Sociology and anthropology Books

Book SynopsisBased upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions, here is a notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves, using theatrical performance as a framework.This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience.

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Book SynopsisReviews of the first editionâœNot only does the clarity of the authorsâ writing make the book very accessible, but their argument is also illustrated throughout with a broad range of empirical material â undoubtedly a strong contribution to the study of both contemporary youth and âlate-modernâ society.âYouth JusticeâœA very accessible, well-evidenced and important book â It succeeds in raising important questions in a new and powerful way.âJournal of Education and Workâœthe book will be very popular with students and with academicsâ..The clarity of the organization, expression and argument is particularly commendable. I have no doubt that Young People and Social Change will rightly find its way onto the recommended reading lists of many in the field.â Professor Robert MacDonald, University of Teesside A welcome update to one of the most influential and authoritative books on young people in modern societies. With a fuller theoreticalTable of ContentsIntroduction The risk society Change and continuity in education Social change and labour market transitions Changing patterns of dependency Leisure and lifestyles Health risks in late modernity Crime and insecurity Politics and participation The epistemological fallacy of late modernity Bibliography Index.

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Book Synopsis* Slavoj Zizek is one of the world s most widely read and controversial philosophers and social critics.Trade Review"Zizek is, in fact, the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged from Europe in several decades."—Terry Eagleton "Zizek is to today what Jacques Derrida was to the '80s: the thinker of choice for Europe's young intellectual vanguard."—The Observer "... an excellent introduction to both the breadth and depth of Zizek's ideas, made all the better to follow his arguments via an imaginative format of short thematic interviews."—The SubstantiveTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1) Politics and Responsibility 2) Obsession for Harmony / Compulsion to Identify 3) Politicization of Ethics 4) Means Without End: Political Phronesis 5) “May you live in interesting times” 6) Communism The Ethico-political Fiasco 7) Who is Afraid of a Failed Revolution? 8) Another World is Possible 9) For They Know Not What They Do 10) Parallax View on Post-modern Globalization 11) The Public Use of the Scandal 12) The Screen of Politeness / Empty Gestures and Performatives 13) Deadlock of Totalitarian Communism 14) The Subversive Use of Theory 15) Becoming Proletarian Position 16) New Forms of Apartheid 17) Intrusion of the Excluded into the Socio-Political Space 18) Rage Capital and Risk-Taking Revolutionary Changes 19) Café Revolution 20) To Begin from the Beginning 21) The Fear of Real Love 22) Dialectic of Liberal Superiority 23) The Day After 24) The Universality of Political Miracles 25) Messianism, Multitude, and Wishful Thinking 26) Politicization of Favelas 27) Bolivarianism, the Populist Temptation 28) Violent Civil Disobedience 29) Legitimacy of Symbolic Violence 30) Gandhi, Aristide, and Divine Violence 31) No Moralization But Egotism 32) Possibility of Concrete Universality 33) Common Struggle for Freedom 34) The Impossible Happens

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Book SynopsisSheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time-the human consequences of US immigration policy. This book reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.Trade Review"The Land of Open Graves is hard to put down. Its violent and vivid content draws you into a reality that we should all know about, and the author's interpretation provides a political and theoretical perspective that challenges conventional beliefs about undocumented migration." TLS "A powerful book ... The Land of Open Graves is very appropriately published in the California Series in Public Anthropology and represents just what public or engaged anthropology can and should be... This is a book that all parties should read." Anthropology Review Database "Important and gut-wrenching ... [De Leon's] engagement with illegal immigration through photography, archeology, forensic science, linguistics, and ethnography is revitalizing in its full encapsulation and acknowledgement of its complexity... I wholly recommend this book." Border Criminologies "Everyone should read this book... De Leon introduces readers to a world that they likely either do not know or wish they could forget." Criminal Law and Criminal Justice BooksTable of ContentsIntroduction PART ONE. THIS HARD LAND 1. Prevention Through Deterrence 2. Dangerous Ground 3. Necroviolence PART TWO. EL CAMINO 4. Memo and Lucho 5. Deported 6. Technological Warfare 7. The Crossing PART THREE. PERILOUS TERRAIN 8. Exposure 9. You Can't Leave Them Behind 10. Maricela 11. We Will Wait until You Get Here 12. Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix A. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Southern Border Sectors, 2000-2014 Appendix B. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Tucson Sector, by Distance from the Border, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisCompellingly argues that good health is as much social as it is biological, and that the racial health gap and the racial wealth gap are mutually constitutive. The Danger Zone Is Everywhere shows that housing insecurity and the poor health associated with it are central components of an unjust, destructive, and deadly racial order. Housing discrimination is a civil and economic injustice, but it is also a menace to public health. With this book, George Lipsitz reveals how the injuries of housing discrimination are augmented by racial bias in home appraisals and tax assessments, by the disparate racialized effects of policing, sentencing, and parole, and by the ways in which algorithms in insurance and other spheres associate race with risk. But The Danger Zone Is Everywhere also highlights new practices emerging in health care and the law, emphasizing how grassroots community mobilizations are creating an active and engaged public sphere constituency promoting new forms of legislat

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Book Synopsis LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 ORWELL PRIZE''Eye-opening, extraordinary insights into ordinary lives'' Financial Times ''Superb'' Literary ReviewThe remarkable story of a unique series of studies that have touched the lives of almost everyone in Britain todayIn March 1946, scientists began to track thousands of children born in one cold week. No one imagined that this would become the longest-running study of human development in the world, growing to encompass five generations of children. Today, they are some of the best-studied people on the planet, and the simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parent and die. This is the tale of these studies and the remarkable discoveries that have come from them. Touching almost every person in Britain today, they are one of our best-kept secrets.''If you ever wondered whether the circumstances of your early life steered you along a particular path, look no further than this book ... highly readable ... a goldmine of social history'' Eric Kaufmann, Literary Review''Hugely engaging ... the scientists are an irresistibly eccentric, passionate bunch'' Nick Curtis, Evening StandardTrade ReviewAn elegant mix of science and human drama, The Life Project was - by a considerable measure in my view - the best science book published this year -- Robin McKie, Best Science Books of 2016 * Observer *An elegant mix of science and human drama, The Life Project was - by a considerable measure in my view - the best science book published this year -- Robin McKie, Best Science Books of 2016 * Observer *Eye-opening book, extraordinary insights into ordinary lives ... Part scientific narrative and part postwar social history, along with some fantastically cut-throat academic politics ... A very British success story -- Isabel Berwick * Financial Times *Fascinating, shocking, heartening ... The greatest scientific experiment in modern British history -- Dominic Sandbrook * Daily Mail *Highly enjoyable ... Reading this book has reminded me of how much we owe to birth cohorts and their participants ... Delightful -- Kate Pickett * author of The Spirit Level *A spellbinding account of the UK's pioneering cohort studies ... [A] cogent, persuasive book -- Robin McKie * Observer *Intriguing ... [A] fine, detailed book -- Jenni Russell, 'Must Reads' * Sunday Times *Fascinating -- Alice Jones * Independent *The Life Project is in many ways a very British story ... Absorbing ... A tribute to Helen Pearson's skill as a writer -- Keith Kahn-Harris * Independent *Hugely engaging, and gives much to chew on ... the scientists are an irresistibly eccentric, passionate bunch -- Nick Curtis * Evening Standard *A highly readable, deeply informative book ... If you ever wondered whether the circumstances of your early life steered you along a particular path, look no further than this book ... [Pearson] does a superb job of bringing [the cohort studies] to life ... -- Eric Kaufmann * Literary Review *Fascinating ... A cogent exploration of Britain's groundbreaking birth-cohort studies ... The Life Project does a great service in bringing them and the people at their heart to life -- Andrew Steptoe * Nature *Pearson has done a real service in explaining how wide-ranging these extraordinary and little-known studies have been -- Michael Prodger * The Times *Persuasively argues ... the beauty and sheer vision of these longitudinal cohort studies * Telegraph *Incredible * Tech Insider *

