The overall theme of this book concerns the multiplicity and complexities of discursive constructions of water in Western economies in relation to irrigation communities. The authors argue that the politics of place is given meaning in relation to local knowledges and within multiple and multiscalar institutional frameworks involved with the social, physical, economic and political practices associated with water. They are particularly concerned with water at the local level, including how it is exchanged, managed and given meaning. Using case studies from Australia and the United States of America, it is shown how water use and community relations, particularly during times of drought, are central to developing understandings about how communities challenge, adapt and respond to policy developments. The book also brings to light how unequal distribution of resources and risk conspicuously come to the surface during times of drought illustrating that water is a political subject occupying a unique position, moving between the natural and social worlds.

Finalist for the National Book Award An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.

Rural societies around the world are changing in fundamental ways, both at their own initiative and in response to external forces. The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies examines the organisation and transformation of rural society in more developed regions of the world, taking an interdisciplinary and problem-focused approach. Written by leading social scientists from many countries, it addresses emerging issues and challenges in innovative and provocative ways to inform future policy. This volume is organised around eight emerging social, economic and environmental challenges: Demographic change. Economic transformations. Food systems and land. Environment and resources. Changing configurations of gender and rural society. Social and economic equality. Social dynamics and institutional capacity. Power and governance. Cross-cutting these challenges are the growing interdependence of rural and urban; the rise in inequality within and between places; the impact of fiscal crisis on rural societies; neoliberalism, power and agency; and rural areas as potential sites of resistance. The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies is required reading for anyone concerned with the future of rural areas.

This is an important innovative analysis of communication and society in Pahang, West Malaysia, based on fieldwork carried out in Kampung Kuala Bera. Dr Wilder is concerned with communication networks of all kinds as found in a long-established Malay village, including the uses of language, small-scale (kinship and village-based) networks, and higher-level systems (the district and the nation as a whole). Dr Wilder lays particular emphasis on the role of communication in the process of economic development and on administration during a period of rapid and induced social change. His study is prefaced by a detailed historical account of Pahang and a thorough sociological analysis of Kampung Kuala Bera. The ethnography is meticulously detailed; its special contribution includes the first-ever publication of a Malay village genealogy, a systematic account of birth-order names (a major feature of the kinship system), complete figures on marital breakdowns for the whole village population, and an intensive analysis of leadership in its local context. This work will be of value to students of Southeast Asian societies, rural sociology, network studies, economic development, political education and the mass media in third world countries.

The first ethnographic study of a community with structured trading relationships, the nomadic forest community of the Hill Pandarm.

This book consists of selected and revised papers from a conference held in North Carolina that brought together rural geographers from Canada, UK and USA, plus one representative from New Zealand. The papers included in the book are those that focus on agricultural restructuring and sustainability. This subject is of considerable current interest at a time when rural areas in developed market economies are undergoing considerable change. The chapters in the book examine, at various spatial scales, the broad processes and structural changes that are common to all rural systems in developed countries. Different geographical contexts are used to illustrate the uneven development of these processes and the implications for sustainable agriculture and rural systems. Authors provide both literature reviews and original research. The book is aimed at not only rural geographers but also agricultural economists, rural sociologists and policy-makers concerned with rural studies.

The key reference guide to rural crime and rural justice, this encyclopedia includes 85 concise and informative entries covering rural crime theories, offences and control. It is divided into five complementary sections: * theories of rural crime; * rural crime studies; * rural criminal justice studies; * rural people and groups; * rural criminological research. With contributions from established and emerging international scholars, this authoritative guide offers state-of-the-art synopses of the key issues in rural crime, criminology, offending and victimisation, and both institutional and informal responses to rural crime.

This book presents a critical analysis of the anti-democratic and pro-authoritarian ideologies that exist in rural communities in the United States. The author book also explores and recontextualizes existing research in rural education within this anti-democratic framework, as well as theorizing the consequences of this ideology as it takes place in the rural United States, specifically in regards to the physical and ideological shaping of rural communities to meet the needs of capitalist accumulation. Finally, it discusses the ways rural youth can reclaim the public sphere within their communities through critical education.

