Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-254).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-254).

This thesis addresses the subject of organizational effectiveness in municipal governance. It specifically examines the possibility that urban planning agencies may resolve complex social problems more effectively when using a management approach characterized by "transformational leadership," teamwork, flexibility, and creativity; an approach that fosters the development of innovative planning policies, procedures and/or designs. Successful, innovative, and creative business enterprises that endorse such a holistic management approach have been called "learning" and "well-performing" organizations. The management and transformational leadership attributes that encourage an organization to "learn" relies on a combination of techniques, including non-hierarchical communications, enhancement of job satisfaction, continuous learning, emotive and motivational psychology, and team approaches to creativity and problem solving. A popular term has been coined that captures the essence of successful implementation of these attributes in combination: Excellence. The rationale for examining the concept of Excellence in the context of urban planning agencies' organizational effectiveness derives from assertions made in the planning and governance literature suggesting that such a business management approach may significantly improve government operations. Some writers argue that a new approach to governance is sorely needed. The concept of encouraging attributes of Excellence in local government planning practices has been extolled as a cure for economic and political inequalities, restricted avenues of communication, outmoded operating procedures, "turf wars, and various motivational barriers to innovative practices that limit the effectiveness of governments (and urban planners). Many of the innovative practices lauded in the business management literature as attributes of Excellence appear similar to the community development concepts of individual empowerment, citizen participation in local planning and decision making, collective effort to resolve local issues, consensus building, and visionary leadership. This thesis studies the case of the City of Vancouver's Department of Social Planning and Community Development from 1968 to 1976. The two primary research methods used are: analysis of archival documents concerning Vancouver's social planning department; and, open ended interviews conducted with sixteen key informants familiar with the history, practices, and planning approaches used by department personnel during the study period. The findings of this thesis are that: 1) the social planning department originally exhibited elements of innovation, flexibility, teamwork, transformational leadership, and other attributes associated with the concept of Excellence; 2) in some cases, these attributes may have temporarily overcome various barriers to effective planning and problem solving by developing innovative solutions to minor urban social problems; 3) those innovative elements were not unanimously supported nor encouraged in other municipal departments or community agencies, thus indicating that diffuse innovative practices throughout other organizations was a difficult endeavor; 4) over time, attributes of Excellence faded from the social planning department as the early excitement and energy of planners wore off and new planners were hired to replace the original social planners who had decided to move on to other projects. The important lesson learned is that these supposedly "new" management practices, introduced into business enterprises to help overcome barriers to productivity, efficiency, or effectiveness, are themselves vulnerable to similar organizational, political, or behavioral barriers over time. Constant vigilance, monitoring and evaluation of values, goals, communications strategies and structures, and organizational results are required to sustain Excellence. Greater promotion of Excellence concepts that explain business success may legitimize the expansion of participation of individuals in goverment institutions and result in improvements to their effectiveness. Urban planners, and social planners in particular, should therefore be interested in concepts like Excellence and Learning Organizations as heuristic usable in their search for effective planning, organizing, and management practices toward intentional interventions in social welfare. Without a systematic approach and understanding of the complex variables and dimensions involved, concepts like Excellence may be treated simply as catch-words and trendy marketing ploys. However, as the thesis will show, planners may discover that further research into the qualities and attributes of individuals working in a collective organizational environment, may yield positive strategies for furthering institutional reforms that view workers as factors of human development rather than as units of productivity and efficiency. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

In the pursuit of originality, some interventions consciously stand in opposition to the existing. The approach I've taken is more holistic; rather than pursue the novelty of the moment, I've taken the stance that creativity in art and architecture is part of a continuum. With that in mind, I've attempted in this project to make this evolution apparent by bridging the existing to the new without reverting to historical mimicking. My design is not a heritage preservation project. I wanted to take what exists, re-think it, and build upon it. My proposal is for a downtown student residence for both individuals and families. It would take advantage of new developments in the area such as the new S.F.U. conference center, the new B.C.IT. complex, and other institutions already in place such as the S.F.U. at Harbor Center, and the Vancouver Community College. This student residence would be an inter-university residence, accepting students from all of these educational institutions as well as U.B.C. and Emily Carr. Its aim would be to establish greater social and academic links between the city's post-secondary educational institutes. This project feeds on what has already started to happen in the area and can re-introduce a residential population to the city core, generating new life and new activity which in turn will contribute significantly to the wealth of the urban fabric. In short, one can imagine the formation of a lively downtown university quarter. My proposed residence would be one seed sown in this larger vision. Besides feeling that I felt the project should be a dense urban scheme, it appeared imperative to me that my design foster a real sense of belonging, permitting the development of a small community within a community. In addition to public commercial space, the new program demanded realms of privacy, and