Policy Press

Social Theory

Showing 49-60 of 83 items.

Narrative Research Now

Critical Perspectives on the Promise of Stories

Supported by the editors’ popular podcast Narrative Now, this interdisciplinary volume explores the capacities and limitations of narrative research. It maps out new directions for the field while honouring its legacy.

Bristol Uni Press

Narrative Social Work

Theory and Application

This is the first book to extend the narrative lens to explore the contribution of narrative to social work values and ethics, social policy and our understanding of the self in social, cultural and political context.

Policy Press

The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory

Tracing constructivist work on culture, identity and norms within the historical, geographical and professional contexts of world politics, this book makes the case for new constructivist approaches to international relations scholarship.

Bristol Uni 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

Philosophical Criminology

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.

Policy Press

The Political Economy of Fortune and Misfortune

Prospects for Prosperity in Our Times

Bringing together philosophical insights with social theory, this book develops a better understanding of the role luck plays in generating and reinforcing inequality. The author offers a political economy of life chances and an analysis of durable and demonstrable social inequalities, revealing how they are sustained and reproduced.

Bristol Uni Press

Politics of the Gift

Towards a Convivial Society

Drawing on French sociologist Marcel Mauss' influential theory of 'the gift', this book shows that trust is the only glue that holds societies together, and people are giving beings and they who can cooperate for the benefit of all when the logic of maximizing utility personal gain in capitalism is broken.

Bristol Uni Press

A Post-Neoliberal Era in Latin America?

Revisiting cultural paradigms

This book explores neoliberalism in contemporary Latin America as a set of interrelated cultural forms, offering a transnational and comparative perspective on the ways in which neoliberalism has transformed public discourses of self and social relationships, popular cultures and modes of everyday experience.

Bristol Uni Press

Racial Diversity in Contemporary France

The Case of Colorblindness

This unique work reveals how the denial of race as a social category maintains and reproduces systematic racism in contemporary France. Léonard offers an in-depth analysis of contentious issues in society, revealing how color-blind racism is at the centre of social inequality in France.

Bristol Uni Press

Reclaiming Individualism

Perspectives on Public Policy

Reclaiming individualism reviews the scope of individualist approaches, and considers how they apply to issues of policy. It argues for a concept of individualism based on rights, human dignity, shared interests and social protection.

Policy Press

Researching the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Blueprint for the Social Sciences

Challenging social science’s established orthodoxies, this book is a call for academia to embrace new theoretical frameworks and research methods to better understand the reality of life in a post-Covid world.

Policy Press

Researching with Care

Applying Feminist Care Ethics to Research Practice

This book demonstrates how an ethics of care can help researchers work through challenges and solve complex issues. Keeping social justice at the heart of research, the book shows how an ethics of care can provide a systematic approach supporting good judgements about research practices from inception to impact.

Policy Press