This research is an examination of Charles Dickens’ representation of the underprivileged in the Victorian society. The socially disadvantaged members that will be under discussion are the poor, women and children, who are of major concern in Dickens’ selected texts namely Bleak House, Great Expectations, Hard Times and Oliver Twist. It is evident that Dickens noted the impact of industrialisation on the Victorian society as it created a massive urban development, leading to a higher class division. Initially, the English society consisted of the aristocracy, the landed gentry and the servants who belonged to the lower class. The influx of industrialisation created a further division of these classes in which there emerged the capitalists or bourgeoisie, who were the industrialists like Mr. Bounderby in Hard Times, and the working class, who were the industrial workers. Although the Industrial Revolution fostered urban growth, it is unfortunate that the number of the poor also increased. Many of them lived under squalid conditions with poor sanitation leading to fatal diseases and even death. Being a socially conscious writer, Dickens depicts the world in which he lives, as a strategy to raise awareness in his readers of what was really happening, and hopefully, to bring social reforms. Apart from the poor, Dickens also portrays the brutal treatment of children at the workhouses. This research will show that Dickens was an obstinate critique of the Poor Law and its administration. Furthermore, it will be proven that Dickens also abhorred child labour because of his own childhood experience. Moreover, his repugnance is also noted in the way he creates child characters like Oliver Twist who are mistreated and exploited as child workers. Dickens representation of women is largely influenced by the Victorian ideology surrounding the role of women in society. It is evident that the English society was very patriarchal and strongly confined women to domesticity. Women were also expected to uphold virtue and purity and if they lost both, they were despised and not tolerated at all by society. Although Dickens creates both the Victorian stereotypical woman who is the “angel in the house,” and the antitypical women who comprise of the prostitutes, those who bear children out of wedlock and the larger than life characters like Mrs. Joe Gargery and Molly in Great Expectations, he is revealing the different types of women one can find in society. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the stereotype and the antitype is also a suggestion of the latter’s struggle to fight against patriarchy by assuming the unexpected. Therefore, this research will prove that Dickens is not a patriarchal writer but he actually sympathizes with the plight of women. A realist and naturalist reading of Dickens’ selected texts will provide literary theory for this research. Writing during the time that both theories were grounded, it is evident that Dickens adopted both elemental forms of writing. A feminist approach to Dickens’ female characters will also foster the analysis. Being a realist and naturalist writer, Dickens is comparable to writers of his time such as Nikolai Gogol from Russia who also employs a similar mode of writing in his works. Dickens’ antitypical female characters are comparable to those of the later feminist writers who have placed much emphasis on the independent female characters. It is evident that Dickens’ creation of violent or impure female characters influenced the feminist writers to use them as representations of female independence.

In I960, the Junior League of Vancouver undertook a three-year exploratory program of recreation and visiting activities in selected residential institutions for the aged. The project had been suggested by the Committee on the Welfare of the Aged, a subdivision of the Social Planning Section of the Community Chest and Councils of Greater Vancouver, who were aware of the dearth of diversional resources in these institutions. The Research Department of the Community Chest and Councils of Greater Vancouver was asked by the Advisory Committee to the Junior League Senior Citizens Project to undertake an evaluative study of the program. The present study, a self-contained segment within the broad Research Department evaluation, is designed to test two related hypotheses, (a) that the level of participation in a group recreation program will be positively related to the level of previous participation in group activity, and (b) that the level of participation in a group recreation program will be inversely related to the degree of hearing" impairment. Case material as well as statistical recording is assembled to examine these questions. 34 residents of Taylor Manor, a city-owned and operated boarding home for dependent older men and women, constituted the study sample. There is strong statistical support for the first section of the hypothesis. For the second section, the data are not of statistical significance, possibly because of the limited sample size. However, examination of related factors indicates the question of a relationship between program response and impaired hearing should be considered an open one. Social Contacts is the only other variable identified which seems to have a statistically significant relationship to program response. There was inadequate statistical evidence to support the belief that the program had measurable effect upon attitudes and behaviour of Taylor Manor residents, although subjective observations and trends evident in graphs indicate the program did have positive effect upon a number of participants. A larger population with a matched control sample would be necessary before stronger conclusions could be drawn on whether program participation improved attitudes and behaviour. Some implications for community planning are drawn, and suggestions are made for future research. The possibilities of program development are discussed under four headings: community education, recruitment and training of community volunteers, programming and continuing assessment. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Much has been written on rehabilitation but as yet there is little standardization of definition whether in general literature or clinical practice. The present study examines a representative group of writings to discover how far there is agreement as to the criteria for successful rehabilitation. The most important references include writings of Howard Rusk and his collaborators in the United States, and the findings of T.M. Ling and C.J.S. O'Malley and collaborators in Great Britain. Specific reference is also made to relevant theses completed at the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia. To preserve a sharp focus, the study is confined to cases of physical handicap, a medical setting, and the particular role of the social worker, in the rehabilitation team and in relation to the client. The background of other varied concepts of "rehabilitation" is considered at the outset. The factors on which there is agreement can be best reviewed by classifying them in two main areas, which may be broadly termed: (A) the inner resources, and (B) the external resources of the person concerned. Inner resources can be further analyzed in terms of: (a) initial assessment, (b) variables with rehabilitation potential, and (c) dynamic characteristics with rehabilitation potential. The external resources are analyzed as: (a) the family strength, (b) financial standing as a rehabilitation resource, (c) the criterion of leisure-time activities, (d) the rehabilitation centre and team as a resource, and (e) the community resources. The findings are evaluated particularly as they serve as diagnostic and prognostic aids for the caseworker. They are tested tentatively by application to a small number of cases drawn from the experience of Shaughnessy Hospital, Vancouver, of the Department of Veterans Affairs. These particularly show the importance of balance and interaction between "inner" and "external resources", and some implications may be drawn for other areas of rehabilitation. No attempt is made to assess the relative weights of the individual criteria, which is one of the indicated directions for future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

