Gregory Hooks

This illuminating book offers a new perspective on social science inquiry into the spatial dimensions of societal well-being; addressing the key question of who gets what, and where. Leading scholars Linda M. Lobao and Gregory Hooks adopt an organizing framework that speaks to the concept of spatial inequality, how it forms a lens on societal disparities, and how it gives rise to work with underlying commonalities across different social science disciplines. With this scaffolding, the authors consider spatial inequality across spatial scales, places, and populations, including the subnational scale, so often missing in inequality research. Illustrative cases center on poverty, public service provision and austerity policies, environmental justice, and war and conflict. The book concludes by advancing an integrative social science agenda to guide future emancipatory research on inequality. Rethinking Spatial Inequality is a vital resource for students and scholars of inequality across the social sciences including sociology, human geography, development, regional, urban, and rural studies, demography, and political science. Policymakers and practitioners in public service provision will also benefit from this perceptive book.

This book explores historical developments in U. S. agriculture within the context of the larger political economy. It provides a review of the similarities and differences between the critical rural sociology of today with that of the 1930s.

In recent years, the consensual view of rural society has been challenged by theorists identifying the conflict, exploitation, and power relations in rural society. Beyond this theoretical challenge, empirical studies of the sociology of agriculture have provided a fresh understanding of the dynamics of U. S. agriculture. This book contributes to the growing literature by providing a historical perspective. The contributors explore historical developments in U. S. agriculture within the context of the larger political economy. The book opens with a review of the similarities and differences between the critical rural sociology of today with that of the 1930s and moves on to a study of the accumulation process in U. S. agriculture. Other issues covered include the erosion of the southern class structure during and after the 1930s, the landed aristocracy's reassertion in the post-bellum south, changes in the class structure and locus of agriculture in the midwest, and historical developments in the labor process and in capitalist agriculture in California. The concluding chapter provides a framework for studying both the origins and the consequences of state agriculture policies.

Using concise terms, peace could be defined as freedom from hostility; security as freedom from danger; and kyosei as social responsibility. Can a new comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to peace studies be developed? Why is a new direction essential, and what kind of impact might it have? How can educational institutions reach across disciplines to educate students about these globally important concepts? In a pioneering cross-cultural, transnational and multifaceted endeavor, Japanese and American scholars from various disciplines jointly explore these challenging questions by redefining the three key concepts of "peace, security and kyosei." Based on academic analyses in Japan and the United States, the book offers new perspectives for interdisciplinary peace studies and stimulates a public dialogue on how to shape a safer and more peaceful future for individuals, communities, and nations.