Search results for ""Author communia"

This book investigates what a case study of a northern market town and its rural hinterland can tell us about village differentiation, exploring how and why rural communities developed in what was chiefly an industrial region and, notably, how the relationship between town and country influenced rural communities. It looks at six villages close to Doncaster - Sprotbrough, Warmsworth, Rossington, Fishlake, Stainforth and Braithwell - chosen to represent the diversity of landownership and land type of the Doncaster district. Rural communities, and more specifically the development of English villages, have proved fertile ground for historians. This book makes an original contribution to these debates. In particular, it engages with existing models of village typology, suggesting that not only are they too restrictive to account for nuanced differences, but also that they fail to acknowledge the importance of the relationships between rural communities and between town and country. Following Sarah Holland’s detailed research into different aspects of rural communities, the book offers new perspectives on how rural communities in close proximity developed, often differently, during the mid-nineteenth century. Themes looked at in detail include living and working conditions, agriculture and industry, religion and education, and through these Holland considers existing theories of village typology, before setting out her ideas regarding social hierarchies, spheres of influence and agency, which combine to create complex patterns of differentiation. Communities in Contrast will appeal to all those interested in rural life and economy in the nineteenth century, the relationship between town and country, as well as the history of Yorkshire.

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The sustainability challenges of yesterday have become today's resilience crises. National and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other increasingly complex problems by building resilience at the community level. But what does that mean in practice, and how can it be done in a way that's effective and equitable? The Community Resilience Reader offers a new vision for creating resilience, through essays by leaders in such varied fields as science, policy, community building, and urban design. The Community Resilience Reader combines a fresh look at the challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working with community issues on the ground. It shows that resilience is a process, not a goal; how resilience requires learning to adapt but also preparing to transform; and that resilience starts and ends with the people living in a community. Despite the formidable challenges we face, The Community Resilience Reader shows that building strength and resilience at the community level is not only crucial, but possible. From Post Carbon Institute, the producers of the award-winning The Post Carbon Reader, The Community Resilience Reader is a valuable resource for students, community leaders, and concerned citizens.

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How do you achieve effective low-carbon design beyond the building level? How do you create a community that is both liveable and sustainable? More importantly, how do you know if you succeeded? Harrison Fraker goes beyond abstract principles to provide a clear, in-depth evaluation of four first generation low-carbon neighbourhoods in Europe, and shows how those lessons can be applied. Using concrete performance data to gauge successes and failures, he presents a holistic model based on best practices. The four case studies are: Bo01 in Malmo and Hammarby in Stockholm, Sweden and Kronsberg in Hannover and Vauban in Freiberg, Germany. Each was built deliberately to conserve resources: all are mixed-used, contain at least 1,000 units, and employ aggressive strategies for energy and water efficiency, recycling, and waste treatment. For each case study, Fraker explores the community's development process and principles, goals and objectives as they relate to urban form, transportation, green space, energy, water, and waste systems, social agenda, overall performance, and lessons learned. Later chapters compare the different strategies employed by the case-study communities and develop a comprehensive model of sustainability, looking specifically at how these lessons can be employed. Fraker also shows that sustainability isn't limited to newly built neighbourhoods - retrofits can benefit even our most established communities. This whole-systems approach promises not only a smaller carbon footprint, but an enriched form of urban living.

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Driving value today requires information. Lots and lots of information. Most of us are becoming good at distilling the data within our own companies, but that is still too limiting when seeking a competitive advantage in today's marketplace. We need to break organizational boundaries to gain greater knowledge. In Smarter Together, Coupa software CEO Rob Bernshteyn explores how software can improve business through the use of fully sanitized, anonymized, and normalized data provided by every member of a community. Never before have members of a community been able to instantly aggregate and exchange valuable intelligence worldwide. Their data is the answer to the question of where companies can find additional information to drive value. As Bernshteyn outlines, the prescriptive insights gleaned for massive community data stores can help individual customers benchmark themselves, uncover opportunities for improvement, and overcome blind spots to improve outcomes for businesses in every industry. This book is designed to help C-suite executives and managers at every level, in any industry, looking to: - Increase the agility of their businesses - Figure out why they're not advancing within their market - Create effective benchmarks for growth - Gain more actionable insights into their category

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Many communities in the United States have been abandoned by the state. What happens when natural disasters add to their misery? This book looks at the broken relationship between the federal government and civil society in times of crises. Mutual aid has gained renewed importance in providing relief when hurricanes, floods and pandemics hit, as cuts to state spending put significant strain on communities struggling to survive. Harking back to the self-organised welfare programmes of the Black Panther Party, radical social movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter are building autonomous aid networks within and against the state. However, as the federal responsibility for relief is lifted, mutual aid faces a profound dilemma: do ordinary people become complicit in their own exploitation? Reframing disaster relief through the lens of social reproduction, Peer Illner tracks the shifts in American emergency aid, from the economic crises of the 1970s to the Covid-19 pandemic, raising difficult questions about mutual aid's double-edged role in cuts to social spending. As sea levels rise, climate change worsens and new pandemics sweep the globe, Illner's analysis of the interrelations between the state, the market and grassroots initiatives will prove indispensable.

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Many commentators tell us that, in today's world, everyday life has become selfish and atomised—that individuals live only to consume. But are they wrong? In Me, Me, Me, Jon Lawrence re-tells the story of England since the Second World War through the eyes of ordinary people—including his own parents— to argue that, in fact, friendship, family, and place all remain central to our daily lives, and whilst community has changed, it is far from dead. He shows how, in the years after the Second World War, people came increasingly to question custom and tradition as the pressure to conform to societal standards became intolerable. And as soon as they could, millions escaped the closed, face-to-face communities of Victorian Britain, where everyone knew your business. But this was not a rejection of community per se, but an attempt to find another, new way of living which was better suited to the modern world. Community has become personal and voluntary, based on genuine affection rather than proximity or need. We have never been better connected or able to sustain the relationships that matter to us. Me, Me, Me makes that case that it's time we valued and nurtured these new groups, rather than lamenting the loss of more 'real' forms of community—it is all too easy to hold on to a nostalgic view of the past.

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Anthropologists—as well as the Yaquis and many of the other indigenous peoples of Mexico and of Latin America in general—have recognized the intense and penetrating symbolism which is ritualized in the Easter dramas. This book is about the role of the Easter rituals in the Yaqui way of life in both Arizona and Sonora. It contains detailed ethnographic descriptions of these ceremonies. Contents: Preface; PART I: Introduction; Lent and Semana Santa in Northwestern Mexico and Southwestern United States; Semana Santa; PART II: Variations in Holy Week Ceremonies; Holy Week in Potam; Yaqui Holy Week: Potam, Rio Yaqui, and Pascua, Arizona, Compared; Some Notes on European Liturgical Drama and the Cahitan Semanas Santas; The Chapayeka Complex: Change and Persistence of Forms; Waehma: Space, Time, Identity, and Theater at New Pascula, Arizona; Easter, Keruk, and Wigita; The Jupare Mayo Easter Ceremonial; Lenten Ceremonials in Two Villages of the Mayo Valley; An Opata Holy Week Ceremonial Complex; Semana Santa Rituals and Modernization: Cultural Continuity and Change in Meresichic (Marobavi) Sonora, Mexico, 1955-1985; Tohono O'Odham (Papago) Easter in the Baboquivari District; Raramuri Easter; Tarahumara Easter Ceremonialism and the Mesoamerican Civil Religious Hierarchy; The Holy Days Among the Coras of Jesus Maria; Bivak: Semana Santa Among the Huichol of San Andres Cohamiata; PART III: Conclusions.

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When You Look Out the Window tells the story of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, one of San Francisco's most well-known and politically active lesbian couples. Describing the view from Phyllis and Del's window, this book shows how one couple's activism transformed their community — and had ripple effects throughout the world. This is a unique way to introduce children to untold stories in history while also being a clever tribute to two notable women. Includes a Reading Guide that provides helpful historical context, and a Note to Parents, Caregivers, and Educators about the importance of teaching LGBTQ history and culture to children.From the Reading Guide:Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were one of San Francisco’s most well-known and politically active lesbian couples. They met in 1950, and moved in together on February 14, 1953 (Valentine’s Day!). The house they shared for 53 years—and where Phyllis still lives today—located at the top of Castro Street, has a big picture window that overlooks the entire city. Each of the landmarks described in the story is part of the view from their house. Phyllis and Del left their mark on each of these sites, and they are described below.

