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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village Paperback - 1995

by Michael Mayerfeld Bell

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Reader reviews for Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village

From the publisher

In Childerley a twelfth-century church rises above the rolling quilt of pastures and grain fields. Volvos and tractors share the winding country roads. Here, in this small village two hours from London, stockbrokers and stock-keepers live side by side in thatched cottages, converted barns, and modern homes.

Why do these villagers find country living so compelling? Why, despite our urban lives, do so many of us strive for a home in the country, closer to nature? Michael Bell suggests that we are looking for a natural conscience: an unshakeable source of identity and moral value that is free from social interests--comfort and solace and a grounding of self in a world of conflict and change.

During his interviews with over a hundred of Childerley's 475 residents--both working-class and professional--Bell heard time and again of their desire to be "country people" and of their anxiety over their class identities. Even though they often knowingly participate in class discrimination themselves--and see their neighbors doing the same--most Childerleyans feel a deep moral ambivalence over class. Bell argues they find in class and its conflicts the restraints and workings of social interests and feel that by living "close to nature" they have an alternative: the identity of a "country person," a "villager that the natural consicence gives."

Yet there are clear parallels between the ways in which the villagers conceive of nature and of social life, and Bell traces these parallels across Childerleyans' perspectives on class, gender, and politics. Where conventional theories would suggest that what the villagers see as nature is a reflection of how they see society, and that the natural conscience must be a product of social interests, Bell argues that ideological processes are more complex. Childerleyans' understandings of society and of the natural conscience shape each other, says Bell, through a largely intuitive process he calls resonance.

For anyone who has ever lived in the countryside or considered doing so, this book is not to be missed. It will also be of particular interest to scholars of British studies and the sociology of knowledge and culture, and to those who work on problems of environment, community, class, and rural life.

"[An] exemplary piece of fieldwork. . . . These gentle conclusions . . . reminds us (when we most need reminding) of the skillful ethnographer's enduring capacity to make the everyday seem truly extraordinary."--Laurie Taylor, New Statesman & Society

"Bell's achievement, and his perceptions, are impressive."--J.W.M. Thompson, London Times

"Races along with all the gossipy compulsion of a blockbuster."--Frances Hardy, Daily Mill

"I believe this view of how people relate to the different domains of their experience is absolutely right. . . . The reader, this ready anyway, finishes Childerley with the feeling that she has just returned from visiting a remote Hampshire village and has learned something, not just about that place, but about human social life lived in other places and lived through place itself."--Wendy Griswold, American Journal of Sociology

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  • Title Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village
  • Author Michael Mayerfeld Bell
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition New edition
  • Pages 292
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press, Chicago
  • Publication date July 1, 1995
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780226041988 / 0226041980
  • Weight 0.75 lbs (0.34 kg)
  • Dimensions 9 x 6 x 0.6 in (22.86 x 15.24 x 1.52 cm)
  • Category Archaeology / Anthropology
  • Library of Congress subjects Hampshire (England) - Social conditions, Hampshire (England) - Moral conditions
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 93024209
  • Dewey Decimal Code 306.094

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Childerley : Nature and Morality in a Country Village

Childerley : Nature and Morality in a Country Village

by Michael Mayerfeld Bell

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University of Chicago Press, 1995. Paperback. Acceptable. Disclaimer:A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. At ThriftBooks, our motto is: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld

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Childerley : Nature and Morality in a Country Village
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Childerley : Nature and Morality in a Country Village

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld

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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld

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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village

Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village

by Michael Mayerfeld Bell

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9780226041988 / 0226041980
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Paperback / softback. New. For this study, Bell held interviews with over 100 of Childerley's residents, exploring their perspectives on class, gender and politics. He found that most felt a moral ambivalence over class and felt that by living close to nature they had an alternative - the identity of a "country person".
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village

Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village

by Michael Mayerfeld Bell

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  • Paperback
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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226041988 / 0226041980
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Paperback / softback. New. For this study, Bell held interviews with over 100 of Childerley's residents, exploring their perspectives on class, gender and politics. He found that most felt a moral ambivalence over class and felt that by living close to nature they had an alternative - the identity of a "country person".
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Childerley
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Childerley

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld,

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Childerley
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Childerley

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld,

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9780226041988 / 0226041980
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226041988 / 0226041980
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University of Chicago Press, 1995-07-01. New edition. paperback. New. 6.25x1.00x9.25. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)
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Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village (Morality and Society Series)

by Bell, Michael Mayerfeld

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226041988 / 0226041980
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