In "Call Me Ishmael," Charles Olson exclaimed "SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America." Indeed, from the start, history and identity in America have been intricately tied to issues of space: from the idea of the "city upon a hill" to the transnational (soft) power of the United States, space has always served as an important parameter of power gained or lost and of the struggles to maintain or resist it. With contributions that range from the construction of America in (European) academic discourses to children's fiction, this collection provides an extensive and insightful study of how space influences our understanding of America.

Rural life in Southeast Asia is being transformed by new and intensifying processes of migration and mobility. Migration out of rural areas creates new forms of class mobility, familial relations, production processes and income. Migration into rural areas creates a new and sometimes marginalized workforce, contestation over resource access, and the juxtaposition of culturally different groups. At the same time, everyday mobility stretches the spatial boundaries of village and family life. The bounded space of the village is no longer adequate to understand the dynamics that are driving (and resulting from) rural social change.

This collection of original studies explores the cultural, economic and environmental dimensions of intensifying migration and mobility in rural Southeast Asia at multiple scales. Diverse processes are explored including rural-urban flows, rural-rural movement, everyday mobilities, and international migrations into regional and global labour markets. Drawing on fieldwork in six countries across the region, these essays also explore what migration means for our understanding of class, citizenship, gender and the state in a rapidly changing part of the world.

This book was based on two parts of a special issue of Critical Asian Studies.

As a commercial fisher in Nova Scotia in the early 1990s, Raymond Rogers experienced the collapse of Canada's East Coast fishery first-hand. Afterward, while preparing to leave the province to find work elsewhere, Rogers noticed a lone gravestone across the road from his home in Shelburne County that commemorates the life of Donald McDonald, a crofter from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, who ""departed this life"" in 1881. Rogers wondered if there might be a connection between the necessity of his own departure, and McDonald's lonely presence on the nearby Atlantic shore, linking them as members of local communities that were displaced in the name of ""economic progress.""In Rough and Plenty: A Memorial, Rogers explores the parallel processes of dispossession suffered by nineteenth-century Scottish crofters expelled from their ancestral lands during the Highland Clearances, and by the marginalization of coastal fishing communities in Nova Scotia. The book aims to memorialize local ways of life that were destroyed by the forces of industrial production, as well as to convey the experience of dislocation using first-hand narratives, recent and historical. The author makes the case that in a world where capital abhors all communities but itself, remembering becomes a form of advocacy that can challenge dominant structures.

It is easy to see bicycles as commonplace machines, but at the end of the nineteenth-century there was no other piece of technology which attracted the same level of excitement, discussion or controversy. Significant societal shifts followed the invention of the modern bicycle and with cycling's ever-increasing popularity there has never been a better time to tell this story. Revolution delves into the social history of cycling in 1890s Britain while exploring international parallels that existed in countries such as the US, France and Australia. Drawing on a range of sources from cycling club journals to the writings of H.G. Wells, the book illuminates the major impact the bicycle had on the day-to-day lives of people across the social spectrum with millions experiencing a cheap and personalised means of transport for the first time. Particularly for women it was known as the great emancipator from crib, kitchen and convention. Affordable to the working class, cycling dramatically increased the number of potential marriage partners, bridging the gaps between villages, to the extent that leading biologist Steve Jones has ranked the invention of the bicycle as the most important event in recent human evolution. From cycling as a source of fashion and socialising in sporting clubs, to travel around the British countryside, to its importance for widening the gene pool and its role in the women's liberation movement Revolution presents the bicycle as a marvel of modern technology that transformed Britain and the world over.

Social workers are typically trained in an urban context and are unprepared for the difficulties and challenges of rural social work yet rural areas experience the greatest need for licensed social workers. This up-to-date text featuring a stellar list of contributions from experts in the field integrates research, theory, and evidence-based practice to demonstrate social work applications in a rural environment. Integrating a strengths-based, asset-building approach to rural social work, this book reflects the latest knowledge and research in social work, including Evidence-Based Practice, Concept Mapping, Community Action Research, Globalization, and more.

