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India, despite being largely rural, has struggled to maintain an adequate social infrastructure in its rural regions due to insufficient need-based development interventions, low public spending, limited market reach and a lack of individual contributions. Examining recent policy changes that are seeking to tackle these issues, Rural Social Infrastructure Development in India advocates for transformative change against the backdrop of poverty intervention and contemporary development discourse. Delving into a transformative journey focused on inclusive housing development and financial strategies, M Mahadeva celebrates and critically analyses milestones achieved in uplifting marginalised rural populations in India. Dissecting secondary data from official Indian authorities, the author scrutinises housing poverty, amenities deprivation and financial exclusion at both national and regional levels. Focusing on impactful programs like PMAY and PMJDY, chapters illuminate the interplay of public participation, political consensus and economic commitment in shaping rural social infrastructure. Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and emphasizing the pivotal roles of individuals, public authorities and strategic public investment, Mahadeva underscores the critical role of safe housing, sanitation and financial citizenship in fostering well-being and sustainable human settlements. A compelling call to action for development impact on a global scale, this mission-driven work brings us one step closer to building a more inclusive India.

Exploring ethical approaches to inclusive development, Building Strong Communities navigates challenges and strategies, empowering readers to foster resilient, equitable communities in the ever evolving 21st century. Encompassing a wealth of illustrative examples and valuable experiences from different countries around the world, including Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, China, Australia, Antarctica, India, and more, chapters tackle the mounting necessity for sustainable and equitable development practice. Featuring tools and insights that hold the potential to guide policymakers, practitioners, and scholars alike in the pursuit of nurturing resilient and thriving communities, authors Ifzal Ahmad and M. Rezaul Islam focus on the importance of ethics and inclusivity, offering an interdisciplinary approach, practical frameworks, and impact-driven recommendations for creating thriving communities on a global scale. Illuminating the dynamic interplay between theory and practice, the inclusion of global perspectives showcases the diverse contexts and unique challenges faced by communities around the world, enriching an understanding of community development's complex landscape. Transcending disciplinary silos and fostering a more comprehensive understanding of community development, Building Strong Communities empowers readers to draw upon multiple perspectives and tools to create meaningful and sustainable change in diverse community contexts and develop holistic solutions that address the interrelated social, economic, environmental, and cultural aspects of community well-being.

Disasters have a widescale impact with drastic consequences on human lives, especially those who are marginalised by the wider society. Proposing a fresh approach towards analysing the politics of disasters, climate change and climate justice,'Natural'Disasters and Everyday Lives explores the relationship between citizens, the State and the society in the context of the Global South's highly underdeveloped areas. Drawing on both theoretical frameworks and lived experience, this is the first book to document the lives of people affected by floods in the Barak Valley, a flood prone area in Southern Assam, which is also one of the most underdeveloped regions of South Asia. Narrating the fear and perils of living in an underdeveloped area in India during natural disasters, Suddhabrata Deb Roy draws from interviews conducted in Silchar, the largest and most developed urban settlement in the Barak Valley, during the floods of 2022 – the worst flood in the region in over 100 years – and during 2024 to expose the processes through which the people of the region suffer from developmental negligence and socio-political apathy. Examining the intersections of natural disasters and marginality, the author relates Marx's ideas on humanism, nature, alienation and economic development to ideas around climate justice, marginalisation and urbanisation, taking into context the contradictions posed by factors such as class, caste, gender and race in highly underdeveloped regions in India. Recognising that these issues are addressed quite differently in the Global North, Deb Roy connects flooding in northeastern India to the context of the broader politics surrounding climate change and climate justice in the Global South, making this book important and powerful reading for countering today's climate emergency.

The future in the Global South is viewed and perceived critically, from the inertia of a present that does not offer peace, justice, wealth and happiness, but from a view constructed from poverty, marginality, war and chaos. Exploring Hope seeks to qualify, question and even refute the monolithic ideas and images of the impossibility of building opportunities for improving the quality of life and overcome the different constraints of development in the Global South. With contributions from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Congo, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, China, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan, authors identify innovative, successful projects and processes that are structurally impacting models of development, and that make it possible to imagine new developmental paths in the Global South. Split into five sections covering economic, demographic, political, social, cultural and environmental issues, each chapter presents cases where emerging initiatives are integrated into the current socio-technical regime and contextualised within regional needs. Focusing on hope rather than challenges, this edited collection presents a powerful evocation of ongoing opportunities for building a better future in the Global South and beyond.

