Rural communities / rural life Books

Book SynopsisA look at the range of close relationships between humans and wild and domesticated animals in the Himalayas.

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Book SynopsisArguing that village life is an effect of the modern and the global, this text analyzes everyday and social practices, and suggests that Kabre culture is shaped as much by colonial and postcolonial history as by anything indigenous or local.

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Book SynopsisArguing that village life is an effect of the modern and the global, this text analyzes everyday and social practices, and suggests that Kabre culture is shaped as much by colonial and postcolonial history as by anything "indigenous" or local.

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Book SynopsisThis volume combines two classic works of anthropology. The Little Community draws on the author's own notable studies of the villages of Tepoztlan and Chan Kom to explore the means by which scientists try to understand human communities. It contains, wrote Margaret Mead, the essence of Robert Redfield's multifaceted contributions to the place of community studies in social science. Peasant Society and Culture outlines a speculative foundation for the emergence of anthropology from the study of isolated primitive tribes.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Downey challenges the ideas that schools are engines of inequality and that schools can be effectively transformed to substantially reduce inequality. Having completed some of the most influential recent work on the topic, he shows that most of the inequalities we observe are rooted in skills children do and do not possess on their very first day of school., and the evidence suggests that For the most part, schools keep differences from getting bigger. Schools can only get you part of the way If you want to have to a more equal opportunity structure for kids. If equality of opportunity is your goal, then you have to invest more heavily in solutions outside rather than inside of schools."--Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison "This book is a must-read for anyone interested in education equality and policy. How Schools Really Matter offers a much-needed corrective to the assumption that student achievement gaps are the product of woefully inadequate schools and teachers. Downey shows that schools compensate for out of school inequality much more than we give them credit for."--Janice Aurini, University of Waterloo "Downey's book takes on the widely held belief that our public schools are failing our neediest children, most especially children of low-income background. Critics on the left invoke underfunded schools, underqualified and undermotivated teachers, and hyper-segregation; for those on the right, and some on the left, it is the opening for charter schools and vouchers. Wrong, says Downey: our schools, on the whole, lift up poor children, not hold them back, implicating instead inequities experienced over the preschool years and in children's home lives outside of school. Read this important book with an open mind. It could very well change how you--how we all--think about schools and inequality." --Karl Alexander, co-editor of The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss "It's not often that a publication changes the way we think the world works. Communicated in remarkably clear prose, Downey's incisive empirically based analysis reveals that inequality increases significantly when children are out of, not while they are in, school. How School's Really Matter is an eye-opener, as well as a call to action--that is, a more focused endeavor to reduce the large disparities in children's social and physical environments, including those of their early childhood." --William Julius Wilson, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Why We Shouldn’t Be Blaming Schools So Much Chapter 1: The Forgotten 87 Percent Herbert Walberg’s outrageous claim Trying to understand how schools matter when you have an eight-hundred-pound gorilla problem Chapter 2: Chickens, Eggs, and Achievement Gaps When do achievement gaps emerge? Scaling matters Why the early years are so important Relative deprivation matters too Conclusion Chapter 3: One Very Surprising Pattern about Schools Soccer coaches and schools Trying to understand how schools matter Seasonal comparisons What do we learn from the few studies that have collected data seasonally? Conclusion Chapter 4: And Now a Second, Even More Surprising Pattern School achievement, growth, and impact Objections Conclusion Part II: A New Way to Think about Schools and Inequality Chapter 5: More Like Reflectors than Generators Schools generating inequality Two examples of schools reflecting broader society What about those high-flying schools? Underestimating early childhood Conclusion: A diminished role for schools, an enhanced role for early childhood Chapter 6: As Helping More than Hurting Schools as compensatory: The weak form Schools as compensatory: The strong form Conclusion Chapter 7: A Frida Sofia Problem Schools and inequality: Stuck within the traditional framing Our value for limited government Fear of “blaming the victim” Gender and the vulnerability of schools Conclusion Chapter 8: The Costly Assumption Rich guys trying to reduce achievement gaps The never-ending quest to reform schools The great distractor So what should we do? Acknowledgments Appendix A: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Datasets (ECLS-K:1998 and ECLS-K:2010) Appendix B: Limitations of Seasonal Comparison Studies Appendix C: How Should Social Scientists Study Schools and Inequality? Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Downey challenges the ideas that schools are engines of inequality and that schools can be effectively transformed to substantially reduce inequality. Having completed some of the most influential recent work on the topic, he shows that most of the inequalities we observe are rooted in skills children do and do not possess on their very first day of school., and the evidence suggests that For the most part, schools keep differences from getting bigger. Schools can only get you part of the way If you want to have to a more equal opportunity structure for kids. If equality of opportunity is your goal, then you have to invest more heavily in solutions outside rather than inside of schools."--Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison "This book is a must-read for anyone interested in education equality and policy. How Schools Really Matter offers a much-needed corrective to the assumption that student achievement gaps are the product of woefully inadequate schools and teachers. Downey shows that schools compensate for out of school inequality much more than we give them credit for."