Social theory Books

Book SynopsisIt''s not enough to have great ideas. You also need to know how to communicate them.What makes someone charismatic? Why do some people captivate a room, while others have trouble managing a small meeting? What makes some ideas spread, while other good ones fall by the wayside? Cues - the tiny signals we send to others 24/7 through our body language, facial expressions, word choices and vocal inflection - have a massive impact on how we, and our ideas, come across. Our cues can either enhance our message or undermine it.In this entertaining and accessible guide to the hidden language of cues, Vanessa Van Edwards teaches you how to convey power, trust, leadership, likability and charisma in every interaction. You''ll learn: - Which vocal cues make you sound more confident- Which body language cues assert, ''I''m a leader, and here''s why you should join me''- Which verbal cues to use in pitches, branding and emails to increase trust (and generate excitement about interacting with you)- Which visual cues you are sending in your profile pictures, clothing and professional brandWhether you''re pitching an investment, negotiating a job offer or having a tough conversation with a colleague, Cues can help you improve your relationships, express empathy and create meaningful connections with lasting impact.''A must-have guide to becoming an unstoppable force'' - Mel Robbins''Packed with invaluable strategies for maximizing your message, Van Edward''s energy will inspire you to become the best possible version of yourself'' - Nir EyalTrade ReviewA must-have guide to becoming an unstoppable force. Read this book and learn how to amplify your power while remaining true to yourself. * Mel Robbins, bestselling author of The High 5 Habit *If your goal is to level up your communication and deepen your relationships, Van Edwards is the expert you've been looking for. -- Tom Bilyeu, cofounder of Quest Nutrition and the cofounder and host of Impact TheoryA delightful decoder ring for the subtle social signals you're missing. -- Olivia Fox Cabane, author of The Charisma MythPacked with invaluable strategies for maximizing your message, Van Edwards's energy will inspire you to become the best possible version of yourself. -- Nir Eyal, author of Hooked and Indistractable

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“An excellent, thorough, inspiring and much needed guide to the source of our deepest energy, pleasure, and power—the clitoris. Everyone needs to read this book and become CLITERATE.” — Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and In the Body of the World “This read doesn’t just zero in on the politics of pleasure inequality, it also offers up solutions that help the reader become more hands on (literally) with their own sexuality.” — Bust Magazine “Down with ill-cliteracy! The tongue is mightier than the sword! Brothers and Sisters-in-arms (and legs and butts and hearts and souls), bring your huddled masses to this book and embrace orgasm equality! Think outside HER box! Viva la Vulva!” — Ian Kerner, PhD, LMFT, New York Times bestselling author of She Comes First “Brilliant.” — GOOP “Becoming Cliterate will change how we think and talk about female sexual pleasure. The orgasm gap isn’t a consequence of women not knowing how—it’s a cultural problem that we should be reading about to discover what went wrong in the first place.” — Betty Dodson, sex educator and author of Sex for One “What a fascinating and deeply empowering book. I wish every woman could read what Dr. Laurie Mintz has to teach us about our bodies.” — Sara Benincasa, comedian and author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs (And Other Awesome Things They Don't Teach You In School) “Women experience sexual pleasure - and, often orgasm - from diverse ways of physical and mental stimulation. This book provides a wealth of information on the clitoris and ways of imagining and creating a more fulfilling sexual life.” — Debby Herbenick, PhD, associate professor at Indiana University and author of Because It Feels Good “For too long, men and women have assumed that a penis inside a vagina is the holy grail of sex.Women’s sexual satisfaction depends on way more than this. Fortunately, Mintz provides helpful suggestions to increase women’s pleasure. I encourage both men and women read this valuable and insightful book.” — Paul Joannides, Psy.D., author of Guide to Getting it On “If you sometimes feel lost on the way to your orgasm, Becoming Cliterate is the map (and the cheering section) you need to find your way. Grounded in research and packed with real-world tips, readers will thank Mintz for her truth-telling.” — Dorian Solot, co-author of I Love Female Orgasm “This book is set up like a college textbook for female orgasm, with some philosophy and pep talks and then some hands-on experimenting. And a chapter at the end for male partners to read. What more could you need?” — Book Riot “A fun and empowering reminder that sexual dissatisfaction is not inevitable….Becoming Cliterate does a good job questioning these basic assumptions, re-orienting us to another vision of what sex can be, and giving practical advice on how to be a boss bitch during sex.” — Feministing “Laurie Mintz, a professor of psychology at the University of Florida, wins this year’s award for best book title.” — New York Times “You’ll be reading for pleasure in more ways than one.” — Bustle “A manifesto for today’s orgasmic insurrection….Mintz is unpretentious and intuitive….Becoming Cliterate will help many women reach their orgasm objectives.” — Los Angeles Review of Books “Fun, funny, and empowering. A must-read for people with clits, especially those who are having sex with people with penises.” — Buzzfeed “Personable, witty, and easy to read … Becoming Cliterate could be considered a book for anyone with a vulva as well as anyone who is interested in having sex with someone with a vulva.” — Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy Dr. Laurie Mintz draws up biology, sociology, and sex therapy to provide a comprehensive manual for both achieving orgasm and raising awareness about female orgasm. Readers will walk away with suggestions for changing our culture of sexuality and, more specifically, female orgasm. — PsycCRITIQUES

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Book SynopsisHow have our emotions shaped the course of human history? And how have our experience and understanding of emotions evolved with us?We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the most important moments in our history had little to do with cold, hard facts and a lot to do with feelings. Events ranging from the origins of philosophy to the birth of the world's major religions, the fall of Rome, the Scientific Revolution, and some of the bloodiest wars that humanity has ever experienced can't be properly understood without understanding emotions.In A Human History of Emotion, Richard Firth-Godbehere takes readers on a fascinating and wide-ranging tour of the central and often under-appreciated role emotions have played in human societies around the world and throughout history from Ancient Greece to Gambia, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and beyond.Drawing on psychology, neuroscienceTrade ReviewA Kirkus Best Science Books of 2021 ‘A fascinating look at the profound ways in which the harnessing of human emotions has shaped world-wide history and culture. Eye-opening and thought-provoking’ Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain ‘Emotions are a much bigger part of the experience of being human than most people would ever realise. If you want to know more about emotions and how we arrived at our understanding of them, this book is exactly what you need’ Dean Burnett, author of The Happy Brain ‘Whether you are looking for new ideas, narrative history, psychological theory, or cultural anthropology, this book will teach you something new about how people have felt about their feelings through the ages. A book like no other’ Thomas Dixon, author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears

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Book Synopsis‘A devastating portrait of the cultures and logics underlying big tech. Rushkoff is going to make you mad enough to fight back. A vital, lucid, and enraging read.’ Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything The tech elite have a plan to survive the apocalypse: they want to leave us all behind. When Douglas Rushkoff was summoned to the desert to a private talk for the rich and powerful, he learned about ‘The Mindset’: a theory that inevitable societal catastrophe can be evaded by individuals with enough money and the right technology. Here, Rushkoff traces the evolution of The Mindset through its origins in science and technology to its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, and the Metaverse. This mind-blowing work of social analysis shows us how to transcend the landscape The Mindset has created — a world alive with algorithms and intelligences actively rewarding our most selfish tendencies — and rediscover community, mutual aid, and human interdependency. Trade Review‘A tremendous story … the big takeaway is clear: your bunker won’t save you. Time to make nice with the butler.’ -- Hugo Rifkind * The Times *‘Douglas Rushkoff has always been a singular observer and thinker. Embedded near the epicentres of the digital revolution from its hopeful outlaw start through the oppressive mega-corporate current condition, he has never flinched along the way from honestly delivering fresh, radical, humane critiques of the emerging world. There are plenty of books decrying the horrors of 21st-century monopoly capitalism and inequality, and the existential threats posed by technology and hell-bent growth, but none quite like Survival of the Richest. Rushkoff is essential — not just a passionate visionary on the side of the angels, but the rare one who can write.’ -- Kurt Andersen, author of Evil Geniuses‘Douglas Rushkoff’s disguise as an “influential futurist” has enabled him to serve as a mole on behalf of our species in the lair of the wannabe-posthuman. His report is both fierce and amazed in the face of capitalism’s delusions; I for one am sharpening my pitchfork.’ -- Jonathan Lethem‘A wake-up call to those of us without underground bunkers or peninsulas in New Zealand to take note of where the 0.001 per cent think the world is heading … This book is a digital version of Dickens’s Hard Times, full of hoodie-clad Gradgrinds failing to see the value of the messiness in humanity.’ -- Daisy Goodwin * The Sunday Times *‘Well worth reading.’ -- Michele Pridmore-Brown * TLS *‘Rushkoff gives us a sober, scathing oddsmaking on the recursive wager of the ultra-rich: that they can insulate themselves from the world they’re creating.’ -- Cory Doctorow‘A hilarious and lacerating look at the elite sociopathy wrecking the world, and a call to arms for how the rest of us can fight it.’ -- Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood‘With razor-sharp insight, Rushkoff unwraps the dazzling facade of the technological dream, revealing the alarming Mindset that underlies promises of planetary salvation.’ -- Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning‘Beyond eye-opening, this book is eye-popping. A master storyteller, Rushkoff brings to life perhaps the greatest challenge of our time, The Mindset that drives so much destructive behaviour, and blinds us to solutions beyond new technology and consumption. A must read.’ -- Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and Daring Democracy‘Survival of the Richest is more than a primer on a soulless world view pervading all aspects of life. Defying fantasies of escape — from each other, from earthliness, from Earth — Rushkoff offers something at once more realistic and more imaginative: mutual regard, responsibility, and flourishing. In so doing, he mounts an impassioned defence of everything and everyone marked expendable in the fanatical pursuit of a blank slate.’ -- Jenny Odell‘Douglas Rushkoff’s keen eye as a seasoned media analyst, combined with his flair and wit as a writer and a performer, shine in this book … How is it possible that people who have powerfully shaped our society and economy and have reaped enormous financial rewards in the process are doing everything possible to escape the world they’ve created? … This should give us all pause — if they want to escape their creations, why give them the power to rule our lives in the first place?’ -- Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future‘A devastating portrait of the cultures and logics underlying big tech. Rushkoff is going to make you mad enough to fight back. A vital, lucid, and enraging read.’ -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything‘Survival of the Richest reveals fascinating tidbits about the elite tech crowd’s post-apocalyptic survival strategies and the niche solutions being marketed to them.’ -- Carolyn Wong Simpkins * Science *‘He cites a lot of research from news outlets, books, scholarship on technology, politics, human behaviour, and sustainability to drive home his point that technology is running society … Rushkoff’s anecdotes and relatable voice will attract readers interested in technology and business, as well as those who want to know more about how wealthy tech magnates live.’ -- Natalie Browning * Library Journal *‘Rushkoff delineates the Silicon Valley mindset while suggesting alternatives.’ * Library Journal *‘Media theorist Rushkoff presents a fascinating and distressing account of how the very wealthy prep for doomsday … Rushkoff introduces readers to the purveyor of multiple “residential farm communities for millionaires” designed to provide safety for the upper class in the future; the concept of “seasteading”, the creation of “independent, free-floating city-states” in the ocean; and “prepper construction companies” in Texas that offer million-dollar luxury bunkers outfitted with bowling alleys and pools … This is an eye-popping look at some outlandish visions for the future.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘A media theorist dismantles the tech-centric fantasies of the wealthiest people in the world … he [Rushkoff] writes with knowledge and authority. The text conveys an appropriately urgent and serious message, while the closing section offers sound reason for hope and reasonable steps to take for a better future. A dense but thorough and authoritative condemnation of tech worship.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘In this compelling short book, Rushkoff both explains what the billionaire class are hoping to escape — such as climate breakdown and mass migration — and how unrealistic it is … In an age where most of the media fawns over every idea, tweet or fashion choice of the mega-rich, from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos to Bill Gates, it’s worth asking why. Rushkoff has the pedigree to challenge the bullshitters. While Silicon Valley preaches progress, innovation and transformation, “usually these are just euphemisms for conquest, colonisation, domination and extraction”. Their ultimate aim is to monopolise everything — and none of us should be seduced by it.’ -- Antony Loewenstein * The Saturday Paper *‘If you’re after a primer on the various ills of late capitalism, then strap yourself in and enjoy this wide-ranging, freewheeling romp by one of the US’s most entertaining digital culture raconteurs … Rushkoff is an accessible, pithy writer, with no shortage of examples, analogies and anecdotes to string together … Rushkoff mixes in some pretty wild company on his global speaking gigs, and has serendipitous encounters with some outlandish figures.’ -- Tom Doig * Gizmodo *‘[A] highly worthwhile read to feel equal measure of concern and hopefulness.’ -- Chris Reed * NZ Booklovers *Praise for Team Human: ‘Team Human serves as a reminder that we do not have to surrender ourselves to technology ... Joining Team Human means prioritising the social, transcending a digital inclination, and connecting as humans.’ * The Washington Post *Praise for Team Human: ‘Technology can be a force for good or amplify our self-destructive capacities. In Team Human, the always-brilliant Douglas Rushkoff reminds us that the tools we design design us in turn, and offers a vision to invert our tools and make them better.’ -- Jason Silva, host of National Geographic’s Brain GamesPraise for Team Human: ‘Rushkoff is the gold standard. He always knows what tech is up to — and he’s usually prophetic. Now he’s here to tell us how our Silicon masters are attempting to pit us against one another for their own gain. Go Team Human.’ -- Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out and Up in the AirPraise for Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: ‘Powerful truth telling … The crux of the argument that Rushkoff makes is that the digital economy is a house of cards built on fictional growth metrics that drive companies to raise money, undercut human workers, sell on the public markets, and then — almost inevitably — collapse under the weight of public market demands.’ * Forbes *Praise for Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: ‘A brilliant, bomb-hurling critique of the flaws in our digital economy, identifying what has gone wrong and what can be done about it.’ * Financial Times *Praise for Present Shock: ‘This is a wondrously thought-provoking book. Unlike other social theorists who either mindlessly decry or celebrate the digital age, Rushkoff explores how it has caused a focus on the immediate moment that can be both disorienting and energising.’ -- Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

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Book SynopsisUntrammelled neoliberalism and the inexorable force of production have produced a 21st century crisis of community: a narcissistic cult of authenticity and mass turning-inward are among the pathologies engendered by it. We are individuals afloat in an atomised society, where the loss of the symbolic structures inherent in ritual behaviour has led to overdependence on the contingent to steer identity. Avoiding saccharine nostalgia for the rituals of the past, Han provides a genealogy of their disappearance as a means of diagnosing the pathologies of the present. He juxtaposes a community without communication – where the intensity of togetherness in silent recognition provides structure and meaning – to today’s communication without community, which does away with collective feelings and leaves individuals exposed to exploitation and manipulation by neoliberal psycho-politics. The community that is invoked everywhere today is an atrophied and commoditized community that lacks the symbolic power to bind people together. For Han, it is only the mutual praxis of recognition borne by the ritualistic sharing of the symbolic between members of a community which creates the footholds of objectivity allowing us to make sense of time. This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.Trade Review"Byung-Chul Han's new book challenges the reader to go far beyond the worn-out critique of neoliberalism. On the one side, there is the progressive replacement of substance through communication, painted as a road to existential perdition; it contrasts, on the other side, with the utopian view of a return towards the security of rituals in their form and appearance. This reversal of long-established thought is expressed in a compressed and energetic language that reads like a manifesto."—Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University

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Book SynopsisLearn about how we organise our society in The Sociology Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Sociology in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Sociology Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Sociology, with:- More than 80 ideas from the world''s most renowned sociologists- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understandingThe Sociology Book is the perfect introduction to a ran

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Book SynopsisIn Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality''s capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions—from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought—to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality''s potential to reshape the world.Trade Review“With remarkable brilliance and breadth, Patricia Hill Collins examines the theoretical dimensions of intersectionality in new ways and in dialogue with other influential social theories and resistant knowledges. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory explains why critical social theory matters in the real world and how intersectionality can achieve its potential as a tool for social action needed to transform the world for the better. Once again, Patricia Hill Collins shines as a masterful scholar of critical inquiry, politics, and social change.” -- Dorothy Roberts, author of * Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty *“Anyone who claims the mantle of Black feminist theorist is standing in the house Patricia Hill Collins built. She is one of our most important intellectual architects. Here she continues to be at her very best, asking the thorny questions that those of us who are scholars and practitioners of intersectionality often avoid. Collins reminds us what it looks like to use ideas in service of freedom projects, demanding at every turn that we do it with integrity, rigor, and a critical attention to the high stakes nature of social justice work. This book resets our freedom compass, reminding us both of what our work is and for whom we do it.” -- Brittney Cooper, author of * Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower *"This remarkable monograph expresses the most important facets of the critical lens. . . [and] gives hope that collective social action has the potential to affect democratic change even under conditions of multiple oppressions." -- Anna Amelina & Jana Schäfer * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- I. Ken * Choice *“This book constitutes an extremely valuable resource for students, activists, and scholars who, while having already engaged with foundational texts on the topic, seek to deepen their understanding of intersectionality. Further, Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory also opens a door for those who wish to continue the intellectual journey of theorizing intersectionality that Collins eloquently embarks on. -- Miriam Yosef * KULT_online *“This book is more than a mere investigation of the theoretical of methodological aspects of intersectionality.... Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory is a book that cannot be missed by scholars, activists, and students of all disciplines.” -- C. Laura Lovin * Feminist Encounters *“Intersectionality as Critical SocialTheory is required reading for academics, activists and educators working across and between disciplines including feminist studies, philosophy, critical race theory, sociology, and education. Now more than ever, Professor Hill Collins is essential.” -- Adina Giannelli * Gender and Education *“Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory is a dense and exceedingly thoughtful book. Collins is careful and focused, asking hard questions about the nature of social theory and theorizing.” -- Rose M. Brewer * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I. Framing the Issues: Intersectionality and Critical Social Theory 1. Intersectionality as Critical Inquiry 21 2. What's Critical about Critical Social Theory? 54 Part II. How Power Matters: Intersectionality and Intellectual Resistance 3. Intersectionality and Resistant Knowledge Projects 87 4. Intersectionality and Epistemic Resistance 121 Part III. Theorizing Intersectionality: Social Action as a Way of Knowing 5. Intersectionality, Experience, and Community 157 6. Intersectionality and the Question of Freedom 189 Part IV. Sharpening Intersectionality's Critical Edge 7. Relationality within Intersectionality 225 8. Intersectionality without Social Justice? 253 Epilogue. Intersectionality and Social Change 286 Appendix 291 Notes 295 References 331 Notes 353

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Book SynopsisZizek argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With the help of eminent philosophers like Marx, Engel and Lacan, as well as frequent references to popular culture, he examines the real causes of violent outbreaks like those seen in Israel and Palestine and in terrorist acts around the world. Ultimately, he warns, doing nothing is often the most violent course of action we can take.Trade ReviewSince the deaths of Jacques Derrida in 2004 and Jean Baudrillard in 2007 ... Zizek has quickly cemented his position as the world's prominent philosopher and cultural theorist. -- Matthew Taunton * New Statesman *Zizek is ... the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades -- Terry EagletonAn essay by the "Elvis of cultural theory" is wisely chosen to launch a handsome new series on "Big Ideas". Violence is nothing if not an exciting read; provocative ideas abound on every page. -- Mark Vernon * The Philosophy Magazine *writes with an engaging eloquence that is appealing to the reader, despite the highbrow nature of the work...Zizek displays an originality here which shows why he is one of the more respected philosophers in the western world. A worthwhile and thought-provoking read. * Sunday Business Post *

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Book Synopsis''Utterly engrossing . . . Ambitious, accessible and important'' James O''BrienA provocative new vision of how our world really works - and why chance determines everything.In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, unpicking our neat and tidy storybook version of events to reveal a reality far wilder and more fascinating than we have dared to consider. The bewildering truth is that but for a few incidental changes, our lives - and our societies - would be radically different.Offering an entirely new perspective, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and random events. How much difference does our decision to hit the snooze button make? Did one couple''s vacation really change the course of the twentieth century? What are the smallest accidents that have tilted the course of history itself? The mind-bending lessons ofTrade ReviewConsistently gripping - dazzling in its sweep and thrillingly brain-twisting in its argument -- Tom Holland, author of RUBICON and PERSIAN FIREDrawing on many disciplines, this fascinating book explores the combination of chaos and order that governs our lives and probes the deep question of whether we truly have free will -- Mervyn King, co-author of RADICAL UNCERTAINTY and former Governor of the Bank of EnglandA brilliant meditation on the eternal clash between chaos and order, and determinism and freedom. Klaas grapples with some of the most difficult, mind-bending questions of our time - or any time - [and] makes these heady topics a blast to read -- Scott Patterson, New York Times bestselling author of CHAOS KINGS and THE QUANTSKlaas expertly weaves riveting stories about real people, posing deep questions with uncertain answers. Self-exploration is a journey into the unknown, and Klaas is a genial guide -- Donald D. Hoffman, author of THE CASE AGAINST REALITYKlaas explores how seemingly inconsequential actions have life-changing consequences. This utterly captivating book will make you rethink everything you have ever done -- Sabine Hossenfelder, physicist and New York Times bestselling author of EXISTENTIAL PHYSICSAt this book's fascinating core is the idea that all of our actions count because of the web of connectivity that envelops us. Brian Klaas is masterful in surfacing stories of history upended on a whim -- Jonah Berger, New York Times bestselling author of CONTAGIOUSFluke is the intellectual equivalent of a slap across the face...Klaas's beautifully written application of chaos theory to human experience won't just shift your paradigm, it'll detonate it -- Jonathan Gottschall, author of THE STORYTELLING ANIMALIn truth we are subject to a ceaseless barrage of unpredictable, but life-changing, events. Marshalling a series of provocative examples, Brian Klaas paints a convincing picture of the central role of randomness, and why there can nevertheless be a bit of order amid the chaos -- Sean Carroll, author of THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSEIts core premise is that the world is a lot more uncertain than we like to believe it is - and if we want to have healthy, happy lives, we should probably stop pretending we can eliminate randomness . . . It's uplifting to acknowledge the interconnected, contingent nature of our world . . . There's something empowering about feeling every moment of your life could change the world -- New StatesmanProvocative and compelling, bringing the complex relationship between order and chaos vividly alive . . . there is every chance you will love it -- New Scientist

