A Threatened Rural Idyll? Informal social control, exclusion and the resistance to change in the English countryside

Nathan Aaron Kerrigan, Centre for Advances in Behavioural Science, Coventry University, UK

June 2018 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-418-4
Availability: In stock
270pp. ¦ $58 £42 €47

Issues concerning globalisation, protection of identity and resistance to change at the national level (e.g., Brexit) have been the cause of much public and scholarly debate. With this in mind, this book demonstrates how these national, and indeed global narratives, have impacted on and are influenced by ‘going-ons’ in local contexts. By situating these national narratives within a rural context, Kerrigan expertly explores, through ethnographic research, how similar consequences of informal social control and exclusion are maintained in rural England in order to protect rural identity from social and infrastructural change. Drawing on observation, participant observation, and in-depth interviews, ‘A Threatened Rural Idyll’ illustrates how residents from a small but developing rural town in the South of England perceived changes associated with globalisation, such as population growth, inappropriate building developments, and the influx of service industries. For many of the residents, particularly those of middle-class status and long-standing in the town, these changes were seen as a direct threat to the rural character of the town. The investigation highlights how community dynamics and socio-spatial organisation of daily life work to protect the rural traditions inherent in the social and spatial landscape of the town and to maintain the dominance of its largely white, middle-class character. As a result, Kerrigan contends that the resistance to change has the consequence of constructing a social identity that attempts to reinforce the notions of a rural idyll to the exclusion of processes and people seen as representing different values and ideals.

Random Destiny: How the Vietnam War Draft Lottery Shaped a Generation

Wesley Abney

June 2018 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-196-1
Availability: In stock
262pp. ¦ $60 £49 €56

This book provides a concise but thorough summary of how the selective service system worked from 1965 through 1973, and also demonstrates how this selective process, during a highly unpopular war, steered major life choices of millions of young men seeking deferrals based on education, occupation, marital and family status, sexual orientation, and more. This book explains each category of deferral and its resulting “ripple effect” across society. Putting a human face on these sociological trends, the book also includes a number of brief personal anecdotes from men in each category, told from a remove of 40 years or more, when the lifelong effects of youthful decisions prompted by the draft have become evident. There are few books which address the military draft of the Vietnam years, most notably CHANCE AND CIRCUMSTANCE: The Draft, the War and the Vietnam Generation, by Baskir and Strauss (1978). This early study of draft-age men discusses how they were socially channeled by the selective service system. RANDOM DESTINY follows up on this premise and draws from numerous later studies of men in the lottery pool, to create the definitive portrait of the draft and its long-term personal and social effects. RANDOM DESTINY presents an in-depth explanation of the selective service system in its final years. It also provides a comprehensive yet personal portrait of how the draft and the lottery steered a generation of young lives into many different paths, from combat to conscientious objection, from teaching to prison, from the pulpit to the Canadian border, from public health to gay liberation. It is the only recent book which demonstrates how American military conscription, in the time of an unpopular war, profoundly influenced a generation and a society over the decades that followed.

To Know as I Am Known: The Communion of the Saints and the Ontology of Love

Mark McLeod-Harrison, George Fox University, USA

May 2018 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-388-0
Availability: In stock
276pp. ¦ $62 £45 €50

The doctrine of the communion of the saints is central in the spiritual lives and theology of millions of Christians. However, it has been neglected by much recent philosophical scholarship. ‘To know as I am known’ addresses this oversight by offering a contemporary analysis of this venerated doctrine. By taking two related puzzles inherent in the doctrine itself, McLeod-Harrison explores and reflects on not only the communion of the saints but also on the ontology of love. Divided into five parts, this book provides an account of human nature and sin, before suggesting a way of thinking of love that is rooted both in the doctrine of the Trinity and in the thought of several contemporary analytic thinkers along with Dostoyevsky, Eckerd, Royce. While the integral issues of the doctrine are related to the “why-be-moral” problem, McLeod-Harrison shows that the challenges of the doctrine arise from the unique nature of agape (divine love). Thus, the communion of the saints comes through the challenges intact with a plausible interpretation of saintly motivation and human solidarity. Born out of 20 years of thought, this essential and sophisticated reflection serves as an important contribution to the field of the philosophy of religion that will inspire and engage students, scholars, and Christians, alike.

Positioning English for Specific Purposes in an English Language Teaching Context

Ivana Nešić et al.

June 2018 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-414-6
Availability: In stock
292pp. ¦ $62 £44 €50

With the unrelenting spread of globalization, the English language has been firmly established as the Lingua Franca. Now more than ever, the importance of learning English is paramount within nearly all professional and educational sectors. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has long been accepted as an effective method for teaching English as a foreign language. In recent years, it has experienced an increasing presence in secondary and tertiary education across the globe. This is predominantly due to its learner-centered approach that focuses on developing linguistic competence in the student’s specific discipline, may that be academics, business or tourism, for example. Positioning English for Specific Purposes in an English Language Teaching Context attempts to present and define the relevance and scope of ESP within English Language teaching. From mobile phones as educational tools to the language needs of medical students, the contributors to this volume examine and propose different epistemological and methodological aspects of ESP teaching. Its unique approach to ESP marks this volume out as an important and necessary contribution to existing ESP literature, and one that will be of use to both researchers and practitioners of ESP.

Cultural Encounters: Cross-disciplinary studies from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Edited by Désirée Cappa, Warburg Institute et al.

March 2018 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-381-1
Availability: In stock
182pp. ¦ $57 £41 €46

This collection of essays contributes to the growing field of ‘encounter studies’ within the domain of cultural history. The strength of this work is the multi- and interdisciplinary approach, with papers on a broad range of historical times, places, and subjects. While each essay makes a valuable and original contribution to its relevant field(s), the collection as a whole is an attempt to probe more general questions and issues concerning the productive outcomes of cultural encounters throughout the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods. The collection is divided into three sections organised thematically and chronologically. The first, ‘Encounters with the Past,’ focuses on the reception of classical antiquity in medieval images and texts from France, Italy and the British Isles. The second, ‘Encounters with Religion,’ presents a selection of instances in which political, philosophical and natural philosophical issues arise within inter-religious contexts. The final section, ‘Encounters with Humanity,’ contains essays on early science fiction, political symbolism, and Elizabethan drama theory, all of which deal with the conception and expression of humanity, on both the individual and societal level. This volume’s wide range of topics and methodological approaches makes it an important point of reference for researchers and practitioners within the humanities who have an interest in the (cross-)cultural history of the medieval and Renaissance periods.