--Janice Aurini, University of Waterloo "Downey's book takes on the widely held belief that our public schools are failing our neediest children, most especially children of low-income background. Critics on the left invoke underfunded schools, underqualified and undermotivated teachers, and hyper-segregation; for those on the right, and some on the left, it is the opening for charter schools and vouchers. Wrong, says Downey: our schools, on the whole, lift up poor children, not hold them back, implicating instead inequities experienced over the preschool years and in children's home lives outside of school. Read this important book with an open mind. It could very well change how you--how we all--think about schools and inequality." --Karl Alexander, co-editor of The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss "It's not often that a publication changes the way we think the world works. Communicated in remarkably clear prose, Downey's incisive empirically based analysis reveals that inequality increases significantly when children are out of, not while they are in, school. How School's Really Matter is an eye-opener, as well as a call to action--that is, a more focused endeavor to reduce the large disparities in children's social and physical environments, including those of their early childhood." --William Julius Wilson, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Why We Shouldn’t Be Blaming Schools So Much Chapter 1: The Forgotten 87 Percent Herbert Walberg’s outrageous claim Trying to understand how schools matter when you have an eight-hundred-pound gorilla problem Chapter 2: Chickens, Eggs, and Achievement Gaps When do achievement gaps emerge? Scaling matters Why the early years are so important Relative deprivation matters too Conclusion Chapter 3: One Very Surprising Pattern about Schools Soccer coaches and schools Trying to understand how schools matter Seasonal comparisons What do we learn from the few studies that have collected data seasonally? Conclusion Chapter 4: And Now a Second, Even More Surprising Pattern School achievement, growth, and impact Objections Conclusion Part II: A New Way to Think about Schools and Inequality Chapter 5: More Like Reflectors than Generators Schools generating inequality Two examples of schools reflecting broader society What about those high-flying schools? Underestimating early childhood Conclusion: A diminished role for schools, an enhanced role for early childhood Chapter 6: As Helping More than Hurting Schools as compensatory: The weak form Schools as compensatory: The strong form Conclusion Chapter 7: A Frida Sofia Problem Schools and inequality: Stuck within the traditional framing Our value for limited government Fear of “blaming the victim” Gender and the vulnerability of schools Conclusion Chapter 8: The Costly Assumption Rich guys trying to reduce achievement gaps The never-ending quest to reform schools The great distractor So what should we do? Acknowledgments Appendix A: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Datasets (ECLS-K:1998 and ECLS-K:2010) Appendix B: Limitations of Seasonal Comparison Studies Appendix C: How Should Social Scientists Study Schools and Inequality? Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisAlthough the death of small town has been predicted for decades, during 1990s population of rural America increased by more than three million people. This book considers these rural newcomers and their impact on social relationships, public spaces, and community resources of small-town America.Trade Review"Salamon has written an engaging story that puts a human face on the macro-level shifts affecting the once agrarian rural communities of the American Midwest. Through her stories of six central Illinois 'postagrarian' towns, she deftly illuminates much of the micro-foundation of these shifts in the daily decisions of people." - Ralph B. Brown, Rural History "If you are one of the many millions of Americans who is thinking about 'moving out to the country,' you should read this book first." - William R. Freudenburg, Contexts"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Underlying the country’s red state–blue state polarization is a more profound, and widening, rural-urban split . . . A piercing, unsentimental new book [argues that] understanding it will require setting myths aside and grappling with what the rich and the powerful have done to rural spaces and people. Such demystification, Conn rightly insists, is long overdue." * New Yorker *"An engaging, lively, comprehensive, and provocative study of ‘the Big Empty,’ the area between the Appalachians and the Sierras. Despite its bucolic look, ‘four powerful forces of American modernity’ permeate the Big Empty: militarization, industrialization, corporatization, and suburbanization. The so-called ‘lies of the land’ are the easy-to-miss, pervasive effects of these forces—effects that show the existence of an idyllic, real-America America has always been a myth.” * Washington Independent Review of Books *"Conn takes our ideal small town where white Americans cherish hard work and independence from subsidies, along with religious and traditional family values, and shows it to be a nostalgic myth. The Land of Lies is a powerful book . . . but perhaps most importantly, his description of rural America as a hard place to make a living shows that it is a much more complex and interesting space than our myth ever allowed." * Newcity *“[Conn is a] sharp observer who know[s] how myths of apple-pie-baking folk stolidly occupying a quaint-but-enviable moral high ground have been twisted over decades, generations even, to set up all kinds of exploitative exploits by snake-oil salesmen.” * LEO Weekly *"How does a land tell lies? Conn’s premise is that our enduring image of rural America is in large part illusory, also since most people in America, about 75%, now live in urban areas, he theorizes our perception of rural life gets distorted by idealistic visions which don’t correspond to reality." * Dayton Daily News *“Recent attention to rural America and its manifold ills is long overdue, but our understanding has been impeded by misleading generalizations and outright romanticization. The Lies of the Land cuts through such platitudes and describes our small towns and open spaces in all their complexity—showing us that rural America is inextricably bound to the rest of the country, rather than a realm apart." -- Alec MacGillis, author of 'Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon'“When many imagine the American countryside, they think of quiet porches far from the bustling cities. That is not the world you’ll find in this brilliant book. Here, missile silos, factories, and suburban developments are as much a part of the rural landscape as mountaintops, family farms, and dirt roads. For those who’ve lost sight of life beyond the city, Conn offers a fresh perspective on rural America that may help a divided nation find common connection.” -- Bart Elmore, author of 'Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet'“Conn documents rural America as a space that has been militarized, industrialized, corporatized, and suburbanized, sometimes by rural inhabitants themselves. Readers will savor Conn’s upending of so-called rural crises and rural myths.” -- Dolores Hayden, author of 'Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000'Table of ContentsPreface: That Empty Feeling Introduction: Crisis and Myth Part I: Militarized Space Chapter 1: Engineering the Landscape Chapter 2: From Rural Community to Army Town Chapter 3: The Cold War Comes to the UP Postscript: Addicted to the Military Part II: Industrial Spaces Chapter 4: Factories Instead of Farms Chapter 5: Cars in the Cornfields Part III. Rural Inc. Chapter 6: Who’s Afraid of Big? Chapter 7: Chains ’R’ Us Part IV. The Suburbanization of Rural America Chapter 8: Creating Post-rural Space Chapter 9: The Politics of Post-rural Complaint Conclusion: Places vs. Spaces Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe terror unleashed by Soviet power on the Ukrainian countryside in the early 1930s altered every aspect of village life. Based on extensive interviews with villagers throughout Ukraine, The Transformation of Civil Society provides an oral history of the material and cultural destruction sustained in rural Ukraine throughout the Stalinist era.Trade Review“This extraordinary oral history project captures an entire lost civilization: the world of the Ukrainian countryside before collectivization and famine. Using interviews carried out immediately after Ukrainian independence, William Noll describes elements of village life – including courting, wedding, and funeral rituals, Christmas and Easter celebrations, music, and art – that have now nearly disappeared. Published in Ukrainian in 1999, this English translation now makes this unique material accessible to a much wider audience.” Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A History

