This substantially revised edition of a highly topical text draws upon theory from Marx and Bourdieu to offer a clearer understanding of community in capitalist society. The book takes a more critical look at the literature on community, community development and the politics of community, and applies this critical approach to themes introduced in the first edition on economic development, learning, health and social care, housing, and policing, taking into account the changes in policy that have taken place, particularly in the UK, since the first edition was written. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of social policy, sociology and politics as well as areas of housing and urban studies.

This substantially revised edition of a highly topical text draws upon theory from Marx and Bourdieu to offer a clearer understanding of community in capitalist society. The book takes a more critical look at the literature on community, community development and the politics of community, and applies this critical approach to themes introduced in the first edition on economic development, learning, health and social care, housing, and policing, taking into account the changes in policy that have taken place, particularly in the UK, since the first edition was written. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of social policy, sociology and politics as well as areas of housing and urban studies.

This topical book links housing issues in other areas of social policy drawing on current themes in the social sciences. It transforms the analysis of housing problems into a lively, interesting and contentious subject of social scientific study. Housing is fundamentally integrated into the welfare system and therefore requires exploration using conceptual ideas drawn from the social sciences. This book aims to encourage those studying and working in both social policy and housing to think refelxively about housing as a central instrument of social policy, rather than considering it to be an isolated occupation that merely requires the application of technical and administrative skills. As well as two chapters expounding and reviewing the centrality of housing to wider social policy and social experience, this book is largely comprised of chapters which each consider a specific social category, such as class, gender, or disability, and evaluate the experience and understanding of housing and social policy under this category. The authors address themes of residential experience, inclusion/empowerment, sustainability and professionalism/managerialism, which lie at the heart of the h

Contents:
1. Introduction: a theory of social relations 2. Households and families 3. Communities and community development 4. Contractual relations and social divisions 5. State-citizen relations and social justice 6. Policy implications: the case of housing 7. Conclusion

The British countryside is a national institution; most people aspire to live there, many people use it for leisure and recreation and we can all watch rural life played out on our television screen, read about it in novels or consume its imagery in art and cinematography. The aim of this book is to explore the way that these aspirations and perceptions influence the way that the term "rural" is interpreted across different academic disciplines. Definitions of rural are not exact, leaving room for these interpretations to have a significant impact on the meanings conveyed in different areas of research and across different economic, social and spatial contexts. In this book contributors present research across a range of subjects allowing critical reflections upon their personal and disciplinary interpretations of "rural". This resulting volume is a collection of diverse chapters that gives an emergent sense of how the notion of "rural" changes and blurs as the disciplinary lens is adjusted. In drawing together these strands, it becomes clear that human relations with rural space morph materiality into highly complex representations wherein both disadvantage and social exclusion persist within a rurality that is also commodified, consumed and cherished.

The British countryside is a national institution; most people aspire to live there, many people use it for leisure and recreation and we can all watch rural life played out on our television screen, read about it in novels or consume its imagery in art and cinematography. The aim of this book is to explore the way that these aspirations and perceptions influence the way that the term "rural" is interpreted across different academic disciplines. Definitions of rural are not exact, leaving room for these interpretations to have a significant impact on the meanings conveyed in different areas of research and across different economic, social and spatial contexts. In this book contributors present research across a range of subjects allowing critical reflections upon their personal and disciplinary interpretations of "rural". This resulting volume is a collection of diverse chapters that gives an emergent sense of how the notion of "rural" changes and blurs as the disciplinary lens is adjusted. In drawing together these strands, it becomes clear that human relations with rural space morph materiality into highly complex representations wherein both disadvantage and social exclusion persist within a rurality that is also commodified, consumed and cherished.