England in the early part of the twentieth century was rich in utopian ventures - diverse and intriguing in their scope and aims. Two world wars, an economic depression, and the emergence of fascist states in Europe were all a spur to idealists to seek new limits - to escape from the here and now, and to create sanctuaries for new and better lives.
Dennis Hardy explores this fascinating history of utopian ideals, the lives of those who pursued them, and the utopian communities they created.
Some communities were fired by a long tradition of land movements, others by thoughts of more humane ways of building towns. In turn there were experiments devoted to the arts; to the promotion of religious doctrine; and to a variety of political causes. And some were just 'places of the imagination'.
This book is about just one episode in the perennial search for perfection, but what is revealed has lessons that extend well beyond a particular time and place. So long as there are failings in society, so long as rationality is not enough, there will continue to be a place for thinking the impossible, for going in search of utopia.

This multimethod study of crime and the elderly in a small-town setting approaches the related issues from varied perspectives and ultimately presents a different picture of fear of crime among the elderly than that which dominates the current literature. Three features contribute to this book's uniqueness. The first is a departure from the urban view; the second is an emphasis on phenomenology; and the third is multimethodology. With an emphasis on qualitative research, this study allows the elderly and other key informants to present their own portrait relative to crime..a portrait that is far more contextually varied and far less dominated by fear and vulnerability than is commonly assumed.

This volume is the result of a group of researchers applying their insights and experience to a common theme. All the authors are con-cerned with rural development in Africa and all have focused on the con-nection between the development process and the arrangement of people and their built environment in rural space. Both anthropologists and geo-graphers have contributed to the dialogue on this subject and represen-tatives of the two disciplines are included in this volume. The members of this group have never all been in the same place at the same time, and so have utilized various electronic modes of commu-nication to link their locations around the world. Two conferences were organized, however, among a subset of the whole, in order to generate a group discussion. One of these meetings was a symposium on African rural development held at Temple University while a second was orga-nized at the African Studies Association Meetings in Toronto. Both opportunities helped raise issues that found their way into individual chapters. The audience in each case further stimulated our thinking.

Livelihoods in rural Africa are changing in response to disappearing job prospects, falling agricultural output and collapsing infrastructure. This book explains why the responses to these challenges are so different in different parts of Africa. Making a Living uses case studies from commercial farming regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and from much poorer areas within eastern and southern Africa.to give a broad comparative study of rural livelihoods. These case studies reveal how household relations, poverty and gender all play a part in the changing political economy of rural Africa.

Series Information:
Critical Geographies

This book of critical rural geography breaks new ground by drawing attention to sex and sexualities outside the metropolis. It explores sexualities and sexual experiences in a variety of rural and marginal spaces with international contributions from a wide range of disciplines. These include: literary and cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies, geography, history and law. Among the topics uncovered are:
* a lesbian in rural England * sexual Life in rural Wales
* sexuality in rural South Africa
* scandal in the American South: sex, race and politics
* nature and homosexuality in literature
* Derry/Londonderry as a sexual space
* How 'country folk' are sexualised in popular culture.

Most of Indonesian population live in rural areas, and the majority of poor people also live in rural areas, namely 13.47% in rural and 7.26 in urban. In the past decades, rural communities as well as the ecology have changed fundamentally. Many factors contribute to this transformation: development programs from the government as well as from private and NGOs; the diffusion of information technology; the development of transportation facilities; the rise of education and health levels, interaction with "outsiders", and so on. A main driving factor for rural development has been agrarian liberalization. This can be seen in the development of transnational plantations, which trigger land grab and rise of land demand. Development trough liberalization also had a negative impact, since the development of modern and industrialized agriculture affected the environment, and the expansion of plantations caused changes in the agricultural systems of villages and the life orientation of local communities. Interventions in villages by private companies, intermediary institutions no doubt have brought a structural transformations in rural live: local institutions, livelihood systems, population structures, ecosystems, and relation to the land. Unfortunately, the social, economic, cultural, and ecological transformation of the rural community not always produces improvement of quality of life for the rural community. At the same time, information and data related to rural transformations are scarcely available at research institutions, universities, NGOs, private enterprises. Rural Socio-Economic Transformation: Agrarian, Ecology, Communication and Community, Development Perspectives discusses many aspects of the social, economic, cultural, and ecological transformation of rural life in Indonesia, and is of interest to academics and policy makers interested or involved in these areas.

This book looks at how people in the semi-arid conditions of the Sahel cope with their harsh environment. It draws on four years of field research with farmers in the Sahelian region and builds on work with these communities over several decades. Reporting on studies of four village communities, it shows how people work to achieve sustainable livelihoods and emphasises that there can be development without disaster.

