published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

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This thesis contributes to debates on the changes and continuities affecting women's lives in mid-twentieth century Britain, examining the factors that shaped what was possible for women coming of age in the immediate post-war years. Within the developed historiography on the coalfields, women's histories have been limited to broad overviews of women's social history. This thesis enriches these overviews by offering a close reading of a small cohort of women's composure of their life narratives. It thus promotes an understanding of a fuller 'life history', as affected by changes with the onset of the welfare state and the impact of community on women's well-being. The thesis contributes to the growing body of literature combatting the silencing of women in the male dominated historiography on industrial working-class communities. Specifically, it does so in the context of the interplay and tensions between a community and its individuals, and the impact of that community on women's life trajectories. The south Wales community of the Rhondda is utilised as a case study. Culturally and economically significant, the Rhondda has been the focus of much of the historiography on the coalfields. I conclude that the impact of gender ideology and community structures on Rhondda women's experiences were diverse, complex and contradictory. In composing their life narratives, the cohort negotiated aspects of their lives experienced as poor, unchallenging and unsatisfying. Rhondda's poverty had a detrimental impact on the women's lives. Relationships between community values and individuals emerged as structures enabling and constraining the potential of women in the cohort to live their lives freely and satisfactorily. The pressure for respectability within the community was a major constraining force. Early experiences were influential in how they conducted themselves in adulthood. Yet evidence of happiness is present, particularly around experiences of married life, which presents as an antidote to the frequently pessimistic discourses surrounding the debates on companionate marriage. Utilising their own experiences of struggle and disadvantage, many of the cohort emphasised their support for increased opportunities for subsequent generations of Rhondda women.

by Chu Wai-chi, Rodney. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-169). / Acknowledgment --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Chapter Chapter One --- The Issue --- p.1 / The Weight of the American China-Watchers --- p.5 / Peasant Studies - A Platform to understand the Chinese Society --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Scholars in Disputes --- p.24 / Grasping the Paradigms --- p.26 / Analyzing the Paradigms --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Decoding the Cases --- p.55 / Continuity and Change - Where is the Boundary of Concern? --- p.59 / Development toward Socialism - So Peasants must be Practical? --- p.66 / Communist Clientelism - Culture of Dependence? --- p.76 / Complicity and Compliance - A Strong Reach of the State? --- p.84 / Rational Choice Approach - A Theory of Universal Application? --- p.95 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Making Sense of the Lived Experience --- p.104 / The Story: Three Paradoxical Developments of Rural China --- p.106 / The Attention: What and How One Thinks --- p.124 / The Reflection: Importance of Cultural Empathy --- p.129 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Concluding Remarks: Between Americans and Chinese --- p.138 / Understanding Americans --- p.140 / Understanding Chinese --- p.146 / Bibliography --- p.157

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The purpose of this study was to examine the 70 years' experiment of formal education sponsored by the state in relation to national economic development and improvement of conditions of life of the individuals in Afghanistan. Considering the functions of education in the society, the study was planned to find out to what extent formal educational institutions of Afghanistan served as cultural tools for maintaining social control by the ruling authorities and to what extent educational institutions served as elements of change and development.The study was based on the theory that, in the presence of social inequality, formal education and other communicational media can serve as cultural tools of the ruling powers for controlling the potentials of the subjects to fit and adjust to the present norms rather than providing a learning opportunity where the subjects could develop effective and productive potentials, skills and competencies necessary for approaching current problems, improving conditions, and moving toward more ligitimacy, equality and autonomy.Education as means of social control and social change were described and presented. Functions of individuals, their social and natural needs, functions of society and the natural needs and motives for constant changes of the social institutions were analyzed and identified. Using the above functions along with the findings of the related literature reviewed in the study as criteria for the assessment of problems, it was discovered that,1. Social inequality did exist in Afghanistan during the period that the study covers.2. After the assassination of King Nadir and his brother by Kabul students in 193.3 until the end of the Monarchy in 1972, formal educational institutions did serve as a cultural tool for controlling the new generations.3. By monopolizing the press and publicity, the Royal government did control the communicational media and suppress public demands and reactions.4. Parents, teachers, and students did not have influence or choice in educational objectives, policies, planning, distribution, and the school curricula.5. Kabul City, where most of the elite live, still have more educational opportunities, qualified personnel and better facilities in their schools than the rest of the schools in the nation.6. During the 1950s and 1960s, when economic plans were launched and Afghanistan received extensive amounts of foreign aid, financially. and technically; urbanization and industrialization were the focus instead of concentrating on Afghan domestic economy which was based on agricultural production.7. Educational programs and organizations were not articulated and adjusted with economic reforms.8. Unemployment among the educated and low income capita in the 1970s proved that Afghan economy and education have reached a stagnant point. 9. Serious institutional and educational changes are necessary for proper functioning of the economic and educational system in order to facilitate meeting the needs and problems of Afghan society.In order to meet the above needs and problems a series of recommendations supported by the related research presented: Economic Development:In order to give momentum to economic development: - Economic production should become self-generating which means that the consumption should be drawn from profit not from initial capital for investment.- Domestic resources and manpower should be utilized rather than dependency on foreign aid.- Reward and profit should be distributed in such a way to motivate the productive manpower. Without equality of work with reward the productive manpower would resent the exploitation and may not involve their full potentials in production which will affect the quality and quantity of national production.- Reward and punishment should Lave pluralistic perspectives and criteria rather than being based on ethnic, kinship or other social stratifications. Educational Changes- Education should meet the natural and social needs of man for survival and coexistence.- Educational objectives should be based on individual. and societal needs and problems rather than mainly focussing on the survival and the domination of the ruling powers.- Educational content (curricula) should have modifiable components adjustable to the social and natural needs of the child and his environmental conditions.- Since over 80 percent of the population make their living through agricultural production (farming and animal husbandry and the light industry related to agricultural production), school curricula should be changed from entirely literacy and academic orientation to also include vocational so the new generation develops employable and productive skills and potentials.It is hoped that the identification of problems, the analysis of the causes and effects of the problems in relation to the social conditions, and finally, that the alternatives presented in this study create enough concern among the decision-makers, teachers, parents, and students in Afghanistan to stimulate further inquiry in readjusting the educational organization and content into a system that not only the elite children but the frustrated and restless peasant and underemployed population could also play effective and productive roles in their individual and social lives.