A resume of this thesis shows its main objective to be the design of Draper’s meadows, a community designed and landscaped for living, to provide housing for some members of the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia. A review of literature dealing with community design from the l860’s to the present time, was made. A preliminary survey of the site was made, and data taken in this survey was used to make a topographic map which served as a base map for accurately projecting subsequent drawings. A general consideration of the environment and physical condition of the site along with a discussion of its historical significance, and a review of the methods of attacking the problem of community design, present the reader with an introduction to the thesis. The body of the thesis consists of three main sections: “Design of community,” “Construction Details,” and “Landscape Design.” Drawings related to these topics are included and frequently referred to end explained in these sections. of the design is of a contemporary nature, stressing simplicity und beauty along with unity and individuality. It is concluded that the design does embody some new principles which could be adaptable to other community situations, while at the same time providing a solution to the design of a community at Draper’s Meadows. / Master of Science

This is a qualitative study of women and change in the coalfields and nearby mining areas of Southwest Virginia in the Central Appalachian mountains, a peripheral region in a core country at the end of the twentieth century. Intensive interviews with working-class women in grassroots associations explicate women’s experiences in the intersection of social structures of class, gender, and Appalachian ethnicity. Conditions and positions of marginalization are explored through analysis of women’s lives in the family, through work, and in communities. The study also examines grassroots associations as contexts for empowerment, and how women struggle for development and change. A grounded theory of empowerment as a process of coming to personal autonomy through political community is presented as an alternative to the economism and individualism of conventional women in development analysis. / Ph. D.