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Book SynopsisThis book bridges both the macro and micro levels of analysis to place the dynamics of a national political movement within a richly detailed account of its working at the village level.

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Book SynopsisTo some, the news that rural America still exists may be a surprise. While rural areas have undergone dramatic changes over the years, traditional social problems persist. This volume analyzes trends in rural social work practice and considers the most effective ways to serve rural communities.Trade ReviewThis is a fine basic text or reader for social work students who want to absorb the flavor and needs of practice in the rural US. Choice An important contribution to the literature and should be widely consulted by anyone interested in rural social welfare. Journal of Sociology and Social WelfareTable of ContentsIntroduction (Roger A. Lohmann and Nancy Lohmann) Part I: The Context of Practice 1. Social Work in Rural America: Lessons from the Past and Trends for the Future (Barry L. Locke and Jim Winship) 2. Rural Poverty and Welfare Reform: Challenges and Opportunities (Eleanor H. Blakely and Barry L. Locke) 3. Wired for the Future? The Impact of Information and Telecommunications Technology on Rural Social Work (Norma H. Wasko) 4. The Distribution of Nonprofit Social Service Organizations along the Rural-Urban Continuum (Mark A. Hager, Amy Brimer, and Thomas H. Pollak) 5. The Third Sector in Rural America (Roger A. Lohmann) Part II: Interventions 6. Dual Relationships in Rural Communities (Warren B. Galbreath) 7. Rural Community-Building Strategies (Dennis L. Poole) 8. The Multiple Roles of a Rural Administrator (Nancy Lohmann and Roger A. Lohmann) Part III: Client Populations and Fields of Practice 9. Services for the Chronically Mentally Ill in Rural Areas (Elizabeth Randall) 10. Directions in Rural Mental Health Practice (Elizabeth Randall and Dennis Vance, Jr.) 11. The Health of Rural Minorities (Doris Nicholas) 12. Gay Men and Lesbians in Rural Areas: Acknowledging, Valuing, and Empowering This Stigmatized Invisible People (Chatman Neely) 13. The Role of Religiousness/Spirituality and Social Support on Subjective Well-being Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Rural Communities (Dong Pil Yoon) 14. Demographic Characteristics of the Rural Elderly (Craig Johnson) Part IV: Education for Practice 15. Social Work Education for Rural Practice (Nancy Lohmann) Epilogue: What is Rural Practice? (Roger A. Lohmann and Nancy Lohmann) List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis pathbreaking book pinpoints forces behind the rise of the “rural voter”—a new political identity that combines a deeply felt sense of place with an increasingly nationalized set of concerns.Trade ReviewIn this important book, two political scientists—rural themselves—set the record straight on the rural voter. Based on a massive voter survey stretching from 1824 to 2020, Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea carefully puzzle over reasons so many rural Americans now despair of the Democratic Party and even see it as the enemy. They add to this a brilliant analysis of Hollywood’s view of rural Americans, shifting from quaint to backward to menacing and beyond. If you live in the city, read this book. -- Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American RightThe thing that stands out the most is the way Jacobs and Shea examine and often dismantle long-standing stereotypes and conventional media narratives with empathy. The data and historical research are rigorous and important, but the nuance and curiosity the authors bring to the table are The Rural Voter’s special sauce. -- Amy Walter, publisher and editor in chief of The Cook Political Report with Amy WalterForget what you think you know about rural politics in the United States. With high-quality data and careful analysis, Jacobs and Shea demonstrate that rural voters are not particularly down-and-out or fired up by religion, racism, conservative media, and ideology. Instead, rural economic and civic struggles, which are not unique, have generated a sense of place-based grievance that reflects rural voters' beliefs about the value of rural life and a linked fate as rural residents. -- Douglas D. Roscoe, author of The Promise of Democratic Equality in the United StatesIt’s a rare book on American politics that has a sense of place. The authors, who hail from rural communities and know their neighbors, show that “geography matters”—but not at all in the ways our stereotyped notions of rural (and urban) tell us. -- Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us ApartThis book contains what surely must be the most comprehensive study of rural voters ever produced. Based largely on a massive new database, Jacobs and Shea’s analyses provide a treasure trove of new findings and along the way modify or overturn a number of popular generalizations about urban versus rural voters. -- Morris P. Fiorina, author of Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political StalemateFor those seeking a comprehensive, thoroughly researched volume about rural voters with original data and insightful analysis, stop looking. The Rural Voter provides an unbiased account of rural voters that does not fall prey to partisan stereotypes. I have little doubt this pathbreaking book will reshape our understanding of a key change in American politics. -- Joanne Connor Green, author of Government and Politics in the Lone Star StateA pioneering work, based on solid evidence, shattering myths about rural voters and insightfully explaining their shift toward Trump support. -- Gerald M. Pomper, author, Ordinary Heroes and American DemocracyTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Two Americas1. Who and What Is Rural America?2. The Deep Roots of the Rural-Urban Divide (1776–1980)3. Manufacturing the Myth of “Real America” (1980–Present)4. Listening to Rural Americans5. Down and Out in Rural America?6. A Wasteland of Alienation?7. Clinging to Their Guns and Religion?8. Irredeemably Racist?9. Radicalized by Fox?10. Pulling It All Together: Finding the Rural Voter11. Bridges Across the Rural-Urban DivideNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisRADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER''I couldn''t put it down. . . an important book, raw and simple enough that you can''t help but feel it deeply'' James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd''s LifeTalented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different? Growing up gifted and working-class in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. Bonding over a shared love of learning, they pored over the giant map in their classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape their broken town. 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 discovers what she already intuitively knew about the women in ArkanTrade ReviewThink Elena Ferrante and My Brilliant Friend. Potts is excellent at showing how the political sentiments that white, poorly educated women uphold ultimately circumscribe their lives. In many ways it's a universal story: rural Britain fits this mould too -- Francesca Angelini * The Sunday Times *The Forgotten Girls rings with authenticity, a powerful, personal analysis of how women in poor, white, religious societies suffer. This, it struck me, isn't just an American story; it's the American story -- Melanie Reid * The Times *A modern classic on deprivation and the fine margins that exist between a life of plenty and one of relentless hardship * Prospect Magazine, Best Books of the Year *A deeply moving story of growing up in America's Bible Belt. I thought about it for days afterwards -- Francesca Steele * I News *The Forgotten Girls is a lament for lost opportunities and wasted lives; a controlled expression of rage at a system that fails so many even as it exploits their despair -- Stephanie Merritt * The Observer *At its heart an intensely moving, personal story of unbreakable friendship, this, like Tara Westover's Educated, is a book that packs a much wider resonance at a time when the gap between rich and poor grows ever wider across the world. It asks vital questions about life chances; and the seeming randomness of who gets them, and who doesn't -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller, Non-Fiction Book of the Month *This is a patient, heartfelt description of the dark side of the American dream, a once vibrant community abandoned by global capitalism, and prey to any demagogue promising to 'Make America Great Again' * The Tablet *Not everyone can live the American Dream in the Land of the Free, as Monica Potts discovers when she returns to her Arkansas hometown to investigate the drop in life expectancy in women in rural areas. In The Forgotten Girls, she reconnects with an old friend who has fallen into a common cycle of poverty and opioid abuse. This autobiographical tale tells a very different American Story, rife with systemic injustices and societal constraints -- Rhiannon Thomas * Radio Times *Tender, perceptive, important - and heartbreaking -- Lee ChildI couldn't put it down. . . American culture has a toxic forgetting at its heart, a forgetting about communities that have lost their way and a blindness to why they fail. It made me think of so many people's lives in small towns and rural areas in Britain -- a powerful reminder that when you forget about people and consign them to eternity in failing places, then you create something deeply harmful for all of us. It is an important book, raw and simple enough that you can't help but feel it deeply -- James Rebanks, author of English PastoralA tender memoir of a lifelong friendship and a shocking account of hardship in rural America, The Forgotten Girls is beautifully written, painstakingly researched and deeply affecting -- Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the TrainThe Forgotten Girls is much more than a memoir; it's the unflinching story of rural women trying to live in the most rugged, ultra-religious and left-behind places in America. Rendering what she sees with poignancy and whip-smart analyses, Monica Potts took a gutsy, open-hearted journey home and turned it into art -- Beth Macy, author of DopesickBeautiful and hard, a deeply reported memoir of a place, a friendship, a childhood and a country riven by systemic injustices transformed into individual tragedies. Monica Potts is a gifted writer; I read this extraordinary story of friendship and sisterhood, ambition and loss in rural America in one sitting; it is propulsive, clear and really important -- Rebecca Traister, author of Good and MadMonica Potts tells a compelling story of grief and friendship rooted in the cycles of generational pain in rural Arkansas. Her story of growing up in Clinton, needing to leave, and the compulsion to return to a place of love and disappointment is a devastating tale of the suffering writ large across the dislocated American heartland. -- Helen Thompson, author of DisorderA deeply personal memoir of childhood. Potts has created a complicated tribute to her friend and to a generation 'set up for failure' -- Katy Guest * The Mail on Sunday *A troubling tale of heartland America in cardiac arrest, of friendship tested, of meth and Sonic burgers and every other kind of bad nourishment, of what we have let happen to our rural towns, and what they have invited on themselves. A personal and highly readable story about two women in a small cranny of America, but which offers an illuminating panorama of where our country stands -- Sam Quinones, author of DreamlandIn a landscape where writing grounded in true events is expected to be either objective reporting about events from which the writer is fully detached or confessional lived experience, Monica Potts has created a rare mix of reportage and memoir that brings the best of both forms to bear on an empathetic and nuanced examination, told from an insider's perspective, of what it means to be working class, white, and female in America today -- Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of The Third Rainbow GirlA masterly labour of love. In its unflinching exploration of character, circumstance and destiny, it's perfect. * Prospect Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA richly recounted memoir of growing up in an Irish farming community in the 1940sA love of Ireland and the Irish is what shines through this little memoir. Growing up amongst the fields, woods and characters of a farming community near Cork, Kathleen Iggulden depicts a world that is both immediate and real, yet belongs to a now-distant past. Here is a pony and trap to church every Sunday, evenings full of fiddle, flute and song, and new shoes and clothes twice a year. Kathleen''s childhood in the 1930s involved two or three generations - her parents, her brother and sisters, as well as the daily lives of farmworkers and craftsmen, friends and relations. She beautifully chronicles rural celebrations and forgotten practicalities of country life - all painted with a sensitive touch and a freshness of observation. She saw her people as intensely polite, decent and innocent, with humour and music always ready. She saw them as poets, and poetry as the highe