A major concern of community planning is the integrated use of land and its implications upon people. This statement leads to the central hypothesis of this thesis: that the planned location of senior citizens' housing developments in the urban area should be based upon adequate knowledge of the needs and preferences of the elderly in regard to the total community. In an attempt to gain a total perspective, a survey of five per cent of the self contained dwelling units, specifically designed for the elderly in the city of Vancouver, is undertaken. Using multivariate contingency tabulations (MVTAB) and the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) programs, four principal variables, age, length of residence in the housing project, satisfaction with the proximity to facilities, and frequency of their use are correlated with the locational importance attributed to these selected facilities by the respondents. The results of this study indicate that more than one half of the respondents are displeased with the location of their present living quarters. Also, decisions in locating residences for the elderly must be based upon the examination of a number of facilities used by this age group, as opposed to the identification of a single facility frequented most regularly. These findings may contribute toward a more knowledgeable approach in the future site planning of housing accommodation for the aged. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This paper proposes that remarried families who have a higher level of family ritual observance will also have a higher level of family functioning. This hypothesis was tested in a study involving 60 individuals comprising 30 couples remarried over two years, and with a stepchild under 13 years of age. Each partner responded to a questionnaire composed of family functioning measures (FACES Ill-Adaptability and Cohesion subscales, Family Satisfaction Scale, Quality Marriage Index) family ritual measures (Family Traditions Index, Family Celebrations Scale, Family Time and Routines Index), and demographic information. Data was examined using Correlation, Analysis of Variance, and Regression analysis. Results indicate that women experiencing a higher level of family routines also experience greater family satisfaction. Additionally, women who had counselling in the remarried family, report greater marital quality, and women who work outside the home report a higher level of adaptability. For men, a higher level of cohesion and family celebrations were found for men where the remarried family includes a child from the current marriage. These results suggest that awareness of family rituals present in remarried families and the effect of particular demographic variables can be useful information for both family therapists and the families themselves. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Tracking multiple articulated objects (such as a human body) and handling occlusion between them is a challenging problem in automated video analysis. This work proposes a new approach for accurately and steadily visual tracking people, which should function even if the system encounters occlusion in video sequences. In this approach, targets are represented with a Gaussian mixture, which are adapted to regions of the target automatically using an EM-model algorithm. Field speeds are defined for changed pixels in each frame based on the probability of their belonging to a particular person's blobs. Pixels are matched to the models using a fast numerical level set method. Since each target is tracked with its blob's information, the system is capable of handling partial or full occlusion during tracking. Experimental results on a number of challenging sequences that were collected in non-experimental environments demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

"Older people are beautiful!" "Older people are beautiful images of God!" Even though contemporary western society is powerfully shaped both by the visual and by an increasingly ageing demographic, the above statements are rare and counter-cultural. Yet they are statements totally true to my own experience as a minister with special responsibility for older people. I am drawn to wondering how the beauty of older people can be highlighted in ways that our culture will see and engage with; and therefore begin to own, and even possibly celebrate, the ageing process. In the first part of my thesis I aim to discover why our society does not see beauty in age, or even perceive age itself. I begin with a historical study of western artistic expressions of beauty, tracing a reoccurring and influential strand of classical symmetry and perfection. A social analysis of our contemporary culture of youth is followed by an overview of the church's attitudes towards ageing. All three studies reveal a picture of deeply rooted ageism in society. Alongside these discoveries, an alternative perspective and antidote to ageism is offered through an inclusive reader response to Paul's description of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. My discoveries inform my choice of research methodology - the ways in which I endeavour to uncover new perceptions of older people and forms of expression that honour and include them. Thus embracing them as part of the Body of Christ. Participant observation, the inclusive tool favoured by social anthropology suits the aesthetic and subjective nature of my research. Older people themselves are my research participants. Group situations, where they play with clay and comment upon portraits and landscapes, enable them to express their perceptions of what is beautiful and so reflect a perceptible beauty of their own. A biblical structure allows the participants' thoughts about beauty to become expressions of their own particular spirituality. This uncovering of an embodied spirituality of older people as vital and beautiful is offered as a counterpoint to a culture that renders older people invisible. I discover that there is much that older people can offer younger generations through their laughter and tears, their interpersonal relationships and their intrepid journeying through the unknown territory of ageing itself. A search for and reflection upon theological perspectives and art images that resonate with these discoveries and illuminate older people as beautiful images of God forms the final part of my thesis.

