Sociology and Social Theory
Sociology is a growth area for us and our books in sociology and social theory include exciting work from new authors and well-known academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate textbooks.
Our wide range of sociology and social theory books include high quality research and range from textbooks through to specialised monographs. Many also ‘make a difference’ in a tangible way, whether it be informing a key policy or practice debate, or improving the education of students.
Equality and diversity
Value incommensurability and the politics of recognition
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This important book explores the values of equality and diversity as promoted across liberal societies, drawing on various traditions of political and social philosophy, and applying them to policy and practice debates.
Rethinking professional governance
International directions in healthcare
This original and innovative book opens up new perspectives in health policy debate, examining the emerging international trends in the governance of health professions and the significance of national contexts for the changing health workforce.
Sharing Milk
Intimacy, Materiality and Bio-Communities of Practice
Using a bio-communities of practice framework, this thought-provoking empirical analysis explores the emotional and material dimensions of the growing phenomenon of milk sharing in the Global North and its implications for contemporary understandings of infant feeding in the US, providing new insights into a much-debated topic.
The Good Glow
Charity and the Symbolic Power of Doing Good
We praise those people who do things for others. But the symbolic power of giving means glow of 'goodness' that charity provides can be taken advantage of. Drawing on original data and Bourdieu's sociology, this book examines a wide range of charity examples to provide an entertaining critique of how contemporary charity works.
County Lines
Exploitation and Drug Dealing among Urban Street Gangs
Drawing upon extensive research amongst gang members, dealers and drug users, this timely book provides a comprehensive insight into the ‘County Lines’ phenomenon.
Shedding new light on this urgent topic on government agendas, this is an invaluable contribution to the literature on gangs, youth violence and organised crime.
Youth Migration and the Politics of Wellbeing
Stories of Life in Transition
Drawing on accounts of unaccompanied migrant young people becoming adult, this book offers a political economy analysis of wellbeing in the context of migration and demonstrates the urgent need for policy reform.
Beer and Racism
How Beer Became White, Why It Matters, and the Movements to Change It
Beer in the United States has always been bound up with race, racism, and the construction of white institutions and identities. This unique book carves a much-needed critical and interdisciplinary path to examine and understand the racial dynamics in the craft beer industry and the popular consumption of beer.
Sharing Care
Equal and Primary Carer Fathers and Early Years Parenting
This timely study explores the experiences of fathers who take on equal or primary care responsibilities for young children.
Offering academic insight and practical recommendations, this will be key reading for researchers, policymakers, practitioners and students interested in contemporary families.
Support Workers and the Health Professions in International Perspective
The Invisible Providers of Health Care
This original collection analyses the global experience of health care support workers (HSWs) and examines their interface with the health professions, regulatory practice risks, employment challenges and the dilemmas of an ageing population. Crucial future policy recommendations are also made for a world becoming increasingly dependent on HSWs.
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.
Sports Criminology
A Critical Criminology of Sport and Games
This is the first book to provide a critical criminological perspective on sport and the connections between sport and crime. Part of the New Horizons in Criminology series, it draws on the inter-disciplinary nature of criminology and incorporates emerging perspectives like social harm, gender and sexuality, and green criminology.
A Criminology of Moral Order
Moral order is disturbed by criminal events, however traditionally, issues around morality have been neglected by criminologists. Using the moral perspective Boutellier bridges the gap between people’s emotional opinions on crime, and criminologists rationalised answers to questions of crime and security.