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This collection of Burgess's public talks and writings offers a unique insight into the social and intellectual dimensions of architecture and town planning during the first half of the twentieth century. Architectural history, the impact of the Arts and Crafts and Modernist movements, the meaning of domestic architecture, and the connection of architecture and town planning to everyday life figure prominently in this collection. A contemporary of Cecil Burgess said that no one in Canada was superior in architectural scholarship. Cecil Burgess was professor of architecture and resident architect at the University of Alberta between 1913 and 1940. A similar collection of writings and talks has not been published about Canadian architecture for this period. Foreword by Hon. Jim Edwards PC.

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In the wake of court rulings that have forced university administrators to reevaluate affirmative action policies, this balanced, thoughtful book examines three typical defenses of those policies: that affirmative action compensates for past discrimination; that it provides role models and ensures diversity; and that it corrects for systemic bias against women and racial minorities. Wolf-Devine finds that none of these arguments justifies adopting affirmative action across the board, and she argues, contrary to most opponents of the policy, that some circumstances make affirmative action appropriate. Analyzing the cultural, economic, and political contexts in which affirmative action has been debated, she suggests ways to get around the current impasse over the issue without abandoning a commitment to social justice. The depth and balance of the book are enhanced by an appendix containing articles by noted legal expert George Rutherglen, distinguished philosopher James Rachels, and independent scholar Richard Rodriguez.

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From the deathbed to the commuter railway station, from the marriage market to the fish market, from the baseball field to the grave, this volume explores the diversity of contemporary Japanese society by studying how people "compose" their families, their communities, and their own identities. Challenging fixed boundaries characteristic of institutional analysis, these essays comprise an anthropology of real people who age, who play, and whose lives speak to ours even over chasms of cultural differences and misunderstandings. The contributors are historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of Japan who engage these ideas in their research and who have been inspired over the years by the spirit of David Plath's anthropology of self. Part I includes essays by Susan Long, Kamiko Takeji, and Scott Clark which explore how the meaning of self is created through long-term engagement with convoys, those with whom one coauthors biographies. The second set of chapters investigates the process of creating circles of interaction, identity, and meaning beyond that inner circle. Keiko Ikeda considers the cocreation of individual and collective meanings among consociates of locality. The chapters by Paul Noguchi and by David McConnell and Jackson Bailey describe negotiations of identity among consociates within the workplace, while Theodore Bestor and William Kelly focus on constructions of regional and national identity. In Part III, chapters by Christie Kiefer, John Grossberg, Morioka Kiyomi, and Robert J. Smith bring us full circle to reconsideration of composing the self, but within the widest possible social universe that includes the aging, the dying, and the spirits of the dead.

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In the early 1960s, pianist Horace Tapscott gave up a successful career in Lionel Hampton’s band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to found the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts group that focused on providing community-oriented jazz and jazz training. Over the course of almost forty years, the Arkestra, together with the related Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movement in Black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists—musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists—passed through these organizations, many ultimately remaining within the community and others moving on to achieve international fame. In The Dark Tree, Steven L. Isoardi draws on one hundred in-depth interviews with the Arkestra’s participants to tell the history of the important and largely overlooked community arts movement of Black Los Angeles. This revised and updated edition brings the story of the Arkestra up to date, as its ethos and aesthetic remain vital forces in jazz and popular music to this day.

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WINNER, 2021 HTI BOOK PRIZE Resist! This exhortation animates a remarkable range of theological reflection on consumer culture in the United States. And for many theologians, the source and summit of Christian cultural resistance is the Eucharist. In Commodified Communion, Antonio Eduardo Alonso calls into question this dominant mode of theological reflection on contemporary consumerism. Reducing the work of theology to resistance and centering Christian hope in a Eucharist that might better support it, he argues, undermines our ability to talk about the activity of God within a consumer culture. By reframing the question in terms of God’s activity in and in spite of consumer culture, this book offers a lived theological account of consumer culture that recognizes not only its deceptions but also traces of truth in its broken promises and fallen hopes.

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Societies have long sought security by identifying potentially dangerous individuals in their midst. America is surely no exception. Knowledge as Power traces the evolution of a modern technique that has come to enjoy nationwide popularity—criminal registration laws. Registration, which originated in the 1930s as a means of monitoring gangsters, went largely unused for decades before experiencing a dramatic resurgence in the 1990s. Since then it has been complemented by community notification laws which, like the "Wanted" posters of the Frontier West, publicly disclose registrants' identifying information, involving entire communities in the criminal monitoring process. Knowledge as Power provides the first in-depth history and analysis of criminal registration and community notification laws, examining the potent forces driving their rapid nationwide proliferation in the 1990s through today, as well as exploring how the laws have affected the nation's law, society, and governance. In doing so, the book provides compelling insights into the manifold ways in which registration and notification reflect and influence life in modern America.