Tackling a global and seismic problem such as climate change requires an equally extensive approach. Investigating current scientific knowledge about climate change in public and policy discussions, as well as the connections between social, economic, and political discourse, The Social Consequences of Climate Change takes a take a multifaceted approach to one of the biggest challenges of our time. Understanding the role of climate conditions in all aspects of human society – where we live, how we build, how we move – chapters wield relevant approaches and techniques from across disciplines to reframe issues that are essential to improving sustainability and capturing innovative solutions to the climate problem. Covering the role of businesses in combatting climate change, environmental health, the vulnerability of urban communities, the nexus between climate, economy and society, climate and national and international agendas, and more, the authors clarify both scientific and policy arguments about the social repercussions of climate change to offer a working basis for seeking solutions. A rich collection of reflections from across the social sciences, this is vital reading for researchers and policymakers invested in how best to respond to a world of increasing climate extremes.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, and freely available to read online. The COP27 climate change conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt made it clear that fighting global warming will require continuing commitment, cooperation, and collaborative action from multiple constituencies around the world. Urging readers from the Global North to rethink their approaches and potential contributions to long-term change, Empowering Female Climate Change Activists in the Global South explains how woman climate change leaders are confronting patriarchal structures to achieve social justice. Examining the lived experiences of woman climate change activists based in rural areas, Peg Spitzer presents eighty-five original interviews that feature women whose careers in business, education, politics, and the arts have championed women's rights in Asia, environmental defenders who have established projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and woman farmers in three Indian villages who have faced climate-related droughts and floods. Suggesting ways in which successful climate change amelioration and adaptation led by women in the Global South may be replicated elsewhere, Spitzer also considers how NGOs and other organizations from the Global North can best contribute to facilitating positive changes in the communities where they work by focusing on empathetic cooperation. Addressing the urgent need to develop gender-just solutions that uplift and empower those who are experiencing environmental degradation in their communities, Empowering Female Climate Change Activists in the Global South uncovers the flaws in current combative structures and strategies and re-examines scholarly research at the nexus of feminism, transnational advocacy, and hierarchies of need.

Despite increasing disaster risk in South Asian countries, exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards are not yet at the forefront of development agendas. Covering disaster scenarios, and the causes and consequences of disaster displacement, Disaster, Displacement and Resilient Livelihoods: Perspectives from South Asia provides a much-needed focus on the South Asian context, generating new insights and considering the policy implications of strategies for building resilient livelihoods. Recognising the diversity of South Asian countries in terms of culture, environment, livelihood patterns and socioeconomic and political structures, chapters consider risk landscape and resilience capacity in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Bringing critical attention to an emerging topic, Disaster, Displacement and Resilient Livelihoods: Perspectives from South Asia breaks fresh ground by considering resilient livelihoods in terms of capacity, resources and policy within each country's diverse local context. Delving into communities'capacities to prevent displacement, their ability to mitigate protection risks during displacement and their options in terms of durable solutions, contributors offer a resilience building framework that incorporates common principles while also retaining a flexibility and adaptability for specific risk environments. Capturing the diverse context of the South Asian resilient livelihood framework, Disaster, Displacement and Resilient Livelihoods: Perspectives from South Asia addresses a crucial gap for an interdisciplinary audience interested in urban and political sociology, social and cultural anthropology and disaster, development and South Asian studies.

Neighbours are a lively topic of everyday conversation and interest. Neighbours Around the World takes a comparative look around the world at our relationships and interactions with the people who live next door, analysing the ways in which these relationships are changing in the face of large-scale macro social and urban processes. Understanding that there is considerable variation in the relative importance that we place on neighbours – the extent to which we interact with them or rely on them for local support, and the likelihood that our relationships with them are characterised by friendliness, indifference or conflict – this edited collection examines how neighbouring is shaped by our individual characteristics, but also by the structural features of where we live and the forces reshaping our local neighbourhoods. Casting a conceptual and empirical gaze on neighbours as a constituent feature of urban life in diverse cities, neighbourhoods and local streets around the world, the authors take us from Singapore's public housing estates to mobile home parks in Florida, and from one of the most famous tourist spots in Shanghai to new-build estates on the edge of Moscow and St Petersburg. Neighbours Around the World uncovers the diversity and commonalities in the meanings, experiences and practices of living with neighbours—the people next door.

