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This paper suggests that we lack scholarship that analyses EU law spatially. A spatial reading of EU law can help reveal the incidence, contingencies, pathologies and contestation of EU law. This paper looks at one specific spatial dimension of EU law: the interaction between, and the construction of, the urban and its hinterland. It suggests that EU law is much more sensitive to the spatial dynamics that underpin urban life than rural life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the redistribution and rescaling of societal risk in rural Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic, as one episode of the permacrisis. Drawing on empirical work in three contrasting areas of Scotland and England, we analyse individuals' experiences of risk and of the institutions which offer them support in times of crisis (markets, state, voluntary and community organisations, and family and friends). Our findings reveal the unequal distribution of societal risk during the pandemic, exacerbated by a legacy of precariatisation and individualisation in the labour market and welfare reforms. Although the state acted to mitigate risk and financial hardship during the lockdown, it was often voluntary and community organisations that filled the gaps left by the inability of the state to reach effectively into rural areas. Social infrastructure and institutional capital are therefore central to the mitigation of vulnerability and societal risk. This raises important questions about the capacity of institutions to provide support in times of crisis to rural citizens. Unless there is societal pooling of risk through such institutions to ensure social protection and that nobody is disadvantaged by where they live, future episodes of the permacrisis are likely to exacerbate inequalities and vulnerabilities in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For citizens in the Middle East, is wasta an accepted traditional practice or a form of corruption that has harmful effects on society? Scholarship remains divided on how exactly to view wasta, with some scholars pointing to its role in fostering in-group ties and providing a problem-solving mechanism, with others charging that wasta promotes poor governance and weak accountability. What citizens think rarely enters the picture. In this article, I argue that Jordanian citizens consider wasta a negative force in society, one that divides them from each other and makes them feel disengaged from the political life of their country. I use evidence from thirty-seven interviews with Jordanian youth, and data from the Jordanian NGO Leaders of Tomorrow's 'FADFED' initiative, a novel qualitative method for gathering opinion data from citizens. This article challenges scholars to take wasta's role in state-society tensions in the Middle East more seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that living far from the peritoneal dialysis (PD) unit is a risk factor for peritonitis. Considering that PD units are urban located; the question of whether living in a rural area compared to an urban area is a risk factor for peritonitis has arisen. From March 2010 to August 2020, 335 episodes of peritonitis in 202 PD patients followed in a single center were evaluated retrospectively. People living in areas with a population <1000 were defined as living in rural areas regardless of their distance from the PD center. Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent factors associated with peritonitis. A total of 202 PD patients were followed during 791 patient-years (mean follow-up of 3.9 years per patient). Total patients had 335 episodes of peritonitis and the rate of peritonitis was 0.42 episodes per year (episodes/patient-year). Cox regression analysis revealed that living environment (urban vs. rural) was not a risk factor for peritonitis (p = 0.57). In Turkey, we report that living in a rural area in our region is not a risk factor for peritonitis. It is not the right approach for both the physician and the patient to be reluctant in the choice of PD due to the concern of peritonitis in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural society in Bulgaria has seen considerable upheaval over the past century, moving from a position of political significance, rural actors were subsequently subordinated under the communist regime (1946–1989). The post-socialist period saw further turmoil as land restitution, privatisation, and depopulation reshaped rural communities, leading to increased marginalisation. Facing uncertain futures, rural producers have engaged in a range of actions to challenge and resist threats to their material interests and rural way of life. This article draws on a dataset of protest events in the media by rural producers over the 2000–2019 period to understand how and why they protested. In doing so, it considers how the claims presented can be seen to reflect efforts to protect rural communities in a time of change. The findings suggest that material interests serve as the key mobilising force, but that these rest on a sense of collective identity around the importance of rural society to support their claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, the Catholic Church demanded that baptisms take place in the hours immediately after birth. This custom began to lose importance in the last decade of the nineteenth century, which increased the average time between birth and baptism. However, some children continued to be baptized shortly following their birth. Our objective is to analyze whether early baptism could serve as an indicator of the state of a child's health in the short and long term. In our examination of the period 1890-1939, the results confirm that children with early baptisms were more likely to die (especially during the first month of life), married earlier and at a greater rate compared to the general population and, probably, experienced shorter lifespans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s–1970s in Ecuador, Indigenous and peasant movements challenged the descriptions of rural life in government education programmes while offering a space of transculture. As Sylvia Wynter [2003. 'Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation – An Argument.' CR: The New Centennial Review 3 (3): 257–337.] proposes it, such space allows to narrate human life with sensibilities non-aligned with normalised cultural particularities of the ideal tacit 'we' in national(ised) stories. This text engages with