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In the mid-seventeenth century, Wilno (Vilnius), the second capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was home to Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Ruthenians, Jews, and Tatars, who worshiped in Catholic, Uniate, Orthodox, Calvinist, and Lutheran churches, one synagogue, and one mosque. Visitors regularly commented on the relatively peaceful coexistence of this bewildering array of peoples, languages, and faiths. In Kith, Kin, and Neighbors, David Frick shows how Wilno’s inhabitants navigated and negotiated these differences in their public and private lives. This remarkable book opens with a walk through the streets of Wilno, offering a look over the royal quartermaster’s shoulder as he made his survey of the city’s intramural houses in preparation for King Władysław IV’s visit in 1636. These surveys (Lustrations) provide concise descriptions of each house within the city walls that, in concert with court and church records, enable Frick to accurately discern Wilno’s neighborhoods and human networks, ascertain the extent to which such networks were bounded confessionally and culturally, determine when citizens crossed these boundaries, and conclude which kinds of cross-confessional constellations were more likely than others. These maps provide the backdrops against which the dramas of Wilno lives played out: birth, baptism, education, marriage, separation or divorce, guild membership, poor relief, and death and funeral practices. Perhaps the most complete reconstruction ever written of life in an early modern European city, Kith, Kin, and Neighbors sets a new standard for urban history and for work on the religious and communal life of Eastern Europe.

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Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death among adults, yet it need not be fatal. Though survival in most communities is very poor, a few communities achieve rates as high as 50%. Why are some communities so successful in snatching life from the jaws of death? Resuscitate! describes the steps any EMS system can take to improve cardiac arrest survival. It is written for the medical directors, administrative directors, fire chiefs, dispatch directors, and program supervisor who direct and run EMS systems all across the country, and for the EMTs, paramedics, and dispatchers who provide frontline care. This second edition of Resuscitate! provides fifteen concrete steps to improve survival. Four steps will lead to rapid improvements at the local level and are relatively easy to implement. Six additional steps are more difficult to implement but also likely to improve survival. The remaining steps recommend changes at the national level. Resuscitate! is the official textbook for the Resuscitation Academy, held twice a year in Seattle. Cosponsored by Seattle Medic One, King County EMS, and the Medic One Foundation, the Academy draws attendees from throughout the world for two intensive days of classes, demonstrations, and workshops to acquire the knowledge and tools to improve survival in their own communities. This new edition includes lessons learned from attendees of the Academy as well as from the faculty's evolving thoughts on how to measure performance and improve survival, one community at a time. It also includes an addendum on the Resuscitation Academy (resuscitationacademy.org). For more than thirty years, Mickey S. Eisenberg M.D., Ph.D. , has played a leading role in developing King County, Washington's emergency response to cases of sudden cardiac arrest, a system recognized as among the very best in the nation. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and serves as the medical director of King County Emergency Medical Services.

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'Biodynamics seeks the holistic and interrelated health of the diverse creatures and beings composing a farm, including human beings and the wider, surrounding community. It is not just a "method" but a whole approach to life - one which could have far-reaching benefits for the health of the soil, plants, animals and human beings across the globe...' Born from a series of eight lectures delivered by scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924, the movement for biodynamic agriculture today encompasses many hundreds of farms and millions of consumers worldwide. Much has been written about biodynamics' unique perspectives on farming, nutrition, the world of nature and the wider cosmos. But how does it work in practise? What is it like to run a farm based on its principles? England's Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch farms form a co-operative venture in which the local community plays a crucial role. As successful, commercial enterprises with high outputs, they have a growing reputation for the excellence of their produce. Through interviews, commentary and dozens of full colour photos, Biodynamics in Practise gives a guided tour of the farms from the viewpoint of a sympathetic visitor. It illustrates how biodynamic farms work, how they differ from conventional and organic farms, and why that difference is important. In short and accessible vignettes, the book looks at many aspects of farm life, including animal rearing and welfare - cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry - crop growth, dairy and cheesemaking, and even bee-keeping and caring for people with special needs. It also gives an introduction to biodynamics itself and brief histories of both farms. Farms are sometimes regarded simply as food-producing factories, but this book shows that they can be much more, offering spiritually-sustaining focal points of community cohesion and participation.

