This book provides the first wide-ranging account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in two contrasting island regions - the Caribbean and the Pacific - and in several islands and island states. It traces the complexity of effects and responses, at different scales, through the first critical year. Written by a range of scholars and practitioners working in the region the book focuses on six key themes: public health; the economies (notably the collapse of tourism, the revival of local agriculture and fishing, and the rebirth of self-reliance, and even barter); the rescue by remittances; social tensions and responses; public policy; and future 'bubbles' and regional connections. Even with marine borders that excluded the virus all island states were affected by COVID-19 because of a considerable dependence on tourism - prompting urgent challenges for governance, economic management and development, as small states sought to balance lives against livelihoods in search of revitalisation or even a 'new normal'.

Farming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. Until, one winter, he finds himself back on the farm and begins to learn the ways of the farmer and the way of the cows. Connell records the hypnotic rhythm of the farming day - cleaning the outhouses, milking the herd, tending to sickly lambs, helping the cows give birth. But alongside the routine events, there are the unforeseen moments when things go wrong: when a calf fails to thrive, when a sheep goes missing, when illness breaks out, when depression takes hold, when an argument erupts and things are said that cannot be unsaid. The Cow Book is the story of a calving season. It is also the story of the cow itself, from its domestication and worship as a God by the Ancient Egyptians to the modern practice of mechanized herds, via the figure of the cowboy, the destruction of the American buffalo, the demise of the aboriginal jackaroos and the consequences of BSE. And, above all, it is the story of Connell's life as a farmer, of his relationship with his birthplace of County Longford, with the community around the family farm, with the animals he tends, and with his father.

As "small worlds", where resources are often stretched, islands have had an intense experience of migration. For many small islands in a global era, migration represents a dialogue between different places, some urban, some rural. This book examines diverse facets of migration out of and into a variety of islands, from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific. It traces the way in which migration is of crucial importance, for demography, economics, culture, indeed the whole of island life and identity; it contrasts with the reality of emigration and the rhetoric of return. Topics explored include include migration and environmental change, language shifts, remittances, retirement migration, post-colonial identities and islanders on the Internet. The evidence shows that migration emerges our of islanders' needs, but inevitably transforms insular societies, changing values and expectations, yet rarely if ever contributing to a situation where it is no longer necessary.

Music and Tourism is the first book to comprehensively examine the links between travel and music. It combines contemporary and historical analysis of the economic and social impact of music tourism, with discussions of the cultural politics of authenticity and identity. Music tourism evokes nostalgia and meaning, and celebrates both heritage and hedonism. It is a product of commercialisation that can create community, but that also often demands artistic compromise. Diverse case studies, from the USA and UK to Australia, Jamaica and Vanuatu, illustrate the global extent of music tourism, its contradictions and pleasures.

This book is the first to draw together work on the migration of health workers in a range of global contexts. It provides the first detailed overview of the growing phenomenon of the international migration of skilled health workers (nurses, doctors and a range of more specialized workers). Despite the significance of this migration, in numbers, impacts (medical, economic social and political) and its seemingly inexorable growth, there have been no books that examine this situation in any detail (though many reports examine some facets of migration). The book focuses on who migrates, why they migrate, what the outcomes are for them and their extended families, what their experiences in the workforce are, and ultimately, the extent to which this expanding migration flow has some relationship to development issues. It therefore provides new, interdisciplinary reflections on such core issues as the brain drain, gender roles, remittances and sustainable development at a time when there has never been greater interest in the migration of health workers.

Contents:
1. Introduction: an Urban Pacific
Part One: the Context of Urbanization in the Pacific
2. The Colonial Heritage
3. Population Growth and Migration
4. Economic Development: Towards the City?
Part Two: Urban Issues
5. Managing Urbanization
6. Land and Urban Life
7. Housing and the Urban Environment
Part Three: Sustaining Pacific Urban Society?
8. Living in Town: a Sustainable Future?

This book offers a fresh analysis of constitutional, economic, demographic and cultural developments in the overseas territories of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Ranging from Greenland to Gibraltar, the Falklands to the Faroes, and encompassing islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the Caribbean, these territories command attention because of their unique status, and for the ways that they occasionally become flashpoints for rival international claims, dubious financial activities, illegal migration and clashes between metropolitan and local mores. Connell and Aldrich argue that a negotiated dependency brings greater benefits to these territories than might independence.