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Book SynopsisLong a bastion of antigovernment feeling, the Ozark region today is home to fervent strains of conservative-influenced sentiment. Does rural heritage play an exceptional role in the perpetuation of these attitudes? Have such outlooks been continuous? J. Blake Perkins searches for the roots of rural defiance in the Ozarks--and discovers how it changed over time. Eschewing generalities, Perkins focuses on the experiences and attitudes of rural people themselves as they interacted with government from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century.He uncovers the reasons local disputes and uneven access to government power fostered markedly different reactions by hill people as time went by. Resistance in the earlier period sprang from upland small farmers'' conflicts with capitalist elites who held the local levers of federal power. But as industry and agribusiness displaced family farms after World War II, a conservative cohort of town business elites, local political offiTrade Review"Hillbilly Hellraisers challenges the seemingly uncontroversial claim that antigovernment sentiment has enjoyed exception continuity among rural working-class Americans." --Journal of Appalachian Studies"This is a very good book about the roots of resistance and rebellion in the Arkansas Ozarks in response to federal government attempts to effect social and economic change in the region from the late 19th to the early 21st century. . . . Highly recommended."--OzarksWatch"Hillbilly Hellraisers represents an important contribution to rural history and a valuable narrative of those who struggled to confront the changes that reshaped the region. It's strongest moments derive from the individual stories of those who sought to hold on to their farms and their traditional modes of living."--Arkansas Review "Perkins produces an engaging political history of the communities in the Ozark Mountain region of northwest Arkansas. . . . While steeped in local history, this book also provides insights into how rural people react to federalism. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice"This is an important book, one that fills a much-needed historiographic niche, and one that opens the door for further study into the political culture of not only the Arkansas Ozarks, but rural America as a whole."--Elder Mountain: Journal of Ozark Studies"Perkins should earn applause for his spirited, well researched, provocative study." --Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews"Hillbilly Hellraisers would benefit anyone interested in the roots of US rural poverty and our contemporary politics of division." --Missouri Historical Review"Perkins has written a smart, provocative, and important book." --Journal of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era "Perkins writes with verve, humor, and minimal jargon, focusing tightly on his thesis. This insightful addition to the University of Illinois Press's Working Class in American History series makes a welcome contribution to local and regional history." --The Journal of American History "Put Hillbilly Hellraisers on your bookshelf, next to other works about rural radicalism and conservatism." --American Historical Review "Perkins has meticulously researched the development of populism and the resulting defiance of the yeomanry of the Arkansas Ozarks. . . . By avoiding generalities, the author breaks through easy stereotypes to arrive at the specific circumstances that led to the development of the conservative Ozarker mindset." --Kansas History "In an age of deepening political and cultural divisions between the rural and urban sections of the United States, studies that seek to explain the source of rural conservative anti-elite and antigovernment politics are needed more than ever. Perkin's contribution definitely advances our understanding of this phenomenon." --Labor "Hillbilly Hellraisers is an important study because it sheds light on the failures of rural reforms that bred discontent. Perkins's detailed investigations uncover highly localized power dynamics, while his century-long scope reveals the broader evolution of resistance to federal power." --Rural History "Hillbilly Hellraisers is a stunningly original work that manages to clarify the actions of a misunderstood people at the same time that it reasserts complexity into their allegedly simple lives. Blake Perkins reminds us that regional stories have national, even universal, significance, but to truly appreciate that significance we have to first approach the stories of Ozarkers and other regional groups on their own terms and on their own turf. A must-read for anyone studying the Upland South and for those seeking a fuller understanding of the changing nature of antigovernment protest."--Brooks Blevins, author of Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Memory in the Upland South "Using the Arkansas Ozarks as a case study, J. Blake Perkins sheds new light on the rise of antigovernment conservatism in rural America during the twentieth century. Well written and thoroughly researched, his book is a welcome addition to the study of modern politics."--Bruce E. Stewart, author of Blood in the Hills: A History of Violence in Appalachia

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Book SynopsisA deep account of the long transition towards capitalism and modernity in the rural United StatesTrade Review"Summerhill demonstrates that rural New Yorkers--like Americans as a whole--had a legacy of democratic activism that was at times disrupted or transformed, but never ruptured. I can think of few finer analyses of local politics--a masterful book."--Robert D. Johnston, co-editor of The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State: Political Histories of Rural America

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Book SynopsisFocuses on social and cultural mechanisms of loyalty to describe the circuits of trust and terror in Ottoman MacedoniaTrade ReviewLoyal Unto Death is a fascinating account of an anti-imperialist struggle that pushes readers to think beyond the nation. It will serve as a powerful resource for both students and scholars embarking on historical ethnography . . . Likewise, the book will be extremely valuable for those working on revolutionary movements in search of strategies to draw out the lived experiences of underground movements. * POLAR *[Keith Brown] takes as his central problem the question of how at the start of the twentieth century the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (MRO) was able to grow so rapidly from a tiny band of conspirators to an organization capable of fielding some 20,000 participants in the Ilinden uprising of 1903. 119.5 * American Historical Review *Loyal unto Death is an innovative work that should inspire debate. * Slavic Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Archival Imagination at Work 1. Terminal Loyalties and Unruly Archives: On Thinking Past the Nation2. The Horizons of the "Peasant": Circuits of Labor and Insurgency3. The Oath and the Curse: Subversions of Christianity4. The Archive and the Account Book: Inscriptions of Terror5. The četa and the jatak: Inversions of Tradition, Conversions of Capital6. Guns for Sale: Feud, Trade, and Solidarity in the Arming of MRO Conclusion: The Archival Imagination and the Teleo-logic of NationAppendix 1. Documents of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Appendix 2. Biographies from the Ilinden Dossier

