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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Social classes > General
Work in the countryside ties you, soul and salary, to the land, but
often those who labour in nature have the least control over what
happens there. Starting with Rebecca Smith's own family history -
foresters in Cumbria, miners in Derbyshire, millworkers in
Nottinghamshire, builders of reservoirs and the Manchester Ship
Canal - Rural is an exploration of our green and pleasant land, and
the people whose labour has shaped it. Beautifully observed, these
are the stories of professions and communities that often go
overlooked. Smith shows the precarity for those whose lives are
entangled in the natural landscape. And she traces how these rural
working-class worlds have changed. As industry has transformed -
mines closing, country estates shrinking, farmers struggling to
make profit on a pint of milk, holiday lets increasing so
relentlessly that local people can no longer live where they were
born - we are led to question the legacy of the countryside in all
our lives. This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the
countryside, whose family owes something to a bygone trade, or who
is interested in the future of rural Britain.
One of the most famous writers of all time, George Orwell's life
played a huge part in his understanding of the world. A constant
critic of power and authority, the roots of Animal Farm and
Nineteen Eighty-Four began to grow in his formative years as a
pupil at a strict private school in Eastbourne. His essay Such,
Such Were The Joys recounts the ugly realities of the regime to
which pupils were subjected in the name of class prejudice,
hierarchy and imperial destiny. This graphic novel vividly brings
his experiences at school to life. As Orwell earned his place
through scholarship rather than wealth, he was picked on by both
staff and richer students. The violence of his teachers and the
shame he experienced on a daily basis leap from the pages,
conjuring up how this harsh world looked through a child's innocent
eyes while juxtaposing the mature Orwell's ruminations on what such
schooling says about society. Today, as the private school and
class system endure, this is a vivid reminder that the world Orwell
sought to change is still with us.
Life in a castle isn't always a fairytale, as the Duchess of
Rutland vividly illustrates in her fascinating, revealing and funny
autobiography. When Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh
farmer, imagined her future, she imagined following in her mother's
footsteps to marry a farmer of her own. But then she fell in love
with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the
most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his
father, Emma found herself becoming the chatelaine of Belvoir
Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland. She had to cope
with five boisterous children while faced with a vast estate in
desperate need of modernisation and staff who wanted nothing to
change - it was a daunting responsibility. Yet with sound advice
from the doyenne of duchesses, Duchess 'Debo' of Devonshire, she
met each challenge with optimism and gusto, including scaling the
castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter; being caught in
her nightdress by mesmerised Texan tourists and disguising herself
as a cleaner to watch filming of The Crown. She even took on the
castle ghosts . . . At times the problems she faced seemed
insoluble yet, with her unstoppable energy and talent for thinking
on the hoof, she won through, inspired by the vision and passion of
those Rutland duchesses in whose footsteps she trod, and indeed the
redoubtable and resourceful women who forged her way, whose homes
were not castles but remote farmhouses in the Radnorshire Hills.
Vividly written and bursting with insights, The Accidental Duchess
will appeal to everyone who has visited a stately home and wondered
what it would be like to one day find yourself not only living
there, but in charge of its future.
An insidious snobbery has taken root in parts of progressive
Britain. Working-class voters have flexed their political muscles
and helped to change the direction of the country, but in doing so
they have been met with disdain and even abuse from elites in
politics, culture and business. They have been derided as
uneducated, bigoted turkeys voting for Christmas, as Empire
apologists patriotic to the point of delusion. At election time, we
hear a lot about 'levelling up the Red Wall'. But when the votes
have been counted, what can actually be done to meet the very real
concerns of the 'left behind' in the UK's post-industrial towns? In
these once vibrant hubs of progress, working-class voters now face
the prospect of being minimised or ridiculed in cultural life,
economically marginalised and abandoned educationally. In this
rousing polemic, David Skelton explores the roots and reality of
this new snobbery, calling for an end to the divisive culture war
and the creation of a new politics of the common good, empowering
workers, remaking the economy and placing communities centre stage.
Above all, he argues that we now have a once-in-a-century
opportunity to bring about permanent change.
Over the last 25 years, nearly two billion people across the globe
have risen out of poverty and income levels have risen worldwide.