At a time when remittances are widely recognised as of growing importance for development in many countries, John Connell and Richard Brown present this comprehensive overview of the role of remittances in economic and social development. They investigate various topics including reflections on methodology, the motives and determinants of remittances, their socio-economic impacts, the particular role of community organisations and social remittances, and the broad social and cultural impacts of remittances. They pay special attention to small island and Central Asian states, where remittances are of particular significance and explore the recent historical evolution of remittances and the policy implications in both sending and receiving countries.

'Quietly triumphant.' Donal Ryan 'Ambitious and gentle.' Belinda McKeon 'A terrific book.' Michael Harding In May 2020, John Connell finds himself, like so many others, confined to his local area, the opportunity to freely travel and socialise cut short. His attention turns to the Camlin river - an ever-present source of life for his town's inhabitants and, for John, a site of boyhood adventure, first love, family history and local legend. He decides to canoe its course with his friend, Sunday Times journalist Peter Geoghegan, a two-day trip requiring physical exertion and mental resilience. As the world grows still around them, the river continues to teem with life - a symphony of buzzing mayfly and jumping trout. During their meander downstream, John reflects on his life: his travels, his past relationships and his battle with depression, as well as on Irish folklore, geopolitics and philosophy. The Stream of Everything is both a reverie and a celebration of close observation; a winding, bucolic account of the summer we discovered home.

First published in 1978, The End of Tradition is the history of four Surrey villages, the Horsleys and Clandons, close to London but isolated and protected from it by the Green Belt. Towards the end of the last century, a period of rapid change began in rural England as a new way of life centred on the nearby towns and cities replaced a traditional rural village life. Estates were broken up, agricultural life declined, village schools and parish councils were set up, and the pervasive influence of the village squire disappeared. But the coming of the railway, and later the motor car, provoked the most fundamental changes, for the isolation of the village was ended. The railway linked the villages of Surrey with London. In exclusive housing estates of detached homes in culs-de-sac, the exceptionally high status of the village was enhanced by the efforts of the newcomers to protect their new style of life through the most comprehensive countryside protection system in Britain. This is a must read for students and scholars interested in British history and sociology.

This book provides a wide-ranging comparative analysis of contemporary economic, social, political and environmental change in small islands, island states and territories, through every ocean. It focuses on those island realms conventionally perceived as developing, rather than developed, in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans.John Connell examines the decline of agriculture and the rise of tourism, the problems of urbanization, and the particular role of migration and remittances, within a culture of migration. He seeks to balance economic challenges with environmental threats, notably that of climate change, and social changes with the survival of culture, pointing to awkward and hybrid development futures. This unique study comprehensively balances environmental, social and economic changes to provide a more wide-ranging assessment of sustainability that will be invaluable for academics and postgraduate students on environment and international development courses. Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Islands and Political Economies 3. The Historic Core: Agriculture and Fisheries 4. Towards Modern Economies? 5. Urban Futures? 6. Leaving the Islands: International Migration 7. Environmental Change 8. Islands at Risk? References Index

Festivals have burgeoned in rural areas, revitalising old traditions and inventing new reasons to celebrate. How do festivals contribute to tourism, community and a rural sense of belonging? What are their cultural, environmental and economic dimensions? This book answers such questions - featuring contributions from leading geographers, historians, anthropologists, tourism scholars and cultural researchers. It draws on a range of case studies: from the rustic charm of agricultural shows and family circuses to the effervescent festival of Elvis Presley impersonators in Parkes; from wildflower collecting to the cosmopolitan beats of ChillOut, Australia's largest non-metropolitan gay and lesbian festival. Festivals as diverse as youth surfing carnivals, country music musters, Aboriginal gatherings in the remote Australian outback, Scottish highland gatherings and German Christmas celebrations are united in their emphasis on community, conviviality and fun.

