The ancient Greco-Roman world was a world full of cities: not of cities in the modern sense of massive conglomerations, but in a distinctive sense of communities in which countryside was dominated by urban centre. Interest in the special relationship of town and country in the ancient world goes back to Max Weber and beyond. This volume of papers by influential archaeologists and historians seeks to bring together the two disciplines in exploring the city-country relationship and its impact on social, political, economic and cultural conditions in classical antiquity. Topics include the rise of the "polis" in ancient Greece, the economic and cultural role of city elites in Athens, central Italy and Asia Minor, and the role of taxation in subordinating town to country.

This book presents the methodology and results of a three-year, eleven-country science-to-policy research project, Toward a Policy Model of Multifunctional Agriculture and Rural Development, undertaken between 2005 and 2008 and financed under the European Union's Sixth Framework program. It deals with an important contemporary policy issue, how best to ensure that an agriculturally-based policy can contribute to the development of rural regions. It tackles this problem in a number of different but complementary ways, primarily by the development of a unique and innovative dynamic systems model, POMMARD (a Policy Model of Multifunctional Agriculture and Rural Development).

The division of 'rural' and 'urban' is one of the oldest ideas in Geography and is deeply engrained in our culture. Throughout history, the rural has been attributed with many meanings: as a source of food and energy; as a pristine wilderness, or as a bucolic idyll; as a playground, or a place of escape; as a fragile space of nature, in need of protection; and as a primitive place, in need of modernization. But is the idea of the rural still relevant today? Rural provides an advanced introduction to the study of rural places and processes in Geography and related disciplines. Drawing extensively on the latest research in rural geography, this book explores the diverse meanings that have been attached to the rural, examines how ideas of the rural have been produced and reproduced, and investigates the influence of different ideas in shaping the social and economic structure of rural localities and the everyday lives of people who live, work or play in rural areas. This authoritative book contains case studies drawn from both the developed and developing world to introduce and illustrate conceptual ideas and approaches, as well as suggested further reading. Written in an engaging and lively style, Rural challenges the reader to think differently about the rural.

The study of gender in rural spaces is still in its infancy. Thus far, there has been little exploration of the constitution of the varied and differing ways that gender is constituted in rural settings. This book will place the question of gender, rurality and difference at its center.

The authors examine theoretical constructions of gender and explore the relationship between these and rural spaces. While there have been extensive debates in the feminist literature about gender and the intersection of multiple social categories, rural feminist social scientists have yet to theorize what gender means in a rural context and how gender blurs and intersects with other social categories such as sexuality, ethnicity, class and (dis)ability. This book will use empirical examples from a range of research projects undertaken by the authors as well as illustrations from work in the Australasia region, Europe, and the United States to explore gender and rurality and their relation to sexuality, ethnicity, class and (dis)ability.

This book is written for individuals engaged in formulating and implementing policies, plans, programmes and projects affecting rural areas of poor countries. Recognition of the contribution that qualitative enquiry can make has increased significantly, but a succinct and non-technical introduction to when and why qualitative techniques of enquiry should be favoured has been lacking; and this what this book sets out to provide. The primary concern is how the art of collecting data necessary to inform rural development practice can be improved, taking into account existing organizational and resource constraints. The text defines 'qualitative' in this context; surveys the types of information that practitioners of rural developing communities need to assemble; describes the main general techniques in use; recommends areas of potential improvements; and looks to the future of qualitative enquiry in the light of present trends and likely information needs.

Drawing extensively from agency records, newspaper accounts, sociological studies and court documents, Hough explores the experiences of rural white unwed mothers in Maine and Tennessee.