Yet in the US, the top 1% earn twice the amount of income as the
poorest 50% of the population. In the midst of rising prosperity,
economic dissatisfaction--driven by the persistent fear felt by
many that they are ''falling behind''--is higher than at any point
since the 1930s. In Understanding Economic Inequality, the author
brings an economist's perspective informed by new, groundbreaking
research on inequality from philosophy, sociology, psychology, and
political science and presents it in a form that it is accessible
to those who want to understand our world, our society, our
politics, our paychecks, and our neighbors' paychecks better. As
any history of the 21st century would be incomplete without
understanding ''the 99% versus the 1%'', the insights provided by
the author will prove valuable to any reader. This book also
provides the foundation for undergraduate courses on wealth and
income inequality, and an essential reading for introductory
economics, labor economics, public policy, law, or sociology
courses.
What does consumption in the global south signify, and how are its
complexities communicated in media discourses? Consumption, Media
and the Global South presents original research examining key
themes in the ways in which consumption in the global south - by
elites, the middle classes, and the poor - is discursively
constructed in media texts. With the global triumph of capitalist
economies and neoliberal values, consumption is increasingly viewed
by populations in the global south as both a right to which they
are denied access, and once accessed as evidence of an improved
life. The ways in which this debate plays out on the stage of the
media is an important element of the picture. This book looks at
the media representation of consumer culture in Africa, China,
Brazil and India through case studies ranging from celebrity
selfies, to travel websites, news reports and documentary film.
'His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times.' Ibram X.
Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist 'An intimate, unvarnished
and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing.' NEW
YORK TIMES You know how he died. This is how he lived. Who was
George Floyd? What did he hope for? What was life like for him? And
why has his death been the catalyst for such a powerful global
response? The murder of George Floyd sparked a summer of activism
and unrest all over the world in 2020, from Shetland to Sao Paolo,
as people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, demanding an
end to racial injustice. But behind a face that would be graffitied
onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with
civil rights, there is the reality of one man's stolen life. In His
Name is George Floyd we meet the kind young boy who talked his
friends out of beating up a skinny kid from another neighbourhood
and then befriended him on the walk home. Big Floyd the high school
American football player who ignored his coach's pleas to be more
aggressive and felt queasy at the sight of blood. The man who fell
victim to an opioid epidemic we are only just beginning to
understand. The sensitive son and loving father, constantly in
search of a better life in a society determined to write him off
based on things he had no control over: where he grew up, the size
of his body and the colour of his skin. Drawing upon hundreds of
interviews with friends and family members, His Name Is George
Floyd reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd's
life and death - from his forebears' roots in slavery to an
underfunded education, the overpolicing of his community and the
devastating snare of the prison system. By offering us an intimate
portrait of this one, emblematic life, Robert Samuels and Toluse
Olorunnipa deliver a powerful and moving exploration of how a man
who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.
In America, it is increasingly the case that the people who
make, support, or protest military policy have no military
experience. As Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer assert in
this groundbreaking work, the gap between the "all-volunteer
military" and the rest of us is widening, and our country faces a
dangerous lack of understanding between those in power and those
who defend our way of life.
This set of 23 volumes, originally published between 1934 and 1994
shed much light on the history of industrial relations and
working-class organisation in the UK. They analyse trade union
structure, organization and government and look at the pattern of
union activity in the workplace. Containing fascinating insider
accounts of developments in British industrial relations they
analyse the impact of the changing economic and political climate
on trade unions in Europe and use a series of comparative case
studies to examine change in the government, growth, mergers,
character and bargaining structures of British unions. They provide
an introduction to the characteristics and styles of trade unionism
in Europe and offer a comprehensive guide to the complex structure
and administration of British Trade Unions as well as analysing the
relationship between political parties and trade unions in Poland,
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
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Not Quite Right For Us
(Paperback)
Sharmilla Beezmohun; Foreword by Linton Kwesi Johnson; Xiaolu Guo, Kerry Hudson, Jay Bernard, …
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R356
Discovery Miles 3 560
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Defiant, humorous, empathetic and insightful, 'Not Quite Right For
Us' pierces through the hierarchical mechanics of class, race,
gender. A celebration of outsiderness and an ode to otherness, 'Not
Quite Right For Us' is a singular collection of stories, essays and
poems by a dynamic mix of established and surging voices alike,
edited by Sharmilla Beezmohun and including Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Aminatta Forna, Xiaolu Guo, Johny Pitts, Rishi Dastidar, Tim Wells
and Rafeef Ziadah. This remarkable anthology marks the tenth
anniversary of the live-literature organisation co-founded by
Sharmilla, Speaking Volumes. Part cri du coeur, part warning shot,
part affirmation, this is the book we need now.