Throughout the world, the number of festivals has grown exponentially in the last two decades, as people celebrate local and regional cultures, but perhaps more importantly as local councils and other groups seek to use festivals both to promote tourism and to stimulate rural development. However, most studies of festivals have tended to focus almost exclusively on the cultural and symbolic aspects, or on narrow modelling of economic multiplier impacts, rather than examining their long-term implications for rural change. This book therefore has an original focus. It is structured in two parts: the first discusses broad issues affecting music festivals globally, especially in the context of rural revitalisation. The second part looks in more detail at a range of types of festivals commonly found throughout North America, Europe and Australasia, such as country music, jazz, opera and alternative music festivals. The authors draw on in-depth research undertaken over the past five years in a range of Australian places, which traces the overall growth of festivals of various kinds, examines four of the more important and distinctive music festivals, and makes clear conclusions on their significance for rural and regional change.

New twenty-first century economic, social and environmental changes have challenged and reshaped rural Australia. They range from ageing populations, youth out-migration, immigration policies (that seek to place skilled migrants in rural Australia), tree changers, agricultural restructuring and new relationships with indigenous populations. Challenges also exist around the 'patchwork economy' and the wealth that the mining boom offers some areas, while threatening regional economic decline in others. Rural Australia is increasingly not simply a place of production of agriculture and minerals but an idea that individuals seek and are encouraged to consume. The socio-economic implications of drought, water rights and changing farming practices, have prefaced new social, cultural and economic reforms. This book provides a contemporary perspective on rapidly evolving population, economic and environmental changes in 'rural and regional Australia', itself a significant concept. Bringing together a range of empirical studies, the book builds on established rural studies themes such as population change, economic restructuring and globalisation in agriculture but links such changes to environmental change, culture, class, gender, and ethnic diversity. Presenting original and in-depth interventions on these issues and their intersections, this book assembles the best of contemporary research on rural Australia.

How, if possible, to re-populate declining rural and regional areas? Examining this crucial and complex issue in relation to Australia, this book explores how a particular organization, 'Country Week', has emerged and developed as one means of stimulating the repopulation of declining or stagnating areas. While this is a problem shared by many other developed countries in Europe and North America, Australia's 'Country Week' programme puts forward an innovative range of place-marketing strategies that challenge rural decline and urban migration and can offer new approaches which could be adopted more widely.

Papua New Guinea is the first book to explore the economic development of this socially complex, rapidly changing nation. Subjects discussed include: * rapid economic growth and political conflict * civil war on the island of Bougainville * population growth and urbanisation * mining: gold, copper and environmental conflicts * uneven development and social divisions.

In two regions where tourism is of considerable economic importance, eastern Asia and the Pacific, there have been remarkably few studies of the impacts of tourism in rural areas. Moreover, the shift towards ecotourism, touted as a more environmentally benign form of tourism, has extended the reach of tourism into more remote and fragile environments. This shift has drawn more local people in rural and remote areas into a partly tourism economy, involving them as participants in the tourist industry. Yet little is known about who have been the beneficiaries of these developments.

This new collection focuses on both the interactions between tourists and villagers, and the impacts of tourism at the local level, considering economic, social, cultural and environmental changes. It traces changes in structures of vulnerability as tourism becomes more prominent, the role of tourism in community development (or localized tension) and examines issues of governance, the role of tour operators as intermediaries, cultural change and other local impacts. In short, it examines the changing role of tourism in local development (or its absence).

It includes case studies drawn from a broad geographical area across eastern Asia and the island Pacific. This book will be useful to those researching and studying tourism, geography and development studies.

New twenty-first century economic, social and environmental changes have challenged and reshaped rural Australia. They range from ageing populations, youth out-migration, immigration policies (that seek to place skilled migrants in rural Australia), tree changers, agricultural restructuring and new relationships with indigenous populations. Challenges also exist around the 'patchwork economy' and the wealth that the mining boom offers some areas, while threatening regional economic decline in others. Rural Australia is increasingly not simply a place of production of agriculture and minerals but an idea that individuals seek and are encouraged to consume. The socio-economic implications of drought, water rights and changing farming practices, have prefaced new social, cultural and economic reforms. This book provides a contemporary perspective on rapidly evolving population, economic and environmental changes in 'rural and regional Australia', itself a significant concept. Bringing together a range of empirical studies, the book builds on established rural studies themes such as population change, economic restructuring and globalisation in agriculture but links such changes to environmental change, culture, class, gender, and ethnic diversity. Presenting original and in-depth interventions on these issues and their intersections, this book assembles the best of contemporary research on rural Australia.