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn Faranak Miraftab's book, Global Heartland, the life of the meatpacker is vividly brought to life. Miraftab studies the lived-realities of meatpacking laborers to understand how the industry has influenced the economic revitalization and social transformation of the small, rural community of Beardstown, Illinois, while arguing that the thriving economy and cultural diversity successes of the area obscure larger narratives about the unequal global ties that enabled these changes. * Antipode *Faranak Miraftab's powerful and, at times, very personal study of the meat-packing industry in Beardstown, Illinois, offers an exemplary analysis of the relational character of place. The book challenges us to think seriously about places that are all too often located at the periphery of mainstream urban theory. * AAG Review of Books *The depth and breadth of this book show it was a decade in the making. Miraftab has carried out a rich multi-sited ethnography to help us understand the transbordering factors and relations that produce and revitalize Beardstown, a meatpacking town in Illinois. * International Journal of Urban and Regional Research *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I. Beardstown: A Place in the World1. Welcome to Porkopolis2. It All Changed OvernightPart II. Displaced Labor3. "Michoacán's Largest Export is People"4. "Winning the Lotto in Togo"5. Detroit: "The First Third World City of the U.S."Part III. Outsourced Lives6. Global Restructuring of Social ReproductionPart IV. We Wanted Workers, We Got People7. We Wanted Workers8. We Got PeopleConclusion: The Global in my BackyardAppendix 1: Population and Labor TablesAppendix 2: Schedule and Profile of IntervieweesNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn Faranak Miraftab's book, Global Heartland, the life of the meatpacker is vividly brought to life. Miraftab studies the lived-realities of meatpacking laborers to understand how the industry has influenced the economic revitalization and social transformation of the small, rural community of Beardstown, Illinois, while arguing that the thriving economy and cultural diversity successes of the area obscure larger narratives about the unequal global ties that enabled these changes. * Antipode *Faranak Miraftab's powerful and, at times, very personal study of the meat-packing industry in Beardstown, Illinois, offers an exemplary analysis of the relational character of place. The book challenges us to think seriously about places that are all too often located at the periphery of mainstream urban theory. * AAG Review of Books *The depth and breadth of this book show it was a decade in the making. Miraftab has carried out a rich multi-sited ethnography to help us understand the transbordering factors and relations that produce and revitalize Beardstown, a meatpacking town in Illinois. * International Journal of Urban and Regional Research *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I. Beardstown: A Place in the World1. Welcome to Porkopolis2. It All Changed OvernightPart II. Displaced Labor3. "Michoacán's Largest Export is People"4. "Winning the Lotto in Togo"5. Detroit: "The First Third World City of the U.S."Part III. Outsourced Lives6. Global Restructuring of Social ReproductionPart IV. We Wanted Workers, We Got People7. We Wanted Workers8. We Got PeopleConclusion: The Global in my BackyardAppendix 1: Population and Labor TablesAppendix 2: Schedule and Profile of IntervieweesNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Botswana's struggle to access international economies, few resources are as fundamental and fraught as control over land. Land, Power, and the Global considers the ways in which power in all its formslocal, international, legal, familialaffects the collision of global with local concerns over access to land and control over its use.Trade Review"An important and original contribution to scholarship. Transformations on the Ground offers a nuanced and empirically dense account of land issues —a hot and controversial topic both in academic and political discussions. This book adds a particular dimension to the very large body of literature with its specific mix of legal aspects, ethnographic data, and a global framework."—Dr. Andreas Eckert, coeditor of Afrika 1500 - 1900: Geschichte und Gesellschaft Taschenbuch [Africa 1500 - 1900: History and Society] and Director Re-Work Humboldt University Berlin"Botswana is a darling of international donors and regularly praised as an upwardly mobile, prosperous and successful country. At the same time, it is characterized by poverty and exclusion, especially of women. In her insightful case study on land politics, Anne Griffiths effectively contrasts the image of a coherent state against myriad realities and confusion of competences on the ground. Based on decades of ethnographic fieldwork, this book masterfully demonstrates how in the realm of land and law, international, national, regional and local domains intersect and overlap, and come into conflict with one another."—Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University Berlin"Anne Griffiths' ambitious and original book reveals how the 'global' is always situated in specific places and times through her insightful analysis of how land in Botswana has figured in practices, policy and politics from the standpoints of household, family, village, district, national and international levels. Griffiths' astute use of political and legal history, legal documents, observation of statutory and customary law settings, multi-generational life histories and detailed ethnography enable her to provide a rich and informative account that goes well beyond the mantra of 'the global in the local'. While insisting on foregrounding "the voices, perceptions, and experiences of people's relationships with land", Griffiths shows how these interact with national politics, policies, laws and legal practice and with the effects of international and global agencies and processes to produce inequality and class differences, despite some improvement in gendered patterns of land entitlement. "—Pauline Peters, Faculty Associate, Harvard Kennedy School and Center for African StudiesTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionSection I: Historical Dimensions of Land in Botswana: Contemporary Entanglements1. The International Landscape and its Influence on Land in Botswana2. Reframing the Governance of Land3. Institutional Frameworks and GovernanceSection II: The Bottom Up Impact of Land on Diverging Family Lifeworlds and Gender Relations4. Families, Networks and Status5. Transformations on the GroundSection III: Law and Space: Negotiating Legal Plurality in Botswana6. Negotiating Conflict: The Handling of Disputes in the Land Tribunal7. Constructing Legality in the High Court and Court of AppealFinal ReflectionsAppendixBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Botswana's struggle to access international economies, few resources are as fundamental and fraught as control over land. Land, Power, and the Global considers the ways in which power in all its forms—local, international, legal, familial—affects the collision of global with local concerns over access to land and control over its use.Trade Review"An important and original contribution to scholarship. Transformations on the Ground offers a nuanced and empirically dense account of land issues —a hot and controversial topic both in academic and political discussions. This book adds a particular dimension to the very large body of literature with its specific mix of legal aspects, ethnographic data, and a global framework."—Dr. Andreas Eckert, coeditor of Afrika 1500 - 1900: Geschichte und Gesellschaft Taschenbuch [Africa 1500 - 1900: History and Society] and Director Re-Work Humboldt University Berlin"Botswana is a darling of international donors and regularly praised as an upwardly mobile, prosperous and successful country. At the same time, it is characterized by poverty and exclusion, especially of women. In her insightful case study on land politics, Anne Griffiths effectively contrasts the image of a coherent state against myriad realities and confusion of competences on the ground. Based on decades of ethnographic fieldwork, this book masterfully demonstrates how in the realm of land and law, international, national, regional and local domains intersect and overlap, and come into conflict with one another."—Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University Berlin"Anne Griffiths' ambitious and original book reveals how the 'global' is always situated in specific places and times through her insightful analysis of how land in Botswana has figured in practices, policy and politics from the standpoints of household, family, village, district, national and international levels. Griffiths' astute use of political and legal history, legal documents, observation of statutory and customary law settings, multi-generational life histories and detailed ethnography enable her to provide a rich and informative account that goes well beyond the mantra of 'the global in the local'. While insisting on foregrounding "the voices, perceptions, and experiences of people's relationships with land", Griffiths shows how these interact with national politics, policies, laws and legal practice and with the effects of international and global agencies and processes to produce inequality and class differences, despite some improvement in gendered patterns of land entitlement. "—Pauline Peters, Faculty Associate, Harvard Kennedy School and Center for African StudiesTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionSection I: Historical Dimensions of Land in Botswana: Contemporary Entanglements1. The International Landscape and its Influence on Land in Botswana2. Reframing the Governance of Land3. Institutional Frameworks and GovernanceSection II: The Bottom Up Impact of Land on Diverging Family Lifeworlds and Gender Relations4. Families, Networks and Status5. Transformations on the GroundSection III: Law and Space: Negotiating Legal Plurality in Botswana6. Negotiating Conflict: The Handling of Disputes in the Land Tribunal7. Constructing Legality in the High Court and Court of AppealFinal ReflectionsAppendixBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Outside is a rich, deep, and nuanced ethnographic account of the transformations that migration generates in sending communities in the Tadla plain in central Morocco. -- Lorena Gazzotti * International Migration Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionTempos of LifeThe Outside InsideWives of ElsewhereBeautiful FuturesThe Gender of the CrossingThe OutsideConclusion: Migration as Life

