Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-143). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39296.

This project explores the anxieties and contradictions that appeared in discussions of education during the Progressive Era by examining education theory, as found in the journals Education and The Playground, and comparing this theory to children's books of the era. I argue that turn of the century educators and authors promoted practical education so that they could use the school, the home, and the playground to accomplish two goals simultaneously: protecting children from economic concerns in the present and preparing children for the future by helping them develop the skills they would need to be productive citizens. However, in attempting to accomplish both of these goals, these individuals turned the home, school, and playground into contradictory spaces. This project first explores how these educators and authors resolved the tensions and contradictions present in these spaces--and the problems of class and gender underlying their resolutions--before examining why they were invested in creating a protected space for childhood in the first place and finally showing how the protected space they attempted to create became destabilized. Ultimately, I claim that these educators and authors made the protected space of childhood contingent upon the child's ability to submit to and absorb practical lessons learned on the playground and in the classroom and the home. Consequently, it appears that these individuals believed that children must earn their right to a protected childhood, but by insisting that children earn their protection, these individuals allowed economic concerns to creep into the supposedly separate childhood space. Each chapter of this dissertation will explore a particular facet of Progressive Era education--specifically, humanities courses, vocational education, and the play and playground movement--to reveal the anxieties that surrounded the intersections among the establishment of practical education, the desire to protect children from the workforce, and the need to prepare children for their futures as productive citizens. / text

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1929. / Vita. Published also as Studies in history, economics, and public law, ed. by the Faculty of political science of Columbia university, no. 311. Bibliography at end of part of the chapters.

Children playing on playgrounds is a common sight, one most people have witnessed and participated in. While playground spaces are scattered throughout the United States as places for children to explore, they often reflect adult notions of childhood and come in standardized forms, which often neglect the interests of children. Situated at the nexus of critical childhoods and spatial theories, this study argues that children’s playground spaces are valuable sites of study, as are the experiences of children utilizing them. While easy to ignore the desires of very young children, or brush them off as unimportant or uninformed, this study emphasizes the value of seeing, hearing, and prioritizing the experiences of two-year old’s as they navigate playground spaces. Utilizing researcher and child-driven methods, children’s verbal and nonverbal modes of communication were valued and reflected in the findings. Children’s movements through playground spaces were reflective of their sensory and embodied ways of being, as well as their connection with the material world. This work proposes that more attention be paid to children’s actual lived experiences in playground spaces and that this be considered when designing and constructing these spaces.

Play is necessary for the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development of all children. Although playgrounds are designed to support the play of children, children with disabilities are often unable to fully participate in play on playgrounds. As a result, children with disabilities experience fewer opportunities to participate in play, and hence have fewer developmental opportunities. Because of the lack of awareness of evidence-based practices supporting the play of children with disabilities, playground designers continue to perpetuate this disparity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the evidence-based practices for inclusive playground design that support peer interaction between children of all abilities, and to demonstrate how they can be implemented into a playground design. Through a systematic literature review and design implementation, 10 evidence-based practices of inclusive playground design were determined and then implemented into a playground design located on the Utah State University campus. The design for this inclusive playground was evaluated, analyzing the ease and difficulty of including each of the 10 practices of inclusive playground design. The results of this study provide designers with a concise list of 10 practices that, if implemented, should create an inclusive playground setting. These practices also have research-based evidence to support their effectiveness in facilitating peer interactions between children of all abilities. As our society strives to make various environments and built structures more inclusive, the results of this study provide a helpful resource to guide designers, administrators, businesses, city councils, and many more organizations in their work to create inclusive playgrounds.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Montreal witnessed the proliferation of parks and playgrounds. Products of urban capitalist development, these deeply ideological spaces, inscribed with different gender, class, ethnic, and sexual meanings, are the subject of this thesis. Moving from the scenic park to the neighbourhood park to the playground, this study examines the relationship among the power to construct a space, the values inscribed in it, and a system of regulation designed to either bar the less powerful or eject those who challenged these values. It links the uneven development of parks and playgrounds in Montreal to the unequal power of the different classes and ethnic groups. It connects the construction of parks as domestic enclaves for families generally and women specifically to the function of parks, places to uphold female propriety, respectable (hetero)sexuality, and bourgeois domesticity. It traces how those who embodied social unrest, economic disorder, and sexual chaos (the drinking man, the vagabond, and the "promiscuous" young working woman) were subject to a policy of exclusion. It charts the process by which the proponents for playgrounds, the elite anglophone organization the Montreal Parks and Playgrounds Association, manipulated play space as a means to curb male vices and contain male heterosexual urges, as well as train working-class boys to be good citizens and obedient workers in the (Anglo-Saxon) nation. This thesis is a history of how the powerful architects of these gendered spaces helped construct the norm and justified the punishment of the deviant.

This project presents the marketing strategy that should be developed in order to be successful in the Latin American market. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the market's opportunities and threats linked to the customers/consumers expectations by using the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.