Find out how communities can help people transcend their individual needs to live richer, fuller lives The Spirituality of Community Life is a deeply personal analysis of community life and its importance in helping people develop to their full potential. Dr. Ron McDonald, a pastoral counselor, examines the dynamics of community life from the perspective of the participant in a variety of settings, including the classroom, sports teams, church groups, recreational groups, and the workplace. This unique book presents alternatives to a culture that creates competition, separation, and insecurity, focusing instead on communities that encourage civility, understanding, compromise, and altruism. The Spirituality of Community Life analyzes the need for community life and the obstacles to it found in American culture, where money and power rule and people conform to stay out of trouble. The book presents insights into the importance and manner of building communities instead of efficient organizations that are fueled by crisis. Topics examined include growth and size as mistaken ideals, early Christian community life, the What Would Jesus Do? phenomenon, the spiritual disease caused by fighting enemies, the place of art and dance in community life, and leadership. The Spirituality of Community Life looks at a variety of communities, including: hikers on the Appalachian Trail a college track and country team a seminary course on the Gospel of Mark a church health center a traditional Quaker meeting an open education elementary school a championship basketball team an annual meeting of pastoral counselors and much more The Spirituality of Community Life also examines the deeply spiritual nature of community life, including insights into early Christian community history and how community life was crucial in the lives of our greatest spiritual leaders. The book is essential for anyone seeking to be the kind of leader who can build and nurture communities.

Find out how communities can help people transcend their individual needs to live richer, fuller lives The Spirituality of Community Life is a deeply personal analysis of community life and its importance in helping people develop to their full potential. Dr. Ron McDonald, a pastoral counselor, examines the dynamics of community life from the perspective of the participant in a variety of settings, including the classroom, sports teams, church groups, recreational groups, and the workplace. This unique book presents alternatives to a culture that creates competition, separation, and insecurity, focusing instead on communities that encourage civility, understanding, compromise, and altruism. The Spirituality of Community Life analyzes the need for community life and the obstacles to it found in American culture, where money and power rule and people conform to stay out of trouble. The book presents insights into the importance and manner of building communities instead of efficient organizations that are fueled by crisis. Topics examined include growth and size as mistaken ideals, early Christian community life, the What Would Jesus Do? phenomenon, the spiritual disease caused by fighting enemies, the place of art and dance in community life, and leadership. The Spirituality of Community Life looks at a variety of communities, including: hikers on the Appalachian Trail a college track and country team a seminary course on the Gospel of Mark a church health center a traditional Quaker meeting an open education elementary school a championship basketball team an annual meeting of pastoral counselors and much more The Spirituality of Community Life also examines the deeply spiritual nature of community life, including insights into early Christian community history and how community life was crucial in the lives of our greatest spiritual leaders. The book is essential for anyone seeking to be the kind of leader who can build and nurture communities.

In the World Library of Educationalists, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/practical contributions - so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow themes and strands of their work and see their contribution to the development of a field, as well as the development of the field itself.
James A. Banks is considered the "father of multicultural education" in the U.S. and is known throughout the world as one of the field's most important founders, theorists, and researchers. In this book, Banks has compiled a career-long collection of 21 of his most significant articles, book chapters, and papers which show the evolution of his research and scholarship over nearly four decades as well as the evolution of the field of multicultural education. This collection shows how the growth of the field has mirrored Banks' development as a scholar, teacher, and researcher.
A specially written Introduction gives an overview of the author's career and describes the personal, professional, and social context for his selections. Banks describes how his personal journey as an African American who came of age in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s influences his research and teaching and is a significant source of his commitment to social justice research and work.
Multicultural education in the U. S. emerged out of the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The focus of the field has expanded from Black Studies, to ethnic studies, tomulticultural education, and to diversity and citizenship education within a global context. The eight parts into which the book is divided reflects the evolution of Banks' scholarship as well as the development of the field of multicultural education:
?Black Studies and the Teaching of History
?Research and Research Issues
?Teaching Ethnic Studies
?Teaching Social Studies for Decision-Making and Citizen Action
?Multiethnic Education and School Reform
?Multicultural Education and Knowledge Construction
?The Global Dimensions of Multicultural Education
? Democracy, Diversity, and Citizenship Education
The last part of the book consists of a selected bibliography of the publications by Banks.

