Contemporary societies are characterised by new and more flexible working patterns, new family structures and widening social divisions. This book explores how these macro-level changes affect the micro organisation of daily life, with reference to working patterns and gender divisions in Northern and Western Europe and the United States. Through detailed comparative analysis and case studies from France, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this collection demonstrates how, despite globalisation and the spread of neo-liberalism, states still exercise some autonomy in terms of the implementation of equalities and 'city time' policies. These policies affect people's capacity to organise their daily lives and ameliorate the adverse impact of new working patterns. However, the authors also show that, despite the proliferation of work-life balance policies which potentially encourage a greater reconciliation of caring and paid work, inequalities in the distribution of paid work and caring between men and women remain remarkably resilient. Bringing together academic analysis and policy studies, Gender Divisions and Working Time in the New Economy will appeal to students and scholars of comparative social policy, economic sociology, economic geography and sociology. In particular, those with an interest in issues of employment relationships, gender, welfare states, working time, work-life balance and 'city time' will find the book to be of great value.

A Feminist Glossary of Human Geography is the first guide to the main theories, concepts and terms commonly used in geographical debates about gender relations. Written by key contributors to feminist theory, it contains over 400 lively and accessible definitions of the terms found in feminist debates which students of geography need to know. Four levels of entry are used - from 50 to 1500 words - taking account of the varying degrees of complexity of the terms covered. From 'AIDS' to 'witch', from 'abortion' to 'whiteness', this 'Glossary' is cross-referenced throughout and includes a comprehensive bibliography. It is an invaluable reference for anyone studying geography and gender, enabling them to approach the terminology of feminist theory and ideas with confidence.

Contemporary societies are characterised by new and more flexible working patterns, new family structures and widening social divisions. This book explores how these macro-level changes affect the micro organisation of daily life, with reference to working patterns and gender divisions in Northern and Western Europe and the United States. Through detailed comparative analysis and case studies from France, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this collection demonstrates how, despite globalisation and the spread of neo-liberalism, states still exercise some autonomy in terms of the implementation of equalities and 'city time' policies. These policies affect people's capacity to organise their daily lives and ameliorate the adverse impact of new working patterns. However, the authors also show that, despite the proliferation of work-life balance policies which potentially encourage a greater reconciliation of caring and paid work, inequalities in the distribution of paid work and caring between men and women remain remarkably resilient. Bringing together academic analysis and policy studies, Gender Divisions and Working Time in the New Economy will appeal to students and scholars of comparative social policy, economic sociology, economic geography and sociology. In particular, those with an interest in issues of employment relationships, gender, welfare states, working time, work-life balance and 'city time' will find the book to be of great value.

A Feminist Glossary of Human Geography is the first guide to the main theories, concepts and terms commonly used in geographical debates about gender relations. Written by key contributors to feminist theory, it contains over 400 lively and accessible definitions of the terms found in feminist debates which students of geography need to know. Four levels of entry are used - from 50 to 1500 words - taking account of the varying degrees of complexity of the terms covered. From 'AIDS' to 'witch', from 'abortion' to 'whiteness', this 'Glossary' is cross-referenced throughout and includes a comprehensive bibliography. It is an invaluable reference for anyone studying geography and gender, enabling them to approach the terminology of feminist theory and ideas with confidence.

This is an introduction to the geographies of gender and the gendered nature of spatial relations. The book examines the issues raised by women's movements and academic feminism and outlines the main shifts in feminist geographical work, from the geography of women to the impact of post-structuralism. The editors have drawn on a wide range of interdisciplinary material, ranging across spatial areas from the body to the globe. The book presents influential arguments for the importance of the intersection between space and gender. Looking both at geography and beyond the discipline, it explores the gendered construction of space and the spatial construction of gender. Divided into a number of conceptual sections, this reader includes extracts from both standard texts and less well-known works.

Although the Second World War ended sixty years ago, there are still untold stories waiting to be heard: stories not only of diplomats and soldiers but also of refugees, camp inmates and ordinary people living in occupied territories, stories of women's and children's lives as well as those of men. In Hard Labour the forgotten voices of a group of young women who left Latvia in 1944 are captured, telling the story of their flight from the advancing Soviet Army, their difficult journeys across central Europe, their lives as displaced people in Allied camps in Germany and finally their refuge in Britain. Hard work is at the centre of these stories, as the women became 'volunteer' workers, first for the Nazi war effort and then as labourers in the British post-war reconstruction plan. In what has been described as a 'venemous postscript' to the War, the fit and able amongst the vast homeless and often stateless population that fetched up in camps run by the Allies in war-devastated Germany were recruited by western states as labourers. Great Britain was the first nation to recruit displaced persons, offering jobs in hospitals and private homes as domestic workers and in the textile industry to young single women (and later men) from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and other once independent states. Many of these women spent the rest of their lives in Britain, longing to return to their homelands but independence came too late for many of them. At the centre of Hard Labour are the lives of twenty-five now elderly Latvia women who came to Britain between 1946 and 1949. Their memories are placed in the context of recent work in feminist history, illuminating debates about displacement and loss as well as the transformation of women's lives in post-war Britain.

Although the Second World War ended sixty years ago, there are still untold stories waiting to be heard: stories not only of diplomats and soldiers but also of refugees, camp inmates and ordinary people living in occupied territories, stories of women's and children's lives as well as those of men. In Hard Labour the forgotten voices of a group of young women who left Latvia in 1944 are captured, telling the story of their flight from the advancing Soviet Army, their difficult journeys across central Europe, their lives as displaced people in Allied camps in Germany and finally their refuge in Britain. Hard work is at the centre of these stories, as the women became 'volunteer' workers, first for the Nazi war effort and then as labourers in the British post-war reconstruction plan. In what has been described as a 'venemous postscript' to the War, the fit and able amongst the vast homeless and often stateless population that fetched up in camps run by the Allies in war-devastated Germany were recruited by western states as labourers. Great Britain was the first nation to recruit displaced persons, offering jobs in hospitals and private homes as domestic workers and in the textile industry to young single women (and later men) from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and other once independent states. Many of these women spent the rest of their lives in Britain, longing to return to their homelands but independence came too late for many of them. At the centre of Hard Labour are the lives of twenty-five now elderly Latvia women who came to Britain between 1946 and 1949. Their memories are placed in the context of recent work in feminist history, illuminating debates about displacement and loss as well as the transformation of women's lives in post-war Britain.

Between 1945 and the new century millions of women, including mothers and migrants, joined the labour force. These changes are brought to life through the stories of migrant women, working in factories and hospitals, banks, care homes, shops and universities over a period of 60 years. Migrant Women's Voices is an autobiography of the post-war period as Britain became a multi-cultural society and waged work the norm for most women. McDowell illustrates the shift in migration patterns as post-imperial migrants to the UK replaced the immediate post-war pattern of migrants from war-torn Europe and who were then themselves joined by migrants from an increasingly diverse range of countries as the 20th century drew to a close.

Exploring the dynamic growth, change, and complexity of qualitative research in human geography, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography brings together leading scholars in the field to examine its history, assess the current state of the art, and project future directions. "In its comprehensive coverage, accessible text, and range of illustrative studies, past and present, the Handbook has established an impressive new standard in presenting qualitative methods to geographers." - David Ley, University of British Columbia Moving beyond textbook rehearsals of standard issues, the Handbook shows how empirical details of qualitative research can be linked to the broader social, theoretical, political, and policy concerns of qualitative geographers and the communities within which they work. The book is organized into three sections: Part I: Openings engages the history of qualitative geography, and details the ways that research, and the researcher's place within it, are conceptualized within broader academic, political, and social currents. Part II: Encounters and Collaborations describes the different strategies of inquiry that qualitative geographers use, and the tools and techniques that address the challenges that arise in the research process. Part III: Making Sense explores the issues and processes of interpretation, and the ways researchers communicate their results. Retrospective as well as prospective in its approach, this is geography's first peer-to-peer engagement with qualitative research detailing how to conceive, carry out and communicate qualitative research in the twenty-first century. Suitable for postgraduate students, academics, and practitioners alike, this is the methods resource for researchers in human geography.

The issue of private landlordism in Britain touches a raw political nerve. There is no shortage of prescription as to what should be done with the rented housing market and private landlords. Yet surprisingly little is known about the structure and diversity of private landlordism and the variety of private tenants' housing needs - a prerequisite for policy intervention. This book provides an anatomy of the nature of private landlordism in the 1980s, the types of landlord in the market, the scope of their activities, and the choices and constraints that guide their actions in the market. It shows how the pattern of change in the private rented sector has been not one of straightforward decline, but one of structural unevenness shaped by a combination of three general processes - disinvestment, investment and informalization - which vary in impact from place to place. Adopting a realist methodological approach, the authors attempt to capture both the general characterisation of landlordism and the processes shaping the private rental sector and their diverse geographical form across space and through time. This approach is illustrated by an extensive investigation in two local housing markets in inner London. Finally, the authors examine the scope for change in the private rented sector and argue for a combination of public and private initiatives that is sensitive to the differences among local housing markets and that relates to the demands/needs of those groups at present dependent on private renting for accommodation.

Concentrating on the period between the end of World War II and the end of the century, this reader argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between the constitution of places and people. It brings together an interdisciplinary collection of articles for social and cultural geographers and examines the argument that the close associations of the 1950s between place (the home, community and the nation state) and the social divisions (gender, class and nationality) are breaking down in the 1990s. Drawing out the oppositional movements in each decade, it seeks to show how the supposed stability of one and the mobility of the other are exaggerated.