The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of the Greek day school Socrates in Montreal and its overall impact on its students vis-a-vis the variables of ethnic identity, socio-personal adjustment and academic achievement. Existing documentation, content analysis of the Greek community press, and participant observation were all used in unfolding the school's historical development. The dependent variables of Greekness, adjustment and achievement were examined via the interviewing of 549 Greek origin individuals, 118 of whom were adults, 255 Socrates students, 158 non-Socrates students, and the rest 18 were Socrates graduates. Although the results obtained did not provide conclusive evidence concerning an assumed differential impact of Socrates along the variables investigated, the ethnic identity influences of the community school were clearly delineated. At the same time, the results of the study have pointed to what has been coined here a "Socrates ethos" which is may be conducive to academic and socio-professional success. Accordingly, an overall long-term Socrates impact has tentatively been postulated.

The Burton, Kates and White model of community response to environmental change is used to study a rapidly developing suburb of Montreal. Between 1973 and 1988, 11 376 single family dwellings were built in the 'West Island'. A geographic information system (GIS) analysis shows 40 percent of vacant land was developed between 1983 and 1989, over half this was for low density housing. A study of citizens' perceptions of the changes shows 72 percent of residents felt local environmental conditions were the same or better than when they first moved to the area (average 14 years) and 71 percent felt the quality of the community was the same or better. The condition of wooded areas was the largest determinant of perception of local environmental conditions and "friendliness" was most closely related to evaluations of community quality. A history of environmental activism describes a sector of the population as having crossed a "threshold of tolerance" and taken action to protect valued natural assets of the community.

A burgeoning mega-club in the heart of Montreal's gay village, Sky embodies many forces active in gay club cultures and villages across North America at the end of the twentieth century. This project documents the daily operations of Sky--as a complex architectural site, a complicated set of managerial practices, and a popular space in Montreal's Village--and outlines the theoretical implications of such an establishment for both the gay community and for club culture more generally. A large entertainment complex currently undergoing a major expansion, Sky cannot be theorized as either a wholly oppressive or completely liberatory development. Although Sky presents some of the advantages of a mega-club for the gay community--increased diversity, accessibility and community--it also highlights the disadvantages in the development of such establishments: concentration of ownership, the removal of a gay presence from city streets, and the promotion of certain gay identities and cultures over others.

In early nineteenth century Lower Canada, a direct relationship existed between the colony's laws of employment and the nature of its economy. As the artisanal and manufacturing centre of British North America, Montreal, in the first third of the century, had a pre-industrial economy. Its legal treatment of the master/servant relationship was established and directed by masters, and drew heavily upon the spirit of the pre-industrial traditions of English common law, emphasizing the criminal liability of servants failing to respect contractual obligations. Montreal's domestic servants, who were drawn from the poor and popular classes, and included mostly women and minors, were often at the greatest disadvantage in this legal system, because of their gender and economic backgrounds. Not only did their masters and mistresses have economic and social advantages, but they also controlled the legal system.

Extensive church building programmes and the relocation of existing churches were important features of Protestant congregational life in industrializing cities across Britain and North America. In Montreal, building booms in the 1860s, 70s, and 80s led many congregations to abandon their old churches in the centre of the city and rebuild on a grander scale 'uptown', closer to the residential neighbourhoods to which their wealthier members were moving. In the early twentieth century, when a new phase of growth engulfed the city, many of the same congregations again faced the dilemma of whether or not to move. Whereas the earlier period was characterized by a strong evangelical consensus, the subsequent period was associated with wider-ranging theological and social debates: the context of decision-making had changed. / For each period, I explore the impact of building decisions on 'domestic' ministries to church members and on the 'public' ministries that congregations carried out in the environs of their churches and in working-class neighbourhoods. In doing so, I draw on a variety of methodological approaches and on local sources that have not previously been synthesized. A database containing temporal and spatial information for every Protestant church built in Montreal between 1760 and 1914 was also constructed for this project. Case studies of six 'uptown' congregations, and of a downtown neighbourhood that was a popular mission field, are carried out. Investigation of documentary sources such as church minute books and correspondence is complemented by cartographic and sociological analyses of church membership using city directories, tax rolls, censuses, and the recently completed Montreal l'Avenir du Passe historical geo-database. A systematic sampling of local newspapers and denominational records brings to life the many congregational controversies and dilemmas that spilled over into the public sphere during a time of dramatic urban, social, and theological change. / A range of external factors, both material and spiritual, affected the choices that were made. I show how investment in religious edifices during the original phase of church moves, as well as the heightened social exclusivity that these moves generated, made it more challenging for the next generation to adapt their religious institutions to the needs of the twentieth-century city. Congregations simultaneously had to deal with a number of ongoing tensions: the logic of institutional maintenance versus the logic of mission, competition versus cooperation amongst Protestant institutions, and the dynamic between capitalist materialism and Christianity. Unless these tensions were skilfully negotiated by church leaders, they threatened to destroy either the viability or the integrity of religious institutions.