The first authoritative survey of the history of common land in Great Britain from the medieval period to present day. More than a million hectares of Britain has the status of common land, most of it consisting of semi-natural environments of mountain, moorland, wetland or heath. Formerly much more extensive, common land was, and in many places remains, an integral part of the pastoral economy. Even where it is no longer used by farmers, it plays an increasingly important role in modern life, as recreational space and for its value for nature conservation. This book provides for the first time an authoritative survey of the history of common land across all three nations of Great Britain from medieval times to the present day. It charts how commons have been viewed and valued across the centuries, how they have been used, and how their vegetation has changed, highlighting parallels and differences between the histories of common land in England, Scotland and Wales. It traces the distinctive legal status of common land and the management regimes which regulated the exercise of common rights; considers the role of commons as spaces for communal gatherings and as a resource for the poor; charts the loss of common land (but also its persistence) during the era of enclosure in the century 1760-1860; and explores the changing conceptions of the value and right use of commons since the nineteenth century, and the impact this has had on their ecological character. Eight case studies of individual commons illustrate the richness of common landscapes and their history at local level. They include crofters' common grazings in Sutherland, mountain commons in the Lake District and Snowdonia, lowland commons in Co. Durham, Herefordshire and the New Forest, turbary allotments in Lincolnshire, and the urban commons of Wimbledon and Putney Heath.

English rural society underwent fundamental changes between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries with urbanization, commercialization and industrialization producing new challenges and opportunities for inhabitants of rural communities. However, our understanding of this period has been shaped by the compartmentalization of history into medieval and early-modern specialisms and by the debates surrounding the transition from feudalism to capitalism and landlord-tenant relations. Inspired by the classic works of Tawney and Postan, this collection of essays examines their relevance to historians today, distinguishing between their contrasting approaches to the pre-industrial economy and exploring the development of agriculture and rural industry; changes in land and property rights; and competition over resources in the English countryside.

When war broke out in 1914 conscription seemed unnecessary; there was no shortage of volunteers ready to lay down their lives for England. In this book Caroline Dakers explores exactly what 'England' meant to the men and women who fought, died, survived. She suggests that, with a little subliminal help from literature, art and propaganda, the British volunteer, whether factory worker, farm hand or public school boy, felt that he was fighting for a vision of 'old England' - village, church, meadow and carthorse, rather than city, factory, commerce and motor car. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished papers and family archives, Dakers recreates the world of the countryside at war, through chapters on agriculture (literally 'the home front'), and life and death in the manor house, vicarage, school and farm. And while all this was being fought for, the French countryside was being smashed into a quagmire. This is the most complete picture yet of the impact of the World War I on rural England; a war which, if only in the ubiquitous village war memorials, still reverberates today.

Rural crime is a fast growing area of interest among scholars in criminology. From studies of agricultural crime in Australia, to violence against women in Appalachia America, to poaching in Uganda, to land theft in Brazil -- the criminology community has come to recognize that crime manifests itself in rural localities in ways that both conform to and challenge conventional theory and research. For the first time, Rural Criminology brings together contemporary research and conceptual considerations to synthesize rural crime studies from a critical perspective. This book dispels four rural crime myths, challenging conventional criminological theories about crime in general. It also examines both the historical development of rural crime scholarship, recent research and conceptual developments. The third chapter recreates the critical in the rural criminology literature through discussions of three important topics: community characteristics and rural crime, drug use, production and trafficking in the rural context, and agricultural crime. Never before has rural crime been examined comprehensively, using any kind of theoretical approach, whether critical or otherwise. Rural Criminology does both, pulling together in one short volume the diverse array of empirical research under the theoretical umbrella of a critical perspective. This book will be of interest to those studying or researching in the fields of rural crime, critical criminology and sociology.

The concept of ?peasant? has been constructed from residual images of pre-industrial European and colonial rural society. Spurred by Romantic sensibilities and modern nationalist imaginations, the images the word peasant brings to mind are anachronisms that do not reflect the ways in which rural people live today. In this path-breaking book, Michael Kearney shows how the concept has been outdistanced by contemporary history. He situates the peasantry within the current social context of the transnational and post?Cold War nation-state and clears the way for alternative theoretical views.Reconceptualizing the Peasantry looks at rural society in general and considers the problematic distinction between rural and urban. Most definitions of and debates about peasants have focused on their presumed social, economic, cultural, and political characteristics, but Kearney articulates the way in which peasants define themselves in a rapidly changing world. In the process, he develops ethnographic and political forms of representation that correspond to contemporary postpeasant identities. Moving beyond a reconsideration of peasantry, the book situates anthropology in global context, showing how the discipline reconstructs itself and its subjects according to changing circumstances.

