This book explores the gender effects of the current transformation of agriculture and rural life. Five themes are addressed: developments in rural gender theory and research methodology, changes in farm households, migration patterns of men and women in rural areas, the impact of national and international policies, and the construction of identities and definitions of femininity and masculinity as a result of rural change. Contributors include scholars from Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Development studies in developing regions such as Southern Africa rely heavily on materials developed by Europeans with a European context. European dominance in development studies emanates from the fact that the discipline was first developed by Europeans. Some argue that this has led to distortions in theory and practice of development in Southern Africa. This book wishes to begin Africa's expedition to develop proper material to de-Westernize while Africanizing the context of the scholarship of rural development. African Perspectives on Reshaping Rural Development is an essential reference source that repositions the context of rural development studies from the Western-centric knowledge system into an African context in order to solve African-centered problems. Featuring research on topics such as food security, poverty reduction, and community engagement, this book is ideally designed for planners, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, government officials, academicians, and students seeking clarity on theory and practice of development in Africa.

City Living is about urban spaces, urban dwellers, and how these spaces and people make, shape, and change one another. More people live in cities than ever before: more than 50% of the earth's people are urban dwellers. As downtown cores gentrify and globalize, they are becoming more diverse than ever, along lines of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexuality, and age. Meanwhile, we are in the early stages of what seems sure to be a period of intense civil unrest. During such periods, cities generally become the primary sites where tensions and resistance are concentrated, negotiated, and performed. For all of these reasons, understanding cities and contemporary city living is pressing and exciting from almost any disciplinary and political perspective. Quill R Kukla offers the first systematic philosophical investigation of the nature of city life and city dwellers. The book draws on empirical and ethnographic work in geography, anthropology, urban planning, and several other disciplines in order to explore the impact that cities have on their dwellers and that dwellers have on their cities. It begins with a philosophical exploration of spatially embodied agency and of the specific forms of agency and spatiality that are distinctive of urban life. It explores how gentrification is enacted and experienced at the level of embodied agency, arguing that gentrifying spaces are contested territories that shape and are shaped by their dwellers. The book then moves to an exploration of repurposed cities, which are cities materially designed to support one sociopolitical order, but in which that order collapsed, leaving new dwellers to use the space in new ways. Through detailed original ethnography of the repurposed cities of Berlin and Johannesburg, Kukla makes the case that in repurposed cities, we can see vividly how material spaces shape and constrain the agency and experience of dwellers, while dwellers creatively shape the spaces they inhabit in accordance with their needs. The book concludes with a reconsideration of the right to the city, asking what would be involved in creating a city that enabled the agency and flourishing of all its diverse inhabitants.

* 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.

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

Undoing the Revolution looks at the way rural underclasses ally with out-of-power elites to overthrow their governments-only to be shut out of power when the new regime assumes control. Vasabjit Banerjee first examines why peasants need to ally with dissenting elites in order to rebel. He then shows how conflict resolution and subsequent bargains to form new state institutions re-empower allied elites and re-marginalize peasants. Banerjee evaluates three different agrarian societies during distinct time periods spanning the twentieth century: revolutionary Mexico from 1910 to 1930; late-colonial India from 1920 until 1947; and White-dominated Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) from the mid-1960s to 1980. This comparative approach also allows examination of both the underclass need for elite participation and the variety of causes that elites use to incentivize peasant classes to participate, extending from religious-ethnic identity and common political targets to the peasants' and elites' own economic grievances. Undoing the Revolution demonstrates that both international and domestic investors in cash crops, natural resources, and finance can ally with peasant rebels; and, after threatened or actual state collapse, they can bargain with each other to select new state institutions.

Reinventing Rural is a collection of original research papers that examine the ways in which rural people and places are changing in the context of an urbanizing world. This includes exploring the role of the environment, the economy, and related issues such as tourism. While traditionally relying on primary sector work in agriculture, mining, natural resources, and the like, rural areas are finding new ways to sustain themselves. This involves a new emphasis on environmental protection, as one important strategy has been to capitalize on natural amenities to attract residents and tourists. Beyond improvements to the economy are general improvements to the quality-of-life in rural communities. Consistent with this, the volume focuses on the two cornerstones of education and health, considering current challenges and offering ideas for reinventing rural quality-of-life.

