Sociology and Social Theory

Neoliberalism is having a detrimental impact on wider social and ethical goals in the field of education. Using an international range of contexts, this book provides practical examples that demonstrate how neoliberalism can be challenged and changed at the local, national and transnational level.

This original collection draws on the latest empirical research to explore the practical challenges facing happiness researchers today. By uniquely combining the critical approach of sociology with techniques from other disciplines, the contributors illuminate new qualitative and biographical approaches of the study of happiness and well-being.

This is the first book to take a radical approach to socially just, community centred research. Challenging traditional models for conducting social science research within marginalized populations, it examines the relationships between research, knowledge construction, and political power/legitimacy in society.

Drawing on evidence from across Europe, Asia and the USA, this accessible book covers how social workers can engage with research and draw on it in practice.

This book presents a crisis of religion and belief literacy to which education at every level is challenged to respond. It provides a clear pathway for engaging well with religion and belief diversity in public and shared settings.

This book develops new ways of thinking beyond the nation as a form of political community by transcending ethnonational categories of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Drawing on scholarship and cases spanning Pacific Asia and Europe, it provides a constructive agenda for critical nationalism studies.

Challenging concepts and practices of rehabilitation, this text draws on criminology, philosophy and theology to develop a theory of ‘redemptive criminology’ that could revolutionise the rehabilitation system. It offers new insights into punishment and retribution and explores the connections between victims, perpetrators and the community.

Reclaiming individualism reviews the scope of individualist approaches, and considers how they apply to issues of policy. It argues for a concept of individualism based on rights, human dignity, shared interests and social protection.

Miriam David celebrates the achievements of international feminists as activists and scholars and provides a critique of the expansion of global higher education masking their pioneering zeal and zest for knowledge.

Reclaiming Social Democracy is the first major reappraisal of social democracy on the centre-left since the election of Jeremy Corbyn. With a foreword by Lord Hain, it examines its foundational principles and identifies the values needed to find a route back to political credibility for Labour.

This book offers an analysis of the limitations of child attachment theory as the basis for decision-making in child welfare practice, examining controversies and offering a new pedagogy that is responsive to the changing dynamics of contemporary families.