Rural issues have gained national prominence in Britain in recent years. The future of hunting, the Foot and Mouth outbreak, farm income and agricultural reform and housing development have all claimed political and media attention, promoted by a vocal rural lobby and headline-grabbing protests and demonstrations. Combining detailed empirical research and case studies with theoretically informed critical analysis, this book provides an overview of the contemporary politics of the British countryside. It explores how and why rural issues have suddenly achieved such political prominence, by examining the changing politics and governance of rural Britain from the local to the national scale over the past century. It investigates the social, economic and institutional restructuring of rural communities and argues that we are witnessing not so much a rural politics, but a 'politics of the rural' in which the definition and representation of rurality itself has become the key focus of conflict.

Growing up gifted and working-class in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of learning as they navigated the challenges of their declining town and tumultuous family lives - broken marriages, shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica left Clinton for university and fulfilled her dreams. Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas. Their life expectancy had steeply declined - the sharpest such fall in a century. She returned to Clinton to report the story, trying to understand the societal factors driving disturbing trends in the rural south. As she reconnects with Darci, she finds that her once talented and ambitious best friend is now a statistic: a single mother of two, addicted to meth and prescription drugs, jobless and nearly homeless. Deeply aware that Darci's fate could have been hers, she retraces the moments of decision and chance in each of their lives that led such similar women toward such different destinies. Why did Monica make it out while Darci became ensnared in a cycle of poverty and opioid abuse? Poignant and unforgettable, The Forgotten Girls is a story of coming of age as the American dream ends - and a new American classic.

* Examines the flaws in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and proposes remedies for many locations and circumstances* Shows how CBNRM can be central to sustainable development and the conservation of biodiversity * Presents a wealth of case studies from southern Africa - the crucible of CBNRM developmentCommunity-based natural resource management (CBNRM) refers to rural people managing and using natural resources to enhance their livelihoods. It is widely recognized that much of the Earth's biodiversity is managed in this way, and that local communities can, and must, contribute to conserving biodiversity without sacrificing their access to natural resources.Observers and practitioners have focused on how CBNRM can be employed in sustainable development programs as a means to overcome poverty in various parts of the globe. Recently, however, the CBNRM concept has been criticized because many of these programs have not yet had major positive impacts on improved rural livelihoods or conservation of biodiversity. This book identifies and analyzes the flaws, which are often swept under the carpet by those involved in CBNRM initiatives, and proposes remedies for a variety of circumstances based on lessons learned in southern Africa over the past decade.

The economic and political rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and Middle-Income Countries (MICs) have important implications for global agrarian transformation.These emerging economies are undergoing profound changes as key sites of the production, circulation, and consumption of agricultural commodities; hosts to abundant cheap labour and natural resources; and home to growing numbers of both poor but also, increasingly, affluent consumers. Separately and together these countries are shaping international development agendas both as partners in and potential alternatives to the development paradigms promoted by the established hubs of global capital in the North Atlantic and by dominant international financial institutions. Collectively, the chapters in this book show the significance of BRICS countries in reshaping agro-food systems at the national and regional level as well as their global significance. As they export their own farming and production systems across different contexts, though, the outcomes are contingent and success is not assured. At the same time, BRICS may represent a continuation rather than an alternative to the development paradigms of the Global North. The chapters were originally published in a special issue of Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal.

Lavishly illustrated account of forty magnificent country houses, destroyed in the last century. The Lost Country Houses of Suffolk, well-researched and written and copiously illustrated, will help the reader to imagine the county's landscape refurnished with the many elegant mansions which are now sadly lost. JOHN BLATCHLY During the twentieth century some forty of Suffolk's finest country houses vanished forever, a few by fire, but more frequently through demolition, either because uneconomic to run, or through the deterioration oftheir fabric. This book relates their tragic stories, with lavish use of engravings, images and pictures to bring to life what has now gone forever. It offers an account of each house [its history, its family, its architect], with a description of the buildings, and particular information on how it came to be destroyed. The houses are put into their wider context by an introductory section, covering the economic and social circumstances which caused difficulties for the owners of country houses at the time, and comparing the loss in Suffolk with losses in England as a whole. Houses covered: Acton Place, Assington Hall, Barking Hall, Barton Hall, Boulge Hall, Bramford Hall, Branches Park, Bredfield House, Brome Hall, Campsea Ashe High House, Carlton Hall, Cavenham Hall, Chediston Hall, Downham Hall, Drinkstone Park, Easton Park, Edwardstone Hall, Flixton Hall, Fornham Hall, Hardwick House, HenhamHall, Hobland Hall, Holton Hall, Hunston Hall, Livermere Hall, The Manor House Mildenhall, Moulton Paddocks, Oakley Park, Ousden Hall, The Red House Ipswich, Redgrave Hall, Rendlesham Hall, Rougham Hall, Rushbrooke Hall, Stoke Park, Sudbourne Hall, Tendring Hall, Thorington Hall, Thornham Hall, Ufford Place.