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Outside is a rich, deep, and nuanced ethnographic account of the transformations that migration generates in sending communities in the Tadla plain in central Morocco. -- Lorena Gazzotti * International Migration Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionTempos of LifeThe Outside InsideWives of ElsewhereBeautiful FuturesThe Gender of the CrossingThe OutsideConclusion: Migration as Life

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Wayne Flynt may not have started the late-twentieth-century wave of historical research on postbellum Southern poor whites, but he was the first to catch it. In engaging and accessible prose Dixie's Forgotten People surveyed what was in 1979 a largely unknown landscape and laid out an agenda for research that is still not completed. Flynt's retrospective introduction to this new edition is itself worth the price of the book." -John Reed, University of North CarolinaTable of ContentsPreface to the Original EditionIntroduction (2004)1. The Invisible Poor: Toward a Definition of Southern Poor Whites2. Dogtrots and Jack Tales: Toward a Definition of Poor White Culture3. "Lint Heads" and "Diggers": The Forgotten People of the New South, 1865-19204. Progress and Poverty, Southern Style: The 1920s and 1930s5. Southern Poverty Forgotten and Discovered—Again6. Appalachian Spring—and Winter7. "A time to weep, a time to laugh . . . "BibliographyBibliographical Supplement (2004)NotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe incredible story of David Gaus, who has dedicated his life to bringing modern health care and medicine to rural communities in Ecuador.Trade Review"The book succeeds in helping readers understand the lack of medical care in rural areas—the 'urban bias' of where doctors want to practice—and the unique geographic and social problems that complicate access to health care." —Mark Curnutte, Cincinnati Enquirer, author of A Promise in Haiti"Long Road from Quito: Transforming Health Care in Rural Latin America is well written and captures the attention of the reader; the many examples provide a colorful and vivid narrative that makes this book a page turner. Tony Hiss knows how to tell a story, and the reader gets an excellent in-depth impression of the context based on the vivid descriptions provided." —Clemens Sedmak, author of A Church of the Poor"If you are lucky, a few times in life you will come across a person who is able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. It is even rarer still to find in such a leader a genuine sense of humility and a depth of soul that radiates joy and laughter. I know you will enjoy and be inspired by this story of a modern-day man who is as holy as he is innovative, who is as determined as he is fun, and who is both visionary and focused on the set of eyes before him at any given moment." —Lou Nanni, from the foreword“[David] Gaus’ journey from an accounting undergraduate to a medical doctor hailed as a hero in Ecuador, with hesburgh as inspiration and partner, is recounted in the new book, Long Road from Quito, by journalist Tony Hiss.” —Notre Dame Magazine"Long Road from Quito by Tony Hiss is an extraordinary combination of biography and history . . . an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections in general, and Latin American Medical History supplemental studies reading lists in particular. . . . With a charming conversational style that's a pleasure to read, Hiss shows . . . Gaus's vision and determination . . . in a story with equal parts interest for Notre Dame readers, health practitioners, medical anthropologists, Latin American students and scholars, and the general public." —John Taylor, Midwest Book Review"[This] narrative has the contents, structure, and timing to engage the reader with the details of the philosophy, biography, and determination of David Gaus, a young accountant who took a charity trip to Quito in 1984. His trip ended up transforming him into a physician for the poor, a hospital builder, and an educator in rural Ecuador." —Choice“Long Road from Quito also depicts a challenge far greater than geographic isolation—namely, how rural populations differ from urban populations in their perception of health and disease. Such insights are essential not just in Ecuador but in much of the world, including industrialized nations.” —American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene"For family physicians with an interest in global health, rural medicine, and tropical disease, plus an appreciation for a well-told story, this book is a great read. Thoroughly entertaining while still conveying a message about how global health can be done well and responsibly, the book gives a sense of hope and energy." —Family Medicine

