Around the world, citizens in local communities are utilising ICTs to underpin the creation of a participatory and democratic vision of the network society. Embedded in the richness and diversity of community practice, a vision of a 'civil network society' is emerging. A society where ICTs are harnessed as tools to improve the quality of life and reflect the diversity of social networks; where people are viewed as citizens, not just as consumers, and where heterogeneity is perceived as a strength rather than a weakness.
Community Practice in the Network Society looks at the broad context in which this is happening, presents case studies of local projects from around the world, and discusses community ICT research methodologies. Not only does it highlight the symbiotic relationship between community ICT practice and research, but it also provides evidence supporting the case for the development of more inclusive and participatory pathways to the network society.

To advance the epidemiological analysis of social inequalities in health, and of the ways in which population distributions of disease, disability, and death reflect embodied expressions of social inequality, this volume draws on articles published in the "International Journal of Health Services" between 1990 and 2000. Framed by ecosocial theory, it employs ecosocial constructs of "embodiment"; "pathways of embodiment"; "cumulative interplay of exposure, susceptibility, and resistance across the lifecourse"; and "accountability and agency" to address the question; and who and what drives current and changing patterns of social inequalities in health.

Around the world, citizens in local communities are utilising ICTs to underpin the creation of a participatory and democratic vision of the network society. Embedded in the richness and diversity of community practice, a vision of a 'civil network society' is emerging. A society where ICTs are harnessed as tools to improve the quality of life and reflect the diversity of social networks; where people are viewed as citizens, not just as consumers, and where heterogeneity is perceived as a strength rather than a weakness.
Community Practice in the Network Society looks at the broad context in which this is happening, presents case studies of local projects from around the world, and discusses community ICT research methodologies. Not only does it highlight the symbiotic relationship between community ICT practice and research, but it also provides evidence supporting the case for the development of more inclusive and participatory pathways to the network society.

This book provides the most comprehensive examination of community reinvestment and fair lending problems and policies currently available. It outlines the history of lending discrimination and redlining in U.S. mortgage and small business lending markets, and documents the persistence of such problems today. The author explains the role that government has played in developing banking and credit markets in the United States, from the creation of Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States to the ongoing support government provides through the subsidization of secondary markets and through maintenance of critical regulatory infrastructure. Immergluck takes issue with those calling for deregulation of financial services - especially in the arena of fair lending and consumer protection - and gives new voice to rationales for social contract policies such as the Community Reinvestment Act. He provides new long-term analysis of the failure of federal bank regulators to enforce the CRA, and also shows how increased community activism and media attention have led to sporadic periods of stronger CRA enforcement. Finally, he recommends a number of policy changes that are needed to modernize the nation's fair lending and community reinvestment laws and make them more relevant for the 21st century.

Diasporas result from the scattering of populations and cultures across geographical space and time. Transnational in nature and unbounded by space, they cut across the static, territorial boundaries more usually deployed to govern tourism. In a vibrant inter-disciplinary collection of essays from leading scholars in the field, this book introduces the main features and constructs of diasporas, and explores their implications for the consumption, production and practices of tourism. Three sets of mutually reinforcing relationships are explored: experiences of diaspora tourists the settings and spaces of diaspora tourism the production of diaspora tourism. Addressing the relationship between diasporic groups and tourism from both a consumer and producer perspective, examples are drawn from a wide spectrum of diasporic groups including the Chinese, Jewish, Southeast Asian, Croatian, Dutch and Welsh. Until now, there has been no systematic and detailed treatment of the relationships between diasporas, their consumptions and the tourist experience. However, here, Coles and Timothy provide a unique navigation of the nature of these inter-connections which is ideal for students of tourism, sociology, cultural studies.

Morley's book offers the first accessible guide for students to show how theories, models and concepts have been applied to ancient history.

Showing readers how they can use theory to interpret historical evidence for themselves, as well as to evaluate the work of others, the book includes a survey of key ideas and theories on a wide range of ancient historical topics including society and economy, the environment, gender and sexuality, and myth and rationality.

Also including a helpful annotated guide to further reading on all the topics covered, students will not want to miss out on this essential guide to the ancient world.

Published in 1999, this book explores the emergence of contemporary urban agriculture as well as official attitudes toward this practice. Using three theoretical models, the author tells us who is more likely to be involved in urban agriculture. In line with this, he explains why, contrary to expectations, in Ghana there are more males than females involved in urban agriculture. The author also addresses issues such as the influence of social inequality and the effects of social networks on urban agriculture. Furthermore, he identifies the problems urban cultivators encounter as city farmers and how they cope with such problems. Finally, the author predicts the future trend in urban agriculture. This thought-provoking book will be of interest not only to public policy makers and planners, but also to students and teachers of African studies, urban studies, and sociology.