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Book SynopsisInterfaces are back, or perhaps they never left. The familiar Socratic conceit from the Phaedrus, of communication as the process of writing directly on the soul of the other, has returned to center stage in today's discussions of culture and media.Trade Review"Of vital importance to digital research; it should be included in any studies of the digital or mediated domain."Media International Australia"The Interface Effect fuses sophisticated contemporary theory with a detailed knowledge of the technics and techniques of digital media. Galloway is an important voice, and the book is sure to have a wide uptake among those interested in new media theory and contemporary aesthetics."Jodi Dean, author of Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive "Employing a sustained, powerful methodology, The Interface Effect sparkles with original insights. Galloway is interested not only in the effects that interfaces have, but also in them as themselves the results of cultural, technological, economic, and political forces. This double movement provides a way to connect the historical with the political, and the technological with both. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in new media studies, contemporary theory, and digital technologies."N. Katherine Hayles, Professor of Literature, Duke University, and author of How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary TechnogenesisTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction: The Computer as a Mode of MediationI. The Unworkable InterfaceII. Software and IdeologyIII. Are Some Things Unrepresentable?IV. Disingenuous InformaticsPostscript: We Are the Gold FarmersNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe perfect gift book for the power hungry (and who doesn't want power?) at an excellent price. The Concise Edition of an international bestseller. At work, in relationships, on the street or on the 6 o'clock news: the 48 Laws apply everywhere. For anyone with an interest in conquest, self-defence, wealth, power or simply being an educated spectator, The 48 Laws of Power is one of the most useful and entertaining books ever. This book 'teaches you how to cheat, dissemble, feign, fight and advance your cause in the modern world.' (Independent on Sunday) The distilled wisdom of the masters - illustrated through the tactics, triumphs and failures from Elizabeth I to Henry Kissinger on how to get to the top and stay there. Wry, ironic and clever this is an indispensable and witty guide to power. The laws are now famous:- Law 1: Never outshine the master Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies Law 3: Conceal your intentions Law 4: Always say less than necessary

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Book Synopsisaeo A major new book by one of the most original thinkers today. aeo Develops a distinctive argument about the a liquida nature of modernity. aeo Re--examines key concepts which look at the heart of orthodox accounts of the human condition, including the concepts of emancipation, individuality, work and community.Trade Review"Bauman on a bad day is still far more stimulating than most contemporary social thinkers. He is the Georg Simmel of our age, and his books and essays will be read when contemporary exponents of social arithmetic are long forgotten." Times Higher Education Supplement "Liquid Modernity is Zygmunt Bauman's term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the 'solid' modernity that preceded it ... He is a vivid and original writer with an eye for the revealing personal experience.' Dennis Wrong, Times Literary Supplement "Zygmunt Bauman can be counted among those giants of sociology - C. Wright Mills, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber - who are bound together not by a shared ideological or disciplinary alignment, but by a profound and moral passion. I do not employ the term "moral" in the commonly used sense of "judgmental", but to describe their ability to define the spirit of the age, to ask cutting questions about society's direction, warn of dangers and perceive opportunities." Contemporary Politics "These books mark an important advance in Bauman's project. He seems to be trying to bring the intellectuals back into the game, twitting them for their passivity. Bauman wants social critics to take a more active role, taking a lead by showing how the relationships between individuals and society and between the private and public spheres may be rearticulated and the spirit of the agora restored to social and political life." British Journal of Sociology "His work is essential reading for those political theorist who feel that part of their task is to elaborate relevant and compelling normative critique." Contemporary Political Theory "Bauman lucidly depicts what others call the 'postmodern situation' a term that he painstakingly avoids, and his analysis is important for anyone interested in cultural criticism" Caterina Norlin-Brage, Religious Studies Review "One of post-modernity's great commentators." Pete Ward, Church TimesTable of ContentsForeword: On Being Light and Liquid. 1. Emancipation. 2. Individuality. 3. Time/Space. 4. Work. 5. Community. Afterthoughts: On Writing; on Writing Sociology. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisProfessor Walens shows that the Kwakiutl visualize the world as a place of mouths and stomachs, of eaters and eaten. His analyses of the social rituals of meals, native ideas of the ethology of predation, a key Kwakiutl myth, and the Hamatsa dance, the most dramatic of their ceremonials, demonstrate the ways in which oral, assimilative metaphors enTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. vii*List of Illustrations, pg. ix*Acknowledgments, pg. xi*Introduction, pg. 1*One Metaphors of Structure, Process, and Identity, pg. 21*Two Meals and the Moral Basis of Social Action, pg. 67*Three Animals as Metaphors of Morality, pg. 97*Four Myth, Metaphor, and the Ritual Process, pg. 124*Appendix One The First Salmon Rites, pg. 165*Appendix Two Index to Boas's Kwakiutl Texts, pg. 170*References, pg. 173*Index, pg. 189

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Book SynopsisDevelops an analyses of a number of central everyday concepts of social phenomena, including shared action, a social convention, a group's belief, and a group itself. This book proposes that the core social phenomena among human beings are "plural subject" phenomena.Trade Review"In this rich and rewarding work, Margaret Gilbert provides a novel and detailed account of our everyday concepts of social collectivity. In so doing she makes a seminal contribution to ... some vexed issues in the philosophy of social science... [An] intellectually pioneering work."--Social Epistemology