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Book SynopsisA compilation of policy-relevant research by a multidisciplinary group of scholars on the state of families in rural America in the twenty-first century. Examines the impact of economic restructuring on rural Americans and provides policy recommendations for addressing the challenges they face.Trade Review“This is a timely and important book on a very underresearched and misunderstood topic. As numerous others point out, ‘rural’ America is not just farms and rural areas, and its problems are not all that different in some fundamental ways from urban ones. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in better understanding how global economic changes have affected not only jobs but, crucially, the people who hold them, the places they live, the people they live with. The book will be of interest to academics and nonacademics alike. Policy makers would be particularly well advised to learn from its rich empirical analysis and thoughtful discussion.”—William W. Falk,University of Maryland“This volume is a benchmark on responses to economic change in the United States. The editors have done a masterful job in showcasing a breadth of scholarship, reflected collectively in the contributing authors’ interdisciplinary approaches, attention to an array of family, demographic, and economic outcomes, and concern with theoretical as well as policy-related issues. The chapters combine rigorous analysis and detailed implications for public policy in a lucid manner that will be accessible to a variety of audiences. In confronting and comparing rural responses with those documented in urban settings, the chapters provide an innovative corrective to conventional work in sociology, family studies, demography, economics, and policy studies.”—Linda Lobao,The Ohio State University“While the troubles facing the banking and housing sectors have served as the focal points of our nation’s economic woes, it’s around the kitchen tables of many rural American families where the pain and strain have been profoundly felt. Regrettably, efforts to examine the multifaceted consequences of economic restructuring on family well-being have been virtually absent—until now. Assembling a veritable ‘who’s who’ among social and behavioral scientists, Smith and Tickamyer have guided the development of an impressive research volume that offers important insights into the array of family-related challenges playing in rural America today as a product of national and global economic forces. The value-added aspect of this volume is the attention that it devotes to policy—to the mix of investments and refinements that policy makers must pursue in order to promote the stability and the long-term vitality of families in rural America.”—Lionel J. “Bo” Beaulieu,Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State UniversityTable of ContentsContentsList of Figures List of Maps List of Tables ForewordCynthia “Mil” DuncanAcknowledgmentsIntroductionKristin E. Smith and Ann TickamyerSection 1: Changing Economic Opportunities and Changing Roles1 Rural Economic Restructuring: Implications for Children, Youth, and FamiliesDaniel T. Lichter and Deborah Roempke Graefe 2 Employment Hardship Among Rural MenLeif Jensen and Eric B. Jensen3 Changing Roles: Women and Work in Rural AmericaKristin E. Smith4 Men Without Sawmills: Job Loss and Gender Identity in Rural AmericaJennifer ShermanSection 2: Family Change, Economic Hardship, and Family Adaptive Strategies5 Economic Restructuring and Family Structure Change, 1980 to 2000: A Focus on Female-Headed Families with ChildrenDiane K. McLaughlin and Alisha J. Coleman-Jensen6 Patterns of Family Formation and Dissolution in Rural America and Implications for Well-BeingAnastasia Snyder7 Job Characteristics and Economic Survival Strategies: The Effect of Economic Restructuring and Marital Status in a Rural CountyMargaret K. Nelson8 Economic Hardship, Parenting, and Family Stability in a Cohort of Rural AdolescentsKatherine Jewsbury CongerSection 3: Low-Wage Employment9 Parents’ Work Time in Rural America: The Growth of Irregular SchedulesElaine McCrate10 Low-Wage Employment Among Minority Women in Nonmetropolitan Areas: A Decomposition AnalysisMarlene Lee11 Regional Variation of Women in Low-Wage Work Across Rural CommunitiesCynthia D. Anderson and Chih-Yuan WengSection 4: Work and Family Policy12 Strengthening Rural Communities Through Investment in Youth Education, Employment, and TrainingLiliokanaio Peaslee and Andrew Hahn13 Child Care in Rural AmericaNicole D. Forry and Susan K. Walker14 Health Insurance in Rural AmericaDeborah Roempke Graefe15 Livelihood Practices in the Shadow of Welfare ReformAnn Tickamyer and Debra Henderson16 Poverty, Work, and the Local Environment: TANF and EITCDomenico Parisi, Steven Michael Grice, Guangqing Chi, and Jed PressgroveConclusionsAnn Tickamyer and Kristin E. SmithReferencesList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisInvestigates that trend, drawing on fieldwork in a rural high school in Zhejiang where students, teachers, and officials of different generations, genders, and social backgrounds form what is essentially a miniature version of Chinese society.Trade Review"Educating the Chinese Individual is an ethnographically rich and stimulating study. It enriches our knowledge about a relatively under-studied group—rural youth and young teachers—in a marginal setting. It challenges some common assumptions of the changing landscape of school education and everyday cultural practice of the younger generations in post-socialist China. . . . This book will attract a wide readership in educational studies but will also appeal to audiences in sociology and anthropology who are interested in social change and youth culture in contemporary China." -- Xuan Dong * The China Quarterly *"[E]xcellent. . . . [T]his ethnography is a fine depiction of a slice of life in China today. The important issues it handles show the value of having more ethnographies of Chinese secondary schools, including studies of first-tier, vocational, and urban high schools from many parts of the country." -- Andrew B. Kipnis * The China Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Chinese Education and Processes of Individualization 1. Discipline and Agency: Quests for Individual Space 2. Text and Truth: Visions of the Learned Person and Good Citizen 3. Hierarchy and Democracy: Controlled Rise of the Individual 4. Motivation and Examination: The Making and Breaking of the Individual 5. Dreams and Dedications: Teachers’ Views and the Construction of a Generation Gap Conclusion: Authoritarian Individualization Notes Glossary of Chinese Names and Terms Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Educating the Chinese Individual is an ethnographically rich and stimulating study. It enriches our knowledge about a relatively under-studied group—rural youth and young teachers—in a marginal setting. It challenges some common assumptions of the changing landscape of school education and everyday cultural practice of the younger generations in post-socialist China. . . . This book will attract a wide readership in educational studies but will also appeal to audiences in sociology and anthropology who are interested in social change and youth culture in contemporary China." -- Xuan Dong * The China Quarterly *"[E]xcellent. . . . [T]his ethnography is a fine depiction of a slice of life in China today. The important issues it handles show the value of having more ethnographies of Chinese secondary schools, including studies of first-tier, vocational, and urban high schools from many parts of the country." -- Andrew B. Kipnis * The China Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Chinese Education and Processes of Individualization 1. Discipline and Agency: Quests for Individual Space 2. Text and Truth: Visions of the Learned Person and Good Citizen 3. Hierarchy and Democracy: Controlled Rise of the Individual 4. Motivation and Examination: The Making and Breaking of the Individual 5. Dreams and Dedications: Teachers’ Views and the Construction of a Generation Gap Conclusion: Authoritarian Individualization Notes Glossary of Chinese Names and Terms Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFair Trade promises to raise living standards in developing countries through:- worldwide minimum prices for commodities- support for democratically governed cooperatives- requirement of minimum wages and safety standards for workers- training to help producers improved quality and develop business skills- encouragement of eco-friendly practices- third-party certificationIn contrast to the free trade status quo, Fair Trade relies on informed consumers to choose more direct supply chains that minimize the role of middlemen, offering economic justice and social change as a viable and sustainable alternative to charity. But does it work?Fair Trade from the Ground Up documents achievements at both the producer and the consumer ends of commodity chains and assesses prospects for future growth. From Guatemalan coffee farmers to student activists on U.S. college campuses, the stories of individuals inform April Linton's analysis. Drawing on studies by social scientists and economists, as wellTrade Review". . . an intriguing and informational read for anyone who is involved or interested in the fair trade movement." * Contemporary Sociology *"This volume provides a rich, detailed framework for examining and discussing fair trade and the sustainability it encourages across the developed and developing worlds. Highly recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Fair Trade from the Ground Up 2. Fair Trade Coffee in Guatemala 3. How Do Producers Spend the Social Premium? 4. Selling and Buying Fair Trade 5. Fair Trade Activisim in the United States 6. A Fair Trade University 7. Growing Fair Trade Notes References Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis study of rural Ireland in the 1840s explicates the social, economic and demographic conditions of the era. The author argues that overpopulation and deprivation were inextricably linked to the rapid economic development of rural Ireland that was shaped by British interests.Trade ReviewThe book is a pleasure to read; the analysis is logical, precise and nuanced; the wording, rich textured and apt. It is impossible in this space to report the variety and depth of the insights that pervade O'Neill's book. - Irish Literary Supplement; ""An unrivalled picture of one small part of pre-Famine rural Ireland."" - Mary E. Daly, Irish Historical Studies; ""An important contribution both to Irish history and to the demographic study of peasant societies in general."" - Journal of Social History

