In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Frisian village of his childhood, Jorwert (pop. 330 and falling). It's a typical European village where the shops are closing down, the few children left will escape to a less arduous life in the city and it's becoming increasingly isolated. Jowert has more in common with an English village than with Amsterdam, and it's moving story of neighbours and their efforts to preserve their long established way of life is relevant to the changing face of the countryside everywhere in Europe.

"This work is a profound and fundamental contribution to the issues addressed."-Sociology "Vital to an understanding of peasant politics."-Library Journal James C. Scott places the critical problem of the peasant household-subsistence-at the center of this study. The fear of food shortages, he argues persuasively, explains many otherwise puzzling technical, social, and moral arrangements in peasant society, such as resistance to innovation, the desire to own land even at some cost in terms of income, relationships with other people, and relationships with institutions, including the state. Once the centrality of the subsistence problem is recognized, its effects on notions of economic and political justice can also be seen. Scott draws from the history of agrarian society in lower Burma and Vietnam to show how the transformations of the colonial era systematically violated the peasants' "moral economy" and created a situation of potential rebellion and revolution. Demonstrating keen insights into the behavior of people in other cultures and a rare ability to generalize soundly from case studies, Scott offers a different perspective on peasant behavior that will be of interest particularly to political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and Southeast Asianists.

Throughout the world people are concerned about the demise of tropical forests and their wildlife. Hunting by forest-dwelling people has a dramatic effect on wildlife in many tropical forests, frequently driving species to local extinction, with devastating implications for other species and the health of the forests themselves. But wildlife is an important source of protein and cash for rural peoples. Can hunting be managed to conserve biological communities while meeting human needs? Are hunting rates as practiced by tropical forest peoples sustainable? If not, what are the biological, social, and cultural implications of this failure? Answering these questions is ever more important as national and international agencies seek to integrate the development of local peoples with the conservation of tropical forest systems and species.

This book presents a wide array of studies that examine the sustainability of hunting as practiced by rural peoples. Comprising work by both biological and social scientists, "Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests" provides a balanced viewpoint on the ecological and human aspects of this hunting. The first section examines the effects of hunting on wildlife in tropical forests throughout the world. The next section looks at the importance of hunting to local communities. The third section looks at institutional challenges of resource management, while the fourth draws on economic perspectives to understand both hunting and sustainability. A final section provides synthesis and summary of the factors that influence sustainability and the implications for management.

Drawing on examples from Ecuador to Congo-Zaire to Sulawesi, "Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests" will be a valuable resource to policymakers, conservation organizations, and students and scholars of biology, ecology, and anthropology.

They live in the suburbs of Tennessee and Indiana. They fought in Vietnam and Desert Storm. They speak about an older, better America, an America that once was, and is no more. And for the past decade, they have come to the U.S. / Mexico border to hunt for illegal immigrants. Who are the Minutemen? Patriots? Racists? Vigilantes? Harel Shapira lived with the Minutemen and patrolled the border with them, seeking neither to condemn nor praise them, but to understand who they are and what they do. Challenging simplistic depictions of these men as right-wing fanatics with loose triggers, Shapira discovers a group of men who long for community and embrace the principles of civic engagement. Yet these desires and convictions have led them to a troubling place. Shapira takes you to that place--a stretch of desert in southern Arizona, where he reveals that what draws these men to the border is not simply racism or anti-immigrant sentiments, but a chance to relive a sense of meaning and purpose rooted in an older life of soldiering. They come to the border not only in search of illegal immigrants, but of lost identities and experiences. Now with a new afterword by the author, Waiting for Jose brings understanding to a group of people in search of lost identities and experiences.

Rural development is linked crucially with rural structure, though the latter is often difficult to analyze. This book analyzes rural classes and the diverse relations between producers in order to understand the relationship between Third World farmers and the international economy, and the significance of this for development and underdevelopment. The author introduces a number of theoretical distinctions and devises a a systematic framework which is applied to the analysis of a range of rural producers. The book assesses a number of strategies employed in planned development in the light of their implications for rural social structure, and thus for development in the Third World. This book provides an intensive and original conceptual and practical discussion of the possibilities for development under capitalism, and shoud be of interest to economists, political scientists and sociologists, as well as those working in development studies.

