If the Victorians privileged the idea of ‘the family’ and the domestic configuration, what, then, was the position of unrelated groups, quasi-families and outsiders? While mid-Victorian literature widely praised or denigrated the reputation of the family, Stevenson’s works take a different standpoint. Throughout Stevenson’s oeuvre we encounter families which are falling apart and unrelated, family-like groups which take their place: Stevenson’s writing features clubs, clans and secret societies. Recent Stevenson criticism associates the problematic family relations depicted in his texts with biographical details, such as the tempestuous relationship the writer had with his father. Yet this thesis offers a reassessment of the kinship relations in Stevenson’s works. It argues that Stevenson’s writing does not focus on domestic quarrels, but prioritises families which are not related. It asks what it means to be a member of a family which is not familial or a non-family group which is like a family. Is it possible to be both a member of a family and to be without kin? Stevenson’s works are characterised by strange and estranged family groups; it is by stepping outside of the Victorian family that characters in Stevenson’s works experience the familial. The chapters in this thesis survey a range of social groups in Stevenson’s works, all of which take on a quasi-familial form. The first chapter considers the fin-de-siècle writing world and Stevenson’s own position in London’s family-like clubland relations, which both rejected and replicated the family form. The following two chapters go on to explore the role of exile and outsiders in kinship groups. Chapter 2 looks at David Balfour’s extra-familial adventures in Kidnapped and the clan groups he encounters. The importance of the outsider to kinship is proposed in Chapter 3, which considers island communities in Stevenson’s South Pacific writings and the role of taboo as a method of social organisation. The final two chapters consider the appropriation of familial relations by the secret society. In Chapter 4 we encounter the Otherness between the brothers in The Master of Ballantrae and the similar relations of inequality in the Fenian Brotherhood in The Dynamiter; here, fraternal relations have been adopted by the political secret society. Chapter 5 explores this relationship between family and secret society in The Dynamiter further: it considers the female characters in the text and the crossovers and exchanges between domestic family life and political fraternity. These familial groups are characterised by difference, Otherness and exclusion; Stevenson’s works reconsider family relations and recognise the strangeness of social groups.

This thesis is an account of women's international work at the League of Nations. While feminists' shift from the national to the international arena has been noted in studies on the inter-war women's movement, most often it has been interpreted as a reflection of the heightened salience of peace work in the aftermath of the First World War. This is an important observation but it overlooks the fact that women's activities at the League embraced the full spectrum of feminist causes: social reform, women's rights and peace. This thesis gives prominence to inter-war feminist activity played against the backdrop of institutional developments at the League which encouraged women to believe their goals could be advanced under its auspices. One of the major goals of the Women's International Organizations was to establish a political role for women in international affairs. The first chapter describes the efforts of women's organizations to secure the representation of women in the League of Nations. Many recently enfranchised women in Europe and North America identified the League as an institution toward which they should direct their newly won political influence. This is assessed in the context of ideas that emerged in the aftermath of the First World War about the transformation of the international sphere through the infusion of female values. The second, third and fourth chapters present a profile of the women's networks operating in and around the League. The study reveals a high level of interaction between the Women's International Organizations and women in official positions at the League. Chapter 2 examines the aims of the Women's International Organizations and exposes tensions between social feminist and equal rights feminist organizations that led to a struggle for influence at the League. The third and fourth chapters assess the impact of gender-stereotyping on patterns of appointments to the League. However much appointments to Assembly delegations and League advisory committees should have carried with them national allegiances, women delegates were often seen to represent women and this both positively and negatively affected women's participation. The remaining chapters assess women's impact on the development of League activities with particular attention to the implications of the idea that women as women had a special contribution to make at the international level. Chapter 5 explores the extent to which the assertion of difference enhanced women's influence with regard to the League's social and humanitarian work in the 1920s and enabled them to have several gender-specific concerns placed on the agenda. The Depression and the rise of reactionary ideologies influenced feminists to call for more decisive League action on the status of women in the 1930s. Most member states of the League, however, did not view the status of women as a subject for international consideration. Chapter 6 looks at the conflict between social and equal rights feminists over what League initiatives would prove most effective for advancing the status of women and traces developments that ultimately led to the League sponsored Inquiry on the Legal Status of Women in 1937. The seventh chapter assesses the impact of traditional associations between women and peace on women's peace activities at the League. Cultural representations of women as peace-loving had political relevance in the context of League activities and the League attempted to bolster support in the 1930s by intensifying collaboration with women. Significantly, the Women's International Organizations responded by asserting that only with equality would women's influence for peace be fully available. The interplay between equality and difference permeated women's international work at every level and the conclusion evaluates the way in which this tension influenced women's participation in and contribution to the activities of the League of Nations.