In A Village Goes Mobile, Sirpa Tenhunen examines how the mobile telephone has contributed to social change in rural India. Tenhunen's long-term ethnographic fieldwork in West Bengal began before the village had a phone system in place and continued through the introduction and proliferation of the smartphone. She here analyzes how mobile telephones emerged as multidimensional objects which, in addition to enabling telephone conversations, facilitated status aspirations, internet access, and entertainment practices. She explores how this multifaceted use of mobile phones has affected agency and power dynamics in economic, political, and social relationships, and how these new social constellations relate to culture and development. In eight chapters, Tenhunen asks such questions as: Who benefits from mobile telephony and how? Can people use mobile phones to change their lives, or does phone use merely amplify existing social patterns and power relationships? Can mobile telephony induce development? Going beyond the case of West Bengal, Tenhunen develops a framework to understand how new media mediates social processes within interrelated social spheres and local hierarchies by relating, media-saturated forms of interaction to pre-existing contexts.

Agrarian transformations within and across countries have been significantly and dynamically altered during the past few decades compared to previous eras, provoking a variety of reactions from rural poor communities worldwide. The recent convergence of various crises ? financial, food, energy and environmental ? has put the nexus between ?rural development? and ?development in general? back onto the center stage of theoretical, policy and political agendas in the world today. Confronting these issues will require (re)engaging with critical theories, taking politics seriously, and utilizing rigorous and appropriate research methodologies. These are the common messages and implications of the various contributions to this collection in the context of a scholarship that is critical in two senses: questioning prescriptions from mainstream perspectives and interrogating popular conventions in radical thinking.

This book focuses on key perspectives, frameworks and methodologies in agrarian change and peasant studies. The contributors are leading scholars in the field of rural development studies: Henry Bernstein, Terence J. Byres, Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Marc Edelman, Crist?bal Kay, Benedict Kerkvliet, Philip McMichael, Shahra Razavi, Ian Scoones and Teodor Shanin.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

How were manorial lords in the twelfth and thirteenth century able to appropriate peasant labour? And what does this reveal about the changing attitudes and values of medieval England? Considering these questions from the perspective of the 'moral economy', the web of shared values within a society, Rosamond Faith offers a penetrating portrait of a changing world. Anglo-Saxon lords were powerful in many ways but their power did not stem directly from their ownership of land. The values of early medieval England - principally those of rank, reciprocity and worth - were shared across society. The Norman Conquest brought in new attitudes both to land and to the relationship between lords and peasants, and the Domesday Book conveyed the novel concept of 'tenure'. The new 'feudal thinking' permeated all relationships concerned with land: peasant farmers were now manorial tenants, owing labour and rent. Many people looked back to better days.

It has increasingly been recognised that rural and urban areas are inextricably interlinked. This book adopts a fresh approach to the issue of rural-urban dynamics through a study of the changing nature of livelihoods, mobility and markets in ten study sites across four countries of Africa and Asia. Building on detailed fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Tanzania, Vietnam and Thailand, the authors explore how settlements and livelihoods are being transformed as long-term inhabitants and recent migrants embrace new economic activities many of which are linked to global markets.

The book is structured around the concept of frontier which is conceptualized as being a dynamic space where the forces of economic, demographic and social change are brought to bear. The study sites include agricultural frontiers (coffee, cocoa, pineapples and fresh fruit), handicraft and manufacturing frontiers, and mining frontiers (gold and diamonds). In all of the cases, global value chain dynamics have played a pivotal role in shaping local livelihoods. Some settlements are developing into new urban centres whilst others are suffering from a boom and bust experience due to the unreliability of export markets. The similarities and differences between the frontier settlements are drawn out by comparing frontiers of similar types and by highlighting the theoretical and policy implications of the findings from all the frontier types.

The originality of the book lies in its combination of conceptual clarity, methodological coherence and empirical richness. By combining detailed empirical findings with theoretical insight from debates on livelihoods, global value chains, mobility patterns, settlement dynamics and rural-urban relations, the book sheds new light on these issues within an overall framework of development trajectories in Africa and Asia. Given scholars and international agencies current interest in the spatial dimensions of economic development, this contribution is particularly timely with its fresh geographical approach to development issues; this book is a pertinent and authoritative read for anyone researching or learning in the field of development.