This book examines the English rural community, past and present, in its variety and dynamism. The distinguished team of contributors brings a variety of disciplinary perspectives to bear upon the central issues of movement and migration; the farm family and rural labour force; the development of contrasting rural communities; the portrayal of rural labour in both 'high' and popular culture; the changing nature of religious practice in the English countryside; the rural/urban fringe, and the spread of notions of a rural English arcadia within a predominantly urban society. Fully illustrated with accompanying maps, paintings and photographs, The English Rural Community provides an important and innovative overview of a subject where history, myth and debate are inseparably entwined. A full bibliography will assist a broad range of general readers and students of social history, historical geography and development studies approaching the subject for the first time, and the whole should establish itself as the central analytical account in an area where image and reality are notoriously hard to unravel.

This book is about the different ways that men and women experienced migration from the Southern seaboard to the antebellum Southern frontier. Based upon extensive research in planter family papers, Cashin studies how the sexes went to the frontier with diverging agendas: men tried to escape the family, while women tried to preserve it. On the frontier, men usually settled far from relatives, leaving women lonely and disoriented in a strange environment. As kinship networks broke down, sex roles changed, and relations between men and women became more inequitable. Migration also changed race relations, because many men abandoned paternalistic race relations and abused their slaves. However, many women continued to practice paternalism, and a few even sympathized with slaves as they never had before. Drawing on rich archival sources, Cashin examines the decision of families to migrate, the effects of migration on planter family life, and the way old ties were maintained and new ones formed.

"This study is an attempt to evaluate the voluntary efforts being done in rural India in organising the marginalised weaker sections of the society for their development and liberation. The main focus is on the role of NGOs, also called Third Sector (the other two sectors being government and business), which has been gaining increasing importance in the development of the underprivileged. International development agencies such as the World Bank, the IMF etc., have also realised the limitations of formal organisations such as government agencies and the role of private sector in the objective development of various sections of the society. As such, the book concerns with the aims, objectives, organisational structure and initiation of development programmes by the voluntary organisations and the role of voluntary workers in the process of development. It also examines the limitations of seeking funds and their utilisation, the problems and prospects of involving the target groups and its implication in the development process. Further, it also highlights the importance of the voluntary organisations and their impact on the development of weaker sections of the society."

"The book highlights the commonalties and differences in rural women s experiences across the countries and communities of the South Asian region. It argues that the low status and weak empowerment of rural women is on account of the structural conditions of poverty and inequality in the region, the social and cultural shaping of gender ideologies, and the multiple patriarchies and caste and class dominance through which poor women experience power relations. However, a sense of optimism pervades as country experiences reflect the renewed concerns and commitments about rural women s empowerment in both state policy and the significant snowballing of social activism in the region. The essays in the book reiterates the importance of poverty alleviation, providing decent work opportunities, investing in education and health, involving women in decision making and governance such that their substantive empowerment could be fostered by enhancing their capabilities, entitlements and choices."

'A woven time-travelling book, about love, land, life ... Short stories that link together like trees in a forest' Jackie Morris On a clear Kentucky night in 1888, a young woman risks her life to save a stranger from a drunken mob. Almost a hundred years later, her great-grandson Andy climbs a hill at the edge of town, and is flooded with memories of all he has lived, seen and heard of the past century - of farmers wooing schoolteachers and soldiers trudging home from war; of the first motor car, the Great Depression and Vietnam; of neighbourly feuds and family secrets; of grief and betrayal - and of great friendship that endures for a lifetime. These are Wendell Berry's tales of Port William, a little farming community nestled deep in the Kentucky River valley. They unravel the story of a town over the course of four generations, lovingly chronicling the intertwined lives of the families who call it home. Affectionate, elegiac and wry, these uplifting rural fables invite us to witness the beauty and quiet heroism at the heart of each ordinary, interconnected life.