the convivial movements between narratives and counternarratives about rural lives and ways of living. It argues that rural can be thought as a genre and ruralness as a practice of existence, which disrupt overdetermining notions of what counts as dignified life, valid political demands, and possible futures. That disruption is an exercise of conviviality where Indigenous and racialised peoples challenge a living together under rules and practices that demand their assimilation or erasure. Their luchas (fights) are proposals for coexistence through social change. Particularly the article looks at how the poem The Bread of Life, published in the bilingual Kichwa/Spanish newspaper Jatari Campesino, pushed back against the logics of 'bettering' lives offered by Fundamental Education and Community Development projects. These were projects espoused by the Ecuadorian Government and UNESCO and funded by the Alliance for Progress, among other foreign aid agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the southern Vietnamese metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City has seen a proliferation of urban gardening, ranging from the minute home-growing of herbs and vegetables to commercial urban gardens. In this article, I argue that what underlies these phenomena is urbanites' striving to control the food they consume in light of prevalent food safety concerns in Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research, the article demonstrates that urban food growing efforts are largely related to a widespread crisis of confidence in the food system in general and in farming specifically. People are particularly concerned with agrochemical contamination of food and its long-term health effects. Meanwhile, tensions exist between negative views of "unsafe" practices of unknown farmers and the simultaneous romanticization of rural life and of food acquired through personal rural connections. In the context of growing socio-economic inequalities in the late socialist country, the research also examines how urban gardening as an individualized and middle-class activity renders visible class differences in access to locally produced, "safe" food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many student groups are visiting the exhibition including Mollie Young from Bruton School for Girls who wrote I I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Somerset Rural Life Museum to see Alice Kettle's inspiring exhibition: Thread Bearing Witness. The Somerset Rural Life Museum is a surprising place to see this glorious exhibition, yet the magnificent 14th Century Abbey Barn forms a perfect backdrop to Alice Kettle's monumental machine embroidered triptych I GROUND, SEA & SKY i and, at the opposite end of the Barn, the jewel like installation " I STITCH-A-TREE-Karachi i " combining small sewn squares from thousands of individual contributors. This inspiring project started in 2017 when Kettle's daughter Tamsin Koumis returned from the Dunkirk camp where, as co-founder of the Dunkirk Legal Support Team, Koumis had found herself at the center of the migration crisis in Europe. [Extracted from the article]

The administrative-cultural centers of collective farms, which are some of the best examples of the rural architecture of late socialism in the former Baltic Soviet republics, are still there in the Baltic countryside, but their preservation is currently in doubt. This study shows that the greatest threat to this rural built heritage in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is the shrinking and peripheralization of rural areas and small towns. Greater emphasis should be placed on strengthening the community, finding a new function, and on national protection in order to preserve collective farm centers and enhance their value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Maynard Keynes is frequently mentioned in Money and Empire, where he stands out for his book on the Indian gold exchange standard and his highly informative and perceptive account of the crisis of 1914. Based on de Cecco's book, one may be induced to think that, before WWI, Keynes was an economist deeply involved in the public life of his country and the administration of the Empire. However, this contrasts with the young economist's image that has crystallised in the literature on Keynes. In the attempt to solve this contradiction, it is possible to show that the conventional image of the young Keynes is far from satisfactory. Moreover, even though Money and Empire is not altogether reliable in presenting Keynes's ideas, this old book by Marcello de Cecco may still have a significant contribution to give in the literature on Keynes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard of living estimates the economic aspect of the quality of life. It is also a yardstick for social development with implications for society's impact on the environment. This issue is of increasing practical significance in these troubled times. Here, we identify the key requirements for a modern standard of living, the main factors contributing to the change in the standard of living in Ukraine, the current quality of life in the country, and its impact on the environment. Unsurprisingly, war is diminishing the quality of life. We propose ways to improve this quality of life that may contribute to Ukraine's socio-economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to present an alternative measure of fertility—cross-sectional average length of life by parity (CALP)—which: (1) is a period fertility indicator using all available cohort information; (2) captures the dynamics of parity transitions; and (3) links information on fertility quantum and timing together as part of a single phenomenon. Using data from the Human Fertility Database, we calculate CALP for 12 countries in the Global North. Our results show that women spend the longest time at parity zero on average, and in countries where women spend comparatively longer time at parity zero, they spend fewer years at parities one and two. The analysis is extended by decomposing the differences in CALPs between Sweden and the United States, revealing age- and cohort-specific contributions to population-level differences in parity-specific fertility patterns. The decomposition illustrates how high teenage fertility in the United States dominates the differences between these two countries in the time spent at different parities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 'mobility bias' has been identified in