Social, economic, and technological changes disrupt many Indigenous, ethnic, and rural communities even when offering progress. Under these conditions, social and psychological dysfunctions are likely to emerge. This book provides insights regarding how to anticipate, prevent, and, when necessary, provide mitigation strategies to communities and individuals who suffer as a result. This book, the first of its kind, provides an overview of strategic and policy issues involving the relationship between change and dysfunction, enabling the reader to more effectively deal with potentially hurtful influences in proactive, equitable, and culturally sensitive ways. After providing a theoretical overview, methods for anticipating the hurtful impacts of change are discussed, along with techniques for mitigating its negative effects upon communities and individuals. Learning objectives and discussion questions are included with each chapter, and the book can serve as a text for courses on indigenous economic development, Native studies, culturally appropriate business, and culturally competent therapy. It can also be used as a professional handbook for practitioners working with communities affected by these issues.

In rural South African clinics, Black nurses played critical roles. Charged with administering valuable and life-saving health care measures despite a lack of equipment and personnel, these nurses had to navigate the intersections of traditional African healing practices, changing gender relations, and increasing educational and economic opportunities for South Africa's Black middle class between the 1960s and 1980s. Leslie Anne Hadfield compellingly demonstrates how these women were able to successfully carve out their own professional space and reshape notions of health and healing in the Eastern Cape. Bringing forth the stories of these nurses in their own voices, A Bold Profession is an homage to their dedication to the well-being of their communities. Hadfield sheds light on the struggles of balancing commitment to career and family lives during an oppressive apartheid. The volume fills an important gap for scholars studying the history of women, nursing, and health care in South Africa, illuminating the humanity of health care workers.

Rural development is inherently viewed as a positive thing; it is seen as something that brings together groups of individuals with automatic positive implications and outcomes. Policy rhetoric frequently uses popular terms such as involvement, participation and power sharing to describe rural development activities. However, the reality of experience on the ground does not necessarily concur with these ideals. It is not always clear who ultimately benefits from rural development: the State, the community or rural development practitioners. This book critically analyses key concepts associated with rural development policy and practice, and using the concepts of power and micro-politics to analyze rhetoric and reality, reveals the intricacies of rural development. Challenging popular ideals associated with rural development, this book presents the notion of rural development less as a spontaneous, all-inclusive affair and more as a limited, controlled and exclusive process. Ultimately it contends that within structures of rural governance, a regeneration power elite predominates development and regeneration activities.

Vietnam is a land whose features change dramatically within short distances--from mountains and high plateaus to coastal plains and inland swamps. To the south, the large delta formed by the Mekong and Lesser river systems inches forward yearly into the South China Sea. This delta, while hardly typical of all Vietnam, is one of the most fertile rice-producing regions of Southeast Asia. Its importance lies not only in the substantial contribution this area can, and will, provide, but it is also the area of most recent settlement by the Vietnamese. The study of its institutions reveals much about the prospects for social and economic change.

The analysis of economic change in underdeveloped areas is beset with many complex questions: what factors account for economic activity? Among many signs of change, which are significant? How may one predict the probabilities of future economic development? "Rural Vietnam: The Small World of Khanh Hau" answers these questions for a Vietnamese rural community, in a detailed study that emphasizes the economic and non-economic factors that shape its present level of material well-being and its chances for future development.

The author identifies a variety of forces that influence the economic activity of individuals and finds that these farmers display many more traits of rational economic calculation than is usually assumed to be the case among the peasantry. The book is thus at least a partial refutation of those who hold that village life is so bound by tradition and immersed in lethargy that it cannot be subjected to the kind of economic analyses and policies developed in industrial societies. During the Vietnam war period, Khanh Hau was subject to pressures from far beyond its boundaries, and this study illuminates the problems the conflict engendered throughout Vietnam.

"James B. Hendry" was educated at the College of William and Mary and, after war and government service in the Far East, received his Ph.D. from Columbia University; he was also an economist at the World Bank in Washington, D. C.