What is a lighthouse? What does it mean? What does it do? This book shows how exchanging knowledge across disciplinary boundaries can transform our thinking. Adopting an unconventional structure, this book involves the reader in a multivocal conversation between scholars, poets and artists. Seen through their individual perspectives, lighthouses appear as signals of safety, beacons of enlightenment, phallic territorial markers, and memorials of historical relationships with the sea. However, the interdisciplinary conversation also reveals underlying and sometimes unexpected connections. It elucidates the human and non-human evolutionary adaptations that use light for signalling and warning; the visual languages created by regularity and synchronicity in pulses of light; how lighthouses have generated a whole 'family' of related material objects and technologies; and the way that light flows between social and material worlds.

China's Scientific Elite is a study of those scientists holding China's highest academic honour - membership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Having carried out extensive systematic data collection of CAS members Cao examines the social stratification system of the Chinese science community and the way in which politics and political interference has effected the stratification. The book then goes on to compare the Chinese system to the stratification of the US scientific elite. The conclusions are fascinating, not least because one national elite resides in a democratic liberal social system, and the other in an authoritarian social system.

Recent research in Africa has shown a wide range of political systems, from small societies of wandering hunters to large states of several million people comparable with mediaeval European feudal kingdoms. In between are many societies in which a central government is lacking; the political system is based upon a balance of power between many small groups, which with their lack of classes or specialized political offices, have been called 'ordered anarchies'. First published in 1958.

Until recently, issues surrounding ethnic-linked inequality, whether between Jews and Arabs or between Jewish ethnic groups, have dominated research on stratification in Israel to the exclusion of other dimensions. Rapidly growing inequality in Israeli society, and its intergenerational persistence, however, have generated several new trends in research. The chapters included in this volume represent the range and depth of recent developments in the study of social stratification, mobility, and inequality. Although they address a variety of issues, they have in common a focus on the institutional mechanisms that govern the allocation of rewards. The volume is divided into five parts: Part 1, "The Role of Education in the Stratification Process"; Part 2, "Class and Intergenerational Process"; Part 3, "The Ethnic Organization of the Labor Market"; Part 4, "Gender in the Stratification Process"; Part 5, "The State and the Stratification Process." Some chapters apply to Israel classical status attainment models and labor market research, developed primarily in American sociology, highlighting the peculiarities of Israeli society. Others start out with particular characteristics of Israeli society, most notably the centrality of the state apparatus, and explore their consequences for social stratification. Gender inequality inside and outside the military is examined as well as the issue of gender-related labor market inequality. Together these chapters provide a comprehensive picture of the structure of domination and subordination in various spheres of Israeli society, ranging from educational institutions to the labor market, housing, standard of living, and the cultural arena. This volume portrays the multiple dimensions of stratification and inequality in Israel by bringing together some of the most informative sociological research conducted during the past decade. It will be of particular interest to sociologists, social scientists, and students of Judaica.

While the romantic notions of social and economic equality once espoused by the socialist movement have been overshadowed by the realities of government power, bureaucractic inefficiency, and class divisions, Glassman claims that the quest for equality and social justice can and must be pursued within legal-democratic societies. He contends that the quest for equality within the democratic framework is politically, economically, morally, and socially beneficial. Using the theoretical principles of Aristotle, Rawls, and Keynes, Glassman demonstrates that the development of practical programs can allow an expansion of the middle class and a greater degree of equality within capitalist democratic societies.

Along with these three non-socialist theories for equality, the book analyzes some contemporary democratic-socialist programs that have been developed for the same objective. All the proposed programs throughout this book emphatically establish democracy as an essential factor and then work toward achieving greater equality within the parameters set by the legal-democratic state. "Democracy and Equality" will prove invaluable to anyone interested in social theory, the principles of equality, and political and economic developement of the industrial state.

Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Oxford, Wien. The achievement of democratic forms of government ranging from liberal to communitarian strands has been a major priority for developing countries in their post-colonial histories. South Africa's quest to establish a multi-party democratic system of government has been influenced by liberal and communitarian perspectives of democracy. Yet, the attainment of democracy in South Africa has not been without contradictions, particularly related to majority rule, equality of opportunity, and rights. This book reconstructs a conception of deliberative democracy which can create possibilities for a developing country to deal more adequately with majoritarianism, equalising opportunities, and rights. It makes an argument for a rational, reflexive discourse-oriented procedure of deliberative democracy which cultivates a form of citizenship that recognises the need for citizens to care, reason and engage justly in political conversation with others. Contents: Utilitarianism, liberal equality and communitarianism as instances of liberalism - Caring, conversational justice and political reasoning as constitutive features of communitarianism - Freedom, equality and the rule of law in the context of community - Majoritarianism, equalisation of opportunities and substantive rights related to the South African community - Rationality as the general principle of deliberative democracy - Political accountability and socio-economic justice - Deliberative democracy and citizenship in South Africa.

"The Survival of a Counterculture" is a lively, engaging look into the ways communards, or people who live in communes, maintain, modify, use, and otherwise live with their convictions while they attempt to get through the problems of everyday life. Communal families shape their norms to the circumstances they live with, just as on a larger scale nations and major institutions also shape their ideologies to the pressures of circumstance they feel. With a new introduction by the author that brings his work up to date, this volume raises important questions regarding sociological theory.

Are all cities alike? This text highlights the extent to which the different histories, economies, politics and cultures of cities affect people's daily practices so that they vary from one city to another. In particular, it focuses on whether the assumed differences between London, the global city and Jerusalem, the holy city reflected in people's experiences in living in the two cities. The book suggests that some of these everyday practices are not so different as might be assumed. It proposes that people of different national, cultural or gender identities might experience their city - as home for similar reasons. It explores the experiences of women and men of different national, cultural and ethnic identities and age groups, who live in the two cities. Their narratives focus on three main concepts: comfort, belonging and commitment as they are experienced with regards to seven categories of environments: the home, the building, the street, the neighbourhood, the city center, the city itself and urban parks in the city. everyday life experiences? Two significant identities are at focus in the analysis; gender and national identity. The analysis of each of the concepts discovers how these identities shape peoples' ways of interpreting and the meanings given to comfort, belonging and commitment. The analysis is carried out among people of both minority and majority groups in the two cities. Nationality and gender identities cross cuts the analysis through the whole book chapters. It makes the links between everyday life experiences termed in the book as: local embodied knowledge and the planning practice. The book shows how it is possible to articulate the local knowledge that has been exposed and analyzed in the various book chapters into the planning practice. The book suggests new ways of incorporating these similar and different experiences in the planning process.

Contents:
1. Introduction Daniel Bertaux, Anna Rotkirch and Paul Thompson
Part One: Creating Soviet Society
2. The Cultural Model of the Russian Popular Classes and the Transition to a Market Economy Daniel Bertaux in collaboration with Marina Malysheva
3. Equality in Poverty: the Symbolic Meaning of Kommunalki in the 1930s-50s Victoria Semenova
4. Coping with Revolution: the Experiences of Well-to-do Russian Families Ekaterina Foteeva
Part Two: Personal and Family Life
5. 'What Kind of Sex Can You Talk About?' Acquiring Sexual Knowledge in Three Soviet Generations Anna Rotkirch
6. Family Models and Transgenerational Influences: Grandparents, Parents and Children in Moscow and Leningrad from the Soviet to Market Era Victoria Semenova and Paul Thompson
7. 'Coming to Stand on Firm Ground': the Making of a Soviet Mother Anna Rotkirch
8. The Strength of Small Freedoms: Stories Told at the Dacha Naomi Roslyn Galtz
Part Three: The Marginal and the Successful
9. Religion and Survival in Stalin's Russia: the Old Believers in the Urals during the 1930s-50s Irina Korovushkina Paert
10. The Returned of the Repressed: Survival after the Gulag Nanci Adler
11. Success Stories from the Margins: Soviet Women's Autobiographical Sketches from the Late Soviet Period Marianne Liljeström
12. Epilogue Researching with Interview Sources on Soviet Russia

The Renaissance of Takefu tells the story of a citizen group that made good in an enduring and fundamental way through the example and results of their participation in local civic life. The book draws attention to the complicated conditions under which civic participation may succeed. The story foregrounds individuals and organisations in the regional Japanese town of Takefu (2001 population 73,000), but these events are also placed in the context of the surrounding Japan Sea region of west Japan and the wider currents of the Japanese nation-state at the time. The author relies on the familiar qualitative research methods of participant-observation, conversations, survey and semi-structured interviews in order to weave primary sources with his own observations as an interested outsider. Combined with the scholarship on citizen movements, cultural politics and historical representation, the result is a memorable account about good people perservering in their love of their townscape, in spite of numerous socially and culturally rooted obstacles they faced.