For more than a quarter of a century there has been significant international migration of skilled health workers, but in the last decades, with critical changes in both sending and receiving countries, few parts of the world are now unaffected by the consequences of the migration of health workers, either as sources, destinations or sometimes both. The book takes the understanding of health worker migration substantially beyond the more scattered and fragmented papers and anecdotes that largely existed before, into the first consolidated analysis. In doing so it reveals its exceptional significance for both sending and receiving countries (in economic, social and political terms), provides the only analysis of remittances of health workers, casts new light on gender, globalisation, transnational linkages, the trade in services (linked to GATS) and the overall relationship between migration and development, and reviews practical responses and solutions.

This book critically and succinctly examines recent changes in land ownership, mobility and livelihoods in various Pacific island states, from East Timor to the Solomon Islands, where climate change, environmental change (including hazards of various origins), population growth and urbanization have contributed to new tensions and discords and resulted in complex structures of migration and resettlement. This has brought new and varied experiences of income and livelihood generation, and consequent reinterpretations of 'modernity' and 'tradition'. In a series of detailed case studies this book traces various responses to such socio-economic changes both in how they are locally envisaged, as pressures on land have intensified, urban informal settlements and livelihoods have expanded and perceptions of identity and property rights have changed, and in national development policy responses. It offers valuable reflections on the complex balance between continuity and change, the tensions between social and economic development, the will to develop and the management of dissent and difference. This book was published as a special issue of Australian Geographer.

Throughout the world, the number of festivals has grown exponentially in the last two decades, as people celebrate local and regional cultures, but perhaps more importantly as local councils and other groups seek to use festivals both to promote tourism and to stimulate rural development. However, most studies of festivals have tended to focus almost exclusively on the cultural and symbolic aspects, or on narrow modelling of economic multiplier impacts, rather than examining their long-term implications for rural change. This book therefore has an original focus. It is structured in two parts: the first discusses broad issues affecting music festivals globally, especially in the context of rural revitalisation. The second part looks in more detail at a range of types of festivals commonly found throughout North America, Europe and Australasia, such as country music, jazz, opera and alternative music festivals. The authors draw on in-depth research undertaken over the past five years in a range of Australian places, which traces the overall growth of festivals of various kinds, examines four of the more important and distinctive music festivals, and makes clear conclusions on their significance for rural and regional change.

Managing rapid urban growth presents a significant challenge in the small independent countries of the Pacific Islands. Although they originated in colonial times, the towns and cities are now distinctively post-colonial, with economies, environments and social structures that reflect unique island characteristics. This transformation has stimulated new concerns, such as the causes and effects of pollution, the need for employment for landless migrants, the need for adequate and affordable housing and the financing of expanding urban services. This book explores the diversity of the urban experience in the ten independent island states, focusing on strategies to secure long term sustainable development.

This volume examines the economic, political, social and environmental challenges facing rural communities in the Asia-Pacific region, as global issues intersect with local contexts. Such challenges, from climatic change and volcanic eruption to population growth and violent civil unrest, have stimulated local resilience amongst communities and led to evolving regional institutions and environment management practices, changing social relationships and producing new forms of stratification. Bringing together case studies from across mainland Southeast Asia and the Island Pacific, an expert team of international contributors reveal how communities at the periphery take charge of their lives, champion the virtues of their own local systems of production and consumption, and engage in the complexities of new structures of development that demand a response to the vacillations of global politics, economy and society. Inherent in this is the recognition that 'development' as we have come to know it is far from over. Each chapter emphasizes the growing recognition that ecological and environmental issues are key to any understanding and analysis of structures of sustainable development. Providing diverse multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical perspectives, Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Pacific makes an important contribution to the revitalization of development studies and as such will be essential reading for scholars in the field, as well as those with an interest in Asia-Pacific studies, economic geography and political economy.

How, if possible, to re-populate declining rural and regional areas? Examining this crucial and complex issue in relation to Australia, this book explores how a particular organization, 'Country Week', has emerged and developed as one means of stimulating the repopulation of declining or stagnating areas. While this is a problem shared by many other developed countries in Europe and North America, Australia's 'Country Week' programme puts forward an innovative range of place-marketing strategies that challenge rural decline and urban migration and can offer new approaches which could be adopted more widely.