Based on the EU-funded CORASON research project, this volume brings together and compares studies into rural and sustainable development processes in 12 European countries. In doing so, it identifies key trends and reveals the changing nature of development processes on the way towards a knowledge society. The book examines the differences between the preconditions and contexts relevant to rural development strategies and those relevant to sustainable development strategies. It explores whether the concept, goals and nature of rural development is better understood and adopted by rural actors than those of sustainable development. Finally by focusing on the ideas and practices of sustainable resource management- a component in both rural and sustainable development objectives- it links with knowledge used by actors involved in rural development.

Although there is much interest in poverty reduction, there are few agreed upon strategies to effectively reduce poverty. In this new book, the editors have gathered together various evidences on poverty dynamics, based on panel data from the last few decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu in India, compared with more recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. The major finding of this research project is that rural households in sub-Saharan African are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian households have experienced in the past 20-25 years.

The chapters in the book explore how the spread of Green Revolution has triggered the subsequent transformation of rural economies. Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to non-farm activities. Increased participation in non-farm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the Green Revolution. This book identifies the importance of Green Revolution and non-farm employment for poverty reduction in Asia, which provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.

First full survey of how transhumance operated in Ireland from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. WINNER: American Conference for Irish Studies Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book Commendation, Publication Prize in Irish History, NUI Awards 2021 The rearing of cattle is today a fairly sedentary practice in Ireland, Britain and most of north-west Europe. But in the not-so-distant past it was common for many rural households to take their livestock to hill and mountain pastures for the summer. Moreover, ethnographic accounts suggest that a significant number of people would stay in seasonal upland settlements to milk the cows and produce butter and cheese. However, these movements all but died out in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, meaning that today transhumance is mainly associated with Alpine and Mediterranean landscapes. This book is the first major interdisciplinary approach to the diversity and decline of transhumance in a northern European context. Focusing on Ireland from c.1550 to 1900, it shows that uplands were valuable resources which allowed tenant households to maintain larger herds of livestock and adapt to global economic trends. And it places the practice in a social context, demonstrating that transhumance required highly organized systems of common grazing, and that the care of dairy cows amounted to a rite of passage for young women in many rural communities.

Interest in the special problems of rural areas and concern with rural development in general have increased substantially throughout much of the world in the years since about 1960. Attesting to this has been the dramatic increase in attention to rural problems in the scholarly and popular literature and by government agencies. At first the dominant focus was on development projects and the creation of new jobs. It was not long, however, until other related issues came to the fore, in particular the availability and quality of public services essential to achieve economic growth and improvement and having a direct bearing on the well-being of rural peoples. Most nations of the world have developed plans and launched pro-jects to improve rural public services and narrow urban-rural dif-ferentials in their provision. As one would expect, there have been great differences between nations in the severity of problems, foci of attention, program strategies and their general effectiveness, and degree of commitment and effort. Given this diversity, it seems ap-propriate to examine and compare rural service problems and efforts to ameliorate them in a sample of contrasting societies. Implicit is the conviction that (1) all nations can learn at least something from the experiences of others, and (2) by taking an international, com-parative view of the subject, certain generalizations can be established.

In a neo-liberal era where society in the Developed World is reliant on mass-produced cheap foods, and living standards are based on high consumption of non-renewable energy and materials, this book investigates the growing significance of sustainable systems in rural areas. Drawing on a wide range of topical case studies, primarily in the UK, it provides an in-depth analysis of the progress made towards sustainability within rural systems, focusing specifically upon sustainable agriculture and sustainable rural communities. The authors provide an overview of the various systems of sustainability currently being applied in the Developed World. They highlight key environmental, economic and social issues, including post-productivism, 'alternative' food networks, organic farming, GM foods, conservation, rural development programmes, sustainable tourism, local training schemes and community participation. The various studies provide important lessons in the ongoing search for greater sustainability and suggest positive directions for future policy practice.

This book offers important historical information on the state of rural electrification in the 1980s. It also summarizes the development of benefit evaluation methods, along with findings from recent research on the impact of rural electrification for development.