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Book SynopsisHow do childcare, healthcare, education, family life and the roles of gender, race and sexuality affect our lives under capitalism?Trade Review'Theoretically robust and empirically grounded chapters demonstrate the enduring value of a Marxist feminist approach. A welcome collection!' -- Rosemary Hennessy, L.H. Favrot Professor of Humanities and Professor of English, Rice University, and author of Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism'The varied and suggestive essays in this rich collection are of great value, not only to newcomers to the field, but also to those already grounded in this rich arena for inquiry and organising' -- Hester Eisenstein, author of Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labour and Ideas to Exploit the World (2009)'A must read for those who want to go beyond the binaries and the 'social' conceived as an aggregation of intersecting systems or overlapping spheres. It is an ambitious project aiming for epistemologies of resistance' -- Himani Bannerji, author of The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender (2000)'A marvellous new collection' -- Jordy Rosenberg, Los Angeles Review of Books'Every socialist needs to read it now' -- Socialist Action'Feminist thinking about questions of social reproduction offers a much-needed break with the impasse that mainstream feminism finds itself in - and this collection provides a fantastic weapon for that task' -- Red PepperTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword by Lise Vogel 1. Introduction: Mapping Social Reproduction Theory - Tithi Bhattacharya 2. Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism - Nancy Fraser 3. Without Reserves - Salar Mohandesi and Emma Teitelman 4. How Not to Skip Class: Social Reproduction of Labor and the Global Working Class - Tithi Bhattacharya 5. Intersections and Dialectics: Critical Reconstructions in Social Reproduction Theory - David McNally 6. Children, Childhood and Capitalism: A Social Reproduction Perspective - Susan Ferguson 7. Mostly Work, Little Play: Social Reproduction, Migration and Paid Domestic Work in Montreal - Carmen Teeple Hopkins 8. Pensions and Social Reproduction - Serap Saritas Oran 9. Body Politics: The Social Reproduction of Sexualities - Alan Sears 10. From Social Reproduction Feminism to the Women's Strike - Cinzia Arruzza Notes Index

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Book SynopsisRelief Chief is Mark Lowcock's behind-the-scenes account of his experience as the world's most senior humanitarian official—the UN Relief Chief. In his four years on the job, Lowcock coordinated the work of UN agencies, the Red Cross, and countless national and international humanitarian groups to save lives and protect the most vulnerable. Appointed in 2017, Lowcock was witness to the biggest explosion in humanitarian need in modern history. Wars, droughts, floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, and then the COVID-19 global pandemic put humanitarian agencies under unprecedented strain. Long-standing crises like those in Syria, Yemen, and the Sahel got worse. New ones arose, in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Venezuela, and elsewhere. Over his tenure, Lowcock raised record amounts of money to tackle these problems, but this was not enough to prevent humanitarian agencies from being overwhelmed by the emergencies they were asked to deal with, as Lowcock documents from a personal, inside perspective. Part memoir and part manifesto for reform, Relief Chief depicts the brutality, misery and inhumanity inflicted on innocent people in crises. Lowcock recounts what people he met in dozens of countries—especially women and children—shared with him about their plight and the help they needed. He warns that crises will continue to get worse without a renewed global effort to tackle their causes. But Relief Chief is also an uplifting story of lives saved and suffering reduced, and a detailed, practical agenda for solving crises faster and better in the future.

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Book Synopsis* A new, fully updated edition of a now classic text. * The text has been completely revised to take into account developments of the past 14 years, since History and Social Theory was first published. * Topics which have been added and that are now treated in depth include globalization, postcolonialism and social capital.Trade Review“This remains an excellent and (still) timely call for greater cross-fertilization between two disciplines that approach the same subject from different but complementary angles. Alongside the quality of the writing and the argument this book provides many useful references on the 'classical' works that have shaped both disciplines. For the relative newcomer as for the specialist this is a reminder of how much we can glean not just from social theory and history today, but also from the social theorists and historians who preceded us.” History “A work of great clarity and wide scope, History and Social Theory offers the reader quick access to the key issues in the field with pithy and focused discussions of its problems, claims, contentions, and work yet to be done.” Herman Lebovics, SUNY Stony Brook “This is a really excellent book and should be prescribed reading for any serious student of history or social theory at any teaching level. It should also attract large numbers of admiring general readers.” Robert W. Scibner, Clare College, Cambridge Table of Contents Preface 1 THEORISTS AND HISTORIANS A Dialogue of the Deaf The Differentiation of History and Theory The Dismissal of the Past The Rise of Social History The Convergence of Theory and History 2 MODELS AND METHODS Comparisons Models Quantitative Methods The Social Microscope 3 CENTRAL CONCEPTS Roles and Performances Sex and Gender Family and Kinship Communities and Identities Class and Status Social Mobility and Social Distinction Consumption and Exchange Social and Cultural Capital Patrons and Clients Power and the Public Sphere Centres and Peripheries Hegemony and Resistance Social Protest and Social Movements Mentalities, Ideologies, Discourses Communication and Reception Postcolonialism and Cultural Hybridity Orality and Textuality Memory and Myth 4 CENTRAL PROBLEMS Rationality versus Relativism Concepts of Culture Consensus versus Conflict Facts versus Fictions Structures versus Agents Functionalism The Example of Venice Structuralism The Return of the Actor 5 SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL CHANGE Spencer's Model Marx's Model A Third Way? Essays in Synthesis Patterns of Population Patterns of Culture Encounters The Importance of Events Generations 6 POSTMODERNITY AND POSTMODERNISM Destabilization Cultural Constructions Decentering Beyond Eurocentrism? Globalization To Conclude Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE CMI MANAGEMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARDNetflix, Spotify, and Salesforce are just the tip of the iceberg for the subscription model. The real transformation--and the real opportunity--is just beginning---Today''s consumers prefer the advantages of access over the hassles of ownership. It''s not just internet services like Netflix and Spotify; even industrial firms like GE and Caterpillar are reinventing themselves as solutions providers. Whether you sell software, clothes, insurance, or industrial machines, you need to master the transition to the subscription model.Adapting to the subscription economy takes more than just deciding to sell subscriptions instead of products. You''ll have to reinvent your company from the inside out -- from your accounting to your entire IT architecture. No matter how large or small your company, Subscribed gives you a practical, step-by-step framework to reTrade ReviewThis book is ostensibly about subscription models, but it's ultimately about the future of business. In Subscribed, you'll learn from the masters of this business model and fundamentally change the way you think about your product, customers, growth, and talent -- no matter what industry you're in -- Aaron Levie * CEO and Founder of Box *Tien Tzuo, who I was lucky enough to hire as my eleventh employee at Salesforce, has written the definitive playbook for anyone navigating the most important business model shift of our time. The subscription model is exploding everywhere, and nobody knows how to steer through this shift better than Tien -- Marc Benioff * Chairman & CEO of Salesforce *Tien Tzuo is the godfather of the subscription economy and now he shares his unparalleled wisdom in this book. A must read for anyone who wants to have a breakout company. -- Maynard Webb * Author of Rebooting Work *Tzuo dissects the building blocks of what may be the greatest shift in business in the last twenty years; the move to a recurring revenue/subscription based model. For any business looking to break the chains of episodic, transactional commerce, Tien's book is a must-read -- Scott Galloway * Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern, author of The Four *Subscribed shows you how to keep customers coming back for more. The implications for product design are enormous -- Nir Eyal * author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products *All in all, Tien's book is spot-on. It has just the right blend of background information about the Subscription Economy and best practices -- Tom Taulli * Forbes *

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Book SynopsisGeoff Mulgan, a pioneer in the global field of social innovation, explains how it provides answers to today’s global social, economic and sustainability issues. He argues for matching R&D in technology and science with a socially focused R&D and harnessing creative imagination on a larger scale than ever before.Trade Review"Mulgan’s wide-ranging vision and extensive experience are on display in this whirlwind tour of the prospects and challenges facing social innovators. Enjoy the ride!" Mark H. Moore, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: the great imbalances I MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL INNOVATION What is social innovation and how is it done? The roots of social innovation and the fragile springs of social generativity II. CHALLENGES, ROADBLOCKS AND SYSTEMS The political context for social innovation now: thesis, antithesis and synthesis Structural change and new social contracts: how innovation in welfare can address changing needs Social production systems: what is the best unit for analysis and action? Place-based systems change: how can governments, funders and civil society achieve more together? III. SOURCES, IDEAS AND WAYS OF SEEING The theoretical foundations of social innovation: sources, ideas and future directions Social science and intelligence design Observation, interpretation and activism: sociology's role in social change Understanding how cultures change A theory of belonging: how do we feel at home? The interpretation of social change IV GOOD AND BAD SOCIAL INNOVATION Know Your Impact (and in praise of better borrowing) The evolution of measures that matter: how do we know if social innovation is working? Good and bad innovation: what theory and practice do we need to distinguish them? V SOCIAL INNOVATION AND THE FUTURE Social innovation in the 2020s Thinking about the future VI FRESH THINKING