Places of worship are the true building blocks of communities where people of various genders, age, and class interact with each other on a regular basis. These places are also rallying points for immigrants, helping them make the transition to a new, and often hostile environment. The Many Rooms of this House is a story about the rise and decline of religion in Toronto over the past 160 years. Unlike other studies that concentrate on specific denominations, or ecclesiastical politics, Roberto Perin's ecumenical approach focuses on the physical places of worship and the local clergy and congregants that gather there. Perin's timely and nuanced analysis reveals how the growing wealth of the city stimulated congregations to compete with one another over the size, style, materials, and decoration of their places of worship. However, the rise of individualism has negatively affected these same congregations leading to multiple church closings, communal breakdown, and redevelopments. Perin's fascinating work is a lens to understanding how this once overwhelmingly Protestant city became a symbol of diversity.

This volume examines just how successful community-based conservation approaches have been in their twin objectives of conserving African environments and improving rural livelihoods. Recent conservation policies in Africa have followed three main principles: 1) that conservation should be community-based; 2) that things conserved should be managed to achieve both development and conservation goals; 3) that markets should play a role in shaping the incentives for conservation. The editors and contributors of this volume examine the success or otherwise of these practices in a number of different contexts across the continent. Uganda: Fountain Publishers; Kenya: EAEP; Zimbabwe: Weaver Press

In Childerley a twelfth-century church rises above the rolling quilt of pastures and grain fields. Volvos and tractors share the winding country roads. Here, in this small village two hours from London, stockbrokers and stock-keepers live side by side in thatched cottages, converted barns, and modern homes.
Why do these villagers find country living so compelling? Why, despite our urban lives, do so many of us strive for a home in the country, closer to nature? Michael Bell suggests that we are looking for a "natural conscience": an unshakeable source of identity and moral value that is free from social interests--comfort and solace and a grounding of self in a world of conflict and change.
During his interviews with over a hundred of Childerley's 475 residents--both working-class and professional--Bell heard time and again of their desire to be "country people" and of their anxiety over their class identities. Even though they often knowingly participate in class discrimination themselves--and see their neighbors doing the same--most Childerleyans feel a deep moral ambivalence over class. Bell argues they find in class and its conflicts the restraints and workings of social interests and feel that by living "close to nature" they have an alternative: the identity of a "country person," a "villager that the natural consicence gives."
Yet there are clear parallels between the ways in which the villagers conceive of nature and of social life, and Bell traces these parallels across Childerleyans' perspectives on class, gender, and politics. Where conventional theories would suggest that what the villagers see as nature is a reflection of how they see society, and that thenatural conscience must be a product of social interests, Bell argues that ideological processes are more complex. Childerleyans' understandings of society and of the natural conscience shape each other, says Bell, through a largely intuitive process he calls resonance.
For anyone who has ever lived in the countryside or considered doing so, this book is not to be missed. It will also be of particular interest to scholars of British studies and the sociology of knowledge and culture, and to those who work on problems of environment, community, class, and rural life.
"[An] exemplary piece of fieldwork. . . . These gentle conclusions . . . reminds us (when we most need reminding) of the skillful ethnographer's enduring capacity to make the everyday seem truly extraordinary."--Laurie Taylor, "New Statesman & Society"
"Bell's achievement, and his perceptions, are impressive."--J.W.M. Thompson, "London Times"
"Races along with all the gossipy compulsion of a blockbuster."--Frances Hardy, "Daily Mill"
"I believe this view of how people relate to the different domains of their experience is absolutely right. . . . The reader, this ready anyway, finishes "Childerley" with the feeling that she has just returned from visiting a remote Hampshire village and has learned something, not just about that place, but about human social life lived in other places and lived through place itself."--Wendy Griswold, "American Journal of Sociology"

This new work from Thomas Gallant provides a highly original analysis of the ancient Greek domestic economy. The nature of their environment together with only rudimentary technology caused the Greek peasants to develop an extensive but delicate web of risk-management strategies. The author details these strategies alongside the key adaptive measures by which the ancient Greeks coped with major fluctuations in food production and supply. As a whole, the book makes a major contribution to the perennial debate about how peasants secure the basic conditions of material subsistence.

Containing contemporary photographs and detailed remininscences, this is a classic account of crofters and crofting in 19th century Scotland.

