Policy Press

Social Theory

Showing 37-48 of 83 items.

The Civil Condition in World Politics

Beyond Tragedy and Utopianism

Bringing together an international team of contributors, this volume draws on international political theory and intellectual history to rethink the problem of a pluralistic world order.

Bristol Uni Press

States and Welfare States

Government for the People

Most governments in the world have taken responsibility for social policy and elected to develop services in health, education and social security. This book explores the role of government and the state in the contemporary world and discusses views about government responsibility for social welfare services.

Policy Press

Spatializing Marcuse

Critical Theory for Contemporary Times

This reappraisal of the geographical aspects of philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s theories finds fresh meanings and contemporary applications in his work. The book reveals what they tell us about space and politics today, how they can interpret modern geopolitics and provide the tools to overturn the status quo. 

Bristol Uni Press

Applied ethics and social problems

Moral questions of birth, society and death

"Applied ethics and social problems" presents introductions to the three most influential moral philosophies and relates these to some of the most urgent questions in contemporary public debates about the future of welfare services.

Policy Press

Social Work and Social Theory

Making Connections

This book imaginatively explores ways in which practitioners and social work educators might develop more critical and radical ways of theorising and working. It is an invaluable resource for students and contains features such as Reflection Boxes and Talk Boxes to encourage classroom and workplace discussions.

Policy Press

Discursive analytical strategies

Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau, Luhmann

This exciting and innovative book fills a gap in the growing area of discourse analysis within the social sciences. It provides the analytical tools with which students and their teachers can understand the complex and often conflicting discourses across a range of social science disciplines.

Policy Press

Not so New Labour

A sociological critique of New Labour's policy and practice

New Labour has concentrated many of its social policy initiatives in reinvigorating the family, community and work. But just how 'new' are the ideas driving policy and practice?

This book shows how New Labour has drawn on the ideas and premises of functionalism, which dominated British and American sociological thought from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Policy Press

Major Thinkers in Welfare

Contemporary Issues in Historical Perspective

Focusing on a range of welfare issues this book examines the views, values and perceptions of a number of theorists from ancient times to the 19th century, including Plato, St Aquinas, Hobbes, Wollstonecraft and Marx.

Policy Press

Democracy and the Public Sphere

From Dystopia Back to Utopia

Exploring the creative and destructive ways individuals and groups make use of new digital and social media in democratic societies across the world, this book presents a much-needed critical theory of the public sphere as we enter the new digital age.

Bristol Uni Press

Alienation and Wellbeing

This book offers insights into the argument that capitalist society damages human health and well-being. Drawing on and bringing Marx’s theory of alienation forward to the present day, it uniquely links it to well-being.

Bristol Uni Press

Social Divisions

Inequality and Diversity in Britain

Informed by sociological theory and recent empirical analysis, the new edition of this classic textbook is an accessible account of the major social divisions that structure social life. Written by experts, it covers an unrivalled range of social divisions, diversity and inequalities. This is an invaluable sourcebook for social science students.

Policy Press

Everyday Europe

Social Transnationalism in an Unsettled Continent

This book offers an empirically-based view on Europeans’ interconnections in everyday life. It looks at the ways in which EU residents have been getting closer across national frontiers. The book considers how people reconcile their increasing cross-border interconnections and a politically separating Europe of nation states and national interests.

Policy Press