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Book SynopsisScience, Technology and Society: A Sociological Approach is a comprehensive guide to the emergent field of science, technology, and society (STS) studies and its implications for today's culture and society. Discusses current STS topics, research tools, and theories Tackles some of the most urgent issues in current STS studies, including power and culture, race, gender, colonialism, the Internet, cyborgs and robots, and biotechnology Includes case studies, a glossary, and further reading lists Trade Review“In clear and understandable language, this introduction to STS brings home the point that science and technology are social constructions by human communities. Its applications range from science’s border with religion, to cyborgs, robots, and new reproductive technologies. Students will quickly turn on to what STS is all about.” Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania “Amidst the science wars this book reads as a peace treaty: skillfully navigating between the sirens of absolutism and relativism, the authors lead the reader into the land of technoscience." Jean Paul Van Bendegem, Vrije Universiteit Brussel “…recommend[ed] for its robust and engaging argument, political concerns and ambitions, and challenge to readers to explore their own beliefs and experiment with new visions.” ISISTable of ContentsPrefaceP. Introduction Introduction. Our Premises and Our Approach / Nuts and Bolts and the Systems that Tighten Them / Conclusion. 2 Cultures of Science. Birth of a Fact / Society and Culture / Worldviews / The Social Construction Conjecture / Feminism and Science Studies / Technology in Motion / Pre-Scientific: You Or Me? / Mind and Society / What Can Sociologists Say About Mathematics? / Conclusion. 3 The Dance of Truth. Science and Technology as Social Institutions / The Dance of Magic, Science, and Religion / What Is Truth? / Dangerous Icons: From Magic and Religion to Science and Law / Conclusion. 4 STS and Power in the Postmodern World. Technology and Society / Power, Values, and Agency / Cyborgs, Humans, and Technology / Contemporary Society: Globalization Or Bust? / Metaphors, Narratives, and Glocal Cultures / Conclusion: Technoscience and Globalizations. 5 Life after Science and Technology Studies. Technoscience Revisited / Case Study: the New Reproductive Technologies / Case Study: Robots, Minds, and Society / Frontiers and Horizons / Conclusion: Where We Have to Stand in Order to Begin. Glossary. References. Name Index. Subject Index

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Book SynopsisWritten by a renowned scholar of critical race theory, The Threat of Race explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated, if often denied, in today's world. A major new study of race and racism by a renowned scholar of critical race theory Explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated - if often denied - in today's world Argues that it is the neoliberal society that fuels new forms of racism Surveys race dynamics throughout various regions of the world - from Western and Northern Europe, South Africa and Latin America, and from Israel and Palestine to the United States Trade Review"Yet, it has the great value of underlining that Africa's future is indeed in the hands of Africans, and only they will determine if it is a successful future or a return to second fiddle of human history ... At the same time, I am sure, those who know Africa will realize how much this book reflect the reality on the ground. A reality that will surprise the world in the years to come." (South World, 1 October 2011) "This is powerful stuff. The author intends no scholarly dispassion, no footnoted academic treatise. Rather he presents an impassioned argument at length, replete with examples, full of word games to emphasize a point. There is fire in this work. The book is interesting, written with passion and obvious pleasure in playing with the language. The Threat of Race is a strong addition to the growing library of anti-globalism, [and] anti-neoliberal critiques." Indigenious Peoples and Issues Website Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments vi Author's Note xii 1 Buried, Alive 1 2 "Killing Me Softly": Civility/Race/Violence 32 3 Deva-Stating Discriminations, Discriminating Devastations (On Racial Americanization) 66 4 Targets of Opportunity (On Racial Palestinianization) 106 5 Precipitating Evaporation (On Racial Europeanization) 151 6 Revealing Alchemies (On Racial Latinamericanization) 199 7 A Political Theology of Race (On Racial Southafricanization) 245 8 Enduring Occupations (On Racial Neoliberalism) 327 Index of Authors 377 Index of Keywords 382

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, ideas of post- and transhumanism have been popularized by novels, TV series, and Hollywood movies. According to this radical perspective, humankind and all biological life have become obsolete. Traditional forms of life are inefficient at processing information and inept at crossing the high frontier: outer space. While humankind can expect to be replaced by their own artificial progeny, posthumanists assume that they will become an immortal part of a transcendent superintelligence. Krüger's award-winning study examines the historical and philosophical context of these futuristic promises by Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, Frank Tipler, and other posthumanist thinkers.

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Book SynopsisWar X is an explosive introduction to the discussion of modern warfare and a timely consideration of industrial warfare. It is also a deliberation on the startling world of new weapon development, and the indescribable future of war that beckons.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Why X 1. Crawling Flesh: The Infant Comes to Battle 2. Breathing Metal: Armour Suited for War 3. Heavy Tread: On Track for Battle 4. Rotor Hearts: The Helicopter as War's Pacemaker 5. Dead Slow: Loitering in Battlespace 6. Wastage: War after War

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Book SynopsisThe Pharmaceutical Studies Reader is an engaging survey of the field that brings together provocative, multi-disciplinary scholarship examining the interplay of medical science, clinical practice, consumerism, and the healthcare marketplace.Trade Review"...provides an in-depth look at the machinery that enables the continued expansion of pharmaceutical products, markets, and subjects." - Ellen Rubinstein for Anthropology Book Forum, Anthropology NewsTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vii 1 Introduction 1Jeremy A. Greene and Sergio Sismondo Part I Pharmaceutical Lives 17 2 The Pharmaceuticalisation of Society? A Framework for Analysis 19Simon J. Williams, Paul Martin and Jonathan Gabe 3 Pharmaceutical Witnessing: Drugs for Life in an Era of Direct]to]Consumer Advertising 33Joseph Dumit Part II New Drugs, Diseases, and Identities 49 4 Releasing the Flood Waters: Diuril and the Reshaping of Hypertension 51Jeremy A. Greene 5 DepRession and ConsumŠtion: Psychopharmaceuticals, Branding, and New Identity Practices 70Nathan Greenslit 6 BiDil: Medicating the Intersection of Race and Heart Failure 87Anne Pollock 7 Manufacturing Desire: The Commodification of Female Sexual Dysfunction 106Jennifer R. Fishman Part III Drugs and the Circulation of Medical Knowledge 121 8 Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors 123Adriane Fugh]Berman and Shahram Ahari 9 Getting to Yes: Corporate Power and the Creation of a Psychopharmaceutical Blockbuster 133Kalman Applbaum 10 Pushing Knowledge in the Drug Industry: Ghost]Managed Science 150Sergio Sismondo 11 Transcultural Medicine: A Multi]Sited Ethnography on the Scientific]Industrial Networking of Korean Medicine 165Jongyoung Kim Part IV Political and Moral Economies of Pharmaceutical Research 179 12 Uncommon Trajectories: Steroid Hormones, Mexican Peasants, and the Search for a Wild Yam 181Gabriela Soto Laveaga 13 “Ready]to]Recruit” or “Ready]to]Consent” Populations? Informed Consent and the Limits of Subject Autonomy 195Jill A. Fisher 14 Clinical Trials Offshored: On Private Sector Science and Public Health 208Adriana Petryna 15 The Experimental Machinery of Global Clinical Trials: Case Studies from India 222Kaushik Sunder Rajan Part V Intellectual Property in Local and Global Markets 235 16 Intellectual Property and Public Health: Copying of HIV/AIDS Drugs by Brazilian Public and Private Pharmaceutical Laboratories 237Maurice Cassier and Marilena Correa 17 Global Pharmaceutical Markets and Corporate Citizenship: The Case of Novartis’ Anti]Cancer Drug Glivec 247Stefan Ecks 18 Generic Medicines and the Question of the Similar 261Cori Hayden Index 268