more importantly a core, or center, around which a community could begin to form. From this organizational idea of a core the design started to take shape. The existing building opened up in the rear toward a court. A lane intersected it providing access and making it a space that could be both place and pathway for activity. The program turned towards this space marking it as the center, and animating it with the activity of daily life. The existing urban aesthetic informed my design language. Urban context is characterized by wall as a dominant element, tall vertical spaces, steel stairs and railing, hanging wires, and a strong demarcation between front, sides and rear accentuated by a change of brick at the corners. All these elements were to some degree absorbed, assimilated and reinterpreted in the work. The relationship of 'part to whole' became an important part of the process. Likewise, terminology in how I started to speak and think about the project. Words like old vs. new stopped being used as they aggravate the dichotomy between the parts. An effort was made not to mimic the existing building which would have produce a neo-historic building, this was not my goal. An effort was made not to objectify the existing building, rendering it a precious object. Nor did I deliberately attempt to contrast it, this would be counter-productive to the concept of the whole. Contrast aggravates the gap between then and now, disavowing integration and synthesis. My approach was rather one of complementing and complicity. Complicity is an interesting concept because it implies that two or more parties or parts come together toward a common goal, It also implies a dialogue. This is very different from contrast, for example, that is unidirectional. A dialogue receives and gives, and both parts form and are informed. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

This thesis deals with the treatment of disturbed children. Beginning with the institutional care of children, it traces developments to the modern conception of foster home placement and the evolution of child guidance clinics. The value of institutional care for emotionally disturbed teenage boys is considered. Three types of residences now in existence in the United States are described for comparison purposes (in an appendix) The principal methods used are (1) case study of six teenage boys and their parents from Vancouver Children's Aid Society files. (2) comparative analysis of the behaviour of the boys prior to and following placement in the Group Residence. The behaviour of the boys at the Residence being assessed from existing group work records. The scope of the thesis is of necessity limited. Very extensive case work and group work records had to be summarized, and the developmental history of six boys together with brief details of parental history are compared. Excerpts from the group records which display the progress of the boys in the Residence are included. The value of all excerpt material is assessed by the researcher, and an attempt is made to indicate the progress made by the boys during their stay at the Group Residence. Some other possible causative factors are discussed, and a brief Resume made of the strengths and limitations of the Residence. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate family case work particularly as seen in the work performance of the Family Welfare Bureau of Greater Vancouver, British Columbia. The research sample comprises fifty-eight cases featured by problems in the areas of marital relationships and parent-child relationships, known to the agency during the five-year period ending April 1, 1948. Selection is exclusive of extreme examples and includes only "whole" families, that is, units in which both parents were living, although not necessarily together. Childless marriages are considered only when there are no contra-indications to fecundity. Age is a further delimiting factor in selection of these cases. The maximum ages for men being forty years, for women thirty-five years. The total research load is subdivided into five groups, basis of grouping being the particular problem most troubling the family. Groupings are; Early Years of Marriage (Ten cases), Advanced Marital Conflict (Thirteen cases), Dissolution of Marriage (Eleven cases), Reconciliation (Ten cases), and Child Development and Parent-Child Relationships Problems (Fourteen cases). None of the several evaluation methods examined proved suitable for the cases in this study. The criteria and method of evaluation used in the project are derived from basic case work principles and the concept of social case work as a dynamic process. For want of a better descriptive term the instrument devised is variously called the case-o-graph, case-gram and case-chart. It is a dissecting facility intended to show the dynamics of the case work process as they operate in a given situation. The activity of client, worker, agency and community are proportionately shown in this case-chart which illustrates what takes place in case work as seen in the case record. Results, of case work are subjectively graded. The case work services of the Family Welfare Bureau are assessed as generally effective. Visiting homemaker service is particularly of good quality. Difficulty in helping people with serious personality conflicts and advanced marital problems underlines the necessity for improvement of case work personnel, increased psychiatric orientation of staff, and revision of community psychiatric services. The role of the family agency in promoting family life education and in supporting all efforts for further family life in the community is emphasized by findings of the project which indicate the general need of people for better preparation for life. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis analyzes German immigration to Canada in the period following the Second World War and primarily focuses on the settlement of these immigrants in Vancouver. By examining residential patterns, economic experiences, the role of German churches and Saturday schools, language retention, and the secular organizations maintained by Vancouver's German population, it becomes apparent that Germans' attempt to adjust to Canadian circumstances entailed two, seemingly contradictory phenomena: speedy integration and assimilation into the mainstream of Canadian society on one hand, and support for ethnic social, economic, religious, educational, and cultural institutions on the other. The study concludes that assimilation and ethnicity were thus not mutually exclusive. Immigration gave individuals the opportunity to weigh alternatives with regard to social form and institutions, personal values, and the role of their ethnicity in the new life offered by Canada. Consequently, involvement in the local German community may be attributed to as complex causes as the supersession of ethnic origin as a basis of association by other sources of group identification. Yet, even though German-Canadians were highly assimilated into Canadian society by the end of the postwar period, they may have preserved a sense of ethnic identity that did not manifest itself in any visible behaviour. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This report is the result of an empirical investigation of everyday life in Victory Square, Vancouver, British Columbia. Three months of intensive, scheduled observation and participant observation were planned in order to investigate the hypothesis that there was a regular and meaningful organization, both spatially and socially, to the use and control of park space. The exploration was guided theoretically and methodologically by the research of human spatial behaviour at other spatial scales, from the indoor built environment to the scale of urban communities. Both systematically retrieved demographic statistics and spatial habits of park users, and more subjective anecdotal accounts of people's perceptions and specific behavioural episodes were gathered. This provided a well rounded statistical and phenomenological data bank from which to generalize. An instrument for objective assessment and classification of park users as to life style affiliation, a systematic schedule of information retrieval, and a 'behavioural map' on which to record unobtrusively derived data were central to a research strategy that did not impinge upon the natural, real life setting. The park was found to host a number of socially marginal life style groups who, as powerless outcasts of wider affluent society, coexisted, as a separate social world, in social and spatial harmony. Through the behavioural processes of tolerance, non-involvement, and passive readjustment, a parochial moral order existed which was demonstrated in rituals of interaction and collective patterns of spatial dominance. This socio-spatial order accorded incompatible life style groups a means of peaceful coexistence in a place of limited space and resources. Spatial behaviour in micro-scale outdoor public space has not previously been intensively investigated. This exploration, as a case study of one such environment, supports the hypothesis that, at all levels of social encounter, and at all spatial scales, available space is organized, used and controlled in a regular, ordered, and meaningful way to accommodate and integrate the social gatherings it hosts. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Redevelopment seeks to bring about a "higher" urban land use in declining neighbourhoods and often may result in the dislocation of local residents. Since the mid—1960’s a form of privately-financed redevelopment has been a salient characteristic of the Gastown/Chinatown section of Vancouver's skid row. The hypothesis initiating this study postulated that the redevelopment occurring in this area, has caused and would continue to result in large-scale dislocation of the indigenous population. To obtain a greater understanding of socio-economic activites and effects in the area, three features of the community were investigated. The first two aspects set the foundation for inquiry, while the third feature enabled an analysis of the impact of redevelopment on the housing sector. The first aspect required an identification of the social attributes of the area and its residents; the second element involved an accounting of the magnitude of redevelopment -- both in terms of the area's changes in economic function and in economic value; while the third required an investigation of what impact on the resident population has resulted from redevelopment in the area's housing sector. Four major classes of residents -were found to predominate and inhabit approximately 2,200 dwelling units in need of major repairs, or complete restorations. Existing services — both public and private were found to be characterized by ineffectiveness and lack of resident participation in their programs. The vastness and rapidity of redevelopment in the area can best be characterized by the dramatic land and floor usage changes from industrial to commercial. Further the market values of properties in Gastown/Chinatown have undergone great increases, as have assessments and taxes — used as approximate indicators of property values. The housing sector, however, has not been a conspicuous component part of these redevelopment changes. Though redevelopers have invested in the purchase of residential properties which act as the triggering mechanisms in a sequential process of redevelopment, the other outlined sequences (i.e., eviction, rehabilitation, rent increases, and change in clientele composition) have not followed. In sum dislocation has not been a prominent characteristic in this community, and the hypothesis which initiated this study has been refuted. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

In the past several years many authors and critics of the urban scene have denounced the visual chaos that is now many North American cities. This condition has been attributed to several historical factors as well as to some present negative policies and practices by governments which affect the quality of the urban environment. Despite this traditional lack of concern, current trends point to a new and enlightened interest in the aesthetic quality of our cities. Various legislative acts have been passed by senior governments to enable certain municipalities to adopt local regulations and ordinances based on aesthetic objectives in order to control the visual, character of both public and private development. The historical evolution of this type of legislation is outlined, as well as the judicial attitude affecting its legality in the face of traditional conflicts between individual property rights and the inherent regulatory power of the municipality. In addition, special attention is given to the administration of this type of legislation, normally effected by an architectural board of review system which is empowered to assess the aesthetic merits of a project's design before approval to build is granted. The author affirms, however, that contrary to traditional concepts urban aesthetics in the architecture-urban fields today are based on broader and more comprehensive design criteria than merely the arrangement of an individual building's form or architectural "style". He further hypothesizes that the role of architectural review boards must be broadened to include the functional as well as the aesthetic aspects of design review in order to improve the city's total physical environment. A case study of the Vancouver Civic Design Panel is used to test the validity of the hypothesis as well as to assess the merits of the design panel system in principle. Within the context of the case study, the conclusions reached generally confirm the author's original affirmation and hypothesis. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate