Jon Davies

Wild City is not your usual gardening book. Wild City is a radical, much needed call to action for modern urban dwellers who care about nature in their towns and cities. Award-winning urban landscape designers, Steve Williams and Jon Davies (aka Wild City Studio) showcase their vision of modern urban regeneration through their own unique, disruptive design style cultivated by a love of city life, art, music and nature. With inspiring vignettes, case studies and practical how-to information from the pioneering duo, you’ll learn how to appreciate and nurture thriving, sustainable green spaces in any concrete jungle. Return time and again to poetic passages on nature, art and timeless philosophy for radical inspiration, allowing you to weave your own creative passions into nature. “How to” pages give you the fundamentals to these pioneering urban regeneration approaches, which become the start of an exciting journey of experimentation. Learn how to establish an urban farm built on balance and the principles of food forestry, including naturalistic planting, embracing wildflowers and "weeds" and how to grow crops and mushrooms, inside and outside. Global case studies: learn what other communities around the world are doing and how they can be implemented in your own community spaces, as well as in gardens of any size or type. Wild City celebrates the grit and dynamism of the cities we love. Through collaboration and a passion for innovative and affordable landscape techniques we can spark real change for an optimistic future right now.

Drawing on empirical work and secondary analysis from the UK and Finnish construction industries, this book contributes a deep-rooted analysis of construction industry harms that originate from corporate-industrialstate processes. The UK context arguably represents a classic ‘neoliberal’ system categorised by privatisation of services and minimal regulation, whereas Finland broadly provides a ‘social democratic’ alternative with its relatively strong national regulation and public sector oversight of industry. These concepts interlink strongly with the notion of state-corporate crime, since this perspective shifts attention away from individualistic explanations for crime and harm towards symbiosis between states and corporations. This book argues that existing explanations based on organised crime and individual ‘rogues’ are insufficient to account for the wider range and subtlety of harms that occur in construction, and therefore offers a unique perspective into organisational, industry, and state dynamics in this sector. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, organized crime, and those interested in harms in the construction industry.

Drawing on empirical work and secondary analysis from the UK and Finnish construction industries, this book contributes a deep-rooted analysis of construction industry harms that originate from corporate-industrialstate processes.The UK context arguably represents a classic ‘neoliberal’ system categorised by privatisation of services and minimal regulation, whereas Finland broadly provides a ‘social democratic’ alternative with its relatively strong national regulation and public sector oversight of industry. These concepts interlink strongly with the notion of state-corporate crime, since this perspective shifts attention away from individualistic explanations for crime and harm towards symbiosis between states and corporations. This book argues that existing explanations based on organised crime and individual ‘rogues’ are insufficient to account for the wider range and subtlety of harms that occur in construction, and therefore offers a unique perspective into organisational, industry, and state dynamics in this sector.An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, organized crime, and those interested in harms in the construction industry.

The World Jesus Entered traces the roots of what would become the Christian religion during its first two centuries, from the time of Jesus to the second and third generations of Christian believers. Although Jesus was a Jew among Jews who focused his ministry within a Jewish milieu, the Jewish people were themselves part of a wider world that had heavily impacted their culture and society by the time of Jesus; that world would in turn eventually help shape what would become the religions of both Judaism and Christianity. As different parties fought to control Jewish adaptation to a post-Jerusalem-centered mindset, the teachings of Jesus would become subsumed by ideas and practices quite different from those recorded as belonging to the first generation of his followers. Four discrete chapters focus on differing influences--Jewish, non-Jewish, alt-Jewish, and Gnostic--as an introduction to the societies and cultures the teachings of Jesus entered. The book closes with two chapters showing how such influences impacted both Christian practice and doctrine, in the form of missionary activity and worship and in teachings regarding the afterlife and the very nature of existence proposed by the new Christian sect. As Jewish elites fought to define their culture and as non-Jewish Christians aimed to distinguish themselves from Jewish rebels fighting the Roman Empire and come to an understanding of the man-God Jesus who had been introduced to them, the faith Jesus founded would transform the world as much as it would be transformed by it.

"This series will be a significant, valuable contribution to the history and literature of gay cinema. Each of these works will be valuable additions for academic and popular students of film and gay culture."--"Library Journal" """Trash," one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, delves into the legendary 1970 film that was arguably the greatest collaboration between director Paul Morrissey and producer Andy Warhol. The film "Trash" is a down-and-out domestic melodrama about a decidedly eccentric couple: Joe, an impotent junkie (played by Warhol film regular Joe Dallesandro), and Holly, Joe's feisty and sexually frustrated girlfriend (played by trans Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn). Joe is the hunky yet passive center around whom proud Holly orbits; while Morrissey intended to show that "there's no difference between a person using drugs and a piece of refuse," Woodlawn's incredible turn reverses his logic: she makes trash as precious as human beings. The book examines the film in the context of Morrissey and Warhol's legendary partnership, with a special focus on Woodlawn's acclaimed performance: a glorious embodiment of "trash" and glamour that was so stunning, director George Cukor led a campaign (albeit unsuccessful) to win her an Oscar nomination. Jon Davies is a curator and critic based in Toronto. He is the assistant curator of public programs at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. The Queer Film Classics series, starting this fall, consists of critical yet populist monographs on classic films of interest to LGBT audiences written by esteemed film scholars and critics.

In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are:* Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt* burying the Jewish dead* Roman religion and Roman funerals* Early Christian burial* the nature of martyrdom.Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.

In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are:* Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt* burying the Jewish dead* Roman religion and Roman funerals* Early Christian burial* the nature of martyrdom.Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.