David C. Thorns – författare

How do our everyday environments inform our activities, routines and encounters? In what way has globalization affected the sites in which we work, relax and interact? Is there still a place for local identity in a globalized age?This book examines the ways in which we use local spaces and global processes to shape our identities. Showing how enhanced tourism, communication developments and increased diversity have effected the way we live every day, the text also explains how individuals, communities and cities react to such globalizing forces on a local level. Each chapter unravels complex connections between place, identity and global processes, and carefully outlines what core theory can tell us about key contemporary debates, including surveillance, environmental change and sustainability. Taking examples from urban and rural life, shopping malls and virtual worlds, the book encourages us to look at our immediate surroundings in a sociological light.Highlighting the interdependence of space and society in a rapidly changing world, this text is essential reading for those studying place and identity in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Urban Studies and Rural Studies.

How do our everyday environments inform our activities, routines and encounters? In what way has globalization affected the sites in which we work, relax and interact? Is there still a place for local identity in a globalized age?This book examines the ways in which we use local spaces and global processes to shape our identities. Showing how enhanced tourism, communication developments and increased diversity have effected the way we live every day, the text also explains how individuals, communities and cities react to such globalizing forces on a local level. Each chapter unravels complex connections between place, identity and global processes, and carefully outlines what core theory can tell us about key contemporary debates, including surveillance, environmental change and sustainability. Taking examples from urban and rural life, shopping malls and virtual worlds, the book encourages us to look at our immediate surroundings in a sociological light.Highlighting the interdependence of space and society in a rapidly changing world, this text is essential reading for those studying place and identity in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Urban Studies and Rural Studies.

The aim of the book is to examine the transformation of the city in the late 20th century and explore the ways in which city life is structured. The shift from modern-industrial to information/consumption-based 'post-modern' cities is traced through the text. The focus is not just on America and Europe but also explores cities in other parts of the world as city growth in the twenty first century will be predominantly outside of these regions.

First Published in 2004. This book addresses a number of key themes in the debate about the nature of a contemporary capitalist society. It poses the question as to whether the present changes are creating a more fragmented society. Through a comparative historical analysis of Australia, New Zealand and Britain the book examines the restructuring of the workforce, the shifts towards more flexible work practices, rising unemployment, the growth of individualism, regional and local diversity, and the creation of new social formations. The book challenges both the more economistic versions of the New International Division of Labour thesis and the ethnocentrism of much contemporary debate on regional change. It argues for an approach based in the distinct experiences of localities, regions and nation states. Detailed empirical data are provided for Australia, Britain and New Zealand covering such areas as economic and employment change, regional diversity, restructuring of the state sector, consumption and home ownership and local social resistances and responses to change. The author is an established and widely published researcher who has conducted intensive research into the three societies examined in this book. The book will interest students in Sociology, Geography, Regional Science, Urban and Regional Planning and Political Science.

Originally published in 1976, The Quest for Community is a wide comparative study of residential area development which discusses the key components in community formation and persistence. The actions of inhabitants as they have affected the development of the areas are studied and contrasted with the original aims of the creators, planners and others. The range is wide: from new towns to squatter settlements; from new housing estates to kibbutzim. The comparative analysis, based on several years of field work and documentary research, concentrates on social processes from which a new model of residential area development is drawn. This is an important and readable text for students of urban sociology, community studies, community work, urban geography, town planning and environmental studies.