"Narrative of the Village: Centre of the Periphery attempts to dismantle the polarities of centre and margin and substantiate the way they interconnect and flow into each other across all differences of region and language. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, the essays in this volume foray into sociological, political, economic and narratological issues in order to fathom the rural life of India. Landscapes, histories and folk culture interact with each other to affect both narrative constructs and power-structures. The period covered by the essays spans nearly a hundred years and traces the history of India from the early decades through the dislocations of the partition right up to the present in an attempt to recapture the past, relocate priorities, recover lost myths and unveil the process of nation construction. The preoccupation with village India has been a constant concern with writers and film-makers from all regions and languages. Premchand, Sarat Chandra, Bibhutibhushan Bannerjee, Buddhadev Guha, Khushwant Singh, Krishna Sobti, Rahi Masoom Reza, Kamala Markandeya, Ashis Gupta, Phaneshwar Nath Renu, Thakazi Shankar Pillai, Thapil Mohammed Meeran, Sharan Kumar Limbale, O.V. Vijayan and David Davidar being only some of them.The kaleidoscopic nature of village life has always been a part of the nations imagination. The essays in this volume, open out the narrative of the subcontinental village to look at it anew in all its complexities and sociological concerns, to unfold a multi-layered reality."

In the 1970s, the Thai state organized the Village Scout movement to counter communist insurgency. The movement was soon used to thwart growing demands for democratic reform, recruiting five million members to become the largest mass organization in Thai history, and, mobilized by the military-controlled media, helped topple a civilian government and restore military rule. This book bridges both the macro and micro levels of analysis to place the dynamics of a national political movement within a richly detailed account of its working at the village level.

Historical context, theoretical grounding, critical issues perspective, and the "how-to" for community development This collection of work by leading community development scholars presents students with a theoretical and practical introduction to the field. The text progresses seamlessly from a theoretical overview to a historical overview to three approaches to community development (ecological, interactional, and structural-functional), then explores the practice of community development along with technical assistance, action research, evaluation research, and the role of local organizations, local leadership, and coalitions. The book concludes with critical issues, such as rural development, inner-city development, youth in community development, health care, public schools, and sustainable development. Key features include: New community development intervention models, using examples from recent events to demonstrate the strengths and challenges of such models Community service-learning activities, providing useful examples and case studies of successful service-learning programs in communities A hierarchy of learning activities and exercises within each chapter, ensuring that students learn how to apply concepts to real-world issues Relevant cases of successful community development interventions, giving students examples of 'best practices' Major trends, challenges, and prospects for the future in community development, helping students identify key issues and opportunities Instructor Teaching Site: Password-protected resources contain learning modules, developed by the authors, which include exercises and activities which reinforce chapter content, and demonstrate application of concepts in real-life communities. Student Study Site: Open-access study materials include chapter self-quizzes to aid content learning. This comprehensive, introductory survey text is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in Community Development, Urban Studies, Rural Development, and Introduction to Service Learning found in departments of sociology, public administration, management, and social work.

A sweeping historical and political analysis with detailed ethnographic fieldwork of the politics of everyday life in postcolonial Africa. In post-apartheid South Africa, nearly a fifth of the urban population lives in shacks. Unable to wait any longer for government housing, people occupy land, typically seeking to fly under the state's radar. Yet in most cases, occupiers wind up in dialogue with the state. In Delivery as Dispossession, Zachary Levenson follows this journey from avoidance to incorporation, explaining how the post-apartheid Constitution shifts squatters' struggles onto the judicial register. Providing a comparative ethnographic account of two land occupations in Cape Town and highlighting occupiers' struggles, Levenson further demonstrates why it is that housing officials seek the eviction of all new occupations: they view these unsanctioned settlements as a threat to the order they believe is required for delivery. Yet in evicting occupiers, he argues, they reproduce the problem anew, with subsequent rounds of land occupation as the inevitable consequence. Offering a unique framework for thinking about local states, this book proposes a novel theory of the state that will change the way ethnographers think about politics.