the migration literature, whereby researchers have focused on the drivers of migration while neglecting factors that influence immobility decisions. Addressing this gap is important for developing a holistic understanding of human mobility patterns and effectively mitigating experiences of distress migration among populations experiencing marginalisation. This qualitative study explored (im)mobility aspirations and decisions among youth from two rural municipalities of Honduras. Thirty-two in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2019. Analyses were guided by the aspiration-capabilities framework. Findings revealed retain and repel factors shaping immobility aspirations among rural youth. Respondents who were practicing immobility also identified the capacity to envision viable rural livelihood options as an important precursor to actualising their immobility preferences. They described creatively applying skills, leveraging resources, and engaging with enabling institutions in order to turn immobility aspirations into capabilities. They contested scarcity narratives driving outmigration among their peers and positioned themselves as active agents of their immobility decisions, claiming dignity in their livelihood choices. These findings enrich an understanding of immobility as an agentic livelihood choice in a context with high rates of outmigration, making both empirical and theoretical contributions to the (im)mobility literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed psychosocial influences on political life in the Basque Country according to Doise's theory on the articulation between the individual, the interindividual, groups, and society. Political-party experiences and evaluations of system legitimacy during elections (local, regional, general, and European) were considered. Party choice was linked to atheism and without-religion among Spanish progressive voters (Podemos); Christianity to Basque conservative nationalism (PNV); Basque identity to Basque progressive nationalism (EH-Bildu); and Spanish identity to conservativism (PP). On the whole, Basque parties' voters stressed more economy/administration and politicians' individual traits, while Spanish party voters focused more on civil/social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times there has been a population turnaround in the island state of Tasmania sparked by an increase in in-migration of mainland urban dwellers. This paper argues that one of the major driving factors of this change is the quest for a new lifestyle in regional/rural life, that incorporates a desire for a temperate climate. As literature in lifestyle migration shows, this quest for a new life does not end once migration is over. Rather, the migration experience continues well after the move. In this paper, it will be shown how weather not only attracts migrants into Tasmania, but then encourages/discourages certain activities allowing the individual to engage in new ways of living. The paper suggests that while we need to be careful about romanticising this, we can potentially view this shift as emblematic of people's relationship to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions might the acquisition of new skills challenge discriminatory social norms? We interrogate this question through reference to a study on the social impacts of an agricultural skill development scheme in rural India. We present detailed vignettes drawn from this study, which illustrate the social consequences of acquiring and utilizing skills that transgress local gender and caste norms. Engaging with themes from capabilities theory, we highlight how, although not all skills are transgressive, for some, acquiring "transgressive skills" not only enhanced life opportunities for themselves, but also did so for others within their communities. The form of their transgressions and their social consequences varied, however, based on their relative privilege and the operation of place-specific social norms and systems of oppression. We argue that transgressive skills might drive progressive social change, but distinguish between two types of transgression. Individual, brash, heroic transgressions against the status quo are more accessible to the relatively privileged, whereas marginalized people are more likely to engage in nested transgressions, which form part of long-term, collective struggles for empowerment. The latter, although often overlooked, might offer sustainable pathways to progressive change that reflect local aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 50 years, government programmes in the USA have been in place to help those in need have consistent access to food and education. However, questions have surfaced regarding whether or not these support impact traditional ways, such as cultural activities, food preferences, and overall health, particularly for Indigenous populations. In this paper, we share insights voiced by Alaska Native Elders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska and their perceptions of regulations, assistance, and the impact government assistance programmes have had on their culture. Elders raised concerns so that those administering these programmes will consider how best to meet food security and education needs without interfering with Indigenous cultural practices and traditional lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to examine how rural everyday life has changed in the Chinese context in response to the process of urbanisation. Drawing on a mobilities perspective, changes in everyday life are represented by spatial mobilities and the impacts of social mobilities on them are assessed at a household level. Employing rural survey data for 2007 and 2017 conducted in Jianghan Plain, China, results reveal that everyday life in central rural China has undergone an uneven development and is significantly impacted by social mobilities. As one of the main agricultural production regions in China, the livelihood strategies in the study area have been shifting from full-time farming to part-time farming and non-farm. The effects of the process of social mobilities on working, consuming and leisure mobilities are also unevenly distributed. Our findings suggest that the perspective of everyday life deserves further investigation for its important role in exploring the human–land relationship in a rural context. And the mobilities paradigm can provide an alternative insight into rural restructuring and its social effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity