Policy Press

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.

Take a look at our textbooks below or browse by subject.

We have more resources, including free journal articles and Open Access titles, available on our student resources page.

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Showing 73-84 of 279 items.

Police Occupational Culture

Research and Practice

At a time of close scrutiny of police culture, this is a thorough and accessible study of its impacts on both practitioners and the people they serve. Tom Cockcroft’s evidence-based approach contextualises our understanding of police culture in relation to both contemporary police agendas and wider social change.

Policy Press

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.

Bristol Uni Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press