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Book Synopsis*WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION*''Deals intensely and critically with urgent questions facing a globalised world'' The TimesThe way we think and live, who we vote for and who we fear, has become ever more dictated by our personal identity.In his ground-breaking book, Gary Younge argues that we have recoiled into refuges of race or class, religion or national identity to survive in a state seemingly indifferent to our lives. Ranging from his Stevenage childhood to present day America, from the borders of Europe to division in South Africa, Younge explores the issues that bind the powerful elite and the poor immigrant, the fundamentalist and the conservative. In this powerful dissection of modern society Gary Younge challenges us not to succumb to what divides us, but through solidarity to search for a common - and higher - ground.''With brilliant clarity, Gary Younge carefully guides us through a political minefield'' Andrea LevyTrade ReviewAn indispensable guide to "identity" in politics, and a terrific read! * Margaret Atwood *Deals intensely and critically with urgent questions facing a globalized world * The Times *An absorbing and thoughtful discussion of identity * Financial Times *Penetrating and provocative * Sarfraz Manzoor *With brilliant clarity, Gary Younge carefully guides us through a political minefield * Andrea Levy *An indispensable guide to "identity" in politics, and a terrific read! * Margaret Atwood *Deals intensely and critically with urgent questions facing a globalized world * The Times *An absorbing and thoughtful discussion of identity * Financial Times *Penetrating and provocativeWith brilliant clarity, Gary Younge carefully guides us through a political minefield * Andrea Levy *

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Book SynopsisReviews of the 1st Edition:"....This book is a welcome addition to the sociology of technology, a field whose importance is increasingly recognised." - Sociology"....sets a remarkably high standard in breadth of coverage, in scholarship, and in readability and can be recommended to the general reader and to the specialist alike." - Science and Society"....This remarkably readable and well-edited anthology focuses, in a wide variety of concrete examples, not on the impacts of technologies on societies but in the reverse: how different social contexts shaped the emergence of particular technologies." - Technology and Culture How does social context affect the development of technology? What is the relationship between technology and gender Is production technology shaped by efficiency or by social control? Technological change is often seen as something that follows its own logic - something we may welcome, or about whicTrade Review"Delanty has written a fluent and succinct overview of social theory, including informed commentary and critique...The book presents some very good potted accounts of the various theoretical positions in the social sciences and sets out issues that are not yet resolved. It should be added to the reading lists of theory and methodology courses in the social sciences." - The Times HigherTable of ContentsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgementsEditors' notePreface to the Second Edition/f002Part 1: Introductory essay and general issuesIntroductory essay: the social shaping of technologyDo artifacts have politics?Modest_Witness@Second_MilleniumEdison and electric lightInventing personal computingConstructing a bridgeCompeting technologies and economic predictionThe social construction of technologyRedefining the social linkfrom baboons to humansCaught in the wheelsthe high cost of being a female cog in the male machinery of engineeringMaking 'white' people white/f002Part 2: The technology of productionIntroductionThe watermill and feudal authorityThe machine versus the workerTechnology and capitalist controlSocial choice in machine designthe case of automatically controlled machine toolsThe material of male powerWhat machines can't dopolitics and technology in the industrial enterpriseWriters, texts and writing actsgendered user images in word processing softwareLearning by tryingthe implementation of configurational technologyWorking relations of technology production and use/f002Part 3: Reproductive technologyIntroductionThe industrial revolution in the homeA gendered socio-technical constructionthe smart houseA woman's placeDolores Hayden on the 'grand domestic revolution'Inserting Grafenberg's IUD into the sex reformThe decline of the one-size-fits-all paradigm, or, how reproductive scientists try to cope with post-modernity/f002Part 4: Military technologyIntroductionCold war and white heatthe origins and meanings of packet switchingManufacturing gender in military cockpit designThe American army and the M-16 rifleThe Thor-Jupiter controversyThe weapons succession processTheories of technology and the abolition of nuclear weaponsBibliographyIndex.

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Book SynopsisExposes the disturbing phenomenon of human trafficking and slavery that exists in the United States. This title weaves together a wealth of voices - from slaves, slaveholders, and traffickers as well as from counselors, law enforcement officers, rescue and support groups, and others.Trade Review"An informative call to action ... a humane and helpful primer on how to sever the links that create and hide human bondage." Publishers Weekly "Will likely change the way you understand your community." -- Deborah Fink Friends Journal "Anyone wanting a better understanding of the ongoing problem of slavery in the United States-and their own role in perpetuating or eradicating it-should read this book." -- Charles Song California Lawyer "Essential reading for anyone interested in human rights... [The authors] appeal to the reader's sense of justice and compassion." -- Tiffany Williams Foreign Policy In Focus "If you read one book on human trafficking this year, make it The Slave Next Door... Digestible, enjoyable, and ultimately uplifting." Change.org "With the help of this great book ... we can shift from ignoring this crude reality to [eradicating] this abominable practice." African Politics Portal "An arresting volume." History WireTable of ContentsPreface to the Paperback Edition Acknowledgments PART I: SLAVES IN THE LAND OF THE FREE 1. The Old Slavery and the New 2. House Slaves 3. Slaves in the Pastures of Plenty 4. Supply and Demand 5. New Business Models 6. Eating, Wearing, Walking, and Talking Slavery PART II: THE FINAL EMANCIPATION 7. Slaves in the Neighborhood 8. States of Confusion 9. The Feds 10. A Future without Slavery Appendix: For Further Information Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA study of social inequality, this text asks how long-lasting inequalities in life chances arise, and how they come to distinguish members of different socially defined categories of persons. It highlights the social mechanisms that create and maintain paired and unequal categories.Trade Review"An important approach to social inequality." * CHOICE *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Of Essences and Bonds 2. From Transactions to Structures 3· How Categories Work 4. Modes of Exploitation 5· How to Hoard Opportunities 6. Emulation, Adaptation, and Inequality 7· The Politics of Inequality 8. Future Inequalities References Index

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Book SynopsisIn examining the work of Theodor Adorno, this collection of essays focuses on the German philosopher's ideas in the field of musicology. Though it addresses complex theories, this inquiry maintains a lucid style, describing the nuances of Adorno's thought while not relying on a great deal of prior knowledge to shed light on his contributions to music theory. Included is a discussion of the applicability of Adorno's ideas to popular music and an assessment of Adorno's continuing relevance in light of other commentaries.Trade Review"Paddison has assembled an accessible and timely collection of reflections on Adorno's aesthetics of music in service of showing just how it might compose a framework for the present critical interpretation of culture." - Tom Huhn, Professor of Philosophy, British Journal of Aesthetics.; "...a briliant piece of work..." Charles Rosen, The New York Review of BooksTable of ContentsPreface, Introduction, 1. Critical Theory and Music, 2. Adorno's Aesthetics of Modernism, 3. Adorno, Popular Music and Mass Culture, 4. Critical Reflections on Adorno, Bibliography, Indices

