Social Theory

Examining experiences of shame and stigma in the context of austerity and the declining welfare state, this book shows how social work can ameliorate the impacts of shame through sensitive, reflective and relationship-based practice. It provides a broad understanding of shame and looks at its impact on both service users and practitioners.

Aimed at first-year undergraduates studying sociology and related disciplines, this introductory-level textbook presents key ideas and concepts in social theory and an account of their intellectual background.

Demonstrating the relevance of theory to political and policy debates and practice, this dynamic and fully updated second edition helps students to grasp the real-life implications of social policy theory. It includes a new chapter featuring debates around disability, sexuality and the environment.

This book shapes a new language of social theory that allows people to embody their differences with a sense of dignity and self-worth, enabling them to come to terms with the complexities of their lived identities in a post-modern globalised world.

This book investigates masculinity/ies in relation to world politics. Explaining the gender is both an asymmetrical binary and a hierarchy, the book shows how masculinization works via ‘nested hierarchies’ of domination and subordination and explores the imbrication of masculinities with the nation-state and great power politics.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the field of the Sociology of Emotions, incorporating sociological, feminist and cultural perspectives. It will be essential reading for researchers and students seeking a current and interdisciplinary resource covering a wide range of international material in the field of Sociology of Emotions.

This lively textbook, part of the successful Understanding Welfare series, helps us to understand policy, politics and practice. It combines an in-depth exploration of selected theoretical perspectives and concepts with a student-friendly format.

This is the first book to make the link between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues.

This accessible book is structured around six philosophical ideas concerning our relations with others: values, morality, aesthetics, order, rules and respect. Using examples from a range of countries, it provides a platform for engaging with important topical issues.

A fully updated edition of this bestselling textbook offers a radical approach to community development taking theories of Gramsci and Freire into the current context. The focus is on putting theory into action for those training, working or managing any social justice practice.

Re-examining C.Wright Mills’s legacy as a jumping off point, this original introduction to sociology illuminates global concepts, themes and practices that are fundamental to the discipline and rethinks and re-imagines what a critically committed, politically engaged and publicly relevant sociology should look like in the 21st century.

Using global case studies and many practical examples, this book explores the innovation challenges that face the public sector today.