Social theory Books

This book investigates the sociohistorical making of place and people in Copenhagen from around 1900 to the present day. Drawing inspiration from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of social space and symbolic power, and from Loïc Wacquant's hypothesis of...

This book examines the social production of our world, of the worlds of the past and of the worlds of the future, considering the ways in which worlds are created in both actuality and imagination. Bringing together central concepts of classical...

Structure and Agency in Young People's Lives brings together different takes on the possible combinations of agency and structure in the life course, thus rejecting the notion that young individuals are the single masters of their lives, but also the...

The essays in Modernity and Religion comprise the reflections of eight seminal thinkers on various aspects of the problems of modern thought and its attitude toward religion. By concentrating on the supposed chasms between modern thought and the...

Chen, He and Yan present a range of applications of multiple-source big data to core areas of contemporary sociology, demonstrating how a theory-guided approach to macrosociology can help to understand social change in China, especially where traditional...

Awarded the 2023 "René Wellek Prize for the Best Edited Essay Collection" by the American Comparative Literature Association, Migrating Minds contributes to the prominent interdisciplinary domain of Cosmopolitan Studies with 20 innovative...

This book examines the largely-neglected shift in Max Weber's work from political economy to economic sociology. Considering the importance of his recognition-made during his research on the Protestant Ethic-of the reciprocal influences that exist...

This volume presents a comparative exploration of Dalit autobiographical writing from India and of Latin American testimonio as subaltern voices from two regions of the Global South. Offering frames for linking global subalternity today, the chapters...

How can social cohesion be achieved in a meritocratic and multicultural global city-state? Meritocracy poses a paradox: On one hand, it integrates individuals through frameworks of equal treatment, equal justice and opportunity regardless of race,...

This book offers a re-examination of art production in terms that understand the process of learning as the production of art itself. Drawing on the thought of Ranciere, Freire, Gramsci and Mouffe, it provides an account of the politics of art production...

Symbols matter, and especially those present in public spaces, but how do they exert influence and maintain a hold over us? Why do such materialities count even in the intensely digitalized culture? This book considers the importance of urban symbols to...

This book presents a conceptual and methodological framework to understand South Asia by engaging with the practices of sociology and social anthropology in India and Nepal. It provides a new imagination of South Asia by connecting historical, political,...

This book lays out a framework for understanding connections between home and mobility, and situates this within a multidisciplinary field of social research. The authors show how the idea of home offers a privileged entry point into forced migration,...

Presents a rhetorical critique of contemporary neoliberal biopolitics through a series of transdisciplinary case studies.

Mainstream gerontological scholarship has taken little heed of people ageing with disability, and they have also been largely overlooked by both disability and ageing policies and service systems. The Handbook on Ageing with Disability is the first to...

This edition of New Lives for Old, prepared for the centennial of Mead's birth, features introductions by Stewart Brand and Mead's daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson.When Margaret Mead first studied the Manus Islanders of New Guinea in 1928, they were...

This book argues for a new anthropology of the moving image, bringing together an important range of essays on time-based media in the contemporary arts and anthropology. It builds on recent attempts to develop more experimental formats and engages with...

Social Workers and Compassion is designed to assist social work students, social workers, social work managers, social care workers, and lecturers in developing knowledge, understanding, skills, and values related to various aspects of compassion...

Shades of Deviance is a turbo-driven guide to crime and deviance. It offers politically engaged, thought-provoking and accessibly written accounts of a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts. This updated and revised edition is designed to be...

Zygmunt Bauman was one of the most important social theorists of recent decades. He did major work on the Holocaust, the postmodern and much else, up to fifty-eight books in English on almost as many topics. In this book, Australian sociologist Peter...