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This thesis examines the work of reformer Lugenia Burns Hope and her community organization, the Neighborhood Union, as a case study to unpack scholarly characterizations of black elite uplift strategies during the early 20th century. The Neighborhood Union was established in 1908 in Atlanta by Hope and women from the community to build stronger neighborhoods and to combat the deleterious effects of the 1906 Race Riots and Jim Crow laws. Neighborhood Union settlement houses provided basic and extracurricular services, including kindergartens for working mothers, vocational classes, and lecture series. The organization’s exceptional, multi-class leadership structure enabled members of the black poor and working classes to lead their own projects with the assistance of Neighborhood Union resources. Hope’s background provides evidence against broad generalizations of the black elite as paternalistic, and her vision of creating democratic communities that diminished class barriers provides a counter narrative to characterizations of clubwomen and the black elite as engaging in respectability politics in their social work. Understood within its historical and sociopolitical context, Hope’s life and work also challenge mainstream narratives of the Progressive Era and the Social Gospel movement.

Master thesis, Master of science in Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design with specialization in Business Administration Field of research: Business Administration, School of Business & Economics University: Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden Course code: 5FE07E Semester: Spring 2017 Author: Elias Gentili Examiner: Saara Taalas Tutor: Lena Olaison Title: Exploring Wellbeing in Small and Unconventional Dwellings Subtitle: Understanding living in small and unconventional dwellings through a multi- dimensional perspective of space Background: Urbanization and densification is happening in practically all parts of the world. Cities are becoming bigger, and questions about accessibility to the urban areas is a concern. Difficulties in finding affordable accommodation is one, and another one is wellbeing in homes. With the recent interests in the increasing tiny house movement, living solutions that are affordable, simple, and small are gaining in popularity. This is happening partly as a reaction to that the average home size in many parts of the western world have been increasing dramatically in the last decades. Both building regulation institutions and research are often connecting small space living with negative effects on wellbeing. But the tiny house movement seem to show that people can live well also in small dwellings outside of such regulations. The question of what brings wellbeing to a homes has never been more relevant, and the area of small and unconventional housing is lacking research. Research question: What is wellbeing living in small and unconventional homes? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of wellbeing in small and unconventional homes. The objective of this research is to provide a holistic understanding of wellbeing in such homes, by going beyond firstspace and secondspace dimensions, into a thirdspace perspective. Method: Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and observations of people chosing to live in small and unconventional dwellings. A thematical analysis strategy suitable for new concept development was adopted. An abductive approach was applied in order to frame the study being multi disciplinary, and in order to obtain increased understandings of the study phenomenon. However, the study focused heavily on the empirical data from my study. Conclusion: This study found that the wellbeing is experienced as a totality of different dimensions: not only does the physical dwelling in itself provide for wellbeing, but also dimensions relating to thoughts, meanings and lived experiences they associate to their dwellings. A holistic perspective is what best can provide an understanding of their experienced wellbeing, where physical, mental and lived dimensions are combined. Furthermore was found that the dwellings can work as facilitators to achieve wellbeing on several levels both relating to their inner space in their dwellings, bringing in other spatialities, and for their lives as a whole. Keywords: Small space living, tiny house movement, experienced wellbeing at home, housing beyond traditions and conventions, influences of spatialities, spatial theory

The design is a modular structure, repeating itself in cities around the world. The space grid, which forms the platform for mobile housing, provides the city nomad with the ability to easily move from city to city and live with its small home anywhere.

<p>This dissertation focuses on the life of Frances MacGregor Ingram, a progressive reformer in Louisville, Kentucky. It follows Ingram’s career in social work at the Neighborhood House settlement and the Progressive reform movements in which she held leadership positions from 1905 to 1939. This project concentrates on Ingram’s involvement in reform movements pertaining to tenement housing, garbage collection management, dance hall regulation, juvenile delinquency, mental hygiene institutions, probation, wholesome recreation, child welfare, child labor, women’s working conditions, unemployment, and Great Depression relief.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Most Progressive Era scholarship concentrates on northern cities and reformers, such as Jane Addams at Hull House. But much of the literature overlooks southern contributions to the settlement house movement and progressive reform as a whole. This dissertation serves three purposes. First it helps fill the gap in scholarship on southern progressivism. Reformers in the urban South were not limited to charity work and prohibition. They engaged in complex and dynamic social reforms. Incredibly diverse in scope, Kentucky’s reform history should be understood in the context of southern society and politics, which impacted which progressive reforms were successful and which were not.</p> <p> </p> <p>Second, it builds on other women’s reform scholars by expanding previous conceptions of the Progressive Era to include the 1930s. By doing so, it provides a better understanding of women’s reform activism. Third, this dissertation provides a more balanced approach by emphasizing the alliances Ingram formed with immigrant communities. With a few exceptions, settlement literature primarily focuses on the movement leaders. Unlike some settlements, Neighborhood House Americanization programs via clubs, recreation, and citizenship classes were negotiated between the settlement and its neighbors. Through the lens of Ingram’s urban reform experience in Kentucky, this dissertation uses gender, class, race, ethnicity, and region to unpack the complicated relationships between reformers like Ingram, working-class immigrants, and male political officials. </p>