and natural resources constitute a social safety net for forest-dependent communities and represent their main source of livelihood. Agricultural expansion driven by global food demand is not only deeply altering landscapes at the local level but also affect the forms of life and culture of rural life. These changes are increasing inequalities between stakeholders in developing countries and causing the direct displacement of numerous rural families. In this article, we focus on the Argentine Dry Chaco, one of the most threatened forest systems in the world, to analyse evidence about how land-use changes asymmetrically affect social wellbeing across landscapes and generate conflicts between stakeholders regarding the use and access to natural resources. This information needs to be considered for better territorial planning and to propose conflict resolution strategies towards more just and sustainable relationships between people and nature in complex landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsible tourism is a new approach which ensures that local communities have a fair share of benefits in developing tourism. It aims to create better tourism destinations and provides a more enjoyable experience for tourists. This approach can have different economic, social and environmental effects on the host community. By contributing to the local economy, respecting the customs and traditions and protecting the environment, responsible tourists can affect the villagers' quality of life. For this purpose, the status of responsible tourism and its effect on the quality of life of the villagers in Gorgan, Iran were investigated. In this study, a statistical population of 410 villagers and 100 tourists visiting 14 rural tourism destinations were surveyed. The results showed that from the view point of the villagers and tourists the mean responsibility index for tourists was 2.78 and 3.6 (based on the Likert spectrum). Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that 41% of the change in quality of life was related to the responsible tourism index. Finally, it was found that economic responsibility, followed by socio-cultural and environmental variables, was the most important variable affecting the quality of life of the villagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has significantly affected rural lives around the world. Adaptation, as a political response to this situation, interacts with longer trajectories of agrarian capitalism and peasant's expectations for the future. Through the concept of imagined transitions, this article explores how peasants of northern Colombia manufacture and project their own transition to an agrarian capitalist future in the aftermath of climate-related floods and in the midst of adaptation interventions. Peasants use adaptation to imagine a future in which they are no longer peasants but have instead become rural entrepreneurs who play a proactive role in the development of capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book review discusses "Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country" by Ryan Cropp. The book explores the life and work of Donald Horne, a prolific writer and thinker in Australia. It covers his early years as a student and journalist, his time in England, and his influential role in Australian media. The review praises the book for its thorough research and well-written narrative, highlighting Horne's intellectual journey from conservatism to liberalism. Overall, it is described as a high-quality biography of an important figure in Australian history. [Extracted from the article]

The service industry is a major pillar of China's urban economy. Rural migrant workers form the backbone workforce in China's urban service sector. Despite much attention to the work and life of rural migrants in Chinese cities, urban employers' regulation and rural migrants' performance of emotional labour in the service sector remain understudied. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews over eight years, we examine how urban employer and rural migrant workers relationally navigate intersecting emotional and migration regimes to contest, (re)produce and (re)configure rural migrants' power and status in the urban space. We develop the conceptualization of 'translocal emotional reflexivity' to elucidate multiplicated emotional regimes and subjectivities between places of origin and arrival, as well as how emotional reflexivity is mobilized to regulate, navigate and negotiate conflictual translocal emotional subjectivities. We discuss the 'institutionalized individualization' of emotional labour – a process in which an employer systematically engineers a sense of emotional agency for workers to re-imagine, re-appropriate and individualize their emotional performance to serve institutional aims – as a distinctive feature of how the regulation and performance of emotional labour has evolved over the past decade in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land was first purchased at Box Hill, Surrey, on the North Downs, to save a famous viewpoint in 1914. Safeguarding the remainder of Box Hill from development necessitated public appeals in 1919, 1923, 1926 and 1935. Led by the largely autonomous Box Hill Management Committee, and often supported by Country Life, voluntary social action in Surrey and London was mobilised to preserve adjoining land for the National Trust by accretion, intent on avoiding spoliation by villas on winding drives, extensive tree felling, streets of bungalows, and highway construction. Sub-national piecemeal protection and voluntary vigilance sustained delight in the country by subscribers who affirmed their familiarity with Box Hill, where views, trees and sequestered spaces on low and high ground offered quiet enjoyment amid common nature. Using sources which originated in the hill's management, complemented by Country Life and newspaper reports, the article evaluates the interrelationship of locality and nation during the subscription appeals, with reference to private acts of informal benevolence and personal sense-impressions of Box Hill. The importance of providing respite from congested districts, on unembellished former wooded pasture in its natural state, is explored before sufficient national political consensus arose for the statutory protection of open country. In 1944 the Greater London Plan demanded that remaining unspoiled chalk country should be taken into public possession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life