Social theory

This book situates the social construction of crime and criminal behaviour within the philosophical context of phenomenology and explores how these constructions inform, and justify, the policies employed to address them. It is essential reading for academics and students interested in social theory and theories of criminology.

The novel theoretical framework offered in this book presents a radical reconception of the place of knowledge in contemporary policy making in Europe.

This book explores how institutions such as the family, economy and religion shaped the environment and social integration of 19th century serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. It will equip criminologists with a methodological toolkit for performing institutional analysis.

This unique book offers a timely analysis of the impact of rapidly advancing knowledge about the brain, mind and behaviour on contemporary public policy and practice. It analyses the global spread of research agendas, policy experiments and everyday practice informed by ‘brain culture’.

As time banking has received increased attention from policy makers as a means for promoting welfare reform in the wake of austerity, this book is the first to look at the concept of time within social policy to examine time banking theory and practice.

This book is the first to theorise and define the social harm concept beyond criminology and seeks to address these omissions and in doing so provide a platform for future debates, in this series and beyond.

This is the first detailed criminological account of the role of blame in which the authors present a novel study of the legal process of blame attribution, set in the context of criminalisation as a social and political process. It will also be of wider interest to anyone wishing to discover the role of blame in modern society.

In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, the author asks what it takes to create inclusive, cohesive societies, and formulates a vision for social justice as 'inclusive equality'.

In China and Post-Socialist Development the emergence of China as an economic superpower is examined and framed within the context of the East Asian developmental miracle, arguing that China’s approach – broadly in opposition to the neo-liberal doctrine – has brought impressive results.

This is the first book to explore the application of complexity theory to difficult practice issues in criminal justice and social work and brings together experts in this emerging field to address complexity theory from a range of perspectives, providing a detailed but accessible discussion of the key issues to whole systems approaches.

Written by criminologists and policy analysts, Criminalisation and advanced marginality offers a constructive but critical application of Wacquant's ideas.

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.