Field research was carried out in the community of Notre Dame de Grace, an urban environment typical of the kind in which more and more older women will reside as Canada's population ages. Results of a questionnaire administered to 232 older urban dwellers demonstrate there are significant differences, especially with regard to fearfulness, in the ways in which elderly women who live alone, elderly women who do not live alone and elderly men know and use urban environments. Recommendations are made for changes to the planning process which would result in urban communities better suited to the needs of elderly women. / Anthony Gidden's structuration theory is applied as a framework for explaining why older women are more fearful than elderly men, and why older women alone are the most fearful group. Deficiencies in feminist and gerontological approaches are identified, and an argument is made for greater integration of these perspectives.

La présente étude s'intéresse aux femmes aînées des communautés ethnoculturelles de l'Afrique Noire de Montréal. Elle a pour but de mieux comprendre le sens que revêt le vieillissement réussi pour elles. À cet effet, une étude qualitative et exploratoire a été menée auprès de sept femmes âgées de 65 à 77 ans. Premièrement, nous décrivons les origines du « bien vieillir » et ses courants de pensée, ainsi que ses fondements sociaux et culturels. Un portrait de la situation sociale des femmes âgées de l'Afrique Noire est dépeint, dans lequel le vieillissement est mis en lien avec l'immigration et l'ethnicité. Ensuite, fort des concepts sélectionnés pour mener à bien la recherche, nous en avons dégagé les facteurs qu'elles considèrent comme essentiels pour mener un vieillissement satisfaisant en terre d'accueil, tout en relevant la place qu'occupent le lien intergénérationnel et l'engagement dans la sphère privée et publique. D'un point de vue théorique, l'analyse de ces entrevues sous un angle intersectionnel nous a permis de noter que les femmes aînées de l'Afrique Noire peuvent connaître des difficultés en raison de l'entrecroisement de leur âge avec d'autres aspects de leur identité comme la race, la culture, la langue, le sexe, le parcours migratoire. Une multitude d'obstacles jonchent alors leur processus de vieillissement, dont particulièrement la pauvreté qui freine leurs potentialités d'épanouissement. Les résultats obtenus ont permis de mettre en relief des femmes aux identités multiples et aux vieillissements différentiels qui optent avant tout de s'engager dans la société et de perpétuer à leur manière les rôles qui leur étaient conférés dans leur pays d'origine. De plus, l'étude montre que le sentiment de bien-être est fonction de plusieurs dimensions qui modifient l'identité des personnes âgées immigrantes et empiètent sur le sens qu'elles donnent à leur vieillissement. Nous suggérons d'intégrer leurs diversités et particularismes dans les pratiques d'intervention, ce qui représente un défi majeur pour les intervenants qui aspirent à accompagner cette frange de la population québécoise. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Vieillissement réussi, femmes âgées, immigration, intersectionnalité, lien intergénérationnel.

No description available.

The first decades of the twentieth-century featured a full-scale assault on prostitution and Red Light Districts in cities across North America. The Committee of Sixteen's efforts to erase 'commercialized vice' from Montreal reflect moral regulation projects as they have been recently theorized. The Committee's members represented a range of commercial, feminist, social and religious institutions with various agendas. This thesis considers how prostitution is constructed to mobilize a diverse range of social actors at specific times. Examining the press of the time, as well as reports and speeches produced by the Committee over its seven-year history reveals how members constructed prostitution as a symbol and scapegoat for multiple, sometimes contradictory, contemporary concerns and anxieties in the years following World War I. This discourse served to further marginalize the very women the Committee ostensibly sought to 'rescue'.

No description available.