This Open Access book reimagines social connection beyond the crisis narrative of loneliness, presenting an innovative interdisciplinary model that bridges individual experiences with community infrastructure. Drawing on research with urban fringe residents, the authors reveal how meaningful connections form through complex interactions across physical and digital spaces, shaped by environmental contexts and personal capabilities.Beyond Loneliness offers a strengths-based ...

Jess had been happy riding her buckskin mustang until, without warning, time travel reconstructed her personal culture. She had felt there was no need to go beyond the comfortable world she had created for herself. Human relationships were tedious, even her cell phone was optional. Her perspective was altered when she intercepted the time warp and was thrust into the challenges of surviving in antebellum Mississippi.

This open access book provides practical guidance for non-profits and community sector organisations about how to get started with data analytics projects using their own organisations’ datasets and open public data. The book shares best practices on collaborative social data projects and methodology. For researchers, the work offers a playbook for partnering with community organisations in data projects for public good and gives worked examples of projects of various sizes and complexity....

Jess was content riding her quiet self-made world astride her buckskin mustang, until what seemed to be a chance meeting, resulted in a world torn open. Thrust through a time warp, Jess dropped into antebellum Mississippi where she struggled to escape a time alive with danger and suspicion. Cut off, exposed, and haunted by an era that should not know her, Jess discovers that survival and the fulness of life depends on relationships with other people.

Go along with Rahina as she journeys through lands of magical encounters, mythical creatures, and unsuspected betrayals.Faced with the impending death of the woman who raised her, eighteen-year-old Rahina has no idea how she can help. She has been happy creating art in her simple world. Then she makes a discovery that upends everything she thought she knew about herself. Rahina reluctantly embarks on a journey to retrieve rare healing herbs. She traverses a lethal land filled with ...

Dr. Thomas Cornelius Jeffords was a man ahead of his time-a doctor, dentist, and farmer who left an indelible mark on the heart of Georgia. Doctor Dentist Farmer: The Legacy of Thomas Cornelius Jeffords delves into the life of this remarkable man, capturing his journey from a young student in Waresboro to a respected medical professional in Sylvester. Through the eyes of his great-niece, Julia Ann Jeffords, readers are invited into a world of Southern tradition, family loyalty, and the rel...

Industrial agriculture is generally characterized as either the salvation of a growing, hungry, global population or as socially and environmentally irresponsible. Despite elements of truth in this polarization, it fails to focus on the particular vulnerabilities and potentials of industrial agriculture. Both representations obscure individual farmers, their families, their communities, and the risks they face from unpredictable local, national, and global conditions: fluctuating and often...

The women of The Homegrown Café Book Club are over 40, single, and loving it. Fate, however, has a different plan with a younger man for every last one of them.Organic farmer Riley Fenniman is happily single at forty-seven and refuses to acknowledge an attraction to her younger accountant, let alone surrender to it. Unfortunately, a legal catch in her farm’s ownership and a health scare give her no choice in the matter. The women of The Homegrown Café Book Club have the perfect pla...

In recent decades, governments have promoted social enterprise as a means to address welfare and tackle disadvantage. Early academic work on social enterprises reflected this development and engaged with their ability to deliver and create jobs, work towards remedial environmental goals, and address a range of societal challenges. More recently, researchers have started to investigate the broader potential of social enterprise for the wellbeing of people and the planet.In this cont...

As the number of people affected by dementia continues to rise, this is the first in-depth examination of related services dedicated to the unique demands of remote and rural settings.Contributors from the UK, Australia, North America and Europe explore the experiences and requirements of those living with dementia and those caring for them in personal and professional capacities in challenging geographical locations. For practitioners, researchers, academics and policy makers, thi...

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.How do we hold onto friends and communities in a world that feels increasingly fragmented?This timely collection explores how social connection unfolds across personal, physical, community and digital spaces. From loneliness to belonging, the collection explores the broader social forces that shape our interactions. Packed with fresh insights and accessible research, the contributors bridge theory and practice.