"Social Justice and Communication Scholarship" explores the role of communication in framing and contributing to issues of social justice. This collection, a first on the subject of communication and social justice, investigates the theoretical and practical ways in which communication scholarship can enable inclusive and equitable communities within American society. It analyzes ways in which to construct communities that protect individual freedom while ensuring equality and dignity to everyone.
 
In this unique anthology, Swartz brings together both senior scholars and junior colleagues to represent diverse applications of communication to issues of social justice. He supports partisan scholarship in order to revitalize intellectual activity and social commitment toward creating a progressive society. As a result; the volume serves the heuristic function of posing new research questions.
 
In addition to its relevance within the field of communication, "Social Justice and Communication Scholarship" will be of interest in many of the humanities and social sciences, as research on the theme of social justice transcends disciplinary boundaries. The volume is particularly well suited for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in communication, rhetoric and composition, journalism, American studies, and cultural studies.

"Social Justice and Communication Scholarship" explores the role of communication in framing and contributing to issues of social justice. This collection, a first on the subject of communication and social justice, investigates the theoretical and practical ways in which communication scholarship can enable inclusive and equitable communities within American society. It analyzes ways in which to construct communities that protect individual freedom while ensuring equality and dignity to everyone.
 
In this unique anthology, Swartz brings together both senior scholars and junior colleagues to represent diverse applications of communication to issues of social justice. He supports partisan scholarship in order to revitalize intellectual activity and social commitment toward creating a progressive society. As a result; the volume serves the heuristic function of posing new research questions.
 
In addition to its relevance within the field of communication, "Social Justice and Communication Scholarship" will be of interest in many of the humanities and social sciences, as research on the theme of social justice transcends disciplinary boundaries. The volume is particularly well suited for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in communication, rhetoric and composition, journalism, American studies, and cultural studies.

In the World Library of Educationalists, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/practical contributions - so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow themes and strands of their work and see their contribution to the development of a field, as well as the development of the field itself.
James A. Banks is considered the "father of multicultural education" in the U.S. and is known throughout the world as one of the field's most important founders, theorists, and researchers. In this book, Banks has compiled a career-long collection of 21 of his most significant articles, book chapters, and papers which show the evolution of his research and scholarship over nearly four decades as well as the evolution of the field of multicultural education. This collection shows how the growth of the field has mirrored Banks' development as a scholar, teacher, and researcher.
A specially written Introduction gives an overview of the author's career and describes the personal, professional, and social context for his selections. Banks describes how his personal journey as an African American who came of age in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s influences his research and teaching and is a significant source of his commitment to social justice research and work.
Multicultural education in the U. S. emerged out of the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The focus of the field has expanded from Black Studies, to ethnic studies, tomulticultural education, and to diversity and citizenship education within a global context. The eight parts into which the book is divided reflects the evolution of Banks' scholarship as well as the development of the field of multicultural education:
?Black Studies and the Teaching of History
?Research and Research Issues
?Teaching Ethnic Studies
?Teaching Social Studies for Decision-Making and Citizen Action
?Multiethnic Education and School Reform
?Multicultural Education and Knowledge Construction
?The Global Dimensions of Multicultural Education
? Democracy, Diversity, and Citizenship Education
The last part of the book consists of a selected bibliography of the publications by Banks.

This informative volume gathers contemporary accounts of the growth, influences on, and impacts of so-called gated communities, developments with walls, gates, guards and other forms of surveillance.
While gated communities have become a common feature of the urban landscape in South Africa, Latin and North America, it is also clear that there is now significant interest in gated living in the European and East Asian urban context. The chapters in this book investigate issues and communities such as:
* gated communities in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
* planning responses to gated communities in Canada
* who segregates whom? The analysis of a gated community in Mendoza, Argentina
* sprawl and social segregation in southern California.
These illustrative chapters enable the reader to understand more about the social and economic forces that have lead to gating, the ways in which gated communities are managed, and their wider effects on both residents and those living outside the gates.
This book is a special issue of the journal "Housing Studies,"

