Description: This book explores what becomes visible if we look at peripheral, deprived rural regions through the lens of a complex adaptive assemblage and how we can better support these communities.
Brief description: Joanie Willett is Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Exeter, UK. She is a Fulbright award holder 2022/3, a former Political Studies Association Trustee (2015-19), and has published two books, Affective Assemblages and Local Economies and An Introduction to UK Politics: Place, Pluralism and Identities.
Review Quotes:
"This is an excellent book, theoretically sound and featuring fascinating case studies. Willett looks comparatively at two regions across the UK and the USA, to construct a rural development model and critique existing approaches within a wider political context." --Menelaos Gkartzios, Newcastle University
"There is much to unpack here, and it is deftly done across the first three chapters. Willett is adept at translating often nebulous ideas for a wider regional studies audience, whether neatly parsing affect theory (a minor academic industry itself) or introducing Bergsonian temporality (without tears). Such conceptual clarity should earn the book space on many different shelves. Readers mystified by mention of assemblage and affect, or coming to the concepts for the first time, will find explanations made the more digestible through helpful analogy. Equally, readers already in the theoretical know will find plenty to reflect on, extend and remix." --Regional Studies