THE SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR The new bestseller from the author of The Shepherd's Life 'A beautifully written story of a family, a home and a changing landscape' Nigel Slater As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognisable. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. And yet this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future. This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all. 'A heartfelt book and one that dares to hope' Alan Bennett 'A wonder of a book, fierce, tender, and beautiful' Helen Macdonald Winner of the Wainwright Prize Winner of the Fortnum & Mason Food Book of the Year Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

Dans Droit musulman et societe au Sahara premoderne, Ismail Warscheid reconstitue la pratique du droit musulman dans les oasis du Grand Touat en Algerie entre le XVIIe et le XIXe siecles. In Droit musulman et societe au Sahara premoderne, Ismail Warscheid investigates the practice of Islamic law in the oasis of Tuwat in southern Algeria between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

The story of the interplay between finance, freeways, and urban form in the 20th century and their enduring impact on American cities and neighborhoods in the 21st. American cities are distinct from almost all others in the degree to which freeways and freeway travel dominate urban landscapes. In The Drive for Dollars, Jeffrey R. Brown, Eric A. Morris, and Brian D. Taylor tell the largely misunderstood story of how freeways became the centerpiece of U.S. urban transportation systems, and the crucial, though usually overlooked, role of fiscal politics in bringing freeways about. The authors chronicle how the ways that we both raise and spend transportation revenue have shaped our transportation system and the lives of those who use it, from the era before the automobile to the present day. They focus on how the development of one revolutionary type of road-the freeway-was inextricably intertwined with money. With the nation's transportation finance system at a crossroads today, this book sheds light on how we can best fund and plan transportation in the future. The authors draw on these lessons to offer ways forward to pay for transportation more equitably, provide travelers with better mobility, and increase environmental sustainability and urban livability.

The book offers insights into the scholarly debates on formal and informal finance in rural China and fills a gap in existing literature. The book provides an overview of the overall development of rural finance in China and explains the necessity of embarking on the pathway toward rural financial pluralization through "Local Knowledge Paradigm". The authors also analyze formal and informal financial development, and inclusive finance (including digital inclusive finance) in rural China in various dimensions. This book aids the understanding of the structure of the rural financial system and the operations of rural financial service providers in China. It will be a useful reference for those researching on and interested in informal economy and rural development.

Development schemes are common throughout the third world. Many fail, but the reasons for failure or success are only too often not adequately studied. In this monograph two schemes started in Basutoland - now Lesotho - are intensively analysed and compared: the first, which was abandoned in 1961, primarily by means of documentary material; the second, which was and still is successful in at least part of the area, mainly through observation and field research. The analysis reveals the factors making for success or failure, particularly in the fields of politics, economics, and communication. The relevance of the study extends beyond Lesotho and even Africa, the analysis dealing with problems common to introduced social change and development in any part of the world.

Contradictions between impressive levels of economic growth and the persistence of poverty and inequality are perhaps nowhere more evident than in rural Brazil. While Brazil might appear to be an example of the potential harmony between large-scale, export-oriented agribusiness and small-scale family farming, high levels of rural resistance contradict this vision. In this volume, individual contributions from a variety of researchers across the field highlight seven key characteristics of contemporary Brazilian resistance that have broader resonance in the region and beyond: the growth of international networks, the changing structure of state-society collaboration, the deepening of territorial claims, the importance of autonomy, the development of alternative economies, continued opposition to dispossession, and struggles over the meaning of nature. By analyzing rural mobilization in Brazil, this collection offers a range of insights relevant to rural contention globally. Each contribution in this title increases our understanding of alternative agricultural production, large-scale development projects, education, race and political parties in the contemporary agrarian context. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

China's dismantling of the Mao-era rural commune system and return to individual household farming under Deng Xiaoping has been seen as a successful turn away from a misguided social experiment and a rejection of the disastrous policies that produced widespread famine. In this revisionist study, Joshua Eisenman marshals previously inaccessible data to overturn this narrative, showing that the commune modernized agriculture, increased productivity, and spurred an agricultural green revolution that laid the foundation for China's future rapid growth. Red China's Green Revolution tells the story of the commune's origins, evolution, and downfall, demonstrating its role in China's economic ascendance. After 1970, the commune emerged as a hybrid institution, including both collective and private elements, with a high degree of local control over economic decision but almost no say over political ones. It had an integrated agricultural research and extension system that promoted agricultural modernization and collectively owned local enterprises and small factories that spread rural industrialization. The commune transmitted Mao's collectivist ideology and enforced collective isolation so it could overwork and underpay its households. Eisenman argues that the commune was eliminated not because it was unproductive, but because it was politically undesirable: it was the post-Mao leadership led by Deng Xiaoping-not rural residents-who chose to abandon the commune in order to consolidate their control over China. Based on detailed and systematic national, provincial, and county-level data, as well as interviews with agricultural experts and former commune members, Red China's Green Revolution is a comprehensive historical and social scientific analysis that fundamentally challenges our understanding of recent Chinese economic history.

