Sociology - Textbooks

This lively textbook, part of the successful Understanding Welfare series, helps us to understand policy, politics and practice. It combines an in-depth exploration of selected theoretical perspectives and concepts with a student-friendly format.

This student-friendly textbook uses theoretical perspectives to bring to life social theories relating to health and illness. including binge drinking, obesity, the prominence of therapy and the search for happiness.

This accessible guide provides readers with an introduction to the key concepts and main developments in gender studies. Highlighting the importance of gender in the contemporary world, it is an ideal overview for students and professionals alike.

'Adult Lives' is a diverse collection of readings from all stages of life which aim to understand how those living and working together in an ageing society relate to each other. It uses a holistic approach to understanding ageing in adulthood that is applicable to all, including those developing policy and in practice.

Understanding Family Meanings provides an overview of the basic concepts and theories related to families using readings with questions and analysis to encourage reflection and learning. It focuses on family meanings as the key underpinnings for academic study and professional training.

This timely and accessible textbook analyses the male breadwinner model in terms of care, work, time, income and power, providing a framework which asks about policies and practices for gender equality in each of these. This new approach contextualises national policies and debates within comparative theoretical analysis and data.

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.

Social work and poverty: A critical approach provides a timely review of the key issues facing social workers and service users in working together to combat poverty, covering key areas including access to food, obesity and drug use.

An important contribution to topical debates about social work education and the identity of the profession, drawing lessons from the recent history of social work to identify how and why it has lost its privilege and influence.

Explains the challenges that collective welfare faces, and explores the complexities involved in delivering it, including debates about who benefits from welfare and how and where it is delivered.

This is the first book to make the link between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues.

This is the first book to connect digital media technologies in digital sociology to traditional sociological and offers a much needed overview of it. It includes problems of the digital age in relation to inequality and identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of courses.