A sweeping historical and political analysis with detailed ethnographic fieldwork of the politics of everyday life in postcolonial Africa. In post-apartheid South Africa, nearly a fifth of the urban population lives in shacks. Unable to wait any longer for government housing, people occupy land, typically seeking to fly under the state's radar. Yet in most cases, occupiers wind up in dialogue with the state. In Delivery as Dispossession, Zachary Levenson follows this journey from avoidance to incorporation, explaining how the post-apartheid Constitution shifts squatters' struggles onto the judicial register. Providing a comparative ethnographic account of two land occupations in Cape Town and highlighting occupiers' struggles, Levenson further demonstrates why it is that housing officials seek the eviction of all new occupations: they view these unsanctioned settlements as a threat to the order they believe is required for delivery. Yet in evicting occupiers, he argues, they reproduce the problem anew, with subsequent rounds of land occupation as the inevitable consequence. Offering a unique framework for thinking about local states, this book proposes a novel theory of the state that will change the way ethnographers think about politics.

An in-depth look at how New York adopted "innovation" and became a destination for startups and large tech companies. In recent years, the language of "innovation" has spurred visions of urban economic revival led by digital technology. Investors, mayors, and tech evangelists transform the city into an "innovation complex" that expands the tech industry while struggling to control its power. No city has been more ambitious in this pursuit than New York. In The Innovation Complex, Sharon Zukin looks to the people who created New York's tech economy and the places where it took root. She traces its origins to the city's response to the 2008 financial crisis and the aggressive leveraging of wealth from the US and overseas. Through interviews with venture capitalists, startup founders, and economic development officials, she explores the spaces where the rules of the new economy are made-transforming the city but increasing dependence on Big Tech firms, siphoning public subsidies, and enabling the rise of a new meritocratic elite. Updated with a preface on the effects of Covid-19, Zukin's provocative interpretation of the innovation complex is a warning to cities around the world.

Across the Blue Ridge Mountains stretches a world both charming and complicated. Jeremy Jones and his wife move into a small house above the creek where his family had settled 200 years prior. He takes a job alongside his former teachers in the local elementary school and sets out on a search to understand how this ancient land has shaped its people-how it shaped him. His search sends him burrowing in the past-hunting buried treasure and POW camps, unearthing Civil War graves and family feuds, exploring gated communities and tourist traps, encountering changed accents and immigrant populations, tracing both Walmart sidewalks and carved-out mountains-and pondering the future. He meshes narrative and myth, geology and genealogy, fiddle tunes and local color in his exploration of the briskly changing and oft-stigmatized world of his native southern Appalachians and particularly the mystical Bearwallow Mountain, a peak suddenly in flux.

A riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversy Shale gas extraction-commonly known as fracking-is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet-whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet-is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent. The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America's ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors' liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.

Revelatory, lyrical and immersive, this is an extraordinary book that takes you deep into these ordinary women's worlds... Their stories are urgent and forcefully articulated - and this book gives us the chance to hear them. On an island at the eastern edge of India, rural, remote and dense with jungle, is a Muslim village. In an ever-shifting landscape of mangroves and rivers, the women here dwell among contradictions, constrictions and change in a place where one's neighbours are often too close for comfort. Nine Paths follows the lives of nine of these women, and their families, over the course of a year - from one monsoon season to another. There are weddings to celebrate and deaths to mourn, difficult marriages to navigate and tragedies to overcome, as we observe the everyday drudgery and unexpected turmoil, and the dreams of something better. Revelatory, lyrical and immersive, this is an extraordinary book that takes you deep into these ordinary women's worlds. Anthropologist Lexi Stadlen spent sixteen months in this village, talking, listening, and getting to know these women, who were willing to share their complicated, fascinating lives. Their stories are urgent and forcefully articulated - and this book gives us the chance to hear them.

