The emergence of spirituality in contemporary culture in holistic forms suggests that organised religions have failed. This thesis is explored and disputed in this book in ways that mark important critical divisions. This is the first collection of essays to assess the significance of spirituality in the sociology of religion. The authors explore the relationship of spirituality to the visual, individualism, gender, identity politics, education and cultural capital. The relationship betwee...

For the past twenty years, Scottish death culture has emerged as a focus of scholars drawn from a wide variety of disciplines. Death comes to us all but too often we treat it as a private or personal matter. The former taboo about death is slowly lifting and contemporary research is playing an increasing part. Accordingly, the fifteen essays gathered in this book probe the multi-facetted role of death in Scottish history and culture. They explore personal fears of death, anxieties about Pr...

The second edition of From Dust to Ashes brings up-to-date this classic text investigating the replacement of burial by cremation in England and Wales. Cremation was promoted seriously in 1874 but the first cremation did not take place until eleven years later. The response by the public was cautious. Despite the provision of crematoria, by 1939, less than 4 percent of deaths were followed by cremation. The Second World War and the immediate post-war welfare state period brought d...

In 2006 Australia's population was 20.7 million. It is projected to reach 23 million in 2014. What is driving this rapid population growth, and how is the Rudd government dealing with immigration at a time of recession?The diversification of the immigration intake over the last 50 years, from the British Isles to Europe and Asia, is widely recognised. But there is less understanding of the development of Australia's temporary program, which since 2000 is the major component of the ...

Before his untimely death in the summer of 2006, Peter Jupp was widely recognised as one of the key influences in the recovery of British and Irish political history in the 'long' 18th century. His unrivalled knowledge of collections in public and private archives had made him well-nigh indispensable to several generations of historians. This volume had initially been conceived to mark Peter's retirement after 40 years service to Queen's University Belfast. With his sudden passing, it beca...

Focusing on the institutions and players of central and local government during an era of great transformation, Peter Jupp examines the cohesive nature of the British state, and how Britain was governed between 1688 and 1848.Divided into two parts, bisected by the accession of George III in 1760, this study:examines the changes to the framework and function of executive governmentpresents an analysis of its achievements, the composition and functio...

In a world already under stress from economic, religious and cultural pressures a new and terrifying peril emerges threatening the very existence of all life on earth. This unearthly quantum monster, takes the form of a vague scintillating spider. Not really alive, it kills without remorse or limit. It is left to two young scientists and a brilliant, but almost derelict older physicist to solve the terrible mystery of the Spider and its spawn before the world is lost. Dark enemies and myst...

This edited volume provides a compendium of recent work on critical curricularpedagogical praxes via itinerant curriculum theory (ICT). Overall, this volume advances ICT as a transnational-local way of doing critical curricular-pedagogical praxes, up-from-below, within bioregions. For those interested in doing critical pedagogy from an historicized, transnational, yet local perspective, this book is indispensable.

The period 1855 to 1955 was pivotal for modern Scottish death culture. Within art and literature death was a familiar companion, with its imagined presence charting the fears and expectations behind the public face of mortality. Framing new concepts of the afterlife became a task for both theologians and literary figures, both before and after the Great War. At the same time, medical and legal developments began to shift mortality into the realms of regulation and control. This interdiscip...