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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York TimesThe Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.#1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR: TimeONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Public Library, Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine, Marie Claire, Slate, Library Journal, Kirkus ReviewsWinner of the Carl Sandberg Literary Award • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Boo

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Book SynopsisTheodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are the leading figures of the Frankfurt School and this book is their magnum opus. Dialectic of Enlightenment is one of the most celebrated works of modern social philosophy that continues to impress in its wide-ranging ambition.Writing just after the Second World War and reflecting on the bureaucracy and myths of National Socialism and the inanity of the dawn of consumerism, Adorno and Horkheimer addressed themselves to a question which went to the very heart of the modern age: 'why mankind, instead of entering into a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism'. Modernity, far from redeeming the promises and hopes of the Enlightenment, had resulted in a stultification of mankind and administered society, characterised by simulation and candy-floss entertainment.Tracing humanity's modern fall to the very rationality that was to be its liberation, the authors exposed the domination and violence that underpin the Enlightenment project.Trade ReviewA classic of twentieth-century thought. * Times Literary Supplement *A sustained and serious critique of Western civilization. * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York TimesThe Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions—now with a new Afterword by the author.#1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR: TimeONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Public Library, Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine, Marie Claire, Slate, Library Journal, Kirkus ReviewsWinner of the Carl Sandberg Literary Award • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • National Book Award Longlist • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist • PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Longlist • Kirkus Prize Finalist“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.” In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully written narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.Original and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on advances in social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience and network science, Blueprint shows how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path -- and how we are united by our common humanity. For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples -- including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, online groups thrown together by design or involving artificially intelligent bots and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own - Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. In a world of increasing political and economic polarisation, it''s tempting to ignore the positive role of our evolutionary past. But by exploring the ancient roots of goodness in civilisation, Blueprint shows that our genes have shaped societies for our welfare and that, in a feedback loop stretching back many thousands of years, societies have shaped and are still shaping, our genes today.

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Book SynopsisHow have our emotions shaped the course of human history? And how have our experience and understanding of emotions evolved with us?We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the most important moments in our history had little to do with cold, hard facts and a lot to do with feelings. Events ranging from the origins of philosophy to the birth of the world's major religions, the fall of Rome, the Scientific Revolution, and some of the bloodiest wars that humanity has ever experienced can't be properly understood without understanding emotions.In A Human History of Emotion, Richard Firth-Godbehere takes readers on a fascinating and wide-ranging tour of the central and often under-appreciated role emotions have played in human societies around the world and throughout history from Ancient Greece to Gambia, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and beyond.Drawing on psychology, neuroscienceTrade ReviewA Kirkus Best Science Books of 2021 ‘A fascinating look at the profound ways in which the harnessing of human emotions has shaped world-wide history and culture. Eye-opening and thought-provoking’ Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain ‘Emotions are a much bigger part of the experience of being human than most people would ever realise. If you want to know more about emotions and how we arrived at our understanding of them, this book is exactly what you need’ Dean Burnett, author of The Happy Brain ‘Whether you are looking for new ideas, narrative history, psychological theory, or cultural anthropology, this book will teach you something new about how people have felt about their feelings through the ages. A book like no other’ Thomas Dixon, author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears

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Book SynopsisIn the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. The Art of Social Theory is a practical guide to doing just that. In this one-of-a-kind user's manual for social theorisTrade Review"[C]oncise and readable... Writing in accessible language and using the canon of social theorists to illustrate points, Swedberg meets a need for practitioners and students alike."--ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction: Why Theorize and Can You Learn to Do It? 1 Part 1: How to Theorize Chapter 1. Starting Anew 13 Chapter 2. Social Observation 29 Chapter 3. Naming, Concept, and Typology 52 Chapter 4. Analogy, Metaphor, and Pattern 80 Chapter 5. Coming Up with an Explanation 98 Part 2: Preparing for Theorizing Chapter 6. Heuristics 127 Chapter 7. Practical Exercises 146 Chapter 8. The Role of Theory 169 Chapter 9. Imagination and Art 188 Chapter 10. Summary and More 210 Appendix: How to Theorize according to Charles S. Peirce 230 Acknowledgments 249 Notes 251 References 253 Index 279

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Book SynopsisThe creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. The Culture Industry is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.Trade Review'A volume of Adorno's essays is equivalent to a whole shelf of books on literature.' - Susan Sontag'Adorno expounds what may be called a new philosophy of consciousness. His philosophy lives, dangerously but also fruitfully, in proximity to an ascetic puritanical moral rage, an attachment to some items in the structure and vocabulary of Marxism, and a feeling that human suffering is the only important thing and makes nonsense of everything else ... Adorno is a political thinker who wishes to bring about radical change. He is also a philosopher, with a zest for metaphysics, who is at home in the western philosophical tradition.' - Iris Murdoch'A highly misanthropic but very funny and true analysis of the power and effect of the mass media.' - Alain de Botton, Daily TelegraphTable of ContentsA cknowledgements I ntroduction -- On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening -- The Schema of Mass Culture -- Culture Industry Reconsidered -- Culture and Administration -- Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda -- How to Look at Television -- Transparencies on Film -- Free Time -- Resignation -- Name I ndex S ubject I ndex

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Book SynopsisThe French social philosopher Pierre Bourdieu is now recognised as one of the major thinkers of the twentieth century. In a career of over fifty years, Bourdieu studied a wide range of topics: education, culture, art, politics, economics, literature, law, and philosophy. Throughout these studies, Bourdieu developed a highly specialised series of concepts that he referred to as his "thinking tools", which were used to uncover the workings of contemporary society. Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts highlights his most important concepts and examines them in detail. Each chapter deals with an individual concept and is written to be of immediate use to the student with little or no previous knowledge of Bourdieu. This new edition of the leading text is entirely revised and updated and includes new essays on Methodology, Politics and Social Space.Trade ReviewReviews of the first edition: "This collection is highly admirable for its clarity and thoroughness, and should be of great interest to anthropologists and others who are new to, or familiar with, Bourdieu's oeuvre." – Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"The book manages that extraordinary feat of offering both accessible introductions to Bourdieu’s concepts that are 'good to think with’ whilst also offering a depth of analysis that will engage scholars already familiar with Bourdieu’s work. Whether a chapter says something new about familiar concepts like habitus, field, or capital, or it introduces less discussed concepts like conatus, the writing stretches the reader’s understanding of what sociological theory can be." – Arthur Frank, University of Calgary, CanadaTable of ContentsIntroduction Michael Grenfell Part 1: Biography, Theory and Practice Introduction 1. Biography Michael Grenfell 2. Theory of Practice Derek Robbins Part 2: Field Theory: Beyond Subjectivity and Objectivity Introduction 3. Habitus Karl Maton 4. Field Pat Thomson Part 3: Field Mechanisms Introduction 5. Social Class Nick Crossley 6. Capital Rob Moore 7. Doxa Cécile Deer 8. Hysteresis Cheryl Hardy Part 4: Field Conclusions Introduction 9. Interest Michael Grenfell 10. Conatus Steve Fuller 11. Suffering/Symbolic Violence J. Daniel Schubert 12. Reflexivity Cécile Deer Part 5: Applications Introduction 13. Methodology Michael Grenfell 14. Social Space Cheryl Hardy 15. Politics Michael Grenfell Conclusion Michael Grenfell Chronology of Life and Work. Index

