Sociology of Religion

Providing perspectives from the global North and South, faith leaders, scholars and activists demonstrate the complex connections between faith and abortion, how women and pregnant people are positioned in society and how morality is claimed and challenged.

This book presents a critical history of criminological thought from the Enlightenment to the present day. Mehozay contends that Western criminological approaches are based upon ‘otherness’ which validate projects of control and exclusion, modernization and care, and even eugenics.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book offers a comprehensive overview of how efforts to achieve SDGs can be enhanced by paying greater attention to freedom of religion and belief.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book brings together reflections, knowledge and learning about the experiences of religious minorities. It showcases the participatory methodologies implemented by its contributors and highlights the importance of using non-extractive methods for engaging with participants.

This overview of Islam and prison provides a thorough understanding of Muslim prisoners’ experiences in Britain and Europe. It explores issues including conversion to Islam, rehabilitation and the extent to which prisons foster extremism, and gives practitioners and policy-makers ideas for better engagement and achieving positive outcomes.

Why do the UK and US disproportionately incarcerate the mentally ill? Via multiple re-framings of the question—theological, socioeconomic, and psychological— Andrew Skotnicki diagnoses a "persecution of the prophetic" at the heart of the contemporary penal system and society more broadly.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

Timothy Stacey’s book critically reflects on what is missing from the liberal project with the aim of saving liberalism. It explains that populists have harnessed myth, ritual, magic and tradition to advance their ambitions, and why opponents need to embrace rather than eschew them.

This collection brings together a diverse range of interpretivist perspectives to find fresh takes on the meanings of religion. Cutting across paradigms and traditions, experts from the UK, US, and India apply different approaches to engagement with beliefs and themes, including identity, ritual, and emotion.

In this thought-provoking collection, Muslim and non-Muslim academics take a multi-disciplinary approach to humour in Islam. They draw on examples of comedy practices and styles to scope sociological, cultural, theological and political themes, consider humour’s role in fundamentalism, and correct misconceptions about laughter in the religion.

Written by academics from different disciplines and backgrounds, this book offers an international practical guide to doing diversity in the social sciences.

Exploring why food aid exists and the deeper causes of food poverty, this book addresses neglected dimensions of traditional debates. It challenges neoliberal governmentality and shows how food charity maintains inequalities of class, race, religion and gender.

This timely and unique contribution brings together leading scholars from criminology and theology to challenge criminal justice orthodoxy. They question the dominance of retributive punishment, and consider alternatives which draw on Christian ideas of hope, mercy and restoration.