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From 1999 to 2009, The Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative put Columbia University and its Medical Center in touch with surrounding community organizations and churches to facilitate access to primary care, nutritional improvement, and smoking cessation, and to broker innovative ways to access healthcare and other social services. This unlikely partnership and the relationships it forged reaffirms the wisdom of joining "town and gown" to improve a community's well-being. Staff members of participating organizations have coauthored this volume, which shares the successes, failures, and obstacles of implementing a vast community health program. A representative of Alianza Dominicana, for example, one of the country's largest groups settling new immigrants, speaks to the value of community-based organizations in ridding a neighborhood of crime, facilitating access to health insurance, and navigating the healthcare system. The editors outline the beginnings and infrastructure of the collaboration and the relationship between leaders that fueled positive outcomes. Their portrait demonstrates how grassroots solutions can create productive dialogues that help resolve difficult issues.

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Bringing together academics, artists, practitioners and ‘community activists’, this book explores the possibilities for, and tensions of, social justice work under the contemporary drive for community-orientated ‘impact’ in the academy. Threading a line between celebratory accounts of institutionalised community engagement, self-professed ‘radical’ scholarship for social change and critical accounts of the governmentalisation of community, the book makes an original contribution to all three fields of scholarship. Showcasing experimental research and co-production practices taking place in the UK, Australia, Sweden and Canada and within universities, independent research organisations and internationally prestigious museums and galleries, the book considers what research impact could look like for a wide range of audiences and how universities could engage with different publics in ways that would be relevant and useful, but may not necessarily be easily measurable. Asking hard questions of the current impact agenda, the book offers an insight into emerging routes towards co-production for social justice.

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Bringing together academics, artists, practitioners and ‘community activists’, this book explores the possibilities for, and tensions of, social justice work under the contemporary drive for community-orientated ‘impact’ in the academy. Threading a line between celebratory accounts of institutionalised community engagement, self-professed ‘radical’ scholarship for social change and critical accounts of the governmentalisation of community, the book makes an original contribution to all three fields of scholarship. Showcasing experimental research and co-production practices taking place in the UK, Australia, Sweden and Canada and within universities, independent research organisations and internationally prestigious museums and galleries, the book considers what research impact could look like for a wide range of audiences and how universities could engage with different publics in ways that would be relevant and useful, but may not necessarily be easily measurable. Asking hard questions of the current impact agenda, the book offers an insight into emerging routes towards co-production for social justice.

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A small town struggling with how to remain vital and vibrant in the 21st century, took on another problem altogether: the difficulty of homecoming for Iraq, Afghanistan and other war veterans.

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Women Writing the Nation engages in recent discussions of the development of British nationalism during the eighteenth century and Romantic period. Leanne Maunu argues that women writers looked not to their national identity, but rather to their gender identity to make claims about the role of women within the British nation. Women writers wanted to make it seem as if they were writing as members of a fairly stable community, even if such a community was composed of many different women with many different beliefs. They appropriated the model of collectivity posed by the nation, mimicking a national imagined community. In essence, because British-French relations dominated the national imagination, women had to think about their own gender concerns in national terms as well.

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Maoism and Grassroots Religion explores grassroots religious life under and after Mao in Rui'an County, Wenzhou of southeast China, a region widely known for its religious vitality. Drawing from unexplored local state archives, records of religious institutions, memoirs, and interviews, it tells the story of local communities' encounter with the Communist revolution, and its consequences, especially competition and struggles for religious property and ritual space. Rather than being totally disrupted, Xiaoxuan Wang shows, religious life under Mao was characterized by remarkable variety and unevenness and was contingent on the interactions of local dynamics with Maoist campaigns--including land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. The revolutionary experience strongly determined the trajectories and development patterns of different religions, inter-religious dynamics, and state-religion relationships in the post-Mao era. Wang goes beyond the image of totalistic control and suppression, to show how Maoism is relevant to religious revitalization in the post-Mao era and, more broadly, the modern fate of Chinese religions and secularism in East Asia. Maoism permanently altered the religious landscape in China, especially by inadvertently promoting the localization and even (in some areas) expansion of Protestant Christianity, as well as the reinvention of traditional communal religion. Contrary to the popular image of total suppression and disruption during the Mao years, this book shows that religious changes under Mao were highly complex and contingent on a confluence of political campaigns, local politics and community responses.The post-Mao religious revival had deep historical roots in the Mao years, Wang argues, and cannot be explained by contemporary economic motives and cultural logics alone. This book calls for a new understanding of Maoism and secularism in the People's Republic of China.