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Book SynopsisIn the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, prominent social thinkers in France, Germany, and the United States sought to understand the modern world taking shape around them. Although they worked in different national traditions and emphasized different features of modern society, they repeatedly invoked Jews as a touchstone for defining modernity and national identity in a context of rapid social change. In Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought, Chad Alan Goldberg brings us a major new study of Western social thought through the lens of Jews and Judaism. In France, where antisemites decried the French Revolution as the Jewish Revolution, Emile Durkheim challenged depictions of Jews as agents of revolutionary subversion or counterrevolutionary reaction. When German thinkers such as Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Werner Sombart, and Max Weber debated the relationship of the Jews to modern industrial capitalism, they reproduced, in secularized form, cultural assumptions d

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Book SynopsisA work of exceptional ambition by the founder of modern economic sociology, this first full account of Mark Granovetter’s ideas stresses that the economy is not a sphere separate from other human activities but is deeply embedded in social relations and subject to the same emotions, ideas, and constraints as religion, science, politics, or law.Trade ReviewThis book represents not only a long-awaited statement by the leading figure in one of the most vibrant subfields of sociology, but also a major contribution to the social sciences as a whole. Always a masterful writer, Granovetter is in rare form here, giving the book an almost ‘impossible-to-put-down’ quality. This is the most important work ever published in the field of economic sociology. It should be read by anyone with an interest in social theory, and social life in general. -- Mark Mizruchi, University of MichiganThis long awaited book by one of the founders of the New Economic Sociology builds conceptual grounds for a sociological perspective of the economy. Focusing on the role of norms, trust, power, and institutions for the workings of the economy, Society and Economy is an impressive synthesizing statement that will help structure future research. Based on discussions covering a staggering range of scholarship, Granovetter’s book demonstrates the crucial importance of social structures for economic organization. One can only hope that it will reach a broad and interdisciplinary audience. -- Jens Beckert, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of SocietiesBreathtaking in scope and insight. -- William Ocasio, Northwestern UniversityA summing up of a lifetime’s work in economic sociology…Brings to mind an earlier age in social science with books like Max Weber’s Economy and Society and Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation…A wide-ranging and deeply thought through book. -- Sanjeev Goyal * Journal of Economic Literature *Long-awaited…Granovetter’s sociology develops conceptual tools for an analysis of economic life…[He] offers a powerful broadside against neoclassical economic assumptions. -- Elaine Coburn * International Sociology Review *

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Book SynopsisIn this new book, David Harvey seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience.Trade Review"Devastating. The most brilliant study of post-modernity to date. David Harvey cuts beneath the theoretical debates about postmodernist culture to reveal the social and economic basis of this apparently free-floating phenomenon. After reading this book, those who fashionably scorn the idea of a 'total' critique had better think again." Terry Eagleton "Few people have penetrated the heartland of contemporary cultural theory and critique as explosively or insightfully as David Harvey." Edward Soja "David Harvey's book is probably the best yet written on the link between ... economic and cultural transformations." Financial Times "David Harvey's engrossing book is probably the most readable, ambitious, and intelligent work on postmodernism yet published." Voice Literary Supplement "In Harvey's skilful hands various strands of contemporary life, normally held far apart by specialized scholarly interests, come together again and are shown to fit with each other ... a marvellous, enjoyable and mind-opening book." Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsThe argument. Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: The Passage from Modernity to Postmodernity in Contemporary Culture: . 1. Introduction. 2. Modernity and Modernism. 3. Postmodernism. 4. Postmodernism in the City: Architecture and Urban Design. 5. Modernization. 6. POSTmodernISM or postMODERNism?. Part II: The Political-Economic Transformation of late Twentieth-Century Capitalism: . 7. Introduction. 8. Fordism. 9. From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation. 10. Theorizing the Transition. 11. Flexible Accumulation - Solid Transformation or Temporary Fix?. Part III: The Experience of Space and Time: . 12. Introduction. 13. Individual Spaces and Times in Social Life. 14. Time and Space as Sources of Social Power. 15. The Time and Space of the Enlightenment Project. 16. Time-space Compression and the Rise of Modernism as a Cultural Force. 17. Time-Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition. 18. Time and Space in the Postmodern Cinema. Part IV: The Condition of Postmodernity:. 19. Postmodernity as a Historical Condition. 20. Economics with Mirrors. 21. Postmodernism as the Mirror of Mirrors. 22. Fordist Modernism versus Flexible Postmodernism, or the Interpenetration of Opposed Tendencies in Capitalism as a Whole. 23. The Transformative and Speculative Logic of Capital. 24. The Work of Art in an Age of Electronic Reproduction and Image Banks. 25. Responses to Time-Space Compression. 26. The Crisis of Historical Materialism. 27. Cracks in the Mirrors, Fusions at the Edges. References. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an introduction to the work of Norbert Elias. It is the first systematic appraisal of two central themes of his thought -- violence and civilization. Although Elias is best known for his theory of civilizing processes, this study highlights the crucial importance of the concept of decivilizing processes.Trade Review"Violence and Civilization is an outstanding book. It is both an extremely valuable addition to the small but growing literature on the work of Norbert Elias and, in its own right, a major contribution to our understanding of a subject central to contemporary social theory - violence." Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin "Violence and Civilization is a tour de force, a 'must' for the growing number of sociologists who are coming to recognize Norbert Elias as a twentieth-century 'great'. Elias has often been criticized on spurious grounds - for example, for neglecting Nazism and the Holocaust - but, by tackling head-on how Elias actually grappled with such issues, Jonathan Fletcher succeeds in developing a critique which merits serious consideration. He has produced a clear, well-written text which is nicely balanced between exposition and appraisal. Violence and Civilization will be invaluable for those who wish to take Elias's project further." Eric Dunning, University of Leicester "A valuable addition to the literature on Elias's 'configurational sociology', a study that allows deeper appreciation of Elias's fertile imagination." The Times Higher Educational Supplement "This book is a welcome addition to the small Elias literature. The book provides a clear and not uncritical assessment of Elias's remarkable capacity to capture social complexity as it relates to the inner lives of human beings. There are not many readers who will not find somewhere in this volume an insight which can be taken on board and used as a point for future reference. Few scholars have the knowledge or ability to even think of writing such a book." British Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Civilization, Habitus and Civilizing Processes 6 The development of civilization as a concept 6 Changes in social and individual habitus 10 Socialization, aggression and shame 21 3 Violence, Habitus and State Formation 31 Violence monopolies and pacification 31 Linearity, development and evolution 39 On the concepts of violence and civilization 45 4 Identity, Violence and Process Models 55 Interdependence, social bonds and the we–I balance 55 Established-outsider relations 70 Criteria of civilizing and decivilizing processes 82 5 Social Habitus and Civilizing Processes in England 88 State formation and pacification 89 Public opinion and national ideals 96 Sport and violence: the example of foxhunting 107 6 Nationalism and Decivilizing Processes in Germany 116 State formation and national identification 117 Violence in the imperial establishment 123 Violence in the Weimar Republic 134 7 Genocide and Decivilizing Processes in Germany 148 National ideals and the rise of the Nazis 148 Mass murder and national we-identity 158 Civilization, ‘modernity’ and decivilizing processes 166 8 Elias on Violence, Civilization and Decivilization 176 Notes 185 References 197 Index 209