Contents:
Forword: Benjamin Barber Preface: Toward the Reconstruction of American Community and Democracy Part I: The Triple Threat to Community and Democracy Introduction: The Case for Community Economic Stability: Economics and Political Economics 1. Globalization and Free Trade 2. The Chase for Jobs 3. The Challenge of Sprawl Part II: Place-based Policy Alternatives Note to Part II 4. Federal Job Stabilizing Policies 5. Conventional Strategies 6. State and Municipal Enterprise 7. Local Multipliers Part III: Place-based Economic Structures Note to Part III 8. Supporting Employee Ownership 9. Community Development Corporations and Community Development Financial Institutions 10. Alternative Ownership Models: Nonprofits and Coops 11. Community Land Trusts and Community Agriculture Part IV: The Global Context Note to Part IV 12. Restructuring Global Economic Institutions 13. Alternative Approaches to Trade Conclusion: Political-Economic Policies for the Next Stage of Democratic Development Acknowledgements

Series Information:
New Accents

Series Information:
New Accents

Young men preparing for the catholic priesthood in Igboland live between the two often opposing epistemic worlds of their African Igbo people and of the mainly Euro-Christian seminary institution. The embedment in different epistemic traditions can be a source of enrichment. Often, however, they constitute sources of psychological conflict. This conflict is relevant in the process of assessing the suitability of admission to priesthood as well as for pastoral effectivity in an African context. The present work is a contribution to the transcultural Christian message of liberation and salvation.

Urban gambling, linked to poverty, crime and corruption, was once considered a blight on U.S. cities. Gambling then followed the exodus of Americans into the suburbs after World War II and now most Americans live within a four hour drive of a casino. What explains the success of places like Las Vegas? The self-contained casino resort removes gambling and its social problems from cities and provides Americans the comfort of gambling in a setting matched to their suburban lifestyle. In a detailed look at the growth of the earliest casino resorts to the "pleasure palaces" and riverboat casinos of today, Suburban Xanadu locates the rise of the casino resort in suburbanization and the significance of this development for today.

Urban gambling, linked to poverty, crime and corruption, was once considered a blight on U.S. cities. Gambling then followed the exodus of Americans into the suburbs after World War II and now most Americans live within a four hour drive of a casino. What explains the success of places like Las Vegas? The self-contained casino resort removes gambling and its social problems from cities and provides Americans the comfort of gambling in a setting matched to their suburban lifestyle. In a detailed look at the growth of the earliest casino resorts to the "pleasure palaces" and riverboat casinos of today, Suburban Xanadu locates the rise of the casino resort in suburbanization and the significance of this development for today.

Post-communist transformation in the former Soviet bloc has had a profound effect, not just in the political and economic sphere, but on all aspects of life. Although a great deal has been written about transformation, much of it has been about transformation viewed from the top, and little has been written about how things have changed for ordinary people at the local level.
This book, based on extensive original research, examines the changes resulting from transformation at the local level in the form Czechoslovakia. It considers especially local democracy, social movements, and work collectives, and paints a picture of people gradually growing in self-confidence and taking more control of their communities, having lived for decades in a framework where so much was directed from the top.

Is Chinatown a ghetto, an area of exotic sensations or a business venture? What makes a European Chinese, Chinese?
The histories of Chinese communities in Europe are diverse, spanning (amongst others) Teochiu speaking migrants from French Indochina to France, and Hakka and Cantonese speaking migrants from Hong Kong to Britain. This book explores how such a wide range of people tends to be - indiscriminately - regarded as 'Chinese'.
Christiansen explains Chinese communities in Europe in terms of the interaction between the migrants, the European 'host' society and the Chinese 'home' where the migrants claim their origin. He sees these interactions as addressing several issues: citizenship, political culture, labour market exclusion, generational shifts and the influences of colonialism and communism, all of which create opportunities for fashioning a new ethnic identity. Chinatown, Europe examines how many sub-groups among the Chinese in Europe have developed in recent years and discusses many institutions that shape and contribute ethnic meaning to Chinese communities in Europe.
Chinese identity is not a mere practical utility or a shallow business emblem. For many, China remains a unifying force and yet local and national bonds in each European state are of equal importance in giving shape to Chinese communities. Based on in-depth interviews with overseas Chinese in many European cities, Chinatown, Europe provides a complex yet enthralling investigation into many Chinese communities in Europe.