This volume contains the histories of five ancient parishes in the west of Oxfordshire near the river Thames, comprising the small town of Bampton and some 13 villages and hamlets. Though chiefly looking to markets at Witney and Oxford the area was long dominated by Bampton, the centre of a large Anglo-Saxon estate, site of a late Anglo-Saxon minster, and formerly a market town. A detailed account is given of the town's topography, buildings, and economic developments and the organization of the local landscape from an early date is explored. Most villages were nucleated, and despite some controversial early inclosures, notably at Northmoor, open-field farming prevailed until the 19th century. A few scattered hamlets and farmsteads resulted probably from woodland clearance or late colonization, and several settlements were shrunk or deserted in the late Middle Ages. Standlake had a medieval market and fair, and until the late 17th century there was textile and leather working notably at Standlake and Bampton. Important buildings include the former Bampton castle, the 15th-century timber-framed manor house at Yelford, and Cokethorpe House. Bampton church is of unusual size and quality, and carvings in Ducklington church may be associated with a late medieval cult of the Virgin. Cote was an important centre of religious noncon-formity from the 17th century.

This book analyzes the industrialization process of Jianshanxia, a mountain village in Zhejiang Province, and its organizational changes since China's reform and opening-up. As a small mountain village far from the city, Jianshanxia Village used its contingent funds to open up a factory collectively owned by the village. At that time, it was common for city dwellers to run a factory in cities but this was still rare in rural areas. The book analyzes how the village could quickly claim a large market share of the domestic electric mosquito incense market. The successful industrialization of the village increased the income of the villagers, improved its appearance and enhanced its collective economic strength. In retrospect, the transformation of this village was a miracle and a typical example of industrialization of township enterprises in China.

Nothing stays buried foreverLifeboat volunteer DI Shona Oliver receives a Mayday call coming from Kilcatrin Island. Upon the beach is the badly burned body of a man, and a boy lies gravely injured nearby. Strewn around them are scores of Second World War incendiary bombs, presumably washed up by the tide from Beaufort's Dyke, an offshore arms dump deep in the Irish Sea. The dead man is a local fisherman - his son the other victim - and it rocks the tight-knit community on the shores of the Solway Firth. As lead detective, Shona has to maintain a professional distance. But she can't ignore the hardship that her neighbours who make a living at sea are experiencing. Anger is directed at the Ministry of Defence when the fallout threatens tourism, and livelihoods including Shona's own family B&B business are at risk. Suspicious behaviour seems to be found at every turn. It's impossible for Shona to get to the truth unless she can gain the trust of those who know more than they've been willing to reveal. But blind loyalty may mean she's too late to save those still in danger - including herself. The second instalment in an exciting new Scottish crime series featuring a detective with nerves of steel. Perfect for fans of Neil Lancaster, G. R. Halliday and Ann Cleeves. Praise for Dead Man Deep 'A real cracker of a book. Combining police procedural with the perils of volunteer lifeboat crew and some dodgy MOD arms dumping thrown in for good measure...' Reader Review 'I absolutely loved this book. So much so I read it in one sitting. The twists kept the pages turning and left me shocked at the end. I definitely recommend this series to all crime fiction fans!' Reader Review 'Fun page turner, this one will have you pining for the Scottish coast!' Reader Review 'A very well-written and likeable character... this had the makings of a cracking series.' Reader Review 'Shona Oliver is flawed but hard working and always with good intentions. Lynne McEwan has created a captivating character and I hope more books follow!' Reader Review 'Excellent storyline and characters, so what more do you need? The next title can't come quickly enough.' Reader Review 'A riveting Scottish police procedural.' Reader Review

More than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton's Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China's revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, Fanshan is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. Fanshen continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China's complex social processes. Rediscover this classic volume, which includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.

England has a housing crisis. We need to build many more new homes to house our growing population, but house building is controversial, particularly when it involves the loss of countryside. Addressing both sides of this critical debate, Shaun Spiers argues that to drive house building on the scale needed, government must strike a contract with civil society: in return for public support and acceptance of the loss of some countryside, it must guarantee high quality, affordable developments, in the right locations. Simply imposing development, as recent governments of all political persuasions have attempted, will not work. Focusing on house building and conservation politics in England, Spiers uses his considerable experience and extensive research to demonstrate why the current model doesn't work, and why there needs to be both planning reform and a more active role for the state, including local government.

