In November of 1941, 1,973 Canadian soldiers and two nurses sailed from Vancouver for Hong Kong to garrison the British colony and help defend it in the event of a Japanese attack. The ensuing battle was a decisive defeat for the defenders. 555 Canadians never returned home, over half of those dying in captivity, either in Hong Kong or later once transferred to Japan. The prisoners would become Canada’s longest serving prisoners-of-war of the Second World War and arguably suffered worse than any others. Yet, despite the high casualties, 84 per cent of the 1,684 initial captives survived the ordeal as prisoners in Hong Kong. Once one begins to understand what these men went through, it seems remarkable that so many of them managed to survive at all. This thesis explores Canadian survival in Hong Kong prison camps and the various methods these captives used to overcome boredom, violence, disease, hunger, loneliness, and hopelessness. Using as a research basis clandestine diaries, journals, memoirs, and letters to and from family members, this thesis argues that the Canadians survived due to strong leadership, commitment to duty, creative ingenuity, and a firm determination to return to their families. Uncertainty was an unyielding enemy from day to day and the Hong Kong POWs had to rely on themselves and their compatriots to keep mentally sharp and physically fit. Canadian prisoners in Hong Kong were abused by their captors, fed meager rations, suffered a myriad of tropical diseases, and lived in appalling conditions. The fact that so many survived is a testament to their courage and resilience. This thesis will show how they did it.

Micro and small enterprise (MSE) owners in Kenya are faced with a myriad of constraints that affect their survival for longer than the first 5 years. Owners of MSEs who are unable to identify and implement strategies may not succeed in sustaining their businesses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of MSEs in Nairobi, Kenya, used to sustain their businesses for longer than 5 years. The conceptual framework for the study was the theory of constraints. Data were collected from 4 purposefully selected MSE owners in Nairobi, Kenya, through face-to-face, semistructured interviews, and review of field notes and company documents. Using thematic data analysis, the major themes that emerged were customer service, access to capital, and nearness to market. The implications of this study for positive social change include strategies for MSE owners to generate stable income for employees, new employment opportunities for job seekers, improved standards of healthcare and education for the community, and a positive lifestyle for the residents of Kenya.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the environments and survival strategies of local media from the aspect of management. China Daily News and Taiwan News are chosen for case study because they are representative of local newspaper in urban areas in Taiwan. The results show that these two Newspaper possess three core competitive forces: history, cross marketing and newsroom strategies, and the superior delivery of local news. With regard to history, these two presses were the only press issued locally from their time of establishment to their time of growth and still remain to be so. As to cross marketing and newsroom strategies, their owners highly emphasize the necessity of adopting these strategies which contribute to the success and vitality of the press. Finally, the quality and quantity of the local news they cover and deliver are also unbeatable by any other media. To survive in the future, local newspaper are advised to adopt the following strategies: (1) to have sufficient capital, (2) to perform market and cost analyses for the purpose of fixing the prices of newspaper and advertisement, (3) to invest on the development of human resources, (4) to evaluate changes in the market, (5) to find a niche and have a clear share in the market, (6) to produce local news that are superior in quality and quantity, (7) to adopt cross marketing and newsroom strategies, (8) to have value chain deconstructed and executed externally. Vertical and horizontal integration, as well as diversification of business are essential as well. For new local newspaper, there is a small chance of success because the success of a local newspaper depends on the acceptance and recognition of local people. It takes time for local people to grow into the habit of reading a particular newspaper. Even if the newcomers are run in the best form of business, success is still uneasy. The competition is keener in those urban areas where local newspaper are already present.

This dissertation analyzes changes in the ruling strategies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the context of economic reforms, beginning in 1978. By employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation investigates how Chinese leaders have utilized legitimating strategies, while modifying their governing strategies, in order to a) solidify the population, b) consolidate ruling authority and c) maintain political and social stability. Specifically, this dissertation looks at how Chinese policymakers have developed effective public policies in response to rapidly rising wage inequality, one of the most pressing problems undermining the CCP’s ruling authority. By providing an original estimate of China’s wage inequality and analyzing the government’s response to it, this dissertation provides a unique look at how the CCP has transformed government functions from growth-based to people-centered to meet various social, political and economic challenges. A comparative statistical analysis helps illustrate the philosophical roots and sources of the CCP’s political legitimacy. The technique of Theil Statistics is applied to measure China’s wage inequality during the reform period. A multivariate hierarchical regression analysis is employed to measure the impact of rising inequality on Chinese society. Two models on social welfare system reform are studied in order to understand Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao’s people-centered governing philosophy and the rationale for constructing a service-oriented government. / text

