This chapter is based on an analysis of letters sent by members of the public to Casey Anthony, while she was awaiting trial for the capital murder of her daughter, Caylee. Caylee Anthony went missing in Orlando, Florida, in 2008, which Casey did not report to the police. After Casey’s mother had reported her granddaughter’s disappearance several weeks later, Casey was charged with her murder. Caylee’s body was not discovered until two months after this. The case was very high profile and received intense media coverage, including via social media. In June 2010, Florida’s state attorney’s office released letters that had been sent to Casey while she was in jail. She was tried and acquitted of Caylee’s murder and manslaughter in 2011. This chapter focuses on the letters sent to Casey by people who did not know her personally. It explores how they negotiated what they already knew of her and her case from media sources in relation to their own experiences and biography, in order to relate to Casey. In doing so, it analyses how correspondents variously drew on, utilised, reshaped and rejected discourses of femininity that circulate in legal and media constructions of high profile cases of women accused of murder. The chapter also examines how correspondents’ identification with, or rejection of, Casey Anthony and elements of her story was part of the process of their own identity construction

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows how the aspirational rhetoric of Dreamfields and English education policy does not do what it advertises. Race and class are being lived out in various ways through neoliberal regimes like Dreamfields which (re)produces difference differently. The book describes that instigating urban regeneration through education is framed as an obvious and neutral solution to deprivation, while serving as an effective response to the narratives of failure surrounding Urbanderry's education system. While Dreamfields is positioned as a tool transforming Urbanderry's urban culture, it also provides an 'oasis' ripe for middle-class colonisation. The book explains that nineteenth-century middle-class social reformers felt urban slums could be improved by a resident gentry bringing superior culture to these areas.

Patricia Casey’s chapter argues that up until recently there was no tradition of a questioning laity, or indeed, clergy, in the Irish Church. Centuries of persecution had brought priests and laity closer, even though they were never viewed as equals. A coalescence of events at home and abroad in the form of the sexual revolution, the rise of Communism, the reforms of Vatican II, created a Western Church where personal choice took precedence over the dictates of Rome. In Ireland, certain myths such as Catholic guilt, the links between celibacy and paedophilia, the death of God, the delusional nature of all religions, began to gain traction. The clerical abuse scandals served to reinforce hostility towards the Church and to add weight to the aforementioned myths, which has resulted in a society that is becoming increasingly impervious to the Word of God. Casey sees the need for Irish people to become educated about their faith so as to be in a position to speak to a secular audience and to find space for their Christian faith.

A city is realised through the accumulative efforts of everyone who engages with it. 'Ethnographic moments' explore the activities of city makers such as politicians, administrators, company leaders, activists and residents. Tension in realising competing visions for city spaces is evident at different scales, as Luciana Lang demonstrates in her analysis of shared areas in Cheetham Hill, North Manchester. Negotiation over land usage is not just about its purpose, as Michael Atkins argues in his exploration of Manchester's Gay Village, it is also about its branding. George Poulton shows how ideas of solidarity and community produced through supporting football clubs was diminished as Manchester United commercialised their operation. In Manchester, urban decision makers are creating new rules to support the development of the city, whilst also working within their responsibilities and obligations as democratic representatives of government.

This chapter examines the techniques people used to extend their bodies and perceptual abilities deep into the sea. It presents the importance of controlling and delicately manipulating these extensions and the caring relationships of maintenance boats and machines required. Fishermen developed techniques for extending their bodily perception and effectiveness that incorporated boats, engines, fishing gear and electronic navigation tools to work in and develop the affordances of fishing grounds. The chapter describes how the relationships to boats and machines are affected by class and social relations of ownership. It explores the ways in which 'new' high technology devices are embedded in broader techniques and forms of social organisation that attempt to solve 'old' problems at sea. The chapter discusses how people's experience of such devices are embedded in and deeply affected by social, class and market relations.

While aids to hearing were ubiquitous in nineteenth century middle class culture, they have only recently attracted attention among historians. Many such devices were inscribed with patent markings officially approved by the London Patent Office. Others instead simply bore claims to expired patents or the name of apparent ‘patentees’: such inscriptions served to persuade prospective purchasers that certain devices were ‘genuine’ inventions. The purchase of hearing aids was thus subject to complex relationships between designers, users, and user-designers centred on issues of trust, identity and efficacy.Drawing on patent records, advertising, the writings of ‘deaf’ journalists and artefacts, this chapter explores the selling of hearing aids as both a commercial and cultural encounter. First it looks at how the Rein and Hawksley companies adopted different strategies with regard to patenting and engaging prospective customers. Second it examines how hard-of-hearing journalists critiqued the opportunist vendors that often cited patents in their ‘advertising’ as a guarantor of effectiveness. The chapter concludes by examining the lived experiences of hearing aids purchasers, showing how such research affords historians the opportunity to investigate the histories of the deaf and hard of hearing through the material culture they accessed, whether designed for them or sometimes even by them.

This chapter explores the current criminal and civil justice systems in England and Wales and compares their accessibility to the public, their value for money and their overall viability. The international credit crisis resulted in government cuts and streamlining has produced an appetite to reduce criminal and civil litigation. In the criminal justice system, fewer cases are prosecuted whilst in the civil justice system; there is a desire to deter litigation by a number of measures. This Chapter argues that this philosophy is detrimental to both systems resulting in the reduction of genuine litigation thereby rendering the accessibility to both systems difficult and unfair. Whilst their economic viability might appear to be sound, this Chapter maintains that overall they are not economically viable and there needs to be a fundamental change in philosophy and approach.