history interviews from Ethiopia and Uganda, organised around experiences of wage labour, provide rich evidence on the working conditions of many poor, rural women and on what leads them to work for wages. The life histories confirm and illuminate arguments based on large-scale socio-economic surveys carried out in these two countries. Further, findings from the surveys and life histories challenge an influential literature that not only celebrates women's agency in poor rural areas, but also remains committed to methodological individualism and ideas of choice. Drawing on primary and secondary evidence from Africa (and elsewhere), we insist that violent coercion and catastrophe trump maximising rational selection among alternatives; that the social is fundamental to individual behaviour; and the non-market is key to (labour) market participation. We also provide a brief discussion of the policy implications of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Statement documents and reflects upon the collaborative project between artist Alice Blackstock and designer/maker Philip Crewe that investigated a bladed tool called a billhook. The 2019 collaboration was initiated by a visit to the extensive archive in the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and developed into the creation of five object sets that explore the loss of purpose, material and skills associated with the billhook. In a wider context this work considers the shift in the conversation about craft and our relationship to objects. Their research is centred around the archive collection at the MERL, the collection compiled by collector Robert Burgess and his extensive website, and John Manners's Country Crafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the coping strategies of Singapore Malay-Muslim immigrants in Melbourne, Australia in the light of a variety of challenges faced by Muslims in the West. We argue that Singapore Malay-Muslim immigrants have integrated into their host societies through a "reshaping of their mental lifeworld", which constitutes a few elements. First, through viewing daily challenges and stresses in positive and optimistic terms. Second, they appreciated Australia as a space for growth, family life, and exploration. Third, they kept their minds open to any types of employment opportunities that come in their way in order to sustain their lives in a new country. Fourth, they used their faith as sources of strength in the face of challenges in obtaining jobs and overcoming other stresses. Finally, reshaping mental lifeworld involves imagining Australia as their newfound home, without totally negating Singapore as a site that their roots were initially planted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hockey occupies a prominent role in the folklore of rural Canada. In this paper, I discuss the role of hockey events in expressions of place-based rural cultures. I draw from fieldwork conducted in three separate communities to discuss the semiotic processes involved in these events and their relationship to myths of rurality. Informed by mythologies and the carnivalesque, I unpack the way these events are engaged in the social processes of their communities. Firstly, I discuss how athleticism and social structures are subverted and reconceptualized. Secondly, I explore the freedom, profanation, and collective laughter of these events. Cumulatively, this analysis explores how normalized, performative transgressions of sport and social norms may be implicated in the construction of myths of rurality. While these events provide a glimpse into the resiliency and creativity of rural people, they may also distract us from thinking critically about the social political contexts shaping rural life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have witnessed unprecedented agrarian transformations and mining sector-led development projects in the countryside of the Global South. This study explores the impact of land appropriation for gold mining on customary land tenure systems and rural livelihoods in Ghana. Data were gathered through face-to-face semi-structured and structured interviews with 120 affected farmers, key informant interviews (seven participants), and three focus group discussions (28 participants). The findings show a growing tendency of customary authorities being coopted into the wider assemblages of economic and political actors who are benefiting from the land appropriation by the state and mining companies. As a result, customary authorities have become facilitators and the manu longa of the state. The study demonstrates how gold mining companies have exploited centuries-old traditional land allocation and governance practices to suppress reactions from below and how this has led to increased social differentiation and social tension in northern Ghana. In conclusion, land expropriation for gold mining has resulted in a transformation in the Ghanaian customary land tenure system, producing a marked shift from agrarian to non-agrarian livelihoods, increasing household food insecurity and societal tension, and creating a new class of (near-)landless farmers in the rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the social functions of rural teachers and attempts to identify the internal noneconomic resources necessary to solve pressing social issues associated with rural life (including problems connected with alienation, alcoholism, and unemployment). The study tests the hypothesis that rural teachers are active participants in rural life. This work is based on the methodological resources of rural sociology, the sociology of education, and approaches formed within the framework of problems associated with social well-being and the quality of life. Using the results of a study based on semistructured interviews conducted in the rural areas of Altai Krai and the Altai Republic (N = 124), the social functions of teachers and their specific roles as professionals were determined. In addition, the article analyzes the role of rural teachers to ensure the resilience of rural residents. Resilience has been correlated with certain values and norms rooted in rural life (family, health, work, etc.), and rural teachers are often involved in preserving these values and norms. They provide support and assistance in solving specific social problems (raising children, overcoming difficult life situations, socializing adults and children, etc.). The active participation of teachers in the integration of the village community is also discussed. It was possible to identify which activities initiated by rural teachers are aimed at consolidating rural residents and encouraging their participation in the diverse life of their home villages. All study participants stated that the integration of the village community is a necessity. A description of how teachers interact with public authorities and organizations is given. The example of Altai Krai and the Altai Republic shows that as a professional group, rural teachers actively participate in solving village problems, while acquiring the status of "village defenders." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What follows are introductory remarks and an excerpt of a conversation between anthropologist Catherine Therrien and Jackson Abena Banyomo, a Cameroonian national currently residing in Morocco, where he also works in a civil society organisation. The extract is published (in French) in the book Whoever fails becomes a sorcerer. Journey of a Cameroonian migrant who left Africa and arrived .... in Africa 1 (Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval), where Jackson and Catherine retrace and reflect on Jackson's journey from Cameroon to Morocco, and on his life in the country. This piece provides a vivid first-person account of how migrant people experienced the regularization process – the encounter with the state and the NGO apparatus, the logics subsuming (il)legalization – and deconstructs 'transit' as a monolithic concept. The extract also provides a brilliant example of decolonial scholarship, in which the anthropologist takes a step back to act as facilitator, producing an account in which her interlocutor is not only the main character but also narrator of his own story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Australian geographies of sexualities, most work centres the urban areas of Sydney, New South Wales, while less is known about queer life in regional and rural Australia. In contrast, this article explores how lesbian, bisexual and queer young women understand and experience identity and place in Tasmania. Using a queer futurities theoretical framework and a qualitative feminist methodology, in this article I examine how narratives of place shape queer Tasmanians' understandings of identity, belonging, and home. Participant narratives of leaving, arriving, and returning to Tasmania reflect dominant rural youth migration patterns, while also providing new insights into how queer young people position Tasmanian space, identities and futures in broader Australian culture. This article draws on recent work in geographies of sexuality to show how Tasmania produces unique sexual identity cultures that influence queer young women's sense of time and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite colonial echoes, settlement schemes represent a major element in 'nation-building' endeavours in Tanzania's history. Their evolution through the 1960s was circuitous and haphazard. This article explores the origins of one of the earliest schemes linked to Julius Nyerere and TANU: the Kilombero Settlement Scheme (KSS). It traces its origins from 1959 and ragged progress over the subsequent decade before its eventual transmutation under Ujamaa. Nyerere personally promoted KSS and its basic premise in sending unemployed men from cities to uncleared countryside to grow sugar cane for sale to a local factory. The scheme's extended trajectory reveals its palimpsestic nature through a history layered by different approaches to the reorganisation of rural life in Tanzania. This was an embryonic testing ground, both in terms of the politics of resettlement and of funding development projects of this kind. For one of the surviving settlers, they were 'Nyerere's People' as ideologies met practical realities. KSS was flawed but resilient. For its failures more than its successes, it became an important model in Tanzania's programme of social development for understanding the challenges of rural transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship observes that smallholder agricultural practices in East and South East Asia continue to persist, despite modernization theories predicting otherwise. This article contributes to these discussions by considering the context of smallholder agriculture in southern Thailand, where rubber and oil palm have both long been prevalent in the livelihood profiles of rural households. Beyond demonstrating the ways in which contemporary circumstances of southern Thailand's smallholders largely cohere within the broader agricultural trends documented for the rest of the country, the discussion branches out to explore the implications of such a sustained smallholder presence beyond the farmgate. It shows specifically how protests staged in Bangkok in late 2013 and 2014, which led to the removal of the Yingluck Shinawatra administration through a coup d'état, ought to be understood partly in relation to earlier rounds of protest, in August and September 2013, when smallholders in southern Thailand blocked highways and railroad crossings to call on the administration for price supports. By assessing these stories jointly, the article shows how the sustained organization of large portions of rural life around smallholder agriculture contributes to shaping the political turns on Thailand's national stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War, the communists used all organs of authority to indoctrinate and incapacitate society in the Soviet Union-dependent socialist countries. Sport also became a tool of the government's propaganda policy. The communists established an organization in the countryside called Peasants' Sports Teams, which served as a bridgehead of the ruling party in the collectivization of agriculture. Such actions, consistently implemented during the Stalinist era, were resisted by older residents. They opposed the changes in rural customs, especially the sports activity of girls, treating them as indecent behaviours. Apart from the negative effects on society, the government's policy also had positive ones, such as meeting the vital interests of young people, the need for competition and entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picking up Walter Benjamin's analysis of German Fascism as an aestheticisation of politics, the article develops the concept of late capitalist fascism for which aesthetics plays an important role. Today fascism is not primarily a political force but a cultural phenomenon that circulates as