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Book SynopsisThis is one of the most original and important works of contemporary European thought. First published in France in 1975, it is the major theoretical work of one of the foremost thinkers in Europe.Trade Review"Shot through with radiant insights." The New Statesman and Society "An excellent introduction to the range, depth, and perceptiveness of his thinking. He has the distinctive ability to bring illumination where there is darkness and obscurity." Richard J. Bernstein, New School of Social ResearchTable of ContentsPart I: Marxism and Revolutionary Theory. . 1. Marxism: A Provisional Assessment. 2. Theory and Revolutionary Project. 3. The Institution and the Imaginary: A First Approach. Part II: The Social Imaginary and the Institution. . 4. The Social-Historical. 5. The Social-Historical Institution: Legein and Tukhein. 6. The Social-Historical Institution: Individuals and Things. 7. Social Imaginary Significations. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisWhen this classic was first published in 1975, it created a new discipline and started a tumultuous round in the nature versus nurture debate. In the introduction to this edition, Wilson shows how research in human genetics and neuroscience over the past quarter of a century has strengthened the case for a biological understanding of human nature.Trade ReviewIt is impossible to leave Wilson’s book without having one’s sense of life permanently and dramatically widened. -- Fred Hapgood * The Atlantic *Rarely has the world been provided with such a splendid stepping stone for an exciting future of a new science. -- John Tyler Bonner * Scientific American *This book enthralls and enchants… If you have this book… you can begin getting your mind ready for the illuminations about human society. -- Lewis Thomas * Harper’s *Sociobiology is an excellent book, full of extraordinary insights, and replete with the beauty and poetry of the animal kingdom. * Times Literary Supplement *Its contents do indeed provide a new synthesis, of wide perspective and great authority… Wilson’s plain uncluttered prose is a treat to read, his logic is rigorous, his arguments are lucid. -- V. C. Wymne-Edwards * Nature *Sociobiology explores the possibility that animal social behaviour—group living, kinship, attraction and mating, reciprocity and sharing, cooperation, conflict, and cheating, to name just the most familiar—has a genetic basis and can be shaped by natural selection: genes can be shaped by natural selection: genes can code for social behaviours in the same way that they code for body parts such as hands, hooves, eyes, antlers and ears. But, in an audacious final chapter, Wilson extended the analysis to humans: biology had grabbed our kinship, cooperation, mate preferences and the rest. Some branded Wilson and his ideas fascist, others as racist or guilty of genetic determinism. They are none of these things and, two Pulitzer Prizes later, Wilson has been vindicated… Wilson’s Sociobiology laid the foundations for a lifetime of meditations. -- Mark Pagel * Times Higher Education Supplement *A towering theoretical achievement of exceptional elegance… Like most great books, Sociobiology is unpedantic, lucid, and eminently accessible. -- Pierre L. van den Berghe * Contemporary Sociology *Sociobiology, a new concept, is one with extraordinary potential value for understanding and explaining human behavior. * Practical Psychology *This book will stand as a landmark in the comparative study of social behavior. * Quarterly Review of Biology *It’s been 25 years since E. O. Wilson wrote Sociobiology, naming a new science and starting it off with a bang—and a firestorm of protest. ‘Nurture!’ and ‘Nature!’ came the cries from every corner of the academic world, as the book became a causus belli for sociologists, feminists, human geneticists, and psychologists. -- Mary Ellen Curtin * Amazon.com *Table of Contents* Part I. Social Evolution *1. The Morality of the Gene *2. Elementary Concepts of Sociobiology *3. The Prime Movers of Social Evolution *4. The Relevant Principles of Population Biology *5. Group Selection and Altruism *6. Group Size, Reproduction, and Time-Energy Budgets * Part II. Social Mechanisms *7. The Development and Modification of Social Behavior *8. Communication: Basic Principles *9. Communication: Functions and Complex Systems *10. Communication: Origins and Evolution *11. Aggression *12. Social Spacing, Including Territory *13. Dominance Systems *14. Roles and Castes *15. Sex and Society *16. Paternal Care *17. Social Symbioses * Part III. The Social Species *18. The Four Pinnacles of Social Evolution *19. The Colonial Microorganisms and Invertebrates *20. The Social Insects *21. The Cold-Blooded Vertebrates *22. The Birds *23. Evolutionary Trends within the Mammals *24. The Ungulates and Elephants *25. The Carnivores *26. The Nonhuman Primates *27. Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology * Glossary * Bibliography * Index

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Book SynopsisRejects much of what criminology has become, criticizing the rigid determinism and rampant positivism that dominate the discipline today. This title draws on a range of research - from urban ethnography to sexology and criminal victimization studies - to illustrate its failings.Trade Review"Great teachers like Young translate between cultural forms and fields of knowledge." Kriminologisches Journal 'The terms "criminology" and "imagination" do not naturally belong together. Jock Young's singular achievement is to apply a fine "criminological imagination", exposing the soulless discourse of mainstream criminology and reflecting upon the alternative critical tradition in which he himself played such a central role.' Stan Cohen, London School of Economics and Political Science ‘If reading a clever and consequential book were a crime, you would get arrested and hauled straight to jail for picking up The Criminological Imagination. Adapting and deepening C.-Wright Mills's classic critique of the foibles of sociology, Young not only offers a razor-sharp diagnosis of how criminology lost its way in a funny-mirror house of methodological fetishism, empirical legerdemain, conceptual confusion and policy subservience. He also clears a path toward rescue and renewal: criminology can regain its analytic poise and civic relevance by embracing its sociological grounding and by reconnecting crime to formations of meaning and power. This book will energize all those who wish to free the craft from the clutches of the profession, and it is sure to fire up vigorous debate between and among partisans of mainstream and critical criminology.' Loïc Wacquant, author of Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality and Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Legacy of C. Wright Mills 1. Closing Down the Imagination 2. Measurement and the Sexologists 3. Amnesia and the Art of Skating on Thin Ice 4. The Bogus of Positivism 5. The Loosening of the Moorings: The Emergence of Cultural Criminology 6. Giuliani and the New York Miracle 7. Magic, Mayhem and Margaret Mead: Towards a Critical Ethnography 8. Subcultures as Magic: Problems of Urban Ethnography 9. Dangerous Knowledge and the Politics of the Imagination 10. Rescuing the Imagination

