Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Communities ofWork -- Part I: Region,Work, and Restructuring -- 1 Old Industrial Regions and the Political Economy of Development -- 2 Place, Race, and State -- 3 Meat Processing in Rural America -- 4 Socioeconomic Trends in Mining-Dependent Counties in Appalachia -- 5 From Extraction to Amenities -- Part II: Work and Community -- 6 Troubled Waters or Business as Usual? -- 7 Identity of Self and Others through Work -- 8 Sense of Place and Rural Restructuring -- 9 Housing Labor's Unrest -- 10 Hogs and Citizens -- 11 Does Welfare to Work Work? -- Part III Reaction and Resistance -- 12 The Bus from Hell Hole Swamp -- 13 Stretched to Their Limits -- 14 Earning a Living and Building a Life -- 15 Livelihood Strategies of Farmers in Puerto Rico's Central Region -- 16 Older Workers and Retirement in Rural Contexts -- 17 The Social and Economic Context of Informal Work -- Empirical Realities, Theoretical Lessons, and Political Implications -- Contributors -- Index.