Society and culture: general Books

Humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Throughout history, it has played a crucial role in defining gender roles and identities. This collection offers an in-depth thematic examination of this...

In Challenging Neoliberalism at Turkey's Gezi Park, Gürcan and Peker explore the events of May 31, 2013, when what began as a localized demonstration against the demolition of Gezi Park, a public park in Istanbul turned into a nationwide protest cycle...

This landmark collection brings leading scholars in the field of political communication to debate one of the most important questions of our age: Can the media serve democracy? For the media to be democratic, they must enter into a positive relationship...

Pandemics, Science and Policy analyses the World Health Organisation's (WHO) management of the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic. Abeysinghe illustrates the ways in which the WHO's account was vulnerable to contestation, and ultimately how uncertain risks can affect...

The catacombs of Rome have captured imaginations for centuries. This innovative study takes a fresh look at these underground spaces, and considers how art, space, texts, and practices can tell us more about the catacombs and the people who dug and...

The first study to examine psychological warfare in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, this book presents a rational analysis of the Arab and Israeli struggles to gain the world's sympathy and support, tracing these struggles from the British...

The study deals with challenging questions of long-term future of global economy and the mankind. Focusing not only on what happens in the economic sphere but also on cultural, social, political, demographic, technological, and ecological processes. It...

In Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, there has been an out-pouring of popular-performative activities that have asked citizens to pose questions about the social order and about the memories of recent atrocities. Cala Buendía looks at ways in which cultural...

This volume examines journalism and memorialization in the age of social media, with a particular emphasis on communication in times of crisis. Recognizing that individuals are sharing more actively than ever before, this book investigates the...

The book charts the attempts of Islam's largest missionary movement, the Tablighi Jamaat, to build Europe's largest mosque in London. Key themes include how Islamic movements engage and adapt within liberal democracies and how local contexts are key in...

Dance has proliferated in movies, television, Internet, and retail spaces while the spiritual power of dance has also been linked with mass consumption. Walter marries the cultural studies of dance and the religious aspects of dance in an exploration of...

Focusing on global examples of gender equality, this collection explores non-dominant models of masculinity that represent gender equity in pro-feminist ways. Essays explore new alternative models of masculinity by a wide variety of contemporary authors...

Dead women litter the visual landscape of the 2000s. In this book, Clarke Dillman explains the contextual environment from which these images have arisen, how the images relate to (and sometimes contradict) the narratives they help to constitute, and the...

Filling a critical void, this book examines French women dramatists of the nineteenth-century who staged works prior to the lifting of censorship laws in 1864. Though none staged overtly feminist drama, Sophie de Bawr, Sophie Gay, Virginie Ancelot, and...

This book offers a critical analysis of the effect of usage of locative social media on the perceptions and phenomenal experience of lived in spaces and places. Drawing on users accounts of location-based social networking, a digital post-phenomenology...

Global Health involves, among many things the intensified travelling of people, resources, technologies, knowledge, standards, and ideas. This book describes what happens when innovations are transferred to new settings: What work is needed to make them...

Can 'theory' teach us anything about Peru? Can 'Peru' teach us anything about theory? The chapters in this volume explore these questions by establishing a productive dialogue between Peru and theory. Focusing on institutional weakness and economic,...

This book draws upon theory and theology to consider how religious institutions engage with post-conflict statebuilding and why they would choose to lend their resources to the endeavour. Drawing from the theologies of Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam,...

This collection takes the study of diasporic communication beyond the level of simply praising its existence, to offering critical engagements and analysis with the systems of journalistic production, process and consumption practices as they relate to...

This study explores the idea voiced by journalist Henry McDonald that the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist tribes of Ulster are '...the least fashionable community in Western Europe'. A cast of contributors including prominent politicians, academics,...

Established accounts of the child in nineteenth century literature tend to focus on those who occupy a central position within narratives. This book is concerned with children who are not so easily recognized or remembered, the peripheral or overlooked...

Exploring the relationship between space, place, and gendered violence as depicted in a range of South African writing, Gunne examines the social and political conditions of exceptionality during and after apartheid. Writers covered include: Hilda...

This is the first book-length study of early modern English approaches to Medea, the classical witch and infanticide who exercised a powerful sway over literary and cultural imagination in the period 1558-1688. It encompasses poetry, prose and drama, and...

Puerto Rican soldiers have been consistently whitewashed out of the narrative of American history despite playing parts in all American wars since WWI. This book examines the online self-representation of Puerto Rican soldiers who served during the War...