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Book SynopsisThe passage from 'solid' to 'liquid' modernity has created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits, confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before encountered.Trade Review"Liquid Times and Living on Borrowed Times offer deep insights into post-modern life. Specifically, it exposes the essential social and philosophical changes that lie at the heart of the conditions that led to the global financial crisis ... the ideas in these books are fascinating."Satyajit Das, Willmot.comTable of ContentsIntroduction: Bravely into the Hotbed of Uncertainties 1 1 Liquid Modern Life and its Fears 5 2 Humanity on the Move 27 3 State, Democracy and the Management of Fears 55 4 Out of Touch Together 71 5 Utopia in the Age of Uncertainty 94 Notes 111

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Book SynopsisWe live in a time of turbulent change when many of the frameworks that have characterized our societies over the last few centuries - such as the international order of sovereign nation-states - are being called into question.Table of ContentsAuthor’s Foreword. Part I From Bonn to Berlin. 1 There are Alternatives!. Part II Interventions. 2 From Power Politics to Cosmopolitan Society. 3 A Sort of Logo of the Free West. 4 The Finger of Blame: The Germans and Their Memorial. Part III Public Reeprsentation and Cultural Memory. 5 Symbolic Expression and Ritual Behavior: Ernst Cassirer and Arnold Gehlen Revisited. Part IV Europe in Transition. 6 Euroskepticism, Market Europe, or a Europe of (World) Citizens?. 7 Does Europe need a Constitution?. Part V A Question of Political Theory. 8 Constitutional Democracy - A Paradoxical Union of Contradictory Principles?. Part VI American Pragmatism and German Philosophy: Three Reviews. 9 John Dewey, The Quest for Certainty. 10 Richard Rorty, Achieving our Country. 11 Robert Brandom, Making it Explicit. Part VII Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. 12 A Conversation about God and The World. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisCrime is big news. From murder to theft to drug gangs, crime and criminal justice affect the lives of millions of people worldwide. Hardly surprisingly, crime has been pushed high up the public policy agenda across the world. But how can we measure crime, or evaluate the effectiveness of preventative measures? Does the threat of prison reduce someone''s likelihood of reoffending, or would rehabilitation be more constructive?In this Very Short Introduction Tim Newburn considers how we can study trends in crime, and use them to inform preventative policy and criminal justice. Analysing the history of the subject, he reflects on our understanding of crime and responses to crime in earlier historical periods. Considering trends in crime in the developed world, Newburn discusses its causes, exploring the relationship between drugs and crime, analysing what we know about why people stop offending, and looking at both formal and informal responses to crime. Newburn concludes by discussing what role criminology can plausibly be anticipated to have in crime control and politics, and what its limits are. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewWhat is crime? Who is a criminal? These are big questions, tackled adroitly and insightfully in this short but weighty book. * Shadd Maruna, Co-Editor, Oxford Handbook of Criminology *Tim Newburn presents the fundamental concepts, concerns, and findings of criminology with a clarity and wit that make it fully accessible to the beginner without ever sacrificing the depth and originality needed to hold the attention of the expert. This is a wonderfully concise and engaging book! * David Garland, Professor of Law and Sociology, New York University *Table of ContentsIntroducing criminologyWhat is crime?Who commits crime?How do we measure crime?Understanding recent trends in crimeUnderstanding the crime dropHow do we control crime?How do we prevent crime?Where next for criminology?Sources and Further ReadingIndex

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Book SynopsisSmall Talk ist der gekonnte Start, um erfolgreiche Verbindungen zu Menschen zu knüpfen. Egal ob privat, auf Messen, beim Geschäftsessen, auf der Reise oder beim Vorstellungsgespräch: Wenn andere Sie mögen, öffnen sich Ihnen viele neue Möglichkeiten. Worüber aber reden, wenn es eigentlich nichts zu sagen gibt? Wie an Menschen anknüpfen, über die man nichts weiß? Wie überwindet man die Sprachlosigkeit, zeigt sich spontaner und gesprächsbereiter? Gero Teufert zeigt Ihnen in diesem Buch Techniken und Strategien, geht auf Themen und verschiedene Gesprächssituationen ein und verrät die Tricks guter Small Talker, mit denen Sie bei Ihrem Gesprächspartner Sympathien erzeugen.Table of ContentsÜber den Autor 7 Einführung 11 Teil I: Small Talk – Sinnloses Geplauder? 15 Kapitel 1: Was ist Small Talk? 17 Kapitel 2: Tipps und Tricks gegen Sprachlosigkeit 27 Teil II: Mit Basistechniken raus aus der Sprachlosigkeit 39 Kapitel 3: Die wichtigsten Grundeinstellungen 41 Kapitel 4: Einfache Strategien – das kann jeder! 51 Teil III: Small Talk starten und aufrecht erhalten 61 Kapitel 5: So finden Sie ein Thema 63 Kapitel 6: Small Talk in verschiedenen Situationen 73 Teil IV: Die Geheimnisse erfolgreicher Small Talker 83 Kapitel 7: Wie Sie Small Talk in Gang halten 85 Kapitel 8: So erreichen Sie unterbewusste Zustimmung 99 Teil V: Der Top-Ten-Teil 109 Kapitel 9: Die zehn besten Themen für Small Talk 111 Stichwortverzeichnis 123

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Book SynopsisMarxism was the loser in the Cold War, but Oleg Kharkhordin is not surprised that liberal democracy failed to take root after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. He suggests that Russians find a path to freedom by looking to the classical tradition of republican self-government and civic engagement already familiar from their history and literature.Trade ReviewA fascinating study, empirically informed but normatively oriented, of Russia’s republican prospects. It is imaginatively shaped by political theory, the history of ideas, and a multiply-documented belief in the power of words to change things. -- Philip Pettit, Princeton University and Australian National UniversityKharkhordin argues that Russia has a tradition of ‘republican thought’ of a distinct genealogy, not that of the French Revolution but originating in the ancient world (especially Cicero) and then charting its own line through the Russian Decembrists of the early nineteenth century up to the present. These ideas were frequently submerged in the Russian history of authoritarianism, but survived through the medium of literature throughout the later nineteenth century and during the Soviet era. Recouped, they could form the basis for a new politics in Russia. This is original thinking of the first order, and enjoyable reading too. -- Caroline Humphrey, University of CambridgeThis is a brilliant, highly original, and ambitious book. Kharkhordin sets out an agenda for the creation in Russia of a meaningful social order constituted around res publica, cleverly anchoring this vision in a deeply historically grounded analysis that marries multiple Russian intellectual traditions with classical elements of republican thought. The result is a philosophical foundation for an alternative way forward in Russian politics. Breaking new ground amidst rigid analytical paradigms and highly politicized debates, this is a remarkable achievement. -- Jessica Pisano, The New School for Social ResearchA startling synthesis of empirical data, conceptual and social history, and political theory. Most commentators examine Russian transformation through the prism of western models of liberalism. Kharkhordin, in contrast, derives a novel theory of Russian republicanism from observation of the practices, language, and histories of Russian activists, poets, politicians, thinkers, and entrepreneurs. This leads him to cautious optimism that new spheres of liberty and public life may yet emerge from areas in Russian society that typically escape our attention: practices of friendship, institutions of the commons, cultures of scientific innovation, and shared desires to remake the world. -- Kevin M. F. Platt, University of PennsylvaniaKharkhordin’s argument is novel and deeply grounded in the history of ideas and community in Russia…Sews together a set of complex ideas to demonstrate that liberal democracy is not the only option for Russian society to have representative governance. -- Kathryn Stoner * Russian Review *