The number of poor people in China is huge, despite recent economic advances. The minorities in China constitute less than ten per cent of the entire population, yet they represent forty to fifty per cent of the absolute poor. This compelling book investigates the problem of poverty and inequality in and among Chinese ethnic minorities, focusing in particular on two important questions: Have the minorities shared the fruits of spectacular economic growth in China during the past two decades? Is their backwardness due to ethnic and cultural factors or to extremely low incomes? The authors examine the different factors explaining poverty, the relationship between poverty and ethnicity, poverty indicators that permit a comparison between minorities and non-minorities (or the Han majority), economic and demographic characteristics of minorities and their educational, occupational and gender profiles. They consider whether special measures in favour of minorities introduced by the Chinese government have contributed to an improvement in their standard of living. Poverty and Inequality among Chinese Minorities gives original research findings and new thinking on a highly topical issue in Chinese development economics, and fills a gap in the existing economic literature.

First published in 1992, this volume responds to the importance of management has been increasingly recognized in the personal social services but this recognition has materialized more slowly in some social day care settings. Staff in these settings who move on to management can face particular difficulties in adapting to their new role, especially if they have been promoted on the basis of their competence as practitioners. Newly-promoted managers in social care settings are all too often ill-equipped for the problems and possibilities offered by their move to a management position. As a practice-based handbook, Management Skills in Social Care fills this gap by examining key areas of management expertise such as: managing self; individuals; groups; resources; change; and so on. Above all, this book is concerned with maximising the contribution of management in day-to-day social care practice.

First published in 1998, this volume responds to child-prostitution being recognised as a major social problem in modern capitalist Taiwan. It is defined, both legally and socially, as a problem of 'sexual transactions involving children and juveniles', thus the issue of child maltreatment is submerged under other concerns. However, the main concern of this book is the protection of children from maltreatment, so related socio-legal measures will be examined by this parameter. During the social campaigns against child prostitution, structural problems such as police corruption, male sexual perversion, socio-economic inequality, and the maladjustment of aboriginal people in the modern Taiwanese society are subjugated to increasing criticism. Nevertheless, efforts to encounter any of them have had very limited accomplishment. This book intends to show that the functions of law in the prevention and treatment of the social problem of child prostitution cannot work as intended if those structural problems are not properly tackled. Suggestions are also made to address the need to reconceptualise the problem in the analytical framework of child maltreatment and to recommend the direction for reformation of policy and practice.

This book explores new avenues of international research in comparative federal studies. It re-examines the conceptual tools and methodologies for understanding federal systems, and the role of comparative federalism in the dissemination and implementation of federal concepts. It highlights the influence of comparative federalism on constitution-making as well as constitutional reforms. The volume provides innovative and pragmatic perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South, with case studies drawn from established federations such as India, Canada, Australia, and Austria, and emerging federal systems such as Italy and South Africa. Advocating a combined approach that integrates modern and traditional theoretical routes with practical insights and contemporary analyses, it discusses the issues of multilevel elections and federal governance; coalition governments and multiparty democracy in parliamentary federal systems, such as India; minority empowerment; gender budgeting; self-governance; multinational federalism; unitary states; the nation-state; and degenerating federalism. It also breaks new ground by looking at federalism from a gender perspective and deals with tools for measuring fiscal responsibility, and a social and cultural index. A tribute to the intellectual legacy of Ronald L. Watts, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, federalism, comparative federal studies, political studies, comparative politics, governance, public administration and law, development studies, South Asian studies, and Global South and North studies as well policymakers, international government bodies, research institutes, development experts, and other organisations working in the area.

This ethnographic study of Dalit Lutherans in South India examines how the lived religion of Dalit Christians contests the structures of caste domination in rural Andhra. It shows how the emergence of Dalit Christianity generated new religious ideas, patterns, terrains, rituals, and practices that challenge the traditional notions of caste privilege and impact the politics of the region. It highlights the transforming role of Dalit agency in the development of Christianity, which is largely unexplored in the studies of Christian missions and anthropology of Christianity in India. The book looks at the social history of Christianity, critical events of protest, platforms of community politics, caste ideology, and local politics and interlocking of caste with congregation to provide a constructive critique of the dominant paradigm of the Dalit movement, which often treats Dalits as a homogenous social group. It discusses the pragmatic changes within the politics of Dalit Christianity as viewed from the margins of Indian society and incorporated through engagement with political ideologies (from communism to the Ambedkarite movement) and religious belief systems (from Hinduism to Christianity). This volume at the intersection of religion and caste will be an essential read for students and researchers of Dalit studies, political studies, sociology, sociology of religion, religious studies, social justice and exclusion studies, and South Asian studies.