International migration is favoured by the governments of many poorer countries, despite often well-publicized abuses affecting individual migrant workers. Not only is local unemployment reduced but also it is expected that the migrants will learn new skills, with many even becoming entrepreneurs on their return home. Meantime, they are seen as a source of foreign remittances, providing needed capital for economic development. Such is the attitude in Pakistan from where thousands of migrant workers leave every year for the Gulf states especially. An anthropological study approaching this issue from a local (village) level, this book focuses on two areas of the Punjab. Describing the historical passage of rural life from pre-colonial times to the present, it shows how the rural economy of the Punjab was not transformed by the green revolution. On the contrary, it is still a subsistence economy. The resulting poverty combined with Pakistan's labour-market policies forces many Punjabi men to seek work abroad, in turn bringing changes to the economic role of the women left behind. Remittances from abroad have brought further changes on the economic and social life of the villages but n

This volume looks at a central sociological problem - the reconciliation of individual self-interest and social solidarity -through the eyes of villagers in the east Italian Alps. It shows how local conceptions of envy, personal strength, mutual sympathy, and self-sacrifice interact with ideas about language and communications, properties, kinship, and natural forces. Village ritual evokes these conceptions to represent a social system based on age-group solidarity and exchange between the generations, and to link village unity with images of church and state power. Heady draws on both participants observation and interviews with older informants to trace the effects of recent exogenous technological and institutional changes and the way local people have responded to them. His findings relate to such themes of recent history as nationalism, regionalism, and anti-clericalism; and contribute to the theoretical debate on the relevance of structuralist anthropology to European societies.

First published in 1999, this volume explores the nature of poverty and interprets it across a range of policy reforms and project interventions in different geographical settings. It is the culmination of a cooperative effort between development academics and professionals from diverse national and disciplinary backgrounds, who came together for two events: 1) The Development Study Association's Rural Development Study Group Symposium on the theme of the book's title, hosted by the Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme at the University of Manchester's Institute for Development Policy and Management. 2) The Commonwealth Secretariat's Regional Workshop for East and Central Africa on Strategies for Poverty Reduction. The volume is underpinned by the conviction that it is morally and ethically repugnant that over 1.3 billion people live in conditions of endemic hunger and poverty while the wealth of a minority continues to increase exponentially. The authors offer wide ranging analysis of some of the causes of this situation, and of the efforts being made to eliminate or alleviate absolute poverty.

By providing descriptions of the experiences of 30 rural Minnesota women, often in their own words, this book examines the expectations, beliefs and values of the women as they grow old in rural America. A lifecourse perspective fosters a better understanding of the ageing process in terms of an individual's life experiences within the context of a cultural environment. To show how various elements shaped the women's lives in later years, and to give the fullest possible descriptions, the study combines both qualitative and quantitative research of the rural elderly in Minnesota. Through their stories, the women stress the cultural, familial and personal issues that continue to be important to them as they age. They explore the elements of continuity, as well as those of change, as a part of the lifecourse. Also detailed are their insights and experiences concerning interactions with different formal and informal support networks, as well as the more general topic of ageing in rural America. Specifically addressed are the implications of this study for the creation of the public policy and services for an older, rural population.

Although a great deal has been published on the economic, social and engineering history of nineteenth-century railways, the work of historical geographers has been much less conspicuous. This overview by David Turnock goes a long way towards restoring the balance. It details every important aspect of the railway's influence on spatial distribution of economic and social change, providing a full account of the nineteenth-century geography of the British Isles seen in the context of the railway. The book reviews and explains the shape of the developing railway network, beginning with the pre-steam railways and connections between existing road and water communications and the new rail lines. The author also discusses the impact of the railways on the patterns of industrial, urban and rural change throughout the century. Throughout, the historical geography of Ireland is treated in equal detail to that of Great Britain.

This book examines two subordinated groups--"untouchables" and women--in a village in Tamilnadu, South India. The lives and work of "untouchable" women in this village provide a unique analytical focus that clarifies the ways in which three axes of identity--gender, caste, and class--are constructed in South India. Karin Kapadia argues that subordinated groups do not internalize the values of their masters but instead reject them in innumerable subtle ways.Kapadia contends that elites who hold economic power do not dominate the symbolic means of production. Looking at the everyday practices, rituals, and cultural discourses of Tamil low castes, she shows how their cultural values repudiate the norms of Brahminical elites. She also demonstrates that caste and class processes cannot be fully addressed without considering their interrelationship with gender.

Cities are possibly the most dynamic and important administrative units today. Cities play big roles in addressing many of the complex challenges the world is facing today, including climate change, public health, and migration. This places pressure on public administration and the public sector, to do more with less, particularly at the local level where government services have the most direct impact on people's everyday lives as well as paradigmatic societal shifts associated with the rise of platform economies and new consumption patterns which transform public service delivery whilst changing public expectations. Co-creation and Smart Cities: Looking Beyond Technology highlights ways to meet these new demands with a more robust value-based perspective on public service development and delivery, specifically via co-creation. Co-creation is a way to plan, execute and evaluate public service design and delivery for contemporary cities, a valid means to support the 'balancing act' of promoting efficient and cost-effective governance. Built on insights gained through years of experience with and research on co-creation, as well as testimonials from practitioners, this volume presents collaborative and innovative solutions associated with smart city ideals, while continuing to develop a citizen-centric focus that is sustainable over time. Co-creation and Smart Cities helps structure co-creation processes that foster responsible innovation and a systemic, value-based approach to sustainable urban development. This title will be of interest to government officials, researchers and bottom-up communities looking to implement methods for co-creation within cities.