This book examines examples of rural regeneration projects through the public administration lens, analysing how governance arrangements in rural settings work. In particular, the author focusses on the role of communities, business and tiers of governance (local, regional, national, and supra national) in terms of delivery and funding. By drawing on a range of case studies from the UK, US, Australia and South Africa, the book identifies best practice in governance, applicable to both academic conceptual debates and to practitioners engaged in real world governance of regeneration. While there are substantial political science, sociology and geography debates within the existing academic literature around food security, fair trade, urban-rural divides and supply chains, little has been written on the way in which governance in comparative global case study settings operates in achieving or underpinning rural renewal programmes. Through the inclusion of dedicated sections in each chapter summarising both the links between academic debate and practice, this book will be of great interest to researchers and policy-makers in the field of rural development, and environmental politics and governance in general.

What were new ideas 30 years ago, such as the concepts of participatory development and systems thinking, are now accepted norms in international development circles. The majority of professionals engaged in rural development accept the proposition that the people who participate in development should play an active role in defining, implementing, and evaluating projects intended to improve their productivity and lives. However this goal remains unrealized in many development programs. Harnessing the Power of Collective Learning considers the challenges and potential of enabling collective learning in rural development initiatives. The book presents 11 case studies of organizations trying to develop and implement collective learning systems as an integral component of sustainable development practice. Through systematic reflection on action and experience, key lessons and themes emerge regarding the nature of voice, participation, feedback loops, accountability and transparency, that will be useful for many others in the development community. This book is a useful resource for academics, practitioners and policy makers in the areas of international development, sustainable development, organizational development, philanthropy, learning communities, monitoring and evaluation and rural development.

A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservation Billionaire Wilderness takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy, showing how today's richest people are using the natural environment to solve the existential dilemmas they face. Justin Farrell spent five years in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in the United States, and a community where income inequality is the worst in the nation. He conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews, gaining unprecedented access to tech CEOs, Wall Street financiers, and other prominent figures in business and politics. He also talked with the rural poor who live among the ultra-wealthy and often work for them. The result is a penetrating account of the far-reaching consequences of the massive accrual of wealth and a troubling portrait of a changing American West where romanticizing rural poverty and conserving nature can be lucrative, socially as well as financially.

Like many countries around the world, China has been implementing policies aimed at improving parent-school relationships. However, unlike many developed countries, the historical context of family-school relationships has been limited and parents typically do not participate in the school context. Until now, there has been little research conducted in rural China on parental involvement in their children's education. This book investigates the nature of parental involvement in primary children's education in rural China by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It outlines the layered strategies of how rural parents are involved in their children's schooling, showing that rural parents strongly desire educational success for their children and view education as a means to their children gaining social mobility. It demonstrates that few rural parents engage in visible forms of parental involvement in their children's schools, such as attending parent-teacher meetings. Rather, they are more likely to engage strategies to support their children's education which are largely invisible to schools. It adds to the growing body of parental involvement research that suggests that culture, location, and socio-economic status influence different forms of parental involvement, and highlights nuances in invisible forms of parental involvement. Providing insights into how poor rural parents envision their role with their children, schools, and the larger society, and how these relationships can affect the social mobility of students and families, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian education, comparative and international education, and Chinese society.

This book offers unique insights into the changing nature of power and hierarchy in rural Pakistan from colonial times to present day. It shows how electoral politics and the erosion of traditional patron-client ties have not empowered the lower classes. The monograph highlights the persistence of debt-bondage, and illustrates how electoral politics provides assertive landlord politicians with opportunities to further consolidate their power and wealth at the expense of subordinate classes. It also critically examines the relationship between local forms of Islam and landed power. The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers on Pakistan and South Asian politics, sociology and social anthropology, Islam, as also economics, development studies, and security studies.

