Search results for ""author john connell""

For John Connell, the lambing season on his County Longford farm begins in the autumn. In the sheep shed, he surveys the dozen females in his care and contemplates the work ahead as the season slowly turns to winter, then spring.The twelve sheep have come into his life at just the right moment. After years of hard work, John felt a deep tiredness creeping up on him, a sadness that he couldn''t shrug off. Having always sought spiritual guidance, he comes to realise that, in addition to the soothing words of literature and philosophy, perhaps the way ahead involves this simple flock of sheep. In the hard work of livestock rearing, in the long nights in the shed helping the sheep to lamb, he can reflect on what life truly means.Like the flock that he shepherds, this book is both simple and profound, a meditation on the rituals of farming life and a primer on the lessons that nature can teach us. As spring returns and the sheep and their lambs are released into the field

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‘Sensational! John Connell has done it again’ – Dean KarnazesFrom the award-winning, No.1 bestselling author of The Cow BookIn The Running Book, John Connell vividly describes a marathon through County Longford, Ireland, where he lives and farms. Because running is as much about the mind as the body, the book is about more than the physical experience. What John sees on his journey prompts him to contemplate a wide range of things: he’s as likely to think about local Irish history, the legacy of colonialism in Australia or the story of Haile Gebrselassie as he is to remember his own past runs in Arizona or Ibiza.After a mental health crisis, John found the simple act of putting one foot in front of another helped him to regain his sense of self and better appreciate the world around him. At its core, The Running Book is a life-affirming read about the nature of happiness – and how for one man it came through the feet.‘Takes the theme of running and opens it out into something much wider’ – Irish Times‘Read The Running Book and you see life in every route you run; past, present and future, life is for running’ – Sonia O'Sullivan‘Every runner will find something poignant that resonates within this book’ – Paula Radcliffe

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The international migration of health workers has been described by Nelson Mandela as the ‘poaching’ of desperately needed skills from under-privileged regions. This book examines the controversial recent history of skilled migration, and explores the economic and cultural rationale behind this rise of a complex global market in qualified migrants and its multifaceted outcomes. John Connell pays particular attention to the increase in demand for migrants in more developed countries due to the complex ramifications of aging, and new opportunities and expectations. He illustrates how globalization has linked sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and North America, and created new demand in Japan for international migrants from China and isolated island states. The long-established skill-drain, with its impact on household relations and negative consequences for health care, is carefully balanced against new flows of remittances, the return of skills and complex regional changes. Wide-ranging policy interventions, and greater social justice, have been challenged by the rise of the ‘competition state’ and limitations to economic growth in the global south.This comprehensive and definitive analysis of the global migration of health workers will prove an essential resource for academics and research students in health and social policy, and in the various disciplines that relate to migration, including sociology, economics and geography.

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Tourism has long been associated with improved health, resulting in a boom of spas, yoga and rejuvenation treatments. Medical tourism itself is a more recent example of niche tourism, with increasing numbers of people travelling abroad in search of cosmetic enhancement and solutions to various serious medical conditions often by surgery. Medical Tourism looks at the background and rise of health tourism, new emerging facets of the sector, and examines how medical tourism benefits local health care providers, economies and the tourism industry as a whole. It offers a unique overview of an emerging component of the tourist industry and a distinct and controversial element of health provision.

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

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Tourism has long been associated with improved health, resulting in a boom of spas, yoga and rejuvenation treatments. Medical tourism itself is a more recent example of niche tourism, with increasing numbers of people travelling abroad in search of cosmetic enhancement and solutions to various serious medical conditions often by surgery. Medical Tourism looks at the background and rise of health tourism, new emerging facets of the sector, and examines how medical tourism benefits local health care providers, economies and the tourism industry as a whole. It offers a unique overview of an emerging component of the tourist industry and a distinct and controversial element of health provision.

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

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This is the first book to examine the contemporary seasonal migration of Pacific islanders to Australia through the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP). It reflects on this new age of guestwork from a broad social, economic, political and cultural perspective in both source countries and destinations. In so doing, it offers a critical perspective on different phases of managed labour migration from nineteenth century practices of ‘blackbirding’ to the present day. This book examines why and how guestworker policies and programmes have developed, and the impact this has had in Australia and for the people, villages and islands of the sending states. It particularly focuses on Vanuatu, the main source of labour, and draws upon studies based in Australia, Vanuatu and other Pacific Island countries. The book therefore traces new patterns of migration, with intriguing economic and social consequences, that are restructuring parts of rural and regional Australia in response to labour demands from agriculture and evolving regional geopolitics.

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

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

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

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