Policy Press

Sociology and Social Theory

Sociology is a growth area for us and our books in sociology and social theory include exciting work from new authors and well-known academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate textbooks.

Our wide range of sociology and social theory books include high quality research and range from textbooks through to specialised monographs. Many also ‘make a difference’ in a tangible way, whether it be informing a key policy or practice debate, or improving the education of students.

Showing 37-48 of 284 items.

Liberalism, Childhood and Justice

Ethical Issues in Upbringing

Fowler provides an innovative critical exploration of ethical issues in children’s upbringing through the lens of political philosophy, calling for a radical new understanding of what constitutes wellbeing, the duties of parents and the collective obligations of state and society in guaranteeing children flourishing lives.

Bristol Uni Press

Imagining Regulation Differently

Co-creating for Engagement

This book innovatively explores how we can better apply a ‘bottom-up’ approach to the design of regulatory systems that recognise the capabilities, knowledge, passions and creativity of citizens in communities at the margins.

Policy Press

Social Research Matters

A Life in Family Sociology

Drawing from forty years of experience, Julia Brannen offers an invaluable account of how research in family studies is conducted and ‘matters’ at particular times. An exceptional resource for family scholars and those interested in the methodology of social research.

Bristol Uni Press

Precarity and Ageing

Understanding Insecurity and Risk in Later Life

This edited collection develops an exciting new approach to understanding the changing cultural, economic and social circumstances facing different groups of older people.

Policy Press

Social Work and the Making of Social Policy

Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy.

Policy Press

Nanny Families

Practices of Care by Nannies, Au Pairs, Parents and Children in Sweden

Using Sweden as a case study, this book combines theories of family practices, care and childhood studies with the personal perspectives of nannies, au pairs, parents and children to provide new understandings of what constitutes care in nanny families.

Bristol Uni Press

Time, Migration and Forced Immobility

Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Morocco

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book is concerned with the effects of migration policy making in Europe on migrants in the Global South and is based on in-depth ethnographic research in Morocco with migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bristol Uni Press

The Sociology of Debt

Key thinkers with a range of perspectives provide a sociological analysis of debt focused upon its social, political, economic, and cultural meanings. Contributors consider the lived experience of debt and financialisation taking place globally with accounts that span sociological, cultural, and economic forms of analysis.

Policy Press

Borders, Migration and Class in an Age of Crisis

Producing Workers and Immigrants

Informed by Marxist theory, this book examines how categories of ‘workers’ and ‘migrants’ have been mobilised within representations of a ‘migrant crisis’ and a ‘welfare crisis’ to facilitate capitalist exploitation, and proposes alternative understandings that foreground solidarity.

Bristol Uni Press

Whose Housing Crisis?

Assets and Homes in a Changing Economy

Reconceiving the current housing crisis in England as a ‘wicked’ problem, this book situates the crisis in a broader range of socio-economic issues and calls for a change in how housing is produced and consumed.

Policy Press

Education and Race from Empire to Brexit

This book offers an historically informed discussion of the failure of the education systems in Britain to counter hostilities towards racial and ethnic minorities and migrants, which have escalated after the vote to leave the European Union, and left schools and universities failing to engage with a multiracial- multicultural society.

Policy Press

The Politics of Scale in Policy

Scalecraft and Education Governance

Drawing on empirical data from the field of education governance, the book traces how scales are crafted and mobilised in policymaking practices, demonstrating that ‘scalecraft’ is key to understanding the production of hegemony.

Policy Press