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This critical analysis of long-term trends and recent developments in world systems examines such questions as: Will the cycles of boom and bust, peace and war of the past 500 years continue? Or have either long-term trends or recent changes so profoundly altered the...
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So what is feminism anyway? Is it possible to make sense of the complex and often contradictory debates?
In this concise and accessible introduction to feminist theory, Chris Beasley provides clear explanations of the many types of feminism. She outlines the...
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`As the study of social policy comes increasingly to address issues of theorising welfare in a period of fundamental social change, Culpitt's book is especially welcome in helping to update the reader in many of the debates and explorations surrounding social change, in...
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George Ritzer's McDonaldization thesis argued that contemporary life is succumbing to the standardization, flexibility and practicability of fast-food service. This book brings together specially commissioned papers by leading social and cultural analysts to engage in a...
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This original textbook provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to using quantitative methods in the social sciences. Thomas R Black guides the student and researcher through the minefield of potential problems that may be confronted, and it is this emphasis on...
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Over the last 30 years the post-war centre-ground which recognized the welfare state, the funding of education, protection of the environment and the management of capitalism as the proper business of the state, has fragmented. Emphasis on the freedom of the individual...
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In Spaces of Culture an international group of scholars examines the implications of questions such as: What is culture? What is the relationship between social structure and culture in a globalized and networked world? Do critical perspectives still apply, or does the...
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This book decodes the ambivalence of gift-giving. It examines its socio-ethical and integrative potential. Following a short recollection of contemporary gift-giving, its motives, occasions and its rules, the reader is invited to travel back in time and space examining...
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The dramatic transformation of relationships between humans and animals in the 20th century are investigated in this fascinating and accessible book. At the beginning of this century these relationships were dominated by human needs and interests, modernization was a...
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This major collection explores the contested nature of love and eroticism, examining the ways in which erotic bodily pleasures have become central to contemporary consumer culture. It investigates the spatial dimension of erotic life through considerations of Bohemian...
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What are the relationships between the self and fieldwork? How do personal, emotional and identity issues impact upon working in the field?
This book argues that ethnographers, and others involved in fieldwork, should be aware of how fieldwork research and...
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This book goes beyond Baudrillard's writings on consumer objects, the Gulf War and America, to identify the fundamental logic that underpins his writings. It does this through a series of close readings of his main texts, paying particular attention to the form and...
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This book critically examines the potential of, and suggests ways forward in, harnessing a versatile and powerful method of research - focus groups. The book challenges some of the emerging orthodoxies and presents accessible, insightful and reflective discussions about...
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This authoritative overview of drugs and society today examines: whether a process of `normalization' of drugs and drug use is under way; the debate over prohibition versus legislation; `drugs' and `users' as `other' or `dangerous'; drugs and dance cultures; drug use...
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This book is one of the first to take an in-depth look at how an advertising image works. It situates the Nike swoosh logo in terms of political economy, sociology, culture and semiotics. Nike Culture describes and deconstructs the themes and structures of Nike's...
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In this major work, Zygmunt Bauman seeks to classify the meanings of culture. He distinguishes between culture as a concept, culture as a structure and culture as praxis and analyzes the different ways in which culture has been used in each of these settings. For...
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`As a companion to Foucault's original texts, carefully showing what he's done and why - and how that could be applied elsewhere - it's outstanding' - www.theory.org.uk
`Very much a `hands-on' tool kit of a book, scholarly but accessible.... a very useful textbook...
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`I would recommend the book to anyone with an interest in the family, whether their interest is in constructs of "old" family values and morals, or in the "new" alternatives, and (possibly from a political point of view), threatening family. It provides food for thought...
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This book provides the first accessible introduction to neural network analysis as a methodological strategy for social scientists. The author details numerous studies and examples which illustrate the advantages of neural network analysis over other quantitative and...
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Anthony Giddens is widely recognized as one of the most important sociologists of the post-war period. This is the first full-length work to examine Giddens' social theory. It guides the reader through Giddens' early attempt to overcome the duality of structure and...
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