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Book SynopsisBetween the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals. In them, these students explored the relationship between social theory and social change within the project of building a socialist Ethiopia. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of this student movement, together with the movement 's afterlife in Ethiopian politics and society, in order to ask a vital question: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenisation of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context? And, further, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally?Trade Review"This superb book will transform all discussions concerning the production of knowledge. Ranging through the archives, moving across philosophy and critical theory, and traversing social history, Ethiopia in Theory frames a stunningly original account of the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s and '70s as a site for the production of radical social science. Rather than the mere reception of revolutionary theory in an African context, Zeleke shows us the dynamics of its generation. There is truly nothing in the literature that comes close to the depth of this multi-leveled, interdisciplinary study. Zeleke 's outstanding book deserves the widest possible readership in social history, African studies, post-colonial analysis, and Marxist and critical theory in general." --David McNally, Cullen Distinguished Professor of History, University of Houston, author of Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global CapitalismTable of ContentsForeword by Donald L. DonhamAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNote on CitationsIntroductionPart 1 Knowledge Production and Social Change in Ethiopia1 The Children of the Revolution: Toward an Alternative Method2 Social Science Is a Battlefield: Rethinking the Historiography of the Ethiopian Revolution3 Challenge: Social Science in the Literature of the Ethiopian Student Movement4 When Social Science Concepts Become Neutral Arbiters of Social Conflict: Rethinking the 2005 Elections in Ethiopia5 Passive Revolution: Living in the Aftermath of the 2005 ElectionsPart 2 Theory as Memoir6 The Problem of the Social Sciences in AfricaBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis* These letters offer the reader a fascinating insight into the life of one the most important figures of twentieth-century intellectual life. * The letters touch upon issues of great personal and historical significance: the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany and the Second World War; the experience of the intellectual in exile.Trade Review"Adorno’s childhood always served him as a recollected utopia of protected bliss. The publication of his extensive correspondence with his parents well after that paradise was lost demonstrates its enduring power in his adult emotional life. Poignant, loving, anxious, at turns intellectually serious and childishly goofy, these letters not only testify to the strength of his family’s bonds, but also provide invaluable evidence of the struggles of German exiles in their new homeland. Scrupulously translated and exhaustively annotated, Adorno’s Letters to his Parents is a document of unique importance for anyone interested in the history of the Frankfurt School and for the migration as a whole." Martin Jay, University of California, BerkeleyTable of ContentsLetters 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 Editors’ Afterword Index

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Book SynopsisIn this important new book, leading cultural theorist and philosopher Bernard Stiegler re-examines the relationship between politics and art in the contemporary world. Our hyper-industrial epoch represents what Stiegler terms a 'katastroph of the sensible'.Trade Review"What links Andy Warhol, Bela Bartok, Glenn Gould and Joseph Beuys? This, says Stiegler: each in his own way understood the decisive changes brought about in the arts by their entanglement in networks of industrial production and commercial consumption, and each also realized that this entanglement called into question whether any of us - actual or merely potential artists - could any longer be said to participate in the creation and circulation of symbols. This is the question of what Stiegler terms �symbolic misery�, and he answers it with characteristic defiance. If we are indeed excluded from such participation, then the possibility of overturning this state of affairs is everywhere around us: in precisely those technical forms we more usually experience as feeding our addiction to alienation. All that is needed is to transform these from poison into cure, which is to say: to learn how to use them! This is a work of sober, impassioned understanding." Martin Crowley, Queens� College, Cambridge "In Symbolic Misery one of Europe�s leading contemporary thinkers offers indispensable insights into modern technology and its influence on the ways we come to think and feel. Stiegler does not simply diagnose a collective malaise, however; his writing is a call to arms and a programme for a total rethinking of our relationship to technical objects." Ian James, Downing College, CambridgeTable of ContentsCall to Adventure Notice to the Reader Prologue with Chorus Sensibility’s Machinic Turn and Music’s Privilege I Sensing through Participation Or the Art of Acting Out II Setting Out From Warhol and Beuys III Us All Individuation as Trans-formation and Trans-formation as Social Sculpture IV Freud’s Repression Where the Living Seize the Dead and Vice Versa V The Disjunctive Conjunction Mais où est donc Ornicar?

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Book Synopsis''Subtle and self-reflexive. . . an excellent overview of the debates and issues that have shaped this hugely influential social science'' - GuardianHow does anthropology help us understand who we are?What can it tell us about culture, from Melanesia to the City of London? Why does it matter?For well over one hundred years, social and cultural anthropologists have traversed the world from urban Zimbabwe to suburban England, Beijing to Barcelona, uncovering surprising facts, patterns, predilections and, sometimes, the inexplicable, in terms of how humans organize their lives and articulate their values. By weaving together theories and examples from around the world, Matthew Engelke brilliantly shows why anthropology matters: not only because it allows us to understand other points of view, but also because in the process, it reveals something about ourselves too.Trade ReviewEngelke's subtle and self-reflexive study presents an excellent overview of the debates and issues that have shaped this hugely influential social science. . . Using an eclectic range of examples, including "bridewealth" in modern China and the role of social values in Downton Abbey, he shows how anthropology reveals both the limits of common sense and the universal lessons that can be drawn from communities everywhere -- PD Smith * Guardian *Think Like an Anthropologist sets forth the anthropological sensibility as a mode of thinking that might encourage us to better appreciate the complexity and diversity of the modern world -- Lamorna Ash * TLS *Informing -- and perhaps occasionally startling readers who aren't themselves anthropologists -- is a profoundly important goal. Engelke achieves his goal with crystal-clear writing, and occasional humor, too -- Barbara J. King * NPR *Brilliant, lively, short(ish) introduction into the key issues that shape anthropology. The ideal introduction for a general reader, a student - or the parent of a teenager who does not understand why their kid wants to study anthropology instead of accounting. (Don't worry; they can still find a job.) -- Gillian Tett * Guardian *An affable introduction to the discipline -- James Ryerson * New York Times Book Review *Clearly the work of an author having tremendous fun with material he knows inside out . . . Thinking like an anthropologist is something that we should all do more often -- Simon Underdown * Times Higher Education *We may not do research in faraway places or even nearby, among our curious neighbors, but we all need to be anthropologists. Thinking like an anthropologist means stopping to consider our common-sense categories in critical, comparative, and historically informed ways. Matthew Engelke's admirably lucid book gives us the tools we need -- James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First CenturyA terrific introduction to the field. Beautifully written, winningly told, and provocative, the book captures the basic feature of the discipline: that anthropology is a way of seeing and thinking. Anthropology invites you to see yourself as someone else might see you. In this way, it is the most world-changing of fields -- T. M. Luhrmann, author of When God Talks BackPlayful and perceptive, Matthew Engelke welcomes readers into the fascinating history and profound insights of anthropology. This elegant synthesis shows how the discipline can change the way we think about the world -- Caitlin Zaloom, author of Out of the Pits

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Book SynopsisAn incisive exploration of why acts of mass annihilation take place and how people become mass killersTrade Review“A strong, wide-ranging contribution to the field of genocide studies, well worth reading.”—Ben Kiernan, author of Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur -- Ben Kiernan“Extraordinary . . . With a steady gaze, a cool head, and an incisive ability to express the most complex questions in simple and direct language, [Abram de Swaan] has produced a powerful and convincing account of the peculiar social and psychological conditions that give rise to mass murder.”—Stephen Budiansky, Wall Street Journal * Wall Street Journal *“The Killing Compartments is exceptionally clearly written, and the author eschews almost completely the jargon and pseudoscientific labelling of the obvious that is the bane of academic sociology. . . . Mr. de Swaan has dispelled many pernicious myths and offered much clarity and wisdom on a subject whose very enormity would overwhelm most who dared to venture into it.”—Stephen Budiansky, Wall Street Journal Europe -- Stephen Budiansky * Wall Street Journal European Edition *“Insightful . . . [and] compelling.”—Glenn C. Altschuler, Huffington Post -- Glenn C. Altschuler * Huffington Post *“De Swaan makes a persuasive case.”—Louisa Lombard, Pacific Standard -- Louisa Lombard * Pacific Standard *“A thoroughly researched, authoritative, and well-written study.”—Mark Arnold, Jewish Journal (Salem, Mass.) -- Mark Arnold * Jewish Journal *

