Publishing with Purpose
Textbooks
Education is at the heart of our mission to make a difference. Our goal is to support students’ learning with materials that foster understanding, confidence and skills.
We have a diverse and growing programme of textbooks and learning resources that are designed for Social Science courses at university and college level. We take pride in publishing quality content at affordable prices, and we cater to a wide range of learning styles in print and digital formats.
All of our textbooks are available on e-inspection (order here, or use the links on the book pages).
Lecturers are welcome to request inspection copies for potential recommendation on their reading lists and for student and library purchase. In return, we just ask for feedback on the books’ suitability for teaching purposes, in order to help us develop our publishing. You can submit your feedback using our short survey here.
Take a look at our textbooks below or browse by subject.
In line with our commitment to sustainable practice and environmental responsibility, all our textbooks are available primarily on digital inspection for lecturers. A select number of our titles are available on print inspection. Please email bup-textbooks@bristol.ac.uk to enquire.
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We would value your feedback on your requested title(s) in order to improve our services. Please fill in our short survey here.
If you have any queries, or if you need to order a print inspection copy due to a sight or physical impairment, please email bup-textbooks@bristol.ac.uk.
*A limit of 3 inspection copies may be requested at any one time. A limit of 8 inspection copies may be supplied per person per year.
Imagining Society
The Case for Sociology
Re-examining C.Wright Mills’s legacy as a jumping off point, this original introduction to sociology illuminates global concepts, themes and practices that are fundamental to the discipline and rethinks and re-imagines what a critically committed, politically engaged and publicly relevant sociology should look like in the 21st century.

£19.99£15.99 Add to basket£75.00£60.00 Add to basket£19.99£15.99 Add to basket
The Short Guide to Sociology
This illuminating book offers a fresh and contemporary guide to the field of sociology. By demonstrating the versatility of the sociological imagination, the authors reveal the ways in which thinking sociologically can help us understand the personal, social and structural changes going on in the world around us.

£14.99£11.99 Add to basket£14.99£11.99 Add to basket
Policing the Police
Challenges of Democracy and Accountability
Evolving modes of delivery and new technologies are changing the way society holds police officers to account. This much-needed new book from criminology professor Michael Rowe, part of the ‘Key Themes in Policing’ series, explores issues of governance, discipline and transparency to set out a new agenda for modern-day accountability.

£21.99£17.59 Add to basket£70.00£56.00 Add to basket£21.99£17.59 Add to basket
Community Development
A Critical and Radical Approach
A fully updated edition of this bestselling textbook offers a radical approach to community development taking theories of Gramsci and Freire into the current context. The focus is on putting theory into action for those training, working or managing any social justice practice.

£21.99£17.59 Add to basket£21.99£17.59 Add to basket
How to Use Social Work Theory in Practice
An Essential Guide
In this clear and systematic book covering the both general practice concepts and theoretical insights, best-selling author Malcolm Payne shows you how to work with the main social work theories and practice techniques and pinpoint their strengths and limitations.

£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£21.99£17.59 Add to basket
Social Work and Society
Political and Ideological Perspectives
This valuable book provides a comprehensive introduction to politics in social work, unifying the themes of political ideology and social construction across several areas of social work practice, including emerging areas of practice.

£22.99£18.39 Add to basket£22.99£18.39 Add to basket
The Well-Connected Community
A Networking Approach to Community Development
There is a growing recognition of the importance of networking for the vitality and cohesion of community life. Now in its third edition, and substantially updated, this textbook combines practical experience and theory for people working with and for communities.

£21.99£17.59 Add to basket£21.99£17.59 Add to basket
Critical Practice with Children and Young People
This new edition for advanced students and practitioners is substantially updated to reflect the changes in the field since the publication of the first edition and contains multiple additional chapters discussing new and emerging topics for those in the fields of social work, education and health care.

£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£24.99£19.99£24.99£19.99 Add to basket
Women and Community Action
Local and Global Perspectives
This third edition looks at how several decades of feminist social action have changed women’s place in the world today and updates some of the perennial challenges facing women globally to engage with new issues, including digital exclusion, sustainable development and environmental justice.

£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£75.00£60.00 Add to basket£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£24.99£19.99
Multi-Agency Working in Criminal Justice
Theory, Policy and Practice
Fully revised and expanded to encompass the most up-to-date theory, policy and practice, this comprehensive text considers the different aspects of multi-agency working within criminal justice, bringing together probation, policing, prison, social work, criminological and organizational studies perspectives.

£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£24.99£19.99 Add to basket£24.99£19.99
Understanding 'Race' and Ethnicity
Theory, History, Policy, Practice
This new edition of a widely-respected textbook examines welfare policy and racism, alongside institutional racism and community cohesion within a broad policy framework.

£25.99£20.79 Add to basket£75.00£60.00 Add to basket£25.99£20.79£25.99£20.79 Add to basket
50 Facts Everyone Should Know About Crime and Punishment in Britain
This exciting book presents 50 key facts related to crime and criminal justice policy in Britain. Offering thought-provoking insights into the study of crime, this fascinating “go to” book reveals the myths and realities of crime in contemporary Britain.

£12.99£10.39 Add to basket£12.99£10.39 Add to basket£12.99£10.39