language, emblems and objects. Because of its history fascism does not dare name itself as such but fascism is fast becoming part of everyday life in a number of countries including Hungary, Italy and the United States, but also France and Denmark where the threat of fascism is used as a pretext for imposing fascist measures especially in relation to immigration and asylum policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing number of foreign-born homeless families in Canada, few studies have investigated their experiences prior to becoming homeless. To address this gap, this study explored the pathways into homelessness for foreign-born families and compared these pathways to those of Canadian-born families. Timeline mapping and in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 23 foreign-born and 13 Canadian-born homeless families residing in emergency family shelters. Findings showed that there was greater diversity in the homeless pathways of foreign-born families than Canadian-born families. Foreign-born families discussed the impact their immigration experiences had on their financial and housing instability and how social isolation, traumatic experiences, and the difficult emotions associated with fleeing an unsafe country made life before homelessness even more challenging. Canadian-born families spoke about their experiences with poverty, homelessness, and housing instability – all of which started during childhood. They navigated these challenges while dealing with the loss of relationships, health issues, family separation, and violence. Despite these differences, both groups reported similar service experiences and structural and systemic barriers to stable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partha Chatterjee's distinction between civil society and 'political society' in post-colonial countries has provoked much debate and discussion. This has remained controversial in the current literature on post-colonialism in respect of democracy, development and politics. In this article I contest his distinction by pointing out, first that his conception of civil society is limited and abstract (and universalist) that leaves out the vast rural life in India. Second, I question the conceptual and empirical validity of his concept of political society, and argue that his original concept of political society was an urban space of illegality and criminality, but his subsequent shift to cover rural India does not explain how original conception works out in rural India. The empirical evidence available suggests that his so-called political society in rural India is actually part of civil society such as rural clubs, NGOs and other associations that operates in the interface of state, politics and society. In conclusion I seek to restore the political society as the space of the nation-state based on, following Locke, the right to life, liberty and property; trust (contract), definite and codified laws, impartial judiciary, separation of powers, limited government by popular consent and the people's right to revolt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Razorback's self-aware play with cinematic Australian Gothic tropes infuses the aesthetic with an environmentalist sensibility that resonates in the Anthropocene. The limited scholarship addressing Razorback typically positions the film as a crude expression of the same anxieties found in New Wave Australian Gothic cinema. This interpretation misunderstands the role industrial maleficence plays in Razorback's horror. In order to reassess Razorback, I situate this creature feature in the history of the Australian Gothic, a sensibility grounded in the country's settler colonial identity and focused on the unsettling qualities of the imposing natural landscape. Razorback draws on common tropes in Australian cinema – cultural anxiety around Americans, the tendency to idealize white rural life, and a fascination with the Outback – but it tweaks standard elements. Razorback offers a surreal take on the Outback, but it identifies its horror as stemming from human mismanagement and pollution of the natural world. The Outback becomes warped by the activities of the Baker Brothers, whose business breeds a monstrous manifestation of rapacious colonial capitalism and environmental degradation. This reassessment of an overlooked cult classic identifies Razorback as an important text to study in order to understand genre cinema's role in engaging environmental concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is famous as a region of extremely low natural temperatures, a territory of cold and the phenomena of snow, ice, and permafrost that owe their existence to it. The anthropology of cold, which the authors term cryoanthropology, including analysis of its role and place in the economic and sociocultural practices of the region's Indigenous population, is relevant but little studied. The authors present experiences applying traditional knowledge of the Sakha (Yakuts) about cold, allowing for its resources to be used in everyday functioning for life sustenance, in various kinds of economic activity. They analyze systemic ethnocultural adaptations to phenomena connected with natural low temperatures. Drawing on data predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the authors integrate examples of the "dialogue" of rural inhabitants with the cold, especially its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Gough Whitlam's Labor government won re-election in 1974, Nora Opferkuch, a Coonabarabran farmer, wrote to the Attorney-General Lionel Murphy. After congratulating him on the party's success, she warned him of the parlous state of political life in the Central New South Wales town. "No one dares speak Politics in Coonabarabran now," she wrote. The town was in the grip of a fascist conspiracy that had resulted in a terrible crime. Opferkuch's letter opens up an under-examined area of Australian political culture—the activities of the far right. Using interviews and newspaper reports, as well as Opferkuch's letter, this article explores the veracity of her allegations. It reveals the impact on a rural town of social change led by a resurgent political party with a vision for Australia at odds with that of the ruling elite. It also extends understandings of Australian political culture, including the role of politics in the everyday life of a rural town, and explores the impact of the political past on contemporary events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which