Presenting an anthropological tool for decision makers and academics who deal with the well-known limitations of linear models of development, Cultural Rhythmics proposes future design strategies useful for business, community leaders, political decision-makers and scientists from all over the world. Framed in the field of applied anthropology and development studies with an action-research pragmatic perspective, Iparraguirre analyses four study cases, calling attention to a specific set of rhythms of life and imaginaries. Introducing cultural rhythmics as a new method to study temporality, spatiality, and rhythms of daily life simultaneously rather than as separate elements, this pioneering ethnographic and interpretative study combines over fifteen years of fieldwork in public sector management of development programs with a symbolic analysis of cultural imaginaries and rhythms of life. Analyzing the symbolic dimension of development in Argentina, Cultural Rhythmics deploys alternative proposals for political and scientific management of these processes in Latin America. Beyond an innovative analysis of the cases presented, Iparraguirre's rhythmics perspective can be extrapolated to the practices of development and agendas design in other territories of Argentina, Latin America and the Global South. A must-read for development scholars interested in a colonial matrix of thought, Cultural Rhythmics delves into the imaginaries of development and their correlated governance practices applicable in Latin America and beyond.

While'space'and'place'appear as key concepts in the study of culture, their complexity and mutability require ever-new frameworks when approaching them critically. Including chapters by authors from different fields, career stages, and geopolitical backgrounds, the contributors in this edited collection scrutinize the changing dynamics of space and place in relation to current political, social, and environmental urgencies across the globe. With chapters investigating both real and imaginary spaces and places, the diversified discussions included in this collection provide a cohesive study for disclosing latent understandings of multiple phenomena characterizing the world in which we live. From the protests in Egyptian and Turkish squares, to the power-related narratives embedded in institutional buildings, from the development of the commercial arena in Victorian and Edwardian London, to the effects of current environmental concerns on the evaluation of urban and rural locations, the volume ultimately serves as a progressive connection of fields, minds, and outlooks through an innovative, pluralistic vision. This interdisciplinary focus not only emphasizes the centrality of spaces and places when disentangling the complexities comprising our past and present, but also suggests a more pluralistic approach for exploring fundamental concepts in future spaces and places studies.

Understanding the challenges in research and practice of participation in the digital era, and the important role of local governance in achieving the sustainable development goals, Community Participation and Civic Engagement in the Digital Era unfolds the complex relationship of community participation, social capital and social networks. Singh presents an in-depth literature review alongside case studies from developing countries, showcasing the role of participation in sustainable development, and explaining how digital development creates technological tools and a virtual space for community engagement – increasing the complexity of community participation and civic engagement, and the potential for implementing the sustainable development goals at a local level. From the historic concept and forms of participation to describing and analysing the environmental and individual factors shaping practice of participation, community development interventions and local governance, the book culminates in a discussion of future work and challenges in the digital world. Delivering a careful review of the theoretical and practical problems of community participation in the digital age and featuring applied theories and cases which appeal to public policy makers and researchers, Community Participation and Civic Engagement in the Digital Era offers a rich theoretical perspective and detailed critical review of social capital and social networks that has profound application in the fields of political science, sociology and development economics.

Moving Spaces and Places is about movement as a transformative experience, showing how movement changes affect and percept of spaces and place and solidifies space into meaningful places. The cross-disciplinary contributions in this collection – brought together by aesthetics and artistic practices and embodied and participatory research approaches – illustrate how the physical act of moving and the psychological experience of movement are inextricably interwoven. Traversing the knowledge domains and practices of culture, art, pedagogy, geography, architecture, and city planning, the chapters reveal the diversity of the study of movement in relation to space and place; as a way of setting things in motion, as a psychological act of agency, and as a way to reflect, instantiate, and eventually reconcile—and even heal—relationships between people, spaces, and places. This multi-layered investigation of movement takes temporal, physical, and psychological transformation as its conceptual core, and appeals to a myriad of readers ranging from architectural practitioners and urban planners to activists, artists and geographers.

This book, the first of its kind, seeks to demonstrate how ‘SDG15 - Life on Land'can be implemented through effective biodiversity management, mainstreaming strategies and proposing solutions to achieve and consolidate the goals. The book will be of great interest to natural resource policy makers, scholars and students of natural resources, development studies and sustainable development, as well as those engaged in international climate change discourse and non-government organisations. Drawing on experienced faculty scientists who are experts in natural resource governance issues in a wide variety of fields ranging from forestry, biodiversity conservation policy to climate change, this work proposes solutions to achieve and consolidate SDG15. Delving into SDG15 targets and indicators, drawing on examples from across the regions to give a truly global policy perspective, and understanding the significance of the forest ecosystem as the foundation for sustainable development, the authors demonstrate how SDG15 can and will be an appropriate tool for mainstreaming biodiversity across the policy sectors of governance. Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural perspectives