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Book SynopsisHow big data and machine learning encode discrimination and create agitated clusters of comforting rage.In Discriminating Data, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun reveals how polarization is a goal—not an error—within big data and machine learning. These methods, she argues, encode segregation, eugenics, and identity politics through their default assumptions and conditions. Correlation, which grounds big data’s predictive potential, stems from twentieth-century eugenic attempts to “breed” a better future. Recommender systems foster angry clusters of sameness through homophily. Users are “trained” to become authentically predictable via a politics and technology of recognition. Machine learning and data analytics thus seek to disrupt the future by making disruption impossible. Chun, who has a background in systems design engineering as well as media studies and cultural theory, explains that although machine learning algori

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Book SynopsisRobert Conquest's The Great Terror is the book that revealed the horrors of Stalin's regime to the West. This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.One of the most important books ever written about the Soviet Union, The Great Terror revealed to the West for the first time the true extent and nature Stalin’s purges in the 1930s, in which around a million people were tortured and executed or sent to labour camps on political grounds. Its publication caused a widespread reassessment of Communism itself.This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition gathers together the wealth of material added by the author in the decades following its first publication and features a new foreword by leading historian Anne Applebaum, explaining the continued relevance of this momentous period of history and of this classic account.Trade ReviewMore than any other writer, Conquest has been responsible for bringing to the attention of the West the extent of the crimes committed against humanity in the name of Soviet Communism * Sunday Times *Stalin was not only the master criminal; he was the master concealer. It took a master detective, and a poet, like Mr Conquest, to unmask him completely * New York Times *Monumental * Washington Post *A very important book. No one has written about Stalin's terror so deeply -- Milovan Djilas

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mediums and Magical Things makes a valuable contribution to the study of material religion, anthropology of religion, and religion in modernity. It is a timely volume that will no doubt fulfill Kendall’s hope that it ‘propel others down similar paths’." * Nova Religio *"Mediums and Magic Things contributes to the study of material religion and the anthropology of religion in a very readable and easily accessible way." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Conventions 1. MacGuffins and Magical Things 2. Ensoulments 3. Materiality, Making, and Magic 4. Agency and Assemblage 5. The Ambiguities of the Unsacred 6. Afterlives Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHow to understand a media environment in crisis, and how to make things better by approaching information ecologically.Our media environment is in crisis. Polarization is rampant. Polluted information floods social media. Even our best efforts to help clean up can backfire, sending toxins roaring across the landscape. In You Are Here, Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner offer strategies for navigating increasingly treacherous information flows. Using ecological metaphors, they emphasize how our individual me is entwined within a much larger we, and how everyone fits within an ever-shifting network map.

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Book SynopsisWe live in the age of fitness. Hundreds of thousands of people run marathons and millions go jogging in local parks, work out in gyms, cycle, swim, or practice yoga. The vast majority are not engaged in competitive sport and are not trying to win any medals. They just want to get fit. Why this modern preoccupation with fitness? In this new book, Jürgen Martschukat traces the roots of our modern preoccupation with fitness back to the birth of modern societies in the eighteenth century, showing how the idea of fitness was interwoven with modernity’s emphasis on perpetual optimization and renewal. But it is only in the period since the 1970s, he argues, that the age of fitness truly emerged, as part and parcel of our contemporary neoliberal era. Neoliberalism enjoins individuals to work on themselves, to cultivate themselves in body and mind. Fitness becomes a guiding principle of social life, an era-defining network of discourses and practices that shape individuals’ actions and self-conceptions. The pursuit of fitness becomes a cultural repertoire that is deeply ingrained in our institutions and way of life. This wide-ranging book shows how deeply fitness is inscribed in modern societies, and how important fitness has become to success or failure, recognition or exclusion, in a society that sets great store by self-responsibility, performance, market, and competition. It will be of great value not only to those interested in sport and fitness, but also to anyone concerned with the conditions of success and failure in our societies today.Trade Review‘fascinating’ The Guardian‘convincing’New Statesman“Jürgen Martschukat uncovers fitness as a regulating force deeply inscribed in liberal societies; it is a state of productivity, social responsibility, and self-worth for which individuals relentlessly strive. An absorbing account of ‘proactive relationships’ with our bodies, The Age of Fitness is also a benchmark history of biopolitics.”Douglas Booth, Thompson Rivers University “This extremely clear and well-argued book is indispensable for those who wish to reflect upon the social and political conditions by which we have become concerned with our ‘fitness’ and the historical development of such an endeavor within a comparative North American and European context. Of particular note is the relation it establishes between the work we undertake on ourselves, our bodies, our vitality, and our potency, and the neoliberal models of society that emphasize individualized performance and competition.”Mitchell Dean, Copenhagen Business School“Bodies, and ideas about bodies, have a powerful history. Martschukat’s The Age of Fitness tracks the current preoccupation with ‘being fit’ across over 200 years and multiple sites within the West. Propelled to consume, yet also to maintain an ideally svelte frame, we are caught within a deeply ambivalent regime. Martschukat’s lively discussion provides clarity and depth to this most vexing of contemporary conditions.”Charlotte Macdonald, Victoria University of Wellington “In this meticulous analysis of contemporary society, Martschukat lays bare the cultural and historical roots of the modern fitness boom.”WOZ–Die Wochenzeitung “This original and engaging book addresses some of the most pressing questions of our time: critical social history at its best.”SWR 2“The Age of Fitness is an evocative and persuasive big picture explanation of fitness... it is a masterful piece of rich, detailed and nuanced contextualisation.” Sport, Education and Society“The book provides an excellent framework for the fat studies researcher/activist to understand fitness as a means of creating self-regulated workers required in the neoliberal epoch and for reinforcing social class privilege.”Fat StudiesTable of ContentsTable of contents:Acknowledgements Introduction: The Age of Fitness 1. “Fit or Fat”? Fitness in Recent History and the Present Day 2. Fitness. Trajectories of a Concept since the Eighteenth Century 3. Working 4. Having Sex 5. Fighting 6. Productive, Potent, and Ready to Fight? Notes Bibliography Index

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