Politics in Place focuses on political life in a typical Australian agricultural town. It examines the maintenance of a local political power structures through an analysis of the town’s social processes and asociated ideologies. Dr Gray argues that local government does affect peoples’ lives and discusses why it is that some people can use their local political system to their advantage while others remain unempowered. Unlike many earlier studies, Politics in Place does not rely on the identification of an elite group, nor does it merely decribe static features of social stratification. Rather, it examines the historically-based processes that have created the constraints which limit prospects for local people. The book will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain an insight into the workings of politics at local level.