There are more than 450 Moshavim settlements and about 270 kibbutzim in Israel. While there is a range of communal and cooperative kibbutz movements, all with slight ideological differences, they are all collective rural communities, based on an ideal to create a social utopian settlement. Placing the kibbutz within the wider context of utopian social ideals and how they have historically been physically and architecturally constructed, this book discusses the form of the 'ideal settlement' as an integral part and means for realizing a utopian doctrine. It presents an analysis of physical planning in the kibbutz through the past eight decades and how changes in ideology are reflected in changes in layout and aesthetics. In doing so, this book shows how a utopian settlement organization behaves over time, from their first appearance in 1920 on, to an examination of the current spatial layouts and the directions of their expected future development.

To a remarkable extent, students of location problems have fastened attention upon industrial and urban matters rather than upon agricultural and rural affairs. The preponderance of the former studies undoubtedly reflects the relative importance of the manufacturing and commercial sectors of the technically more advanced countries where most students of location matters have in the past resided. Perhaps it has also seemed that the locational problems posed by city life and factory employment are more amenable than those of the countryside to rigorous analysis.

One of the objectives in planning is to reduce the amount of circulation necessary for the conduct of the normal business of living. Geographers have for long claimed an interest in the differences which exist between places and there is an increasing awareness among them that many observable variations of phenomena in space are attributable to relative locations rather than to the intrinsic qualities of the individual places. In many other fields of study and endeavour, such as economics and the organization of retail trade, the problems associated with distance and circulation are receiving increased attention; witness of this is given by studies of the influence of distance upon international trading patterns and the care taken in locating the large peri-urban shopping centres which are being built in the United States.

This book will fill the gap. The account which follows does not purport to cover all aspects of, and factors affecting, rural settlement and land-use patterns of location: it is an essay in the logical development of a closely related set of ideas. From the analysis it is evident that certain themes recur at all scales of consideration and under very diverse conditions of the physical environment and of economic development. An attempt is made to examine some of the practical conclusions, which emerge from the argument.

In recent decades, the responsibility for initiating regeneration programmes has been placed firmly in the hands of rural communities, with the rationale being that local people are best placed to know their own problems and, consequently, to develop their own solutions. Despite the popularity of this approach, the self-help approach has its own problems and can be seen as an attempt by governments to reduce public spending. This book provides a critical account of the discourses and practices of self-help in contemporary rural development policies of Australia and other western nations. Although it examines the problems of the self-help approach, it moves beyond a straightforward exposition of the impediments to self-help. Instead, taking a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, it puts forward a theoretical analysis of the self-help concept, assessing it as a means of governing rural development in an advanced liberal manner. It argues that self-help should not be regarded as either the empowerment or the abandonment of rural citizens by a shrinking state, but rather the application of new ways of thinking about and acting upon rural development.

This book explores gender dynamics in the indigenous villages (also known as walled villages) in post-handover Hong Kong. It looks at how Hong Kong's reunification with China has impacted the walled villagers, in particular the women, and how the walled villages' current gender dynamics in return reflects the changes that have happened in Hong Kong after the reunification with China. It traces the historical development of the walled villages, outlines the nature of walled-village society, and explores the changes currently at work including the erosion of the rural/urban divide, the increasing participation of indigenous women in Hong Kong society more widely and the breakdown of traditional social norms, especially patriarchy.

This volume examines the processes and impacts of exclusion on the Adivasis (tribal or indigenous people) in India and what repercussions these have for their constitutional rights. The chapters explore a wide range of issues connected to the idea of exclusion - land and forest resources, habitats and livelihoods, health and disease management, gender relations, language and schooling, water resources, poverty, governance, markets and technology, and development challenges - through case studies from different parts of the country. The book argues that any laws intended to safeguard the fundamental rights of Adivasis must acknowledge the fact that their diverse and complex identities are not homogenous, and that uniform laws have failed to address their systemic marginalisation since the colonial era. This work appeals for a serious and meaningful political intervention towards tribal development. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of tribal and Third World studies, sociology and social anthropology, exclusion studies and development studies.