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Book SynopsisA well-rounded, well-informed critique of the Pacific island nation of Japan, its society, economy, demography, and politics

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Book SynopsisWith numerous examples to supplement her rich theoretical discussion, the author builds a compelling philosophical argument for an ethics based on natural caring, as in the care of a mother for her child. She discusses the extent to which we may truly care for plants, animals, or ideas.Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE TO THE 2013 EDITION PREFACE TO THE 2003 EDITION INTRODUCTION 1. WHY CARE ABOUT CARING? The fundamental nature of caring What does it mean to care? Problems arising in the analysis of one-caring The cared-for Aesthetical caring Caring and acting Ethics and caring 2. THE ONE-CARING Receiving Thinking and feeling: turning points Guilt and courage Women and caring Circles and chains Asymmetry and reciprocity in caring The ethical ideal and the ethical self Rules and conflicts 3. THE CARED-FOR The one-caring's attitude and its effects Apprehension of caring necessary to the caring relationship; unequal meetings Reciprocity The ethics of being cared for 4. AN ETHIC OF CARING From natural to ethical caring Obligation Right and wrong The problem of justification Women and morality: virtue The toughness of caring 5. CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEAL The nature of the ideal Constraints and attainability Diminished ethical capacity Nurturing the ideal Maintaining the ideal 6. ENHANCING THE IDEAL: JOY Our basic reality and affect How should we describe emotion? Perception and emotion: the object of emotion and its appraisal Emotions as reasons Joy as exalted Receptivity and joy in intellectual work Joy as basic affect 7. CARING FOR ANIMALS, PLANTS, THINGS AND IDEAS Our relation with animals Our relation to plants Things and ideas Summary 8. MORAL EDUCATION What is moral education? The one-caring as teacher Dialogue Practice Confirmation Organizing schools for caring AFTERWORD NOTES SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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Book SynopsisMakes the provocative claim that queer theory has run its course, made obsolete by the elaboration of its own logic within capitalism.Trade Review'The audacious and sound thesis of Penney's new book - that the political as such is structured by sexuality - reties the knot between Freud and Marx' -- Joan Copjec, Brown University'Whether you're convinced or outraged by After Queer Theory, Penney's impressive research demands that you engage with it in the most serious terms' -- Nina Power, University of Roehampton, author of One-Dimensional Woman'States that queer theory is now at a crucial turning point, when the only option is to undertake a radical and thorough critique of its presuppositions and present state. No other critics have undertaken such a project at the present time' -- Clive Thompson, School of Languages and Literatures, University of GuelphTable of ContentsIntroduction: After Queer Theory: Manifesto And Consequences 1. Currents Of Queer 2. The Universal Alternative 3. Is There A Queer Marxism? 4. Capitalism And Schizoanalysis 5. The Sameness Of Sexual Difference 6. From The Antisocial To The Immortal Notes Index

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis* Luc Ferry is a well-known philosopher, essayist and public intellectual, with a large and established readership. * In this broad-ranging and original book, he presents a clear argument for a comprehensive philosophy of love that will in effect replace dead faiths and ideologies.Trade Review"Highly recommended - Ferry challenges readers to consider love as no longer lurking on the periphery of philosophic consciousness, but instead as providing a new definition of the good life."Choice"On Love is thrilling - fireworks of ideas, flashing sabres, and a hell of a good gallop."Times Higher Education"The great value of Ferry's work lies in his vitality of thought. His celebration of love guarantees that philosophy will remain alive and well throughout the 21st century. And that, to many of us, is something to cherish."Wichita Eagle"With his usual clarity, rigour, and intelligence, Luc Ferry in his new book tackles the daunting topic of love, its history in modern culture and society, and its role and benefits for the present and the future. For Ferry, love offers not only the possibility of surpassing the broken ideals of the past, but of founding a new humanism in the century ahead. Highly recommended."Richard J. Golsan, Texas A&M University"With great clarity and an extraordinary sense of historical synthesis, Luc Ferry traces the genealogy of love in the West, right up to its contemporary status where it has triumphed as the apotheosis of our civilization."Pascal Bruckner, Le Nouvel ObservateurTable of Contents Contents Preface by Claude Capelier Introduction: A brief history of the meaning of life Chapter 1 - The revolution of love A new principle of meaning Chapter 2 - Politics at the dawn of a new era From the revolution of love to care for the fate of future generations Chapter 3 - On the spiritual in art and education Conclusion - Death, the only objection? Love, a utopia?

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Book SynopsisFocuses on discriminating different meanings of culture, as a way of introducing the debates around it. This book offers a critique of postmodern 'culturalism', arguing instead for a more complex relation between Culture and Nature, and trying to retrieve the importance of such concepts as human nature from a non-naturalistic perspective.Trade Review"In this brief volume, Eagleton has produced both a thoughtful analysis of cultural theories as well as a shrewd, liberal dissection of current social and political trends."Publishers Weekly "Eagleton's latest book promises to be an important addition to the field of cultural studies." Library Journal "A magnificent reassertion of timeless cultural values." The Observer "A voice of sanity amid the roar of turbo-capitalism."Independent> "As always, Eagleton shows a provocative wealth of learning. He is able to see the many sides of a problem, to put it in context and suggest new ways of viewing it, a healthy corrective to the soundbite society."Times Higher Education Supplement "Stimulating and very readable. The Idea of Culture is a book which challenges our attention."The Irish TimesTable of Contents1. Versions of Culture. 2. Culture in Crisis. 3. Culture Wars. 4. Culture and Nature. 5. Towards a Common Culture. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe first volume of The Idea of Communism followed the 2009 London conference called in response to Alain Badiou's 'communist hypothesis', where an all-star cast of radical intellectuals put the idea of communism back on the map.This volume brings together papers from the subsequent 2011 New York conference organized by Verso and continues this critical discussion, highlighting the philosophical and political importance of the communist idea, in a world of financial and social turmoil.Contributors include Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Bruno Bosteels, Susan Buck-Morss, Jodi Dean, Adrian Johnston, François Nicolas, Frank Ruda, Emmanuel Terray and Slavoj Zizek.Trade ReviewDo not be afraid, join us, come back! You've had your anti-communist fun, and you are pardoned for it-time to get serious once again! -- Slavoj Zizek