In all developed countries - though to widely varying extents - a minority of the population suffers from deprivation. The Labour Government in Britain in particular has sought to conceptualize and deal with this through the notion of 'Social Exclusion': similar ideas have been found in other countries.
"Spaces of Social Exclusion" explores the forms of this contemporary economic and social disadvantage and in particular, its social and spatial causes, and the role of space in policies to address disadvantage.
Part 1 introduces contemporary and historical conceptualizations and ideologies surrounding social exclusion and poverty. It describes the complex social and spatial patterns of disadvantage in advanced capitalist countries. Part 2 goes on to analyse the origins of social exclusion by examining the different spheres of disadvantage and their relations, emphasizing the role of space, place and scale. It brings together and integrates, research on diverse aspects of social exclusionand the varied processes which produce it. Part 3 discusses different strategies for overcoming social exclusion and their relation to theories considered in Part 2. It is also concerned with presenting and criticizing policy ideas from across the political spectrum.
The book aims to demonstrate the similarity throughout the advanced capitalist countries of many of the processes that create social exclusion and the way that spatial patterns constitute and reproduce exclusion.

In all developed countries - though to widely varying extents - a minority of the population suffers from deprivation. The Labour Government in Britain in particular has sought to conceptualize and deal with this through the notion of 'Social Exclusion': similar ideas have been found in other countries.
"Spaces of Social Exclusion" explores the forms of this contemporary economic and social disadvantage and in particular, its social and spatial causes, and the role of space in policies to address disadvantage.
Part 1 introduces contemporary and historical conceptualizations and ideologies surrounding social exclusion and poverty. It describes the complex social and spatial patterns of disadvantage in advanced capitalist countries. Part 2 goes on to analyse the origins of social exclusion by examining the different spheres of disadvantage and their relations, emphasizing the role of space, place and scale. It brings together and integrates, research on diverse aspects of social exclusionand the varied processes which produce it. Part 3 discusses different strategies for overcoming social exclusion and their relation to theories considered in Part 2. It is also concerned with presenting and criticizing policy ideas from across the political spectrum.
The book aims to demonstrate the similarity throughout the advanced capitalist countries of many of the processes that create social exclusion and the way that spatial patterns constitute and reproduce exclusion.

First published in 1999, this volume is a collection of essays focused on the theme of partnership with parents in social work practice with children and families. It covers issues relating to the quality of care and preparation for aftercare, particularly children's identity needs and preparation for life after care which are highlighted in the Quality Protects programme. It developed from an action research project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and conducted by the editors a Warwick University between 1993 and 1996. Through teaching activities associated with the implementation of the Children Act 1989 the editors became aware that there were many parents who had lost contact with both their child and their child's social workers after their child had entered the care system. These were the 'lost' parents of the study. Partnership with parents has become an integral part of social work with children and families living together or apart. Inevitably it concerns many other people involved in the care of children and providing advice to individuals. Partnership permeates all aspects of relationships between parents, children and those providing care in place of parents. Consequently, the issues discussed in this book are of relevance to all those working directly or indirectly with children, parents and other relatives. Amongst these are social workers, family placement workers, carers and residential workers, team managers and policy makers in local authority social services departments, guardians ad litem, court welfare officers and lawyers acting for children or parents, children's rights officers and advisers working in voluntary agencies which support families and children.

In contemporary European and American urban policy and politics and in academic research it is typically assumed that spatial concentrations of poor households and/or ethnic minority households will have negative effects upon the opportunities to improve the social conditions of those who are living in these concentrations. Since the level of concentration tends to be correlated with the level of spatial segregation the 'debate on segregation' is also linked to the social opportunity discussion. This book explores the central questions in urban and housing studies: Do poor neighbourhoods make their residents poorer? Does the neighbourhood structure exert an effect on the residents (behavioural, attitudinal, or psychological) even when controlling for individual characteristics of the residents? This issue has offered a locus for multi-disciplinary investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, and this volume demonstrates the rich geographical, sociological, economic and psychological dimensions of this issue. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Housing Studies.