The enclosure of common land into smaller privately owned units of land by parliamentary intervention transformed the traditional open-field system of farming which gave even the poorest a share in the common land. Despite its long-term benefits, its methods and immediate consequences were controversial, dispossessing the rural poor from their land. This text analyzes the extent and impact of parliamentary enclosure regionally, examining the processes by which land was reorganized, cultivation extended into former waste lands and old practices transformed. It stresses the degree of local variation and the mixture of motives and effects which make the subject complex. The book also weighs up the evidence for the effect of enclosure on the poor, looking afresh at old conclusions and providing new insights.

Chinese urbanization, including the daily life, migration strategies, and life choices of villagers and townspeople, is the focus of this study by Chinese and North American scholars. From Tianjin in the north, to Tibet in the West, and to Guangdong and Fujian on the southeast coast, a tale is told of transforming countrysides, regional disparities, and the prospects of a fully urbanized China as the twenty-first century dawns. This first broad-scale anthropological investigation of Chinese urbanization captures both the dynamic essence of the urbanizations process and the remarkable vitality of post-reform Chinese society.

Chinese urbanization, including the daily life, migration strategies, and life choices of villagers and townspeople, is the focus of this study by Chinese and North American scholars. From Tianjin in the north, to Tibet in the West, and to Guangdong and Fujian on the southeast coast, a tale is told of transforming countrysides, regional disparities, and the prospects of a fully urbanized China as the twenty-first century dawns. This first broad-scale anthropological investigation of Chinese urbanization captures both the dynamic essence of the urbanizations process and the remarkable vitality of post-reform Chinese society.

Situated in the rugged mountain peaks and deep valleys of north-eastern Caucasus, Daghestan is home to more than 30 distinct peoples. Eachof these peoples has their own language yet they share a homogenous culture that has both withstood and absorbed centuries of external influence. This text offers an account of the swiftly vanishing traditional ways of life in the villages of this inaccessible mountain area, and how the Daghestanis of today are adapting to change.

This work examines the other side of the countryside, a place also inhabited (and visited) by women, children, teenagers, the elderly, gay men and lesbians, black and ethnic minorities, the unemployed and the poor. These groups have remained largely excluded by both rural policies and the representations of rural culture. The book charts the experiences of these marginalized groups and sets this exploration within the context of postmodern, poststructuralist, postcolonial and late feminist analysis. This theoretical framework reveals how notions of the rural have been created to reflect and reinforce divisions amongst those living in the countryside, another country far away from its idyllic image.

This book examines the 'other' side of the countryside, a place also inhabited (and visited) by women, children, teenagers, the elderly, gay men and lesbians, black and ethnic minorities, the unemployed and the poor. These groups have remained largely excluded by both rural policies and the representations of rural culture.
The book charts the experiences of these marginalised groups and sets this exploration within the context of postmodern, poststructuralist, postcolonial and late feminist analysis. This theoretical framework reveals how notions of the rural have been created to reflect and reinforce divisions amongst those living in the countryside, another country far away from its idyllic image.

Tanohata in the 1950s was an isolated fishing village in the Tohoku region of Japan. Life there was so miserable that those who could leave did, and those who could not stayed on in a state of demoralization. By the 1980s, however, Tanohata had not only joined the mainstream of Japanese culture and economic life, but had done so with an adroitness that attracted national notice. The story of that dramatic transformation, written from the perspective of one who has both observed and participated in the changes for the last 20 years, brings into dramatic focus what is happening throughout Japan in the 20th century. This study fills a gap in the research on rural Japanese culture and economy by focusing on a fishing rather than a rice-cultivating village. It challenges the assumption that Japanese political life is dominated by what is called ""vertical insularity"", and documents the role of charismatic leadership in a rural community where the traditional structure of the Japanese household provides not ony stability but also a basis for innovation and the acceptance of new ideas.

This title was first published in 2002: As rural Ireland undergoes deep-reaching changes, this book critically assesses what the author terms the "renegotiation of rural development" in Ireland through the repackaging, reproduction and representation of suggestions, ideas and alternatives for rural renewal. Deconstructing the process and practice of rural development in Ireland, John McDonagh explores the new approaches to development and the so-called desire for creating integrative policy and planning approaches. The main conduits for this investigation are those of partnership and community groups and their involvement in rural development issues. Further, through investigation of the relevant concepts and theories of rural change, the volume delves into the discourses of rurality and development and utilizes the diversity of approaches and understanding of, this increasingly complex issue.

A comprehensive analysts of China's rural reforms, this book links local experiences to national policy, showing the dynamic tension in the reform process among state policy, local cadre power and self-interest, and the peasants' search for economic growth. Key topics covered include: the responsibility system, privatization and changing property rights, industrialization, social conflict, cadre corruption, urban-rural relations, conflict over land, rural urbanization, and the impact of globalization. The introduction skillfully integrates the themes that run throughout this work and the concluding chapter focuses on current and future problems in rural China.