Although the existence of wildlife clubs in Africa dates back to the start of the environmental movement in the 1970s, youth involvement through environmental clubs only commenced in Namibia in 1992. I became involved with the clubs in 1995 when I was employed by the Rossing Foundation Environmental Education Project to encourage, support and coordinate environmental clubs in Namibia. During the last three years the number of Namibian clubs has increased from 20 to ±85, and they are now established in most geographical regions of the country. During my involvement with the clubs I became increasingly interested in the philosophical underpinnings of youth movements like clubs and started questioning what we could expect from the youth and what could be achieved through the clubs. One of my main concerns was whether youth could make a significant improvement to the quality of their lives and their environment through these clubs. The aim of my research was therefore to describe and reflect critically on the role of environmental youth clubs in environmental education in Namibia. My study was guided by a socially critical orientation which emphasises the construction of meaning through social dialogue and critical reflection. I chose an interpretative research strategy and generated data mainly through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, a focus-group discussion and a workshop. Due to the focus of the research I purposefully selected the sample of existing youth clubs to be included in the study. The iterative strategy of gathering and interpreting data in successive cycles allowed for continuous reflection throughout the research process. It also allowed me to identify key patterns and trends in analysing and interpreting the data. The study findings suggest that environmental clubs do playa role in learning about environmental issues; in developing personal and social identity, confidence and a sense of purpose in society; in establishing new and supportive relationships between teachers and learners and with other community resourde people; in creating opportunities and enabling exposure to diverse learning environments, options and alternatives; and ih fostering the orientation and skills needed to effect meaningful d1'inges in the environment. The findings also suggest that environmental clubs could make a significant contribution to environmental education, providing that they incorporate a socially critical orientation, gain greater recognition from significant adults and education officials, collaborate with other projects and organisations, and use guidelines of models such as the action research framework to ensure relevant and effective action projects. The main challenges to environmental clubs in Namibia include changing perceptions that youth do not have much to contribute; improving relationships between clubs, schools and communities; dealing with the tension between the possible disempowering effect of central control and the need for more formalised structures in order to gain official recognition; and developing strategies to ensure the clubs' sustainability in the future.

The purpose of this study of the out-of-school character-building organizations for high-school youth is fourfold: (1) to discover the problems peculiar to adolescents growing up in the disturbed social environment of this country at the present time; (2) to determine the part reputable youth-serving organizations have in quipping young persons for meeting these problem; (3) to investigate a specific situation in an effort to determine the extent to which high-school students take advantage of the services offered by these organizations; and (4) to suggest ways of reaching more of the young people by gaining from them a knowledge of the kind of program they desire.