Rural-oriented scholarship in criminology is growing, in part motivated by governmental, community and academic recognition that, despite stereotypes of the'rural idyll', crime and justice are significant issues in the rural landscape. Using the notion of'crossroads'to provide a unique lens through which to examine realities of rural crime, Crossroads of Rural Crime: Representations and Realities of Transgression in the Australian Countryside provides a dynamic understanding of the nature of rural life and ways in which transgression manifests itself in the context of a presumed rural-urban divide. Common myths regarding rural crime are challenged by exploring its diverse dimensions from a central conceptual focal point; the many'roads'that lead into and out of rural spaces, whether literal, virtual or figurative. With a focus on the Australian countryside, the authors examine issues such as drug abuse, persecution of wildlife, rural penal practices, and health in Indigenous communities. The first substantive edited collection to focus on notions of the mobility of crime within, to and from rural spaces, this interdisciplinary collection draws together contributions from criminology, politics, sociology, Indigenous studies, literature and anthropology to significantly contribute to our understanding of rural crime.

In this ethnographic study of the rural idyll, Broadlands explores rurality and the pace of rural life. In sharp contrast to the urban analytical emphasis upon speed, it gives careful thought to stasis, as rural places offer everyday opportunities for very different social situations and behavioural interactions. Based on new and extensive RCUK-funded primary research, Sam Hillyard generates an original, rigorous and thoughtful understanding of everyday rural life in the 21st century. Taking the principles of dramaturgy and rural studies scholarship, Broadlands provides a toolkit to make sense of rural change. It uses ethnography to enhance interactionist dramaturgy via cross-references with new theoretical orientations that emphasise the temporal dynamics of space in a'knowing capitalism'. Where early dramaturgy stressed formal organisations in shaping roles and identity, Broadlands expands these concepts to include informal and transient organisations and associations. Ultimately, the book advances a new model for grasping the complexity of the rural. For researchers and students ofrural and urban sociology, this is an engaging text that reframes our understanding of rurality.

Climate-induced disasters constitute a major risk to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Drawing on case studies from Cambodia, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Samoa, the contributions in this volume examine local response, recovery and adaptation strategies, incorporating the perspectives and knowledge of affected individuals and communities. Asia-Pacific is the world's most disaster-prone region, accounting for about half of the climate-related displacements of 19 million people globally in 2017. Climate-related, fast-onset hazards, such as floods, cyclones and typhoons, have claimed many lives, displaced a high number of people and caused widespread damage over the past twenty years. The cost of short-term response to and medium- to long-term recovery from climate-induced disasters falls disproportionately on the poorest and most marginalised communities within Asia-Pacific countries. This book presents richly-detailed qualitative research from diverse contexts across the Asia-Pacific region, and adds to scholarship on the trajectory of community resilience and adaptation to climate-related hazards.

The politics of land are vital. They stretch from fights over fracking, gentrification, and taxation to land grabs, dispossession, and border conflicts. And they raise crucial questions about power, authority, violence, populism, and neoliberalism. This volume of Research in Political Sociology seeks to carve out a renewed political sociology of land, bringing together classic questions about the state, commodification, and social change and contemporary studies of contentious land use in various parts of the world. An introductory essay sketches foundations for a political sociology of land and specifies what is unique about land in comparison to other political objects. Chapters are based on highly original qualitative, quantitative, and/or historical analyses to shed light on numerous dimensions of land politics. They include analyses of anti-fracking campaigns, property tax caps, and'green gentrification'in the United States, soil protection regulation in Europe, squatter settlements in Peru, land grabs in peri-urban China and rural Senegal, violent expulsions in Colombia, and the privatization of property rights in Morocco. The volume brings together high quality, peer-reviewed research, opens up novel comparisons, and enriches theories of the state, commodification, and collective resistance.

In recent decades, globalization has transformed rural societies and economies across the world. Much has been written by social scientists about the actors and structures underpinning these transformations and the effects on particular social groups, organizations and industries. Yet, to date much less attention has been given to the specific global processes that are fundamental to contemporary rural change. Rural Change and Global Processes provides a systematic analysis of the key global processes transforming rural spaces in the early 21st century – financialization; standardization; consumption, and commodification. Through detailed case studies, the book examines why these processes are important, how they work in practice, and the challenges they raise as well as opportunities created. The book will be of particular relevance to researchers, graduate students, and policy-makers interested in the implications of global processes for rural people and livelihoods.