The transborder modernization of Mexico and the American Southwest during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transformed the lives of ethnic Mexicans across the political divide. While industrialization, urbanization, technology, privatization, and wealth concentration benefitted some, many more experienced dislocation, exploitative work relations, and discrimination based on race, gender, and class. The Mexican Revolution brought these issues to the fore within Mexican society, igniting a diaspora to el norte. Within the United States, similar economic and social power dynamics plagued Tejanos and awaited the war refugees. Political activism spearheaded by individuals and organizations such as the Idars, Leonor Villegas' de Magnon's White Cross, the Magonista movement, the Munguias, Emma Tenayuca, and LULAC emerged in the borderlands to address the needs of ethnic Mexicans whose lives were shaped by racism, patriarchy, and poverty. As Gabriela Gonzalez shows in this book, economic modernization relied on social hierarchies that were used to justify economic inequities. Redeeming la raza was about saving ethnic Mexicans in Texas from a social hierarchy premised on false notions of white supremacy and Mexican inferiority. Activists used privileges of class, education, networks, and organizational skills to confront the many injustices that racism bred, but they used different strategies. Thus, the anarcho-syndicalist approach of Magonistas stands in contrast to the social and cultural redemption politics of the Idars who used the press to challenge a Jaime Crow world. Also, the family promoted the intellectual, material, and cultural uplift of la raza, working to combat negative stereotypes of ethnic Mexicans. Similar contrasts can be drawn between the labor activism of Emma Tenayuca and the Munguias, whose struggle for rights employed a politics of respectability that encouraged ethnic pride and unity. Finally, maternal feminist approaches and the politics of citizenship serve as reminders that gendered and nationalist rhetoric and practices foment hierarchies within civil and human rights organizations. Redeeming La Raza examines efforts of activists to create a dignified place for ethnic Mexicans in American society by challenging white supremacy and the segregated world it spawned.

Recent and current crises in health, ecology, society and spirituality have lent the whole arena of liminality a new urgency and relevancy. Those who traverse the great transitions are rediscovering new ways of interpreting life through the liminal lens, a way to make sense of the great voluntary and unchosen transitions that characterize modern life. This anthology provides a unique overview of liminality as it gathers a diverse coterie of authors, disciplines, and contexts to explore its many facets. Distinct in its interdisciplinary approach, The Liminal Loop serves as an important source book for general readers, teachers, students, artists, counselors, spiritual guides, and social transformers. From liminal poetry and musical traditions to the strange vertical world of the rock climber, The Liminal Loop explores the swirling chaos on the other side of critical thresholds and suggests a pathway through the daunting middle passages of the in-between. With what can only be described as courage, the many authors of this collection dare to look uncertainty in the eye, knowing that this is a necessary journey, and that it is better to travel with a common band of pilgrims than to go it alone.

This book is the second in a series covering best practices in community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators. The first volume in this series is a compilation of cases of best work in community indicators research. This second volume continues to build on the goal of the series and includes eleven cases (chapters). The cases in both volumes describe communities that have launched their own community indicators programs. Elements that are included in the description are the history of the community indicators work within the target region, the planning of community indicators, the actual indicators that were selected, the data collection process, the reporting of the results, and the use of the indicators to guide community development decisions and public policy.

The gleaming Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has put the Basque capital on the map of world cities and has exacerbated optimism among public officials worldwide about the role of spectacular architecture in urban renewal. This book -- a theoretically-informed case study and a major synthesis of Bilbaos developments through the lens of globalization analyzes the Guggenheim project as the latest of Bilbaos globalization efforts, puts the project in the context of Bilbaos decades-long transformation and contends that Bilbaos positive economic performance since 1994 is not fundamentally due to the success of Frank Gehrys building, but rather to a complex array of causal processes that must be understood in the context of Bilbaos connections with the world economy and a changing world-system. The author argues that globalization processes in Bilbao are as old as the city itself and that the role of the State must be taken into account in order to explain the citys changing fortunes throughout the years. Globalization itself ought to be understood as a complex and variable network-like process with multiscalar nodes, an approach which is carefully theorized and empirically developed in this book.
A Volume in the Current Research in Urban and Regional Studies Series.
*Takes into consideration Bilbao's social history and the complex relationships between local and global entities (regionalism v. state)
*Provides a socioeconomic analysis of the "Bilbao Effect"