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This book demonstrates a broadly successful transformation process that has been limited by challenging political, economic and social constraints. David Turnock traces the complex issues that have influenced Romania's reform and restructuring programme since the revolution at the end of 1989. The Transition from Communism to the European Union provides an overview of economic change in Romania, and studies in detail the transformation in industry, energy and agriculture, drawing on fieldwork in all parts of the country. The monitoring of the economic press throughout the post-communist period has also yielded much source material. Although the political context is examined at some length, the prime consideration is economic restructuring, involving the establishment of a free market system after decades of government control through central planning. It is made clear that the process is still not complete since global competitiveness remains a major challenge now that many people are beginning to experience a degree of prosperity.The book will be of invaluable interest to students and researchers in the fields of regional economics and post-communism, as well as readers with a general interest in Romania, the Balkans or the EU.

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This second in the six volume series covers the years of the General Strike, and includes a detailed examination of the policies, successes and failings of Communists and the militant left generally.

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In the postwar years, Italy underwent a far-reaching process of industrialization that transformed the country into a leading industrial power. Throughout most of this period, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) remained a powerful force in local government and civil society. However, as Stephen Gundle observes, the PCI was increasingly faced with challenges posed by modernization, particularly by mass communication, commercial cultural industries, and consumerism. Between Hollywood and Moscow is an analysis of the PCI’s attempts to cope with these problems in an effort to maintain its organization and subculture.Gundle focuses on the theme of cultural policy, examining how the PCI’s political strategies incorporated cultural policies and activities that were intended to respond to the Americanization of daily life in Italy. In formulating this policy, Gundle contends, the Italian Communists were torn between loyalty to the alternative values generated by the Communist tradition and adaptation to the dominant influences of Italian modernization. This equilibrium eventually faltered because the attractive aspects of Americanization and pop culture proved more influential than the PCI’s intellectual and political traditions. The first analysis in English of the cultural policies and activities of the PCI, this book will appeal to readers with an interest in modern Italy, the European left, political science, and media studies.

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A riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversyShale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent.The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself.Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America’s ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.

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From Communists to Foreign Capitalists explores the intersections of two momentous changes in the late twentieth century: the fall of Communism and the rise of globalization. Delving into the economic change that accompanied these shifts in central and Eastern Europe, Nina Bandelj presents a pioneering sociological treatment of the process of foreign direct investment (FDI). She demonstrates how both investors and hosts rely on social networks, institutions, politics, and cultural understandings to make decisions about investment, employing practical rather than rational economic strategies to deal with the true uncertainty that plagues the postsocialist environment. The book explores how eleven postsocialist countries address the very idea of FDI as an integral part of their market transition. The inflows of foreign capital after the collapse of Communism resulted not from the withdrawal of states from the economy, as is commonly expected, but rather from the active involvement of postsocialist states in institutionalizing and legitimizing FDI. Using a wide array of data sources, and combining a macro-level account of national variation in the liberalization to foreign capital with a micro-level account of FDI transactions in the decade following the collapse of Communism in 1989, the book reveals how social forces not only constrain economic transformations but also make them possible. From Communists to Foreign Capitalists is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the social processes that shape economic life.

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Lesbian Web Series narrate female-centred stories, strengthen identity construction, and generate transnational communities beyond cultural barriers. Julia Obermayr explores the first definition of a new format, the first representations of lesbian women in US-American, Canadian, and Spanish web series from 2007 and onward, as well as their reciprocal effects regarding identity construction and community building of their transnational, mainly female, audience.The analyzed corpus comprises scenes taken from Venice the Series (2009) and its backstory "Otalia" on the soap opera Guiding Light (1952-2009), Seeking Simone (2009), Out With Dad (2010), Féminin/ Féminin (2014), Chica Busca Chica (2007) and its cinematic sequel De Chica En Chica (2015), as well as Notas Aparte (2016).

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Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen to a little of this and decide that transit is impossible to figure out. Jarrett Walker believes that transit can be simple, if we focus first on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share. In "Human Transit", Walker supplies the basic tools, the critical questions, and the means to make smarter decisions about designing and implementing transit services. "Human Transit" explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; the process for fitting technology to a particular community; and, the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development. Whether you are in the field or simply a concerned citizen, here is an accessible guide to achieving successful public transit that will enrich any community.

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