LE3 .A278 1992

1992

Grady, Don

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Honours

Sociology

Sociology

The research reported in this thesis focuses on contradictions between the promise of voluntary co-operative housing and the lived realities of this goal experienced by a group of single mothers who are members of an existing co-operative located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. My work in this project involves a general overview of the formal advantages for single mothers of the general principles of co-operative life, detailed analysis of the experience of six single mothers who have lived a form of co-operativism within the framework of Evangeline Courts Housing Co-operative (ECHC), and a broader situating of the problems encountered by these single mothers in co-operative living. I have tried to highlight both the positive potential and the negative limitations of the way in which co-operative purposes are obstructed by the controlling environment represented by an existing inequitable social order and its authoritative instrument, the state. But through the inspiring testimony of my informants among the single mothers of ECHC, I have been able to propose a co-operative and constructive framework for a feminist, multi-functional form of women's co-perative.

The author retains copyright in this thesis. Any substantial copying or any other actions that exceed fair dealing or other exceptions in the Copyright Act require the permission of the author.

https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3195