Shorts
Our Shorts are between 30-50,000 words and are available as e-books and in print with a shorter production schedule.
We publish the following type of Shorts under both Bristol University Press and Policy Press:
Research: books providing the latest cutting-edge or topical research findings (longer than an article but shorter than a monograph) publishing in hardback for an international market with a lower priced eBook which allows for individual purchase;
Policy Press also publish the following Shorts:
Policy and practice: as part of our commitment to impact and engaging with a wider audience, we also publish ‘policy and practice’ Shorts where there is support with dissemination through Open Access, organisational links, course buy-in or other direct routes to the policy and practice audience.
Written by experts in their fields, these formats provide high quality, peer reviewed content quickly and are available for both personal purchase and for libraries and institutions through the usual channels.
If you are interested in writing a short trade book, please either contact the relevant editor for your subject area or our general non-fiction editor.
Download a Shorts proposal form, including detailed guidelines, here.
Welfare That Works for Women?
Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit
This book analyses fresh empirical evidence which demonstrates the gendered impacts of the new conditionality regime within Universal Credit. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mothers, it offers a compelling narrative and policy recommendations to make the social citizenship framework in the UK more inclusive of women.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Vulnerabilities in Paid Care Work
Transnational Experiences, Insights and Voices
This book explores the recent experiences of diverse paid care workers in four very different national contexts – Finland, Canada, South Africa and England – to learn from their experiences during COVID-19 and its aftermath.
- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Volume 4: Policy and Planning
Drawing from case studies across the globe, this book explores how the pandemic and the policies it has prompted have caused changes in the ways cities function. The contributors examine the advancing social inequality brought on by the pandemic and suggest policies intended to contain contagion whilst managing the economy in these circumstances.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Volume 3: Public Space and Mobility
This international volume explores the transformations of public space and public transport in response to COVID-19, both those resulting from official governmental regulations and from everyday practices of urban citizens. The contributors discuss how the virus made urban inequalities clearer, and redefined public spaces in the “new normal”.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Volume 2: Housing and Home
This book casts light on how the virus has impacted the experience of home and housing through the lens of wider urban processes around transportation, land use, planning policy, racism and inequality, and offers crucial insights for reforming cities to be more resilient to future crises.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Volume 1: Community and Society
Contributions to this volume engage directly with different urban communities around the world. They give voice to those who experience poverty, discrimination and marginalisation in order to put them in the front and centre of planning, policy and political debates that make and shape cities.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Virtual Reality Methods
A Guide for Researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities
Since the mid-2010s, virtual reality (VR) technology has advanced rapidly. This book explores the many opportunities that VR can offer for humanities and social sciences researchers. It provides a user-friendly, non-technical methods guide to using ready-made VR content and 360° video as well as creating custom materials.
- AvailableHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
- AvailablePDF
Urban Food Sharing
Rules, Tools and Networks
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Illustrated by global case studies and empirical data, this book explores the history and current practises of food sharing, whilst exploring the impact and potential of such sharing for cities.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
- AvailableKindle
- AvailablePDF
Unravelling Europe's 'Migration Crisis'
Journeys Over Land and Sea
This important new book provides a framework for understanding the dynamics underpinning recent unprecedented levels of migration across, and loss of life in, the Mediterranean, casting new light on the ‘migration crisis’ and challenging politicians, policy makers and the media to rethink their understanding of why and how people move.
- AvailablePaperback
- AvailableEPUB
- AvailableKindle
The Unequal Pandemic
COVID-19 and Health Inequalities
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC- ND This accessible, yet authoritative book shows how the pandemic is a syndemic of disease and inequality. It argues that these inequalities are a political choice and we need to learn quickly to prevent growing inequality and to reduce health inequalities in the future.
- AvailablePaperback
- AvailablePDF
Understanding and Improving Public Management Reforms
Why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and under-deliver? Using five concepts from psychology, economics and organisational sociology and diverse examples of successes and failures, Thomas Elston addresses this pressing question of good governance.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailableEPUB
Transformational Moments in Social Welfare
What Role for Voluntary Action?
During the consolidation of the Welfare State in the 1940s, and its reshaping in the 2010s, the boundaries between the state, voluntary action, the family and the market were called into question. This book explores the impact of these ‘transformational moments’ on the role, position and contribution of voluntary action to social welfare.
- AvailableHardback
- AvailablePDF