The purpose of this study was to determine what recreational activities were of greatest interest and appeal to members of nine senior centers in Texas and according to their age and sex. The nine senior centers were randomly selected from the forty-two centers in Texas. A minimum of twenty-five members at the selected centers were asked to respond to a questionnaire concerning their recreational activity interest. A total of two hundred seventy-four respondents completed the questionnaire, of which seventy-nine were males and one hundred ninety-five were females. The questionnaire consisted of nine recreational activity categories. These categories were designed to cover a wide range of recreational interest. Table games were the activities indicated by the respondents (88 per cent) to be of greatest interest. The activity that was indicated to be of least interest was dancing (47 per cent). Activities that included social contact had the greatest interest to the respondents. A recommendation was made that senior centers should stress those activities of a social group nature. The centers should also provide more outdoor life activities.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In May 1987 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Board of Directors, Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte that exclusion of women in large clubs such as Rotary was not protected under their Constitutional right to freedom of expression. The ruling ultimately opened the doors of traditionally-male service clubs to women. Through a case study of the Fargo Lions Club (Fargo, North Dakota), I sought to understand what happened in the first years of women’s membership in the association. These women are almost totally overlooked in the small body of literature that currently exists on service clubs and understanding this redefinition of associational freedom within the nonprofit sector is a unique contribution to philanthropic studies. A retrospective tracer methodology reconstructs the sequence of events and decisions made by the Fargo Lions Club in response to the Supreme Court ruling. How the club accepted and included women is traced through personal interviews with key members, contemporary news reports and archival records.

The eightfold purpose of this study was: 1. to evaluate the programs of boys' clubs sponsored by organizations in McKinney, Denton, and Dallas, Texas; 2. to obtain and study the aims and objectives of the programs of each club; 3. to obtain and study the aims and objectives of the active membership of the clubs; 4. to evaluate the programs in the light of an over-all guidance program; 5. to determine the different activities and their significance of mental, physical, emotional, economical, social, and moral phases of life; 6. to determine the social and economic status of the membership of the clubs; 7. to discover in which clubs there is a definite need for future professional preparation of adult leaders; 8. to discover the carry-over value of adolescent training through clubs into adult life.

This study examines the specific elements of youth’s experiences at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGC) that contribute to the development of their social and emotional competencies. Social and emotional competencies include managing one’s emotions, developing concern for others, and making responsible, ethically informed decisions. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 respondents ranging in age from 16 to 18 years old. This study gave adolescents a voice, empowering them to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ways in which community youth programs can assist in positive youth development. Data analysis revealed three categories of themes: social setting at the BGC, interpersonal connections, and personal development. The CASEL model of social and emotional learning (SEL) was used as a conceptual framework, and evidence from the research themes was used to demonstrate how SEL skills may have been fostered at the BGC. The four elements of the BGC that were mentioned by respondents most frequently in relation to the development of SEL competencies were receiving and offering social support, acquiring successful coping skills, engaging in formal leadership opportunities, and developing conflict prevention and resolution strategies. The results of this study have implications for theory and practice. The information presented in this study can guide onsite workers to focus on specific aspects in their interactions with youth and inform future youth program planning. / x, 278 leaves ; 29 cm

The main purpose of this study is to provide a re-assessment of the early twentieth century women's suffrage movement, thereby challenging much of the existing historiography of this subject. The approach is based upon the premise that it is not possible to understand the nature and significance of the women's suffrage movement through accounts of the lives of a few of its charismatic leaders. A far broader analytical framework is necessary. This begins with the nature of the arguments about women and their place in society, which were utilised in support of votes for women. It then extends to an analysis of the success gained in conveying such ideas to a wide body of women, who in the case of Britain, if not elsewhere in Europe and North America, were drawn from all social classes. The final step is to assess the impact of the women's suffrage movement upon the broader political system in which it operated. For the eventual success of the movement in gaining votes for women cannot be explained solely in terms of its own internal dynamics. Rather it is necessary to examine the inter-action between the way the various suffrage organisations viewed and related to the current political environment, and the way political leaders and parties viewed and acted in response to suffrage activities. This analytical framework unites two strands of historical research which at present seem to have developed in isolation from each other. That is, it combines the concern of the new feminist historiography with the evolution of modern sex-roles, with the more traditional political and constitutional historians' interest in women's suffrage as a problem for party politics and public order.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education