Community planner Susan Guyette presents the first field-tested model of development planning that addresses the special concerns of Native American and rural communities. In Guyette's model, revitalizing cultural traditions becomes the central focus of the economic planning process. The author demonstrates, step by step, how community planning works, using the creation of the Poeh Center at Pojoaque Pueblo in northern New Mexico as a case study. She offers practical, detailed guidelines on how to develop a strategic plan, assess and document needs, ensure community participation, support business and tourism, and generate funding for community projects. This book provides a unique opportunity to see rural development in action.

This book is about the ritual world of a group of rural settlements in Shanxi province in pre-1949 North China. Temple festivals, with their giant processions, elaborate rituals, and operas, were the most important influence on the symbolic universe of ordinary villagers and demonstrate their remarkable capacity for religious and artistic creation. The great festivals described in this book were their supreme collective achievements and were carried out virtually without assistance from local officials or educated elites, clerical or lay.

Chinese culture was a performance culture, and ritual was the highest form of performance. Village ritual life everywhere in pre-revolutionary China was complex, conservative, and extraordinarily diverse. Festivals and their associated rituals and operas provided the emotional and intellectual materials out of which ordinary people constructed their ideas about the world of men and the realm of the gods. It is, David Johnson argues, impossible to form an adequate idea of traditional Chinese society without a thorough understanding of village ritual. Newly discovered liturgical manuscripts allow him to reconstruct North Chinese temple festivals in unprecedented detail and prove that they are sharply different from the Daoist- and Buddhist-based communal rituals of South China.

The brand-new instalment in Fenella J. Miller's bestselling Goodwill House series.August 1940 As Autumn approaches, Lady Joanna Harcourt is preparing for new guests at Goodwill House - land girls, Sally, Daphne and Charlie. Sally, a feisty blonde from the East End, has never seen a cow before, but she's desperate to escape London and her horrible ex, Dennis. And although the hours are long and the work hard, Sal quickly becomes good friends with the other girls Daphne and Charlie and enjoys life at Goodwill House. Until Dennis reappears threatening to drag her back to London. Sal fears her life as a land girl is over, just as she finally felt worthy. But Lady Joanna has other ideas and a plan to keep Sal safe and doing the job she loves. Don't miss the next heart-breaking instalment in Fenella J. Miller's beautiful Goodwill House series. Praise for Fenella J. Miller: 'Curl up in a chair with Fenella J Miller's characters and lose yourself in another time and another place.' Lizzie Lane 'Engaging characters and setting which whisks you back to the home front of wartime Britain. A fabulous series!' Jean Fullerton

Deep in the Somerset countryside, the Combe Pomeroy village library hosts a monthly book club. Ruth the librarian fears she's too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley's Lover makes her think again. Aurora doesn't feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark's grumpiness and wonders if their son's imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best? The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold? From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve. Judy Leigh is back with her unmistakable recipe of friendship and fun, love and laughter. The perfect feel-good novel for all fans of Dawn French, Dee Macdonald and Cathy Hopkins. Readers love Judy Leigh: 'Loved this from cover to cover, pity I can only give this 5 stars as it deserves far more.' 'The story's simply wonderful, the theme of second chances will resonate whatever your age, there's something for everyone among the characters, and I do defy anyone not to have a tear in their eye at the perfect ending.' 'With brilliant characters and hilarious antics, this is definitely a cosy read you'll not want to miss.' 'A lovely read of how life doesn't just end because your getting old.' 'A great feel-good and fun story that made me laugh and root for the characters.' Praise for Judy Leigh: 'Brilliantly funny, emotional and uplifting' Miranda Dickinson 'Lovely . . . a book that assures that life is far from over at seventy' Cathy Hopkins bestselling author of The Kicking the Bucket List 'Brimming with warmth, humour and a love of life... a wonderful escapade' Fiona Gibson