Feminist Erasures presents a collection of essays that examines the state of feminism in North America and Western Europe by focusing on multiple sites such as media, politics and activism. Through individual examples, the essays reveal the extent to...

This bracing volume collects work on Italian writers and filmmakers that engage with nonhuman animal subjectivity. These contributions address 3 major strands of philosophical thought: perceived borders between man and animals, historical and fictional...

The dominant cultural script is that the Baby Boomers have 'had it all', thereby depriving younger generations of the opportunity to create a life for themselves. Bristow provides a critical account of this discourse by locating the problematisation of...

There has been a widespread fascination with age-dissimilar couples in recent years. This book examines how the romantic relationships of these couples are understood. Based on qualitative research, McKenzie investigates notions of autonomy, relatedness,...

Analysing in-depth data from 11 European countries, this collection explores the rise of the European running market, the reasons and motives for running, and the most important players in the field. The volume sets out policy challenges and marketing...

Why are there so few women vice chancellors in UK higher education? In this book, Paula Burkinshaw explores the contemporary conversation around the 'missing women at the top' across UK society through in-depth interviews with the (hitherto) silent...

Transatlantic Literature and Culture After 9/11 asks whether post-9/11 America has chosen the 'wrong side of paradise' by waging war on terror rather than working for global peace. Analyzing transatlantic literature and culture, the book refocuses our...

This collection reflects on the international political economy of media and the valuable lessons to be learned from the media reforms currently taking place across South America. The contributors present a range of theoretical and methodological...

A new addition to the Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change series, this book sets the stage for subsequent books by identifying and analysing the current gaps in the field. It critically reviews the theory, practice and strategies of...

The Gothic and the Everyday aims to regenerate interest in the Gothic within the experiential contexts of history, folklore, and tradition. By using the term 'living', this book recalls a collection of experiences that constructs the everyday in its...

Stories, whether they are fact or fiction, popular or not, are a proven method of pedagogy. In the age of media convergence and with the advancement of technology, stories have morphed into new forms; however, their core purpose remains the same, which...

The Internet is the most terrifying and most beautifully innovative invention of the twentieth century. Using film theory and close textual analysis, Tucker offers an explanation of the Internet and a brief history of its portrayal on film in order...

Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil examines Black Brazilian political struggle and the predicaments it faces in a time characterized by the increasing institutionalization of ethno-racial policies and black participation in policy...

A social tragedy is a collective representation of injustice. Baker demonstrates how social tragedies facilitate moral action and discusses a series of contemporary case studies - the death of Princess Diana, Zinédine Zidane's 2006 World Cup scandal,...

This volume explores how children's rights has influenced research with children and how research can in turn shape policies and practices to enhance children's rights. The book examines the impact children's rights and Childhood Studies has had on how...

This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the connections between the environmental imaginary and issues of identity, place and nation. Utilizing a delimited ecocritical approach, McNee puts Brazilian culture, through the work of contemporary...

Through extensive analysis of the Swedish Armed Forces this study explores the possibilities and pitfalls of implementing of a gender perspective in military organizations and operations. It established a number of important lessons for similar attempts...

The muscle-bound male body is a perennial feature of classically-inflected action cinema. This book reassesses these films as a cinematic form, focusing on the depiction of heroic masculinity. In particular, Hercules in his many incarnations has greatly...

What does it mean to be a woman in the 21st century? The feminist movement has a long and rich history, but is its time now passed? This edited collection is driven by the question, why is feminism viewed by some (we would add a majority) as outdated, no...

While much is known about the situation in the labour market in the form of gender pay and earnings gaps, rather little is understood about their sequel in old age the gender pension gap. Entering the world of pensions may well signal a step backwards as...

The book discusses the changing relationship between American Catholic Bishops and civil authorities in the United States, as civil authority has eclipsed traditional Catholic ecclesiastical privilege and clerical exemption resulting from the...

Explores current debates around religious extremism as a means to understand and re-think the connections between terrorism, insurgency and state failure. Using case studies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, she develops a better understanding of the...

Beginning in the nineteenth century, native women preachers served and led nascent Protestant churches in much of Southern India, evolving their own mission theology and practices. This volume examines the impact of Telugu socio-political dynamics, such...

The State of Developmental Education is the first book to provide a thorough, comparative picture of how developmental education is carried out at higher education institutions and investigate how different state-level policies and priorities change the...