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Book SynopsisDurkheim is one of the founding fathers of modern sociology and a key figure in the development of social theory. And yet today his work is often misunderstood, since it is commonly viewed through the lens of later authors who used his writings to illustrate certain tendencies in social thought.Trade Review'Susan Stedman Jones's book is a fiery, evocative attack on old, naive interpretations of Durkheim that have so long dominated the sociological scene. She has done a great service in calling scholars and students to look again at the texts and historical background of this grandmaster. The book further points to the devious paths sociological thought has trodden in recent years, not least in neglecting Durkheim's fundamental ideas. Her stimulating work will inevitably give rise to considerable debate.' W. S. F. Pickering, British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, Oxford 'This book fully lives up to its title. It offers a coherent critique of interpretations of Durkheim that remain widespread in Anglo-American sociology, providing a reassessment that will come as a surprise, even a shock, to many readers.' Willie Watts Miller, University of Bristol 'Together with her previous articles, Stedman Jones' book is beyond all doubt the best and most complete assessment on this topic, often throwing a new light on some puzzles of Durkheimian sociology.' Durkheimian Studies 'Susan Stedman Jones' rich, remarkable book provides a largely new investigation of Durkheim's philosophical background... Durkheim Reconsidered recommends itself to the reader for its wide documentation, method consistency, and clear sometimes even brilliant style.' Durkheimian Studies "This book stands out to the reader with its documentation, by its coherent methodology and by its clear style of writing which can be described, at times, as brilliant". Giovanni Paoletti, Department of Philosophy, University of Pisa "Stedman Jones presents a lively, original and appealing thinker for today ... Her text is refreshing and enlightening, ideal for anthropologists, who, as Evans-Pritchard said, could make profitable use of Durkheim's ideas." Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute "A book worthy of the highest attention." European Journal of Social TheoryTable of ContentsPreface. Chapter 1: The Interpretation of Durkheim: Sociology Contra Durkheim. Chapter 2: Durkheim as the Theorist of Order and Science. Chapter 3: Understanding Durkheim in his Time: Historical and Political Considerations. Chapter 4: Philosophy and the Republic: the Influence of Renouvier. Chapter 5: Differentiation and the Problems of Modernity. Chapter 6: Individualism and Socialism?. Chapter 7: The Science of Facts and Things: Methodological Considerations. Chapter 8: Society as the "Coefficient of Preservation": the Question of Suicide. Chapter 9: The Thinking State: Power and Democracy. Chapter 10: Practical Reason and Moral Order: Morality and Society. Chapter 11: Belief and the Logic of the Sacred. Chapter 12: Final Reflections - Durkheim Contra Sociology. Appendix: Durkheim and Renouvier. Glossary. Biographical Sketches. Notes. References. Index

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Book SynopsisThis study uses qualitative and quantitative data from the history of a specific organization, Stanford University, to develop speculations about the ways in which written rules change. It contributes both to a theory of rules and to theories of organizational decision-making, change, and learning.Trade Review"In developing an elegant and sophisticated theory of how and why organizational rules change, the authors have created an entirely new field of organizational research. I know of no other general theory on the rise, evolution, and demise of rules, and I have never seen such a rich longitudinal dataset on rules." —Frank Dobbin, Princeton University"This is an important book. . . . It outlines an emerging theory of the dynamics of organizational rules that enriches many other perspectives on the functioning of organizations. . . . Future discussions of institutionalization, organization-environment adaptation, organizational learning, organizational change, and the effect of contextual influences on individual behavior will benefit from consideraiton and inclusion of the themes presented here."—Personnel Psychology"James March, Martin Schulz, and Xueguang Zhou address the fascinating question of how rules evolve in a complex organization with a unique data set. . . . No other book equals this one in regard to the breadth of the questions asked and the mode of analysis. . . . Scholars interested in the study of institutional arrangements will find this a valuable part of their library."—American Political Science ReviewTable of ContentsContents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Book SynopsisWe are becoming less intelligent. This is the shocking yet fascinating message of At Our Wits'' End. The authors take us on a journey through the growing body of evidence that we are significantly less intelligent now than we were a hundred years ago. The research proving this is, at once, profoundly thought-provoking, highly controversial, and it's currently only read by academics. But the authors are passionate that it cannot remain ensconced in the ivory tower any longer. With At Our Wits' End, they present the first ever popular scientific book on this crucially important issue. They prove that intelligence which is strongly genetic was increasing up until the breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution, because we were subject to the rigors of Darwinian Selection, meaning that lots of surviving children was the preserve of the cleverest. But since then, they show, intelligence has gone into rapid decline, because large families are increasingly the preserve of the least intelligent. The book explores how this change has occurred and, crucially, what its consequences will be for the future. Can we find a way of reversing the decline of our IQ? Or will we witness the collapse of civilization and the rise of a new Dark Age?

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Book SynopsisConsidering Class: Theory, Culture and Media in the 21st Century offers the reader international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the importance of class analysis in the 21st century. Political economists, sociologists, educationalists, ethnographers, cultural and media analysts have contributed to this volume to provide a multi-dimensional account of current class dynamics.Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsNotes on Contributors i1 Introduction Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne Part 1: Class Theory 2 Class and the Classical Marxist Tradition Joseph Choonara3 Social Class and Education Dave Hill4 Marxist Class Theory: Competition, Contingency and Intermediate Class Positions Jonathan Pratschke5 Class Segregation  Danny Dorling6 The ‘Secret’ of the Restoration: Increased Class Exploitation Maurizio Donato and Roberto Taddeo Part 2: Class and Culture 7 Exploitation, Oppression, and Epistemology Holly Lewis8 Peasants, Migrants and Self-Employed Workers: The Masks that Veil Class Affiliation in Latin America: The Argentine Case Marina Kabat and Eduardo Sartelli9 Capitalism, Class and Collective Identity: Social Movements and Public Services in South Africa Adrian Murray10 On Intellectuals Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne11 The British Working Class Post-blair Consensus: We Do Not Exist Lisa Mckenzie12 From Class Solidarity to Cultural Solidarity: Immigration, Crises, and the Populist Right Ferruh Yilmaz13 Recovering the Australian Working Class Tony Moore, Mark Gibson and Catharine Lumby Part 3: Class and the Media 14 ‘Everything Changes. Everything Stays the Same’: Documenting Continuity and Change in Working Class Lives Anita Biressi15 Ghettos and Gated Communities in the Social Landscape of Television: Representations of Class in 1982 and 2015 Fredrik Stiernstedt and Peter Jakobsson16 Class, Culture and Exploitation: The Case of Reality tv  Milly Williamson17 Class Warfare, the Neoliberal Man and the Political Economy of Methamphetamine in Breaking Bad  Michael Seltzer18 ‘The Thing Is I’m Actually from Bromley’: Queer/Class Intersectionality in Pride (2014) Craig HaslopIndex

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Book SynopsisOffering insights into the origins, successes, and threats to revolutionary constitutionalism, Bruce Ackerman takes us to India, South Africa, Italy, France, Poland, Burma, Israel, Iran, and the U.S. and provides a blow-by-blow account of the tribulations that confronted popular movements in their insurgent campaigns for constitutional democracy.Trade ReviewAn ambitious and demanding book…What is most valuable in Revolutionary Constitutions is the sense of drama and detail in the history of constitutional construction…A considerable achievement…worth reading. -- Jeremy Waldron * London Review of Books *A robust defense of popular sovereignty as both constitutional ideal and practical possibility at a time when nominal democracies around the globe are slinking further away from anything like popular sovereignty…This is a work of bold theorizing and bolder faith (that is the best word for it) in the link between the people and the law, citizens and the state. -- Spencer Dew * Religious Studies Review *Bruce Ackerman’s Revolutionary Constitutions is a triumph. It enables the reader to appreciate the many complex factors that contribute to the legitimacy of constitutions and the creation of constitutionalism in a country. In doing so, Ackerman seamlessly navigates events, movements, and a range of charismatic constitutional personalities. He deftly discusses Nehru, Mandela, Ben-Gurion, and de Gaulle, amongst others, and their roles in the making or breaking of constitutional revolutions. -- Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Advocate, Supreme Court of IndiaAfter changing how we think about the U.S. Constitution, Bruce Ackerman is doing the same for the rest of the world. This volume is a remarkable start for what is certain to become one of the most ambitious endeavors in constitutional scholarship: to understand the different beginnings of constitutionalism in the world. -- Miguel Poiares Maduro, European University InstituteFrom George Washington to Nelson Mandela, and from Ben-Gurion to Ayatollah Khomeini, Ackerman takes his theory of the central role of constitutional politics in the creation and evolution of constitutions into a comparativist sphere and offers a theory of how typical patterns in revolutionary history shape the diverse constitutional challenges and trajectories we see in the world today. A project of grand intellectual ambition and a fascinating read. -- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School

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