Despite the gains made by gay rights movements throughout the world, there are still areas in which homosexuals and their relationships are targeted as immoral and criminal. Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality, a comprehensive, up-to-date examination of governmental and religious reaction to issues of sexual orientation in regions - such as Asia and the Middle East - not often covered in English language publications, includes: a sampling of international legislation, both proscriptive and liberal the effects of fundamentalist religious movements new scientific information concerning the origin of sexual orientation, and much more! GBP/LISTGBP

The concept of the social responsibility of business has roots in the Puritan doctrine of stewardship as well as the nineteenth-century "gospel of wealth," but business leaders only began to consider community welfare as a whole in the context of their corporate aspirations of the latter half of the twentieth century. Originally appearing in 1970, The Social Responsibilities of Business surveys the history of corporate actions in pursuit of social responsibility, and attempts to assess likely developments. Reissued in 1988 by Transaction with a new introduction by the author and now available in paperback, the volume provides Morrell Heald the opportunity to evaluate his earlier predictions and identify prospects for further development in the area of corporate social responsibility.

Some of Heald's predictions have not yet come to fruition, and he reflects upon the reasons. No effective structure yet exists to permit an open exchange of views and needs between business and representatives of its various constituencies. In addition, two of Heald's earlier suggestions have not taken root in the way he anticipated--the company foundation, and the corporate social audit--and he assesses why they have not, and what opportunities they still provide. The Social Responsibilities of Business provides essential background for understanding the developing social role of the corporation and for assessing its future direction.

This book explores the challenges facing food security, sustainability, sovereignty, and supply chains in the Arctic, with a specific focus on Indigenous Peoples. Offering multidisciplinary insights and with a particular focus on populations in the European High North region, the book highlights the importance of accessible and sustainable traditional foods for the dietary needs of local and Indigenous Peoples. It focuses on foods and natural products that are unique to this region and considers how they play a significant role towards food security and sovereignty. The book captures the tremendous complexity facing populations here as they strive to maintain sustainable food systems - both subsistent and commercial - and regain sovereignty over traditional food production policies. A range of issues are explored including food contamination risks, due to increasing human activities in the region, such as mining, to changing livelihoods and gender roles in the maintenance of traditional food security and sovereignty. The book also considers processing methods that combine indigenous and traditional knowledge to convert the traditional foods, that are harvested and hunted, into local foods. This book offers a broader understanding of food security and sovereignty and will be of interest to academics, scholars and policy makers working in food studies; geography and environmental studies; agricultural studies; sociology; anthropology; political science; health studies and biology.

A close collaboration between an eminent sociologist and an eminent historian, this seminal work shows that sociology is and should be the ally of the historian and vice versa. Taking Egypt and the Ancient East as the subject matter, this analysis of early society seeks to show the beginnings of social order and its first steps onto the ladder that leads to classical civilization of the ancient and modern world. The book covers in a systematic way, both theoretically and historically, totemic organization, individualized and communistic power, the progress from clans to kingdoms, especially in ancient Egypt and the Semitic world, the empires of Iran, and the Barbarian invasions. A stimulating and authoritive study in history and sociology.

Offering a fresh and exciting new perspective on differentiation and inequality, this absorbing book investigates how our most personal choices (of sexual partners, friends, consumption items and lifestyle) are influenced by hierarchy and social difference. Exploring the topics of assortative mating; social capital; friendship networks and cultural identity; the book examines how hierarchy affects our tastes and leisure time activities, and who we choose (and hang on to) as our friends and partners. This book: * introduces debates on stratification by exploring its effect on everyday social relations * relates class inequalities to broader processes of social division and cultural differentiation, exploring the associational and cultural aspects of hierarchy * explores how groups draw on social, economic and cultural resources, using cultural 'cues', to admit some and exclude others from their social circle * explores new theoretical approaches to stratification: drawing on cultural theories of class, social interaction approaches, and research on differential association The book has a novel and fresh new way of looking at a well-established area in sociology - social stratification.