connections to family, community and associated activities changed following a residential move. Evidence is taken from a single diary written by a woman who lived in north Lancashire in the twentieth century. Initially the diarist retained quite strong links back to her home community, but these gradually weakened over time. However, the activities that she undertook changed relatively little, they were simply transferred to new locations and contacts. The diarist came from a farming family and one constant in her life was a strong interest in agriculture and rural life. This continued long after she ceased to be directly involved with farming. In conclusion we use a selection of other diaries to consider more general issues relating to the use of diary material to study migration and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear energy is an energy source that is usually unfavourable among the public due to its inherent risks. However, it presents a number of benefits, including the possibility to reduce emissions and the contribution to tackle climate change. Among the countries adopting nuclear energy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is unusual in that a large share of its residents consists of expatriates who live only part of their lives in the country with no (or highly unlikely) access to citizenship. This distinctive population structure offers the opportunity to investigate the effect of transient residency on acceptance and preferences towards nuclear energy. We conducted this investigation by designing a stated preferences-based survey, targeting an online nationwide sample. The survey collected information on socio-economic characteristics and attitudes, including views on perceived risks and benefits of nuclear energy, views towards different energy sources and life satisfaction. Results indicate that transient individuals, especially those who are more satisfied with their lives in the UAE, are significantly less likely to oppose the construction of new nuclear plants. These individuals are characterized by a more positive perception of benefits over risks arising from nuclear energy. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allopolyploids arise when two or more species hybridise to form an entirely new species with a duplicated genome. Although initially met with an array of potentially catastrophic challenges triggered by the combination of two diverged parental subgenomes within a single cell, countless allopolyploids worldwide demonstrate exceptional biological resilience by not only living under these unique circumstances, but thriving. The archipelago of Aotearoa New Zealand is home to an unexpectedly large number of allopolyploid species, both indigenous and introduced. Here, we review the prevalence and importance of these species from a local perspective. The benefits of allopolyploid species permeate multiple facets of life in New Zealand, from pastoral health and arable crop yield, to long-established viticulture and brewery practices, to the intrinsic nature of the land through the presence of diverse native allopolyploid flora. Consequently, the motivation behind the pursuit of New Zealand's allopolyploid research extends beyond improvement of the global knowledgebase and also aims to drive tangible economic and cultural impacts on the country and the lives of its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums today are confronted by the demands of finding a path towards the future that will engage visitors of all ages and origins without sidestepping current debate or glossing over aspects of 'hard history' implicit in their local or national settings. This is especially true of rural life museums that often deal with village life and agriculture while now catering mainly to city-dwellers. With its 'Theatre of Agriculture' set in the programme of 'Living in the 21st Century', the Ecomuseum of Alsace is working out new ways to link its collections, its buildings and land, its many skills-holders, and its interpretation practices, to an over-arching strategy bridging Alsatian tradition and present-day diversity. This paper explores the strategies adopted by the museum in navigating these tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The village of Dereuzunyer located in the Rahmanlar Valley of the Küçük Menderes Basin is a settlement that is a natural extension of a topography shaped by a joint contribution of culture and nature. It has preserved the authenticity and integrity of its traditional rural fabric and gives detailed information about the architectural approach, building technology, construction techniques, landscape features and traditional craftsmanship of past rural life. While some of the cultural assets in the settlement containing detailed information about the rural lifestyle of the past have survived to date despite the harsh natural conditions, the remainder have been neglected, become dilapidated, and fallen into ruin over time due to lack of maintenance by the local people because of rumors about the possible dam project and expropriations in progress. After completion of the Rahmanlar Dam in 2019, the cultural landscape values of Dereuzunyer will be lost irretrievably. This article aims to make a contribution to creating awareness about avoiding such losses, not only by introducing the non-renewable values of Dereuzunyer, by documentation of its historical development, its traditional architecture, its traditional building types, its construction techniques, and its plan and façade features, but also by promoting and interpreting its lost cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to closely examine Tunisia's Rached Ghannouchi (Arabic: Rāshid al-Ghannūshī), the head of the Islamic movement in Tunisia, Ennahdha. Tunisia has a unique experience in Political Islam. I have examined the above personality and his political affiliation as a case study for this paper. Some new incidents have emerged lately in Tunisia that appear to be pointing to new, up-coming changes in the political life in that country. This paper will introduce these changes in Tunisia and their expected effects. For the purpose of this article, modern Islam no longer refers to Islamists as demanding a monopoly of power and imposing sharia law. Rather, it presents it as a means of achieving political goals. How Rāshid al-Ghannūshī has acted and what his thoughts have been since the Tunisian revolution (2011) up until 2017 are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]