Social theory Books

This book examines diseases and disasters from the perspective of social and political theory, exploring the ways in which political leaders, social activists, historians, philosophers, and writers have tried to make sense of the catastrophes that have...

Drawing on cases from the world of 'free software', this book examines Rousseau's conception of freedom and its significance in the modern world of science and technology, where so much of our experience and activity is enwrapped by algorithms, from our...

What survives of the notions, principles and values of critical criminology? Faced with contexts that could not be more dramatically different to those fostering critical approaches to crime and its control, what is left of the radical theories and...

Civil-military relations have changed over time with respect to changing demographics, new domestic and international responsibilities, Industry-Defence cooperation, women in the armed forces and contemporary veteran wellbeing.The New Australian Military...

Exploring adoption in the Pacific, this book goes beyond the commonplace structural-functional analysis of adoption as a positive "transaction in parenthood." It examines the effects it has on adoptees' inner sense of self, their conflicted emotional...

The new 'mobilities turn' has become a powerful perspective in social theory. John Urry's oeuvre has been very influential in the emergence of this new field and has had lasting impacts on many scholars. This collection presents originally commissioned...

Technological advance affects almost all areas of human life. Rapid digitization, increased mobility, new biotechnologies, and nanotechnology deeply influence, amongst others, industrial production, entertainment, work, military affairs, and individual...

This book presents a novel methodological framework for analysing governmental discourse that combines pragmatist perspectives on language with computational sociolinguistics and large language models.

This book brings together the work of the late Anders Petersen, presenting his exciting and innovative transdisciplinary paradigm that offered insights into anxiety, depression and grief, and the connection between these conditions and the failings of...

Introduction to Sociology Through Comedy teaches foundational sociological concepts using comedy, first considering the history of sociology before employing examples from comedians - including standalone comedy bits, sketches, characters, and scenes -...

This book offers a historically sweeping yet detailed view of world-systemic migration as a racialized process. Since the early expansion of the world-system, the movement of people has been its central process. Not only have managers of capital moved to...

Value is typically theorized from the frameworks of economic theory or of moral/ethical theory, but we need to instead think about value foremost as political. Alena Wolflink uncovers a tension in value discourses between material and aspirational life...

Originally published in 1965 this book traces the forces which have brought the 20th century 'post-civilisation' into being: the ever-increasing power of science and the scientific attitude, the global communication network, the high efficiency of...

The Freedom Riders Across Borders: Contentious Mobilities provides the first comprehensive transnational historical analysis of the Freedom Rides. It explores the transnational history of these social movements and the struggles for the right to mobility...

As the concept of recognition shifts from philosophical theory to other fields of the humanities and social sciences, this volume explores the nature of this border category that exists in the space between sociological and philosophical considerations,...

This book explores the shift in sociology away from the shared aspiration of the classical transition, of transcending partiality through the construction of a "science of society", in the face of challenges to the notion of objectivity.　With the...

This book consists of a single essay that speculates on the question what is housing?, and its opposite question, what is not housing? The essay is organised around two distinct discourses around which housing can be framed. The first, which is the...

Dark Emotions is a book about a range of emotional experiences that are often regarded or characterized as 'negative', 'disturbing' or 'dark' as contrasted with emotions that are 'positive', pleasant' or 'light'.

This book introduces the sociology of philosophy as a research field, asking what can be gained by looking at the discipline of philosophy from a sociological perspective and how to go about doing it, as presented through three case studies of...

This sequel to Randall Collins' world-influential micro-sociology of violence introduces the question of time-dynamics: what determines how long conflict lasts and how much damage it does. Inequality and hostility are not enough to explain when and...

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...

Researches on the history of anthropological studies in India, unlike in western countries, has not yet been an established tradition, despite the fact that courses on the growth and de­velopment of anthropology in India are being taught at the...

Marxism's cultural turn, which has been prominent in its operation over at least the past four decades, continues to belie the hope it had initially held out. The idea that such a move would eventually pull Marxism out of its 'ontological crisis' is on...

In this colletion of essays the eminent social scientist, Dr. P.C. Joshi, argues that Marxism needs to be extended beyond the traditional confines set by Lenin and Mao in order to remain relevant in societies in which individuals have freedom of...

This volume straddles between being a compilation of chapters exploring the fundamental conceptual categories within Marxism while engaging with those categories at the same time demonstrating the dynamic ability of the Marxian theoretical paradigm to...

From Society to System presents sociologist Michel Freitag's (1935-2009) distinctive, multifaceted and interdisciplinary work. Elaborated within the grand sociological tradition, his dialectical sociology redefines sociality as the realm of the symbolic...

Current debates about experts are often polarized and based on mistaken assumptions, with expertise either defended or denigrated. Making Sense of Expertise instead proposes a conceptual framework for the study of expertise in order to facilitate a more...

Multiculturalism and the Nation in Germany: A Study in Moral Conflict examines the new debates surrounding matters of multiculturalism, immigration, and national identity in Germany in the wake of the 2015 Refugee Crisis. Arguing that contemporary...

Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and Their Domestic Superstitions is a book written by James Atkinson in 1832. The book provides a detailed account of the lives of women in Persia, including their customs, manners, and domestic superstitions...

This volume outlines Weber's comparative-historical sociology of 'interpretive understanding'. Drawing on central text to show how Weber himself applied his own procedures, it demonstrates the analytic strengths of his research strategies through...

This book highlights the theoretical bases of methodological individualism, as defined and developed in the writings of its founders and early advocates. Making available in English texts by Menger, Schumpeter, Simmel and Weber, it provides key...

Unique in its approach, Invitation to the Sociology of Emotions gives students a brief, but thorough, introduction to the sociology of emotions. In this new edition, the author updates the volume with recent research on emotion management, emotional...

Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and its sibling notion of assemblage, this book offers a conceptual and methodological alternative to dominant social movement theory. The contributors explore empirical cases where science, technology, and activists...

This book offers a new introduction to the thought of Gabriel Tarde, highlighting the continuing relevance, and even the novelty, of his thought, and showing that the micro-sociology offered to us by Tarde provides a framework through which we can...

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...