Textbooks

This bestselling, practice-focussed textbook will equip students and practitioners with the critical thinking and tools needed for effective practice in order to promote the welfare, protection and rights of children and young people.

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.

This myth-busting and question-focused textbook tackles the important social and policy issues posed by ageing. A unique pedagogical approach recognises the gap between the lives of students and older people, and equips students with the conceptual, analytical and critical tools to understand what it means to grow old and live in an ageing society.

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 textbook covers the key concepts, themes and issues relating to human growth and development in adults. It examines key topics and issues within professional practice with adults and their families and covers a wide range of practice areas, fuses essential theory with practical application and provides a wide range of learning features.

This textbook provides a valuable introduction to the construction and application of US foreign policy in the modern era, encouraging readers to think about how ideas, institutions and goals have been at work in the foreign policy of recent presidential administrations.

Aimed at first-year undergraduates studying sociology and related disciplines, this introductory-level textbook presents key ideas and concepts in social theory and an account of their intellectual background.

This fully updated edition of a bestselling book explores the processes and institutions that make health policy, examining what constitutes health policy, where power lies, and what changes could be made to improve the quality of health policy making.

One of the few resources available to provide an overview of human need as a key concept in the social sciences, this accessible and engaging second edition models existing practical and theoretical approaches to human need while also proposing a radical alternative.

The second edition of this popular textbook introduces students to key critical criminology concepts and new developments in the field.

Accessibly written, it offers an in-depth introduction to contemporary theories, including those that challenge mainstream theories about the causes of crime and the operation of the criminal justice system.

Essential reading for students, this book uses a problem based learning approach through the application of case studies to explain the transformation agenda and the implications for adult health and social care.

This substantially revised edition of a highly topical text applies a critical approach to themes introduced in the first edition including economic development, heath and housing, and draws upon theory from Marx and Bourdieu to offer a clearer understanding of community in capitalist society.