The thesis deals with the Kikuyu tribes of East Africa, their early history, ethnography and relationships with Europeans to 1910. Kikuyu society is described as in flux resulting from its migration to a new habitat from Shungwaya. Peripheral areas of the habitat were stressed by the proximity of the Masai, Arab and Swahili traders, European explorers, armed traders, officials of the Imperial British East Africa Company and latterly officers, civil and military, of the Protectorate Administration. Masai proximity forced the Kikuyu into a defensive posture and conditioned their attitudes with respect to the intrusion of others. Evidence presented suggests that Kikuyu were initially hospitable to coastal traders. By the l8T0's, however, Kikuyu were reluctant to allow free passage of Arab and Swahili caravans. Hostility had been engendered by Arab and Swahili propensities for raiding Kikuyu mashamba for food and departing the area without making restitution. European attitudes toward the Kikuyu were influenced by rumours of Kikuyu ferocity deliberately spread by coastal and Wakamba traders. Early explorers were prepared to "fight every inch of the way" across the Kikuyu habitat. European apprehension coupled with Kikuyu suspicion featured prominently in the early contact period. These attitudes and the occasional violent clashes were conditioning factors in the subsequent, more extensive, relationships between Kikuyu and Europeans. Kikuyu ethnography is examined and reveals tribal society as being acephalous and egalitarian. Power resided in the hands of elders who assumed authority after successfully negotiating a scale of ascendancy incorporated in the rites du passage. Provision was made within the system for young men to rise to positions of eminence and to be hurried along the road to seniority. Known as athamaki, they were in no sense chiefs. Because military affairs played a large part in Kikuyu life—the threat of the Masai, the behaviour of Arab and Swahili traders, the intrusions of European travellers, armed traders, IBEA Co. men and the Protectorate Administration— athamaki of military ability swiftly rose to prominence. Lugard's attempts to establish the Imperial British East Africa Company are dealt with at some length. Company failure to establish itself successfully in Kikuyuland is iseen as being due to manifold factors; under financing, poor communications, lack of control over African levies, poor leadership and recognition by the Kikuyu of the Company's intention to settle the area permanently. Hostility against the Company was greatly exacerbated by the use of Masai and Kikuyu armed levies for raiding, and the death of Waiyaki, a Kikuyu athamaki of local eminence. 1895 saw the end of Company hegemony and its replacement by imperial authority. The effects on the Kikuyu tribes by armed traders are analyzed. John Boyes, described by himself as "King of the WaKikuyu", Gibbons and others, are seen as dacoits who affected to some considerable degree the attitudes and disposition of Kikuyu with whom they came into contact. As with the Company, divide and rule tactics were practised and armed traders allied themselves with athamaki collaborators against other Kikuyu opposed to the European presence. Though the armed traders profoundly disturbed the Kikuyu between 1895 and 1900, the Protectorate Administration was powerless to prevent their activities. Conquest of the Kikuyu tribes was two-phased. The first phase (1895-1902) is referred to as a "holding" exercise. During the period•obvious preparations were made to tighten the administrative net on Kikuyuland. The armed traders were arrested and deported. Masai were beginning to be contained in areas away from Kikuyuland. Roads began to radiate north into the Kikuyu interior from the new administrative centre of Nairobi. Ukamba Province was split and Kikuyuland became Kenia Province. The critical problem of the Mombasa-Lake Victoria railway traversing the Kikuyu habitat was solved. The Protectorate Administration possessed an elite cadre of Kikuyu collaborators on whom they relied to render aid in the subjugation of other Kikuyu. A re-organization of military forces was taking place and by 1902 the Protectorate Administration was in a strong position to make a concerted effort to dislodge and defeat the remaining pockets of Kikuyu opposition. The second phase of the Kikuyu conquest is seen as a "military" exercise: it lasted roughly eight years (1902-1910). Subjugation of the Kikuyu, founded on a policy of mounting strong punitive expeditions, was barbaric and excesses were common. "Overkill" was substituted for the traditional military tactic of skirmishing. "On the spot" decision-making was more the rule than the exception. Contrary to the expressed intention of senior officials, punitive expeditions, led by junior military officers and supported by consenting junior civil officers, inflicted large numbers of casualties,' burnt huts, destroyed crops, and crippled the Kikuyu economy by confiscating thousands of cattle and goats. Both junior officers and Commissioner Eliot himself falsified casualty figures; thus giving London a wrong impression of events. By 1910, after sustained military action, Kikuyu resistance was eliminated. The