Just published
Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy
Amazon and the Power of Organization
Drawing on interviews with Amazon workers and original empirical data, this book explores how different working conditions estrange and alienate workers, and how, despite these, workers find ways to organize and express their agency. This is an important analysis of work on the digital shop floor for the scholars of platform economy.
Employer Engagement
Making Active Labour Market Policies Work
Active labour market policies aim to assist people not in work into work through a range of interventions including job search, training and in-work support and development. While policies and scholarship predominantly focus on jobseekers’ engagement with these initiatives, this book sheds light for the first time on the employer’s perspective.
Social Care in the UK’s Four Nations
Between Two Paradigms
The devolution of social care policy has led to key differences emerging between the UK’s four care systems. This book presents research on the perspectives of social care policy makers within the UK’s four care systems, concluding that when given equal capacity to reform, the systems in each nation may take radically different shapes.
Interpreting the Body
Between Meaning and Matter
Written by leading social scientists, this ambitious volume asks what individuals’ “handling” of bodies reveal about inequality, social order and cultural change in societies.
Landscapes of Hate
Tracing Spaces, Relations and Responses
Providing a much-needed perspective on exclusion and discrimination, this book offers a distinct spatial approach to the topic of hate studies. It illustrates the role of specific spaces and places in shaping hate crime, and highlights efforts to challenge cultures of hate.
Robots and Immigrants
Who Is Stealing Jobs?
This book scrutinises the narratives created around stealing jobs, opening new debates on the role of automation and migration policies. The authors reveal how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, propagating fears over job theft and ownership.
Interpretive Sociology and the Semiotic Imagination
Written by experts in interpretive sociology, this volume examines semiotic models in a sociological context. Contributors offer case studies to demonstrate ‘how to do things’ with semiotics. Synthesizing a diverse and fragmented landscape, this is a key reference work for understanding the connection between semiotics and sociology.
Hate Crime Policy and Disability
From Vulnerability to Ableism
Outlining the key developments of the Disability Hate Crime policy agenda, this book analyses the contributions of activists, politicians, policy makers and criminal justice system practitioners and recommends progressive policy changes.
Beyond the Virus
Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives on Inequalities Raised by COVID-19
Stark social inequalities have been revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book explores these inequalities through three thematic strands: power and governance, gender, and marginalized communities. Through its examination, the book uncovers how unequal the pandemic truly is.
Migration, Health, and Inequalities
Critical Activist Research across Ecuadorean Borders
This interdisciplinary activist research project shows the health and well-being impacts of transnational migration on Ecuadorean families. Roberta Villalón documents the intersection of social inequalities and migration and health policies, and how individual and collective action challenges marginalising structures and fosters social justice.
The Making of a Left-Behind Class
Educational Stratification, Meritocracy and Widening Participation
Despite the high aspirations of young people from disadvantaged communities, they face barriers that are frustrating the realisation of their educational ambitions. This book analyses the ‘left-behind’ phenomenon and explains how denied educational equality undermines social cohesion and what we can do about it.