 3,300 words of analysis of the sub-culture, and how churches can reach these people with the gospel of Jesus.

This project is something that is close to my heart, and close to the heart of my church. I had a few people express interest in reading what I had come up with. So I thought I would share some of my findings over the next little while, but first I wanted to share some stats with you about this micro culture.

One of the problems that is encountered with using this census data, is that the last census was conducted in 2006. Seeing that there has been no new data collected since, this 2006 data is still the most reliable. The following data is not the only means by which this sub-culture can be analysed, but it also shows us a few important facts that we should be aware of.

• The median age of the suburb is 43.
• The overall population included in this sub-culture is 1,606 people.
• This figure of 1,606 is 23.5% of a total male population of 6,839, and 11% of a total population of 14,210.
• 55.5% of males living in St Ives were born in Australia, with the next two significant places of birth being South Africa at 11.7% and the United Kingdom at 8%.

I hope you will come back in the coming week to see more of my thoughts. And hopefully engage with them.