This collection of original chapters, written by prominent social scientists, elucidates the theory and practice of contemporary rural sociology. The book applies lessons from the careers of sociologists and their field research endeavors, covering a wide range of topics: agricultural production, processing, and marketing; international food security and rural development; degradation of the bio-physical environment across borders; and the study of community, family, health, and many other issues in an increasingly globalized world. The authors' candid accounts provide insight into possibilities for enhancing opportunity and equality and serving basic human needs.

- provides a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the concepts and methods of the sociology of farming - presents a comprehensive conceptual framework and the associated methods for research to provide a solid set of tools for unraveling the complexities of farming and rural life - contains a wide array of case studies from places as distant as Brazil, Peru, China, the Netherlands, Italy and Guinea Bissau to help readers grasp the commonalities that underlie strongly diversified and divided rural worlds - lists over two hundred and thirty basic concepts, and includes method boxes that discuss the main methods of the sociology of farming - essential reading for students and scholars of food and agriculture, agrarian studies, rural development, food and farming systems, peasant studies and environmental sociology

Communities in rural America are a complex mixture of peoples and cultures, ranging from miners who have been laid off in West Virginia, to Laotian immigrants relocating in Kansas to work at a beef processing plant, to entrepreneurs drawing up plans for a world-class ski resort in California's Sierra Nevada. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change uses its unique Community Capitals framework to examine how America's diverse rural communities use their various capitals (natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial, and built) to address the modern challenges that face them. Each chapter opens with a case study of a community facing a particular challenge, and is followed by a comprehensive discussion of sociological concepts to be applied to understanding the case. This narrative, topical approach makes the book accessible and engaging for undergraduate students, while its integrative approach provides them with a framework for understanding rural society based on the concepts and explanations of social science. This fifth edition is updated throughout with 2013 census data and features new and expanded coverage of health and health care, food systems and alternatives, the effects of neoliberalism and globalization on rural communities, as well as an expanded resource and activity section at the end of each chapter.

In Minding Spirituality, Randall Sorenson, a clinical psychoanalyst, "invites us to take an interest in our patients' spirituality that is respectful but not diffident, curious but not reductionistic, welcoming but not indoctrinating." Out of this invitation emerges a fascinating and broadening investigation of how contemporary psychoanalysis can "mind" spirituality in the threefold sense of being bothered by it, of attending to it, and of cultivating it. Both the questions Sorenson asks, and the answers he begins to formulate, reflect progressive changes in the psychoanalytic understanding of spirituality. Sorenson begins by quantitatively analyzing 75 years of journal literature and documenting how psychoanalytic approaches to religious and spiritual experiences have evolved far beyond the "wholesale pathologizing of religion" prevalent during Freud's lifetime. Then, in successive chapters, he explores and illustrates the kind of clinical technique appropriate to the modern treatment of religious issues. And the issue of technique is consequential in more than one way -- Sorenson presents evidence that how analysts work clinically has a greater impact on their patients' spirituality than the patients' own parents have. Sorenson brings an array of disciplinary perspectives to bear in examining the multiple relationships among psychoanalysis, religion, and spirituality. Empirical analysis, psychoanalytic history, sociology of religion, comparative theory, and sustained clinical interpretation all enter into his effort to open a dialogue that is clinically relevant. Turning traditional critiques of psychoanalytic training on their head, he argues that psychoanalytic education has much to learn from models of contemporary theological education. Beautifully crafted and engagingly written, Minding Spirituality not only invites interdisciplinary dialogue but, via Sorenson's wide-ranging and passionately open-minded scholarship, exemplifies it.

AIDS epidemics continue to threaten the livelihoods of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Three decades after the disease was first recognized, the annual death toll from AIDS exceeds that from wars, famine and floods combined. Yet despite millions of dollars of aid and research, there has previously been little detailed on-the-ground analysis of the multifaceted impacts on rural people. Filling that gap, this book brings together recent evidence of AIDS impacts on rural households, livelihoods, and agricultural practice in sub-Saharan Africa. There is particular emphasis on the role of women in affected households, and on the situation of children. The book is unique in presenting micro-level information collected by original empirical research in a range of African countries, and showing how well-grounded conclusions on trends, impacts and local responses can be applied to the design of HIV-responsive policies and programmes. AIDS impacts are more diverse than we previously thought, and local responses more varied - sometimes innovative, sometimes desperate. The book represents a major contribution to our understanding of the impacts of AIDS in the epidemic's heartland, and how these can be managed at different levels.