Transnational migration is a controversial and much-discussed issue in both the popular media and the social sciences, but at its heart migration is about individual people making the difficult choice to leave their families and communities in hopes of achieving greater economic prosperity. Vicente Quitasaca is one of these people. In 1995 he left his home in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca to live and work in New York City. This anthropological story of Vicente's migration and its effects on his life and the lives of his parents and siblings adds a crucial human dimension to statistics about immigration and the macro impact of transnational migration on the global economy. Anthropologist Ann Miles has known the Quitasacas since 1989. Her long acquaintance with the family allows her to delve deeply into the factors that eventually impelled the oldest son to make the difficult and dangerous journey to the United States as an undocumented migrant. Focusing on each family member in turn, Miles explores their varying perceptions of social inequality and racism in Ecuador and their reactions to Vicente's migration. As family members speak about Vicente's new, hard-to-imagine life in America, they reveal how transnational migration becomes a symbol of failure, hope, resignation, and promise for poor people in struggling economies. Miles frames this fascinating family biography with an analysis of the historical and structural conditions that encourage transnational migration, so that the Quitasacas' story becomes a vivid firsthand illustration of this growing global phenomenon.

From Cuenca to Queens: An Anthropological Story of Transnational Migration

Politics & Social Sciences

Miles, Ann

Social Sciences

University of Texas Press

Once associated only with the wealthy and privileged in Latin America, lifelong illnesses are now emerging among a wider cross section of the population as an unfortunate consequence of growing urbanization and increased life expectancy. One of these diseases is the chronic autoimmune disorder lupus erythematosus. Difficult to diagnose and harder still to effectively manage, lupus challenges the very foundations of women’s lives, their real and imagined futures, and their carefully constructed gendered identities. While the illness is validated by medical science, it is poorly understood by women, their families, and their communities, which creates multiple tensions as women attempt to make sense of an unpredictable, expensive, and culturally suspect medically managed illness.
Living with Lupus vividly chronicles the struggles of Ecuadorian women as they come to terms with the experience of debilitating chronic illness. Drawing on years of ethnographic research, Ann Miles sensitively portrays the experiences and stories of Ecuadorian women who suffer with the intractable and stigmatizing disease. She uses in-depth case histories, rich in ethnographic detail, to explore not only how chronic illness can tear at the seams of women’s precarious lives, but also how meanings are reconfigured when a biomedical illness category moves across a cultural landscape. One of the few books that deals with the meanings and experiences of chronic illness in the developing world, Living with Lupus contributes to our understanding of a significant global health transition.

Living with Lupus: Women and Chronic Illness in Ecuador (Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture Series)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Communication at the Heart of the School: A Guide for Practitioners Working with Children with Learning Disabilities

Communication at the Heart of the School introduces a simple, practical approach for communication development in schools, with a specific focus on children with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) or Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). 
The tried-and-tested framework offers a shared approach to communication development between teachers and speech and language therapists, moving through three crucial stages: the communication assessment, the communication pathway and the classroom environment. It provides a clear structure for the role of each professional and explains how they contribute to every aspect of the child’s communication development. 
Key features include: A communication pathway that follows a yearly cycle of assessment, plan and intervention, identifying specific communication needs and offering advice on creating communication-friendly environments A focus on the shared vision of teachers and speech and language therapists, creating a united and team-led approach to communication development, ensuring that both therapists and teachers feel supported in tackling complex communication challenges effectively Photocopiable and downloadable assessment forms for accurately measuring outcomes in a time-friendly and accessible way 
Underpinned by the Communication and Cognitive Framework currently used by teachers, speech and language therapists and families, this resource offers a complete package of communication support. It is an essential tool for speech and language therapists and teachers supporting children communicating at early developmental levels.

Education & Teaching

Sawford, Rachel

Schools & Teaching

Routledge

Communications,Curriculum and Classroom Practice

This book discusses the development of English (Communication and Literacy) for children below level one of the National Curriculum. The authors take account of the latest QCA guidelines for pupils with significantly below age-related expectations.

Lathan, Clare

David Fulton Publishers

Unraveling Time: Thirty Years of Ethnography in Cuenca, Ecuador

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

This work describes and includes a practical assessment of functional communication in four parts: it considers communication skills from the earliest interactions to the skills of children working within level one of the National Curriculum English; it also aims to enable the reader to build an assessment of how and what a child is communicating, and to assess a range of communication difficulties; a completed assessment supplies information to construct an individual, total communication system for each child, which can include sign, symbol and speech output devices; and the book should enable differing professionals to assess together using shared framework and to then plan realistic support for an individual child.

Assessing Communication

Latham, Clare

Redway School (Milton Keynes, England)

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Books by Miles, Ann