'A rich achievement full of glorious anecdotes' Hugo Vickers A
Royal Christmas is a Christmas pudding of a book, enticingly full
of silver threepenny pieces. Organised thematically, it covers such
topics as Christmas and conflict in the 20th century, Christmas
pastimes, festive feasts, Christmas and the Commonwealth, and many
more, to reveal the many ways in which the Royal Family have
celebrated the festive season through the ages. Jeremy Archer has
delved into the Royal Archives to uncover the personal thoughts of
many members of the Royal Family during the Christmas period. What
comes over most strongly from Queen Victoria's journals is the
importance of family: the joys they shared, the trials they
endured, and the carefully-selected gifts they exchanged. Although
there is much happiness, tragedy is a common bed-fellow,
particularly in earlier times. And conflict is seldom very far
away. But this is a celebration - both of an enduring festive
season and an extraordinary family. 'An easy to read treat for
royal enthusiasts, skilfully assembled to highlight significant
episodes in our history from the comic to the tragic informative
and enjoyable' Sarah Bradford 'Jeremy Archer has an eye for an
anecdote and a clever way of arranging his material. The result is
like an enormous bran tub: dip in, and you're sure to find
something to keep you entertained' Kathryn Hughes, The Mail on
Sunday
Culture maverick Jim Goad presents a thoroughly reasoned, darkly funny, and rampagingly angry defense of America's most maligned social group -- the cultural clan variously referred to as rednecks, hillbillies, white trash, crackers, and trailer trash. As The Redneck Manifesto boldly points out and brilliantly demonstrates, America's dirty little secret isn't racism but classism. While pouncing incessantly on racial themes, most major media are silent about America's widening class rifts, a problem that negatively affects more people of all colors than does racism. With an unmatched ability for rubbing salt in cultural wounds, Jim Goad deftly dismantles most popular American notions about race and culture and takes a sledgehammer to our delicate glass-blown popular conceptions of government, religion, media, and history.
Revealing Britain's Systemic Racism applies an existing scholarly
paradigm (systemic racism and the white racial frame) to assess the
implications of Markle's entry and place in the British royal
family, including an analysis that bears on visual and material
culture. The white racial frame, as it manifests in the UK,
represents an important lens through which to map and examine
contemporary racism and related inequities. By questioning the
long-held, but largely anecdotal, beliefs about racial
progressiveness in the UK, the authors provide an original
counter-narrative about how Markle's experiences as a biracial
member of the royal family can help illumine contemporary forms of
racism in Britain. Revealing Britain's Systemic Racism identifies
and documents the plethora of ways systemic racism continues to
shape ecological spaces in the UK. Kimberley Ducey and Joe R.
Feagin challenge romanticized notions of racial inclusivity by
applying Feagin's long-established work, aiming to make a unique
and significant contribution to literature in sociology and in
various other disciplines.
Critical intersectional scholarship enhances researchers' and
scholar-activists' ability to open novel research frontiers. This
forward-thinking Research Handbook demonstrates how to pursue fluid
and innovative research approaches, identify differences from
traditional methodologies, and overcome the common challenges faced
when carrying out intersectional research. A transdisciplinary
group of contributors offer their experience and expertise to
provide an overview of key research topics, qualitative and
quantitative approaches, and empirical examples of integrating
intersectionality research with other critical practices. Examining
the foundational texts that explain historical developments in
systems of oppression and interdisciplinary research on
marginalized communities, state-of the-art chapters explore the
intersections emerging in studies of gender and sexuality,
capitalism, white supremacy, nationalism, colonialism, climate
emergencies, imperial decline, and public health. Reconsidering the
ways in which scholar-activists carry out research, the Research
Handbook demonstrates how an intersectional gaze and a continued
commitment to social justice moves us closer to producing valuable
research and, ultimately, transforming knowledge. Advancing
innovative and multidisciplinary approaches, this incisive Research
Handbook will be an invaluable tool for scholars and researchers
hoping to undertake meaningful intersectional research. Its
empirical findings will further benefit practitioners tasked with
designing intersectional policy.
Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage
tunnels that form the bowels of New York City and this book is
about them, the so-called mole people. They live alone and in
communities, in subway tunnels and below subway platforms and this
fascinating study presents how and why people move underground, who
they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the
"topside" world they've left behind.
Pearl Jephcott (1900–1980) was a pioneer of sociological
research, largely forgotten in recent times, her works paved the
way for many of the subsequent developments that were to come in
the sociology of gender, women’s’ studies, urban sociology,
leisure studies and the sociology of youth. An originator and an
early adopter of many research methods, Pearl Jephcott, deserves to
be rediscovered. This collection of 5 books, each with a new
foreword, were originally published between 1954 and 1971.
Including one previously unpublished work from 1954, they are a
selection of her most important work and a fascinating record of
sociological research in action.
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