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Book SynopsisA moving exploration of presence and place told through the stories of small-scale farmers who, despite intense adversity, continue caring for their landTrade ReviewFinalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award, sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center“Brooks Lamb has taken seriously my father Wendell Berry’s assertion that we don’t have an agricultural crisis in America but a cultural crisis. He dares to take the virtues of affection and fidelity to particular places as economic necessities. Working landscapes and the farming people who belong to them have been ignored for generations; we have nearly lost the cultural knowledge that they hold. He tells their stories with due respect and calls upon us to learn from them.”—Mary Berry, executive director, The Berry Center“Love for the Land is excellent. It reinforces that the work we do daily has a spiritual presence. In this book, Brooks Lamb makes real the humanity of the land and our relationship to the land.”—Ebonie Alexander, executive director, Black Family Land Trust“Love for the Land puts readers directly in touch with farmers, highlighting their hopes and concerns as they navigate a complex agricultural and land management landscape. Given the absence of farmer voices in today’s increasingly urban world, this book is more necessary than ever.”—Norman Wirzba, author of This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World“In Love for the Land, Lamb powerfully explores the virtues of stewardship, tracing their import in and through quotidian rhythms of care, crises of consolidation, and the vital demands of environmental justice and racial equity. This is a graceful, thoughtful book.”—Grace Olmstead, author of Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We’ve Left Behind“Brooks Lamb uses the inspiring words of farmers who remain on their land to show how they exemplify the stewardship virtues of imagination, affection, and fidelity.”—Brian Donahue, author of Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town

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Book SynopsisAn essential and engaging read for everyone who wants to better understand the challenges facing our cities, towns and our nation, starting with the places we call home (Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class)The neighborhoods we live in impact our lives in so many ways: they determine who we know, what resources and opportunities we have access to, the quality of schools our kids go to, our sense of security and belonging, and even how long we live.Yet too many of us live in neighborhoods plagued by rising crime, school violence, family disintegration, addiction, alienation, and despair. Even the wealthiest neighborhoods are not immune; while poverty exacerbates these challenges, they exist in zip codes rich and poor, rural and urban, and everything in between.In Fragile Neighborhoods, fragile states expert Seth D. Kaplan offers a bold new vision for addressing social decline in America, one zip code at a time. By rev

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Rural Victims of Crime offers a pioneering sustained assessment of the rural victim'. It does so by examining and analysing the conceptual constructs of a victim and challenging the urban bias of victimisation and victimology in criminological study. Indeed, far too much criminological scholarship is based on the false assumption that rural areas are relatively crime free and thus free, too, of victims.Providing international perspectives, chapters in this edited collection focus centrally on notions of place and space, and constructions of rural victims in a variety of contexts, exploring the impact that geographic location has on the type and prevalence of victimisation. The concept of victimisation is often considered in terms of interpersonal relationships between humans, neglecting the potent impact of victimisation of non-humans and the natural and built environment. Rural Victims of Crime discusses existing notions of victimology in relation to non-human

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1972, The Foxfire Book was a surprise bestseller that brought Appalachia's philosophy of simple living to hundreds of thousands of readers. Whether you wanted to hunt game, bake the old-fashioned way, or learn the art of successful moonshining, The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center had a contact who could teach you how with clear, step-by-step instructions.Chock full of the wit and wisdom that has become the Foxfire trademark, this tenth volume in  the acclaimed series is on oral history of  Appalachian lives and traditions, homespun crafts, and folk arts including gourd carving and chairmaking.

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Book SynopsisWhen aid to the Third World actually works it is usually on such a small scale that it makes little impact on the world''s problems. Can demands for generalizable actions be reconciled with location-specific solutions? The Critical Villager considers how community-based technical aid can be made more effective and sustainable. Calling for development workers, policy makers and researchers to put themselves in the place of the intended beneficiaries of aid, it suggests concrete principles for action and research. It argues that participatory research and ''transfer of technology'' should not be regarded as rival models for development but rather as complementary components in a single process of effective aid.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part A. Reasonable Chapter 1. The Big Idea Chapter 2. Recognized Authorities Chapter 3. Maximum Serendipity Part B. Recognizable Chapter 4.Tangible Entities Chapter 5. Clear Visual Messages Part C. Respectable Chapter 6. Modern Imagery Chapter 7. Influential People Chapter 8. Multile Agendas Conclusions References

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Book SynopsisThe division of rural' and urban' is one of the oldest ideas in Geography and is deeply engrained in our culture. Throughout history, the rural has been attributed with many meanings: as a source of food and energy; as a pristine wilderness, or as a bucolic idyll; as a playground, or a place of escape; as a fragile space of nature, in need of protection; and as a primitive place, in need of modernization. But is the idea of the rural still relevant today?Rural provides an advanced introduction to the study of rural places and processes in Geography and related disciplines. Drawing extensively on the latest research in rural geography, this book explores the diverse meanings that have been attached to the rural, examines how ideas of the rural have been produced and reproduced, and investigates the influence of different ideas in shaping the social and economic structure of rural localities and the everyday lives of people who live, work or play in rural areas.Trade Review"[Woods'] chapters define the imagined, economic, political, and social characteristics of rural societies, using examples from every continent....this book has a very thorough bibliography of the current literature on rural geography."—W. J. Gribb, University of Wyoming, Recommended title, CHOICETable of Contents1. Approaching the Rural 2. Imagining the Rural 3. Exploiting the Rural 4. Consuming the Rural 5. Developing the Rural 6. Living in the Rural 7. Performing the Rural 8. Regulating the Rural 9. Re-Making the Rural

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Book SynopsisJames C. Scott has researched and written on subaltern groups, and, in particular, peasants, rebellion, resistance, and agriculture, for over 35 years. Yet much of Scott's most interesting work on the peasantry and the state, both conceptually and empirically, has never been published in book form. For the first time Decoding Subaltern Politics: Ideology, Disguise, and Resistance in Agrarian Politics, brings together some of his most important work in one volume. The book covers three distinct yet interlinked bodies of work. The first lays out a framework for understanding peasant politics and rebellion, much of which is applicable to rural areas of the contemporary global south. Scott then goes on to develop his arguments regarding everyday forms of peasant resistance using the comparative example of the religious tithe in France and Malaysia, and tracing the forms of resistance that cover their own tracks and avoid direct clashes with authorities. For much oTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. The "Way" Of Peasant Politics 3. Themes Of Peasant Politics; Localism, Syncretism, Profanation 4. Modes Of Dissimulation: The Infra-Politics Of Subordinate Groups 5. Dissimulation In Practice: Resistance To The Tithe In France And Malaysia—Below The Radar 6. The State’s Grip On The Vernacular World 7. The Production Of Legal Identities Proper To The State: The Case Of The Permanent Family Surname

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Book SynopsisInsight and guidance on board management - what works and what doesn't in the nonprofit sector Is there really that much difference between nonprofit boards and their for-profit counterparts? Definitely. And this hands-on guide geared specifically to the nonprofit sector explores that difference.Table of ContentsModels of Governance and Leadership. Accountability: A Board's Fiduciary Obligations. Structuring a Board for Maximum Effectiveness. Organizing the Board's Work. The Core Responsibilities of a Nonprofit Board. Building a Cooperative Spirit. Effective Board Meetings. Maintaining Focus on Mission. New Challenges for Nonprofit Boards. Appendices. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisDesigned for fund-raising executives of organizations both large and small, this resource covers initial preparation and 15 areas of fund-raising, as well as discusses the ongoing management of the process. Included are numerous examples, case studies, check lists, and a unique evaluation of the audit environment of nonprofit organizations.Table of ContentsGiving Money to Charity: An American Tradition. Readiness Tests. Pyramids Are Built from the Bottom Up. The Middle Tier: Gifts from Institutions. The Final Tier: Investment Decisions. Management of the Fund Development Process. Appendices. Selected References. Index.

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