The Abstract The main focus of the diploma thesis named "GULAG as a life experience" is on the Soviet repressive system in the era of 30's to 50's of the 20th century. There are two approaches in this thesis: the first one is concerning the narrating and memory, the other point of view is the topics reflecting in the narrations. Both, oral and written stories are used, the written ones are prevailing. In the third chapter, I deal with the topic of human memory and its relation to history and telling about past. I am posing the question concerning the relation between memory and society, memory and history, how do the people conceive their narrations, what sort of language tools and schemes of telling do they use and what the differences between oral and written narrations are. This empirically focused part of the thesis is forgone by a theoretical part dealing with the mentioned topics. All is illustrated by using examples from the life stories of survivors. The other main topic is discussed in the eighth chapter, dealing with topics often appearing in the memories of the survived people. As well as in the other part I am using here the examples of the life stories for better illustration of the explained topic. The subtopics are divided into five groups: "time and space", "death and suicide", "strategies...

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This text demonstrates that my work on young people who are exploited through prostitution and young people involved in problematic drug use in Britain at the end ofthe twentieth and beginning ofthe twenty-first century constitutes a significant contribution to advancing our knowledge ofthese inter-related issues. The text demonstrates that, in Britain, at the end of the twentieth and beginning ofthe twenty-first century, young people exploited through prostitution and young people involved in problematic drug use share in common lived experiences in poverty at the margins of society. The common theme demonstrated here is that, as a result ofthe poverty generated by social and economic policies adopted in Britain in response to gIobalisation, 'street cultures' play an important role in the development and maintenance of survival strategies adopted by socially marginalised and economically disadvantaged young people. The discussion argues that these cultures perform important functions in time and space for socially and economically marginal young people. They do so in different ways for different young people. At the same time, however, they serve to further entrench their social and economic exclusion and disadvantage.

Cette étude explore les stratégies de survie qu'Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid et Toni Morrison développent dans leurs romans. Il s'agi de n'étudier que trois romans de chacune d'entre elles. Elles sont toutes trois de trois générations différentes. Une vingtaine d'années sépare chacune d'entres elles, et pour tant les thématiques qu'elles élaborent se font écho, sans pour cela que leurs stratégies d'écriture soient comparables. La première partie s'intéresse aux bases de la transmission de la problématique des noirs des Amériques: la mère, le père et la structure sociale, c'est-À-Dire la relation aux autres. La deuxième partie est centrée sur l'individu et ce qui en est dit dans les textes, mais aussi sur la marge de silence qu'ils expriment. La troisième partie étudie les stratégies qui s'élaborent depuis la marge puisque ces romans-Là, de manière intrinsèque, racontent la marge. La quatrième partie explore les stratégies de résilience qui se concentrent essentiellement sur le vivant qui, cependant, n'accède à la compréhension de ses propres stratégies de survie que trop tardivement. / Our purpose is to explore the survival strategies that Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid ans Toni Morrison develop in their novels. Only three novels of each author were the objects of our scrutiny. The three novelists are Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean from three different generations. A bear 20 years stands between each of them, yet the themes they tackle echo each others even if their writing strategies seem different. Our first part deals with the bases of black lore transmission: the impact of the mother figure, the place of the father and the social structure which transmits cultural features through relationships between each individual. Our second part is centered on the experiences from the margin: what it is to live" outside" and the silences it implies. Our third part explains the strategies that are elaborated from that margin. Finally, yhe fourth part concentrates on resilience strategies even if the understanding of the phenomenon happens belatedly.

MRDV / Institute for Rural Development

Across the world, women constitute the bottom segments of the informal labour market hierarchy, and the story is no different for Turkish women, except they are further constrained by a patriarchal family culture and corporatist welfare state structure which favours high-skilled workers in full-time employment. A reading of the literature on the reasons for participating in the informal sector suggested that workers either end up in the informal sector as a result of structural factors, such as high unemployment, horizontal and vertical labour market discrimination and limited job opportunities for the low-skilled and low-educated, or they actively chose to participate in the labour market to seize the opportunities it provides, such as evading tax and/or bureaucratic costs, or testing out business ideas. However, this dichotomous understanding provided little scope, if any, to understand why women also entered the informal sector, in ever growing numbers and what the gender-specific constraints and opportunities in the informal sector are. Against this background, this thesis aims to show that this dichotomous theorisation of the informal sector is an exaggeration of reality, and that women workers position presents a middle ground, in which they recognise the constraints on their ability to improve their lives but they are also not powerless. Hence, by focusing on the variety of survival strategies used by women workers in the informal sector, the thesis attempts to show the choice among these strategies, including the conditions in which these strategies can be adopted and the barriers to do so.