To Know the Soul of a People is a history of religion and race in the agricultural South before the Civil Rights era. Jamil W. Drake chronicles a cadre of social scientists who studied the living conditions of black rural communities, revealing the abject poverty of the Jim Crow south. These university-affiliated social scientists documented shotgun houses, unsanitary privies and contaminated water, scaly hands, enlarged stomachs, and malnourished bodies. However, they also turned their attention to the spiritual possessions, chanted sermons, ecstatic singing, conjuration, dreams and visions, fortune-telling, taboos, and other religious cultures of these communities. These scholars aimed to illuminate the impoverished conditions of their subjects for philanthropic and governmental organizations, as well as the broader American public, in the first half of the 20th century, especially during the Great Depression. Religion was integral to their efforts to chart the long economic depression across the South. From 1924 to 1941, Charles Johnson, Guy Johnson, Allison Davis, Lewis Jones, and other social scientists framed the religious and cultural practices of the black communities as "folk" practices, aiming to reform them and the broader South. Drawing on their correspondence, fieldnotes, and monographs, Drake shows that social scientists' use of "folk" reveals the religion was an important site for highlighting the supposed mental, moral, and cultural deficits of America's so-called folk population. Moreover, these social scientists did not just pioneer rural social science and reform but used their study of religion to plant the seeds of the concept that would become known as the "culture of poverty" in the latter half of the twentieth century. To Know the Soul of a People is an exciting intellectual history that invites us to explore the knowledge that animated the earnest yet shortsighted liberal efforts to reform black and impoverished communities.

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.

Our rural communities are home to some of the most hard working and fiercely self-reliant Americans in the United States. Strong and secure rural communities are essential to creating an economy built to last that rewards hard work and responsibility -- not outsourcing, loopholes, and risky financial deals. While the security of the middle class has been threatened by the irresponsible financial collapse and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, rural Americans continue to come together to work hard and make ends meet. The values that have helped hard-working, responsible families weather the storm continue to move our economy forward. This book discusses factors affecting former residents' returning to rural communities; rural employment trends in recession and recovery; the 2014 Farm Bill rural development provisions; the secure rural schools and community self-determination act of 2000' and the rural education achievement program.

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.

What are the potentially negative consequences of an undeniably good public policy? Under the Influence examines how the Elks, one of the oldest lodge-based voluntary associations in America, may have been impacted by government policies such as DUI laws. To examine this empirically, author John C. Mero conducted interviews with fifty-five California and Florida Elk Exalted Rulers. What emerges from the interviews is a voluntary association in transition: having been affected by stricter DUI laws and other government policies over the past few decades, the Elks are reevaluating their approach to associational life. They have demonstrated a willingness to change with the times since their founding as the Jolly Corks in 1884, and-in response to the unintended consequences of more recent government policies-the Elks are seeking new opportunities to contribute to American civil society.

This book is an important intervention in the debate between economic and social development. It makes the case for understanding development in economic terms as well as in terms of well-being, empowerment and participation.

Research documents that rural elders are poorer, live in less adequate housing, and have far fewer health and service options available to them than their urban counterparts, yet there is a critical lack of current and detailed information on the problems facing rural elders and on the professional practices that serve this population. This text fills this gap by introducing readers to rural areas and their residents and discussing the issues, programs, and policies designed to meet their needs. Through a multidisciplinary lens, it examines and defines specific competencies required for successful work with older adults and their families in these communities.

The text presents a research-driven, competency-based approach for the health and human service professionals who work with older rural residents. It discusses both the problems facing older adults and their families and evidence-based solutions regarding policy and best practices. Key issues examined include health and wellness, transportation, housing, long-term care, income, employment, and retirement, along with the needs of special populations (ethnic minorities, immigrants, and the LGBT population). Case examples reinforce an interdisciplinary model that addresses practice with rural elders that encompasses professional competencies, values and ethics, and the roles of a spectrum of health and human service professionals. The text also examines current policies affecting health and social services to rural elders and recommendations for policy change to build an effective health and human service workforce in rural communities. Links to Podcast interviews with scholars and respected professionals working in the field and "Spotlight" excerpts from the text reinforce information. In addition, the text provides discussion questions, PowerPoint slides, a test question bank, and suggested activities and exercises.

Key Features: Fills a vacuum regarding information on health and social services for rural elders Provides current and comprehensive knowledge about issues besetting this population and programs and policies designed to meet their needs Examines and defines specific competencies required for effective health and social services Based on a research-driven, competency-based, interdisciplinary approach to policy and best practice Includes links to Podcast interviews with scholars and respected professionals in the field