Since the Chinese Communists took control of Inner Mongolia, very little has been written about that region, the vast steppeland of northern China. This book charts the recent history of the pastoral Mongolian minority there. It examines the effects of five decades of social engineering by the Chinese state, and explores the role of economic forms, ritual, symbolism, and ideology in the transformations and continuities of life on the inner Mongolian steppe.

This book is a study of a serious illness in a New Guinea village. It records the failure of local treatments and Western medicine, and of a communal ritual to bring a spirit to heal a man; it also shows how cultural beliefs and assumptions may influence events. The author, an anthropologist and medical doctor, focuses on how those closely involved maintained their hope and beliefs, and how they faced the realization of failure.

Providing a comprehensive view of the health status and health care resources of the rural areas of the USA, this well-organized and well-illustrated book updates Health Care in Rural America, published by the Office of Technology Assessment in 1990.

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 book examines the history of reforms and major state interventions affecting Russian agriculture: the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the Stolypin reforms, the NEP, the Collectivization, Khrushchev reforms, and finally farm enterprise privatization in the early 1990s. It shows a pattern emerging from a political imperative in imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet regimes, and it describes how these reforms were justified in the name of the national interest during severe crises - rapid inflation, military defeat, mass strikes, rural unrest, and/or political turmoil. It looks at the consequences of adversity in the economic environment for rural behavior after reform and at long-run trends. It has chapters on property rights, rural organization, and technological change. It provides a new database for measuring agricultural productivity from 1861 to 1913 and updates these estimates to the present. This book is a study of the policies aimed at reorganizing rural production and their effectiveness in transforming institutions.

Chock full of the wit and wisdom that has become  the Foxfire trademark, this entirely new volume in  the acclaimed, 6-million-copy best-selling  Foxfire series is on oral history of  Appalachian lives and traditions, homespun crafts,  and folk arts.

"The Geography of Rural Change" provides a thorough examination of the processes and outcomes of rural change as a result of a period of major restructuring in developed market economies. After outlining the main dimensions of rural change, the book progresses from a discussion of theoretical insights into rural restructuring to a consideration of both the extensive use of rural land and the changing nature of rural economy and society. The text places an emphasis on relevant principles, concepts and theories of rural change, and these are supported by extensive case study evidence drawn from different parts of the developed world.
"The Geography of Rural Change" is written for undergraduates taking courses in human geography, agricultural geography, rural geography, rural sociology, planning and agricultural economics.

Originally published in 1970, this is a collection of studies of indigenous economies in Ghana and Nigeria by an author with an unusual interdisciplinary approach. In the opening section it is contended that most economists interested in underdeveloped countries have neglected the detailed study of economic organization and mechanism in the field, especially in rural areas, and that, as a result, there has been little testing of many conventional implicit assumptions that happen to be invalid. The subsequent chapters of the book are both a vigorous corrective to socio-economic generalisations based on too little data and a demonstration of the possibilities of a research method that owes more to the example of social anthropologists than to that of economists. The sophistication of the picture of certain sectors of rural life that emerges from the whole book will surprise many readers.

Urbanormativity explores a cultural ideology that posits that urban is normal and desirable while rural is deviant, exotic, or undesirable. This work examines the relevance and meaning of this phenomenon in three parts: reality, which discusses the urbanization of the planet and the inherent conflict that emerges from the condition of urban dependency; representations, which discusses the cultural dynamics of urbanormativity; and everyday life, which focuses on the outcomes of urbanormativity in terms of the legal and political landscape, emphasizing the role of spatial inequality in creating urban-rural disparities. The book then examines life in rural communities amid urbanormativity, highlighting such processes as rural gentrification as well as the transformation of the character and tradition of rural communities through the process of place structuration. This book conclude by developing a new rural justice ethic that advocates for the incorporation of Sen's notion of capability maximization along with a concerted effort to revalue the rural-socially, culturally, politically, and economically.