thesis concludes that Kikuyu athamaki rose to prominence in the military atmosphere of the colonial enterprise. As collaborators athamaki became the prime agents of change in the transitory process from tribalism to colonial administration. They heralded a powerful and sustained disruption of tribal society and speeded the processes of change. The imperial order, ever watchful for means to achieve its objectives at minimum expense, used athamaki for its unique purposes. Conversely, athamaki used the Protectorate Administration to realize their own ambitions. Alliances between athamaki and Europeans were reciprocal in both construction and purpose. There existed a dual realization that one element could not proceed without the concurrence or aid of the other. Some initiatives thus remained in Kikuyu hands within the colonial order. Collaborating athamaki became junior partners in the colonial enterprise—and prospered accordingly. European penetration radically- affected Kikuyu society. Stressed by the intrusions of Arabs, Swahili and Masai and the effects of migration, Kikuyu society was further influenced by the European presence. The European impact opened up serious rifts in Kikuyu society, disturbed traditional rankings of dominance and hierarchy, and sharpened already existing cracks in the tribal socio-political firmament. Kikuyu resistance was weakened by the use of athamaki and finally smashed by superior military forces. The thesis concludes with the suggestion that Professor T.O. Ranger's hypothesis on connexions between primary resistance movements and modern mass nationalism, may, in the Kikuyu case, have some basis in truth. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Planners for British Columbia's aging population are beginning to contemplate the difficult problem of ensuring the future adequacy of supportive programs for the elderly in the key areas of health, income, and housing. It now appears that these programs may well be squeezed between increased demand resulting from a rapid rise projected in the number and proportion of older people early in the next century, and lower rates of provincial and national growth foreseen by most economists. This descriptive study draws on available relevant information (much of it included in tables, figures, and appendices) to explore the problem from its origins in previous policy development to the situation at the present time. From this perspective the implications of current demographic, economic, and political/bureaucratic trends for programs for the elderly are assessed in both the national and international contexts. After a consideration of the roles of philosophy and ideology in social theory, a wide range of social gerontological theories are examined using a sociological scheme which classifies them according to four major paradigms in order to determine their abilities to describe accurately the information presented, and to prescribe useful policy alternatives. It is concluded that a theoretical approach which advocates radical change from a structural perspective is both most valid and most productive as a paradigm for planning for the aging population. A description of the relationship of planning to social change, and a systems analysis of the process of public policy making together introduce a discussion of strategies based upon the selected planning paradigm. Once the approaches used in planning for the elderly in the past are critically reviewed, the outline of a radical structural plan for the aging population is described, and then a strategy for its implementation over the next two or three decades is presented. The report concludes with a brief summary, and a number of specific recommendations for action by the appropriate public authorities, including several suggestions for enhancing the capacity for policy and program research in this field. One important recommendation is for the early establishment in British Columbia of an inter-departmental agency on aging to co-ordinate information and planning for the province's elderly. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

Reminiscence is a complex phenomenon which is theorized in contemporary gerontological literature to serve adaptive functions in successful aging. This study explores the relationship between reminiscence (as measured using the Reminiscence Survey) and one criterion of adaptation: global self-esteem (as measured by the Total P score of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale) in a sample of 40 older volunteers who range in age from 55 years to 95 years and who still live independently in the community. Significant positive correlations were found between the Reminiscence Survey measures and the Total P scores of the TSCS. As well, life-reviewers reported significantly more uses, triggers, and outcomes of reminiscence and had significantly higher self-concept scores than did non-life-reviewers. These findings serve to demonstrate the positive relationship between the pervasiveness of reminiscence and the positivity of self-conception. Implications for the constructive use of reminiscence as a therapeutic intervention strategy in counselling older adults are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate