Search results for ""john wiley and sons ltd""

European integration has had many successes and failures, Brexit being one of the biggest failures. Despite the setbacks, the EU has been acquiring more functions and members and has now reached a stage where it needs to become a political adult. In this book, one of the world’s leading authorities on Europe provides a lucid and wide-ranging appraisal of contemporary European affairs – of how the EU became what it is today and the key challenges Europeans must now confront. These challenges include the search for a common foreign and security policy that will also require a more symmetrical transatlantic relationship; the search for democracy beyond the nation state; more inclusive societies; the development of the euro into a fully fledged currency; a higher degree of autonomy in high technology; and the greening of economies. In Tsoukalis’ view, what is at stake in these challenges is whether the EU can exercise effective political power in a multipolar, highly asymmetrical and increasingly unstable world, and whether it can find a workable relationship between global markets and domestic social contracts. Willing and able countries should lead the way. The stakes are high – and not just for Europe. A declining and marginalized Europe would not be able to defend fundamental interests and values, including freedom and security for its citizens. And the world would greatly benefit from the moderating influence of a regional power that operates on the basis of broad consensus and compromise. This bold and ambitious book, based on extensive experience of European affairs, will be of value to anyone interested in Europe and its future as well as anyone concerned with the great political challenges of our time.

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Money is mysterious. We love it, we hate it, but few people can tell you what the heck it really is. Wouldn't it be good to get out of the fog? This book will help you understand both the way money works and how to leverage its power. The authors take you on an illuminating journey from your piggy bank to the Federal Reserve with no pesky jargon or complex math. Once you see money clearly, life will never be the same. You'll know what really goes on in banks and what the cash in your wallet represents. You'll know how government really spends and why it can’t run out of money. You'll know what money can actually do — and how we can make it work for us.

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Digital hyperconnectivity is a defining fact of our time. The Silicon Valley dream of universal connection – the dream of connecting everyone and everything to everyone and everything else, everywhere and all the time – is rapidly becoming a reality. In this wide-ranging and sharply argued book, Rogers Brubaker develops an original interpretive account of the pervasive and unsettling changes brought about by hyperconnectivity. He traces transformations of the self, social relations, culture, economics, and politics, giving special attention to underexplored themes of abundance, miniaturization, convenience, quantification, and discipline. He shows how hyperconnectivity prepared us for the pandemic and how the pandemic, in turn, has prepared us for an even more fully digitally mediated future. Throughout, Brubaker underscores the ambivalence of digital hyperconnectivity, which opens up many new and exciting possibilities, yet at the same time threatens human freedom and flourishing. Hyperconnectivity and Its Discontents will be essential reading for everyone interested in the constellation of socio-technical forces that are profoundly remaking our world.

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Digital hyperconnectivity is a defining fact of our time. The Silicon Valley dream of universal connection – the dream of connecting everyone and everything to everyone and everything else, everywhere and all the time – is rapidly becoming a reality. In this wide-ranging and sharply argued book, Rogers Brubaker develops an original interpretive account of the pervasive and unsettling changes brought about by hyperconnectivity. He traces transformations of the self, social relations, culture, economics, and politics, giving special attention to underexplored themes of abundance, miniaturization, convenience, quantification, and discipline. He shows how hyperconnectivity prepared us for the pandemic and how the pandemic, in turn, has prepared us for an even more fully digitally mediated future. Throughout, Brubaker underscores the ambivalence of digital hyperconnectivity, which opens up many new and exciting possibilities, yet at the same time threatens human freedom and flourishing. Hyperconnectivity and Its Discontents will be essential reading for everyone interested in the constellation of socio-technical forces that are profoundly remaking our world.

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In the 1970s, the economic and social foundations of Western Europe underwent an unprecedented transformation. Old industries like coal and steel disappeared, millions of people lost their jobs and formerly flourishing towns and cities went into decline. Traditional political agendas gave way to new social problems and concerns. What happened to industrial citizens – their workplaces, their careers and their homes? How did social rights and political participation of workers change when markets became global, management lean and financial capital dominant? How did companies change and how were personal skills and work tasks reinvented under the impact of new technologies? How did workers – men and women – live through these decades of uncertainty and upheaval? Lutz Raphael reconstructs the highly variegated story of deindustrialization in Western Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and West Germany. Extending over three decades, this transformation was accompanied by significant rises in productivity and consumerism, but it also came at a heavy cost, ushering in many low-income jobs, growing inequality and a crisis of democratic representation. Its legacy is everywhere around us today – it is the transformation that has shaped our world.

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Who counts as a woman? This question lies at the heart of many public debates about sex and gender today. While we increasingly recognise the desire of some to eliminate the sex binary in law, a particular boiling point emerges through conflicting demands over women’s spaces. Which should govern access to these – sex or gender identity? Karen Ingala Smith, a veteran campaigner for women’s and girls’ rights, opts for the former. In this trenchant critique of inclusivity politics, she argues that we cannot ignore the wealth of evidence which shows that people of the female sex have a unique set of needs which are often not met by mixed-sex spaces. Drawing on her 30 years of experience in researching and recording men’s violence against women and girls, she outlines how certain spaces, including refuges, benefit from remaining single sex – and what they stand to lose. Written with sensitivity and respect for all concerned, this book nevertheless dismantles the idea that we have reached a post-sex utopia.

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For several decades, wealthy states, international development agencies and multinational corporations have encouraged labour migration from the Global South to the Global North. As well as providing essential workers to support the transformation of advanced economies, the remittances that migrants send home have been touted as the most promising means of national development for poor and undeveloped countries. As Immanuel Ness argues in this sharp corrective to conventional wisdom, temporary labour migration represents the most recent form of economic imperialism and global domination. A closer look at the economic and social evidence demonstrates that remittances deepen economic exploitation, unravel societal stability and significantly expand economic inequality between poor and rich societies. The book exposes the damaging political, economic and social effects of migration on origin countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how border and security mechanisms control and marginalize low-wage migrant workers, especially women and youth. Ness asserts that remittances do not bring growth to poor countries but extend national dependence on the export of migrant workers, leading to warped and unequal development on the global periphery. This expert take will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of migration and development across the social sciences.

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Food in a Just World examines the violence, social breakdown, and environmental consequences of our global system of food production, distribution, and consumption, where each step of the process is built on some form of exploitation. While highlighting the broken system’s continuities from European colonialism, the authors argue that the seeds of resilience, resistance, and inclusive cultural resurgence are already being reflected in the day-to-day actions of communities around the world. Calling for urgent change, the book looks at how genuine democracy would give individuals and communities meaningful control over the decisions that impact their lives when seeking to secure humanely this most basic human need. Drawing on the perspectives of advocates, activists, workers, researchers, and policymakers, Harris and Gibbs explore the politics of food in the context of capitalist globalization and the climate crisis, uncovering the complexities in our relationships with one another, with other animals, and with the natural world.

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For several decades, wealthy states, international development agencies and multinational corporations have encouraged labour migration from the Global South to the Global North. As well as providing essential workers to support the transformation of advanced economies, the remittances that migrants send home have been touted as the most promising means of national development for poor and undeveloped countries. As Immanuel Ness argues in this sharp corrective to conventional wisdom, temporary labour migration represents the most recent form of economic imperialism and global domination. A closer look at the economic and social evidence demonstrates that remittances deepen economic exploitation, unravel societal stability and significantly expand economic inequality between poor and rich societies. The book exposes the damaging political, economic and social effects of migration on origin countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how border and security mechanisms control and marginalize low-wage migrant workers, especially women and youth. Ness asserts that remittances do not bring growth to poor countries but extend national dependence on the export of migrant workers, leading to warped and unequal development on the global periphery. This expert take will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of migration and development across the social sciences.

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The #MeToo movement created more opportunities for women to speak up about sexual assault. But we are also living in a time when “fake news” and “alternative facts” call into question the very nature of truth. This troubling paradox is at the heart of this compelling book. The convergence of #MeToo and the crisis of post-truth is used to explore the experiences of women and people of color whose claims around issues of sexual violence are often held in doubt. Banet-Weiser and Higgins investigate how the gendered and racialized logics of “believability” are defined and contested within media culture, proposing that a mediated “economy of believability” is the context in which public bids for truth about sexual violence are made, negotiated, and authorized today.

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The #MeToo movement created more opportunities for women to speak up about sexual assault. But we are also living in a time when “fake news” and “alternative facts” call into question the very nature of truth. This troubling paradox is at the heart of this compelling book. The convergence of #MeToo and the crisis of post-truth is used to explore the experiences of women and people of color whose claims around issues of sexual violence are often held in doubt. Banet-Weiser and Higgins investigate how the gendered and racialized logics of “believability” are defined and contested within media culture, proposing that a mediated “economy of believability” is the context in which public bids for truth about sexual violence are made, negotiated, and authorized today.

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How does society form and transform individuals? Sociology has been asking this question since its inception and “socialization” has been analyzed from different vantage points by various prominent thinkers. Socialization offers an overview of some of these perspectives in the classic work of key theorists and in contemporary research that has either developed or challenged these ideas. The book argues that, while socialization has sometimes been framed as an outdated, static approach, it in fact remains highly relevant and continues to provide valuable insight into how we come to act and think as we do. Drawing on a wide variety of empirical examples, the book offers a lively, accessible account of primary and secondary socialization, and how they interconnect. By considering socialization as a process that continues throughout the life course, the book highlights the dynamic and enduring ways in which the social world is involved in shaping and reshaping individuals, shedding productive light on the effects of class, gender, and race, as well as on inequality and domination. Socialization will appeal to students and scholars in sociology, as well as other disciplines such as psychology and education.

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People in poverty suffer daily under misconceptions about economic hardship and its causes. Providing the most comprehensive consideration to date of poverty in the United States, Elizabeth Seale tackles how we think about issues of culture, behavior, and poverty, cutting straight to the heart of debates about social class. The book addresses tough questions, including how being poor affects individual behavior, and how we can make sense of that in a larger social and political context. The central premise is that to understand the behavior and lives of people in poverty, one must consider their relational context, especially relations of vulnerability and the human need for dignity. Poverty is a social problem we should address as a society by changing social relations that, as a matter of course, cause unnecessary and immense suffering. To do so, we must directly confront our lack of regard for people in poverty by recognizing that they are in fact worthy of an effort to induce major social change. This critical introduction to poverty will be an important read for undergraduate students and above in sociology wanting to learn more about the growing social problems of poverty, inequality, and stratification.

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School shootings, police misconduct, and sexual assault where people are injured and die dominate the news. What are the connections between such incidents of violence and extreme harm? In this new book, world-renowned sociologist Patricia Hill Collins explores how violence differentially affects people according to their class, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity. These invisible workings of overlapping power relations give rise to what she terms “lethal intersections,” where multiple forms of oppression converge to catalyze a set of violent practices that fall more heavily on particular groups. Drawing on a rich tapestry of cases, Collins challenges readers to reflect on what counts as violence today and what can be done about it. Resisting violence offers a common thread that weaves together disparate antiviolence projects across the world. When parents of murdered children organize against gun violence, when Black citizens march against the excessive use of police force in their neighborhoods, and when women and girls report sexual abuse by employers, coaches, and community leaders, the ideas and actions of ordinary people lay a foundation for new ways of thinking about and combating violence. Through its ground-breaking analysis, Lethal Intersections aims to stimulate debate about violence as one of the most pressing social problems of our times.

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Netflix and Streaming Video is the first book to provide a comprehensive foundation for understanding the business of subscriber-funded streaming video and its implications for the role of these services in culture. Drawing on Lotz’s two decades of research, it highlights the similarities and differences among streaming video services (Netflix; Amazon) and video distribution technologies (broadcast; satellite; internet). Making a number of provocative and thought-provoking arguments, the book first reveals how the reliance on subscriber payment and video on demand produces different norms and strategies compared to previous video businesses. It then investigates Netflix and how its particular blend of characteristics distinguishes it from other subscriber-funded video on demand services. The author expertly shows that, by understanding the underlying economic and technological dynamics of these services (and their differences), it is possible to better assess the actions taken by the companies and what the future of video may encompass. The book is a must-read for students and scholars of Media and Communications Studies, as well as those wishing to learn more about Netflix and streaming video services.

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Child abuse casts a long shadow over the history of childhood. Across the centuries there are numerous accounts of children being beaten, neglected, sexually assaulted, or even killed by those closest to them. This book explores this darker side of childhood history, looking at what constituted cruelty towards children in the past and at the social responses towards it. Focusing primarily on England, it is a history of violence against children in their own homes, covering a large timeframe which extends from medieval times to the present. Undeniably, the experience of children in the past was often brutal, and children were treated with, what seems to contemporary mores, callousness, and cruelty. However, historians have paid far less attention to how the mistreatment of children was understood within its contemporary context. Most parents, both now and in the past, loved their children and there have always been widely shared understandings of the boundaries that separat

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As the globalized regime of neoliberal capitalism consolidates its grip on the world, it refines the micropolitics proper to the capitalist system and makes it more perverse. This micropolitics involves the appropriation – what Suely Rolnik calls the “pimping” – of life, as it turns the life drive itself away from creation and cooperation and towards the deadening, destructive practice necessary for capital accumulation. This dynamic is the engine of what Rolnik calls the colonial-capitalistic unconscious regime. She also identifies the conditions necessary to fight against this regime – namely, a reappropriation of the life drive, the energetic basis at the heart of all life forms, human life included, and the principal source of extraction for capitalism. Drawing on examples from across the Americas, including Brazil and the United States, Rolnik examines the circumstances that have given rise to regressive, reactionary governments throughout the world. These circumstances include, at the macro level, an alliance between neoliberalism and extreme conservatism and, at the micro level, a crisis of the hegemonic subject in the face of the emergent empowerment of marginalized communities that practice other modes of subjectivation. This crucial book by one of the most prominent intellectuals in Latin America today will be of great value to anyone interested in contemporary politics and social struggles.

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How are Christians capable of believing? Is it faith or delusion? Or is there something wrong with me? I do not believe in spirits, gods, miracles, resurrection or eternal life. But I will seek to cast off my prejudices and give God a chance. At least for a year. Danish writer Svend Brinkmann spent a year with God, exploring faith and religion through the eyes of a sceptic. Each month, from January to December, he grappled with questions that had nagged at him since he was a child: Why does God let the innocent suffer? Does science disprove the existence of God? Does faith make you a better person? Can you doubt and still believe? It became a year of deep reflection and surprising revelations that challenged the bounds of his scientific worldview and led him to a new appreciation of faith and its place within a secular, mostly fulfilled life.

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How are Christians capable of believing? Is it faith or delusion? Or is there something wrong with me? I do not believe in spirits, gods, miracles, resurrection or eternal life. But I will seek to cast off my prejudices and give God a chance. At least for a year. Danish writer Svend Brinkmann spent a year with God, exploring faith and religion through the eyes of a sceptic. Each month, from January to December, he grappled with questions that had nagged at him since he was a child: Why does God let the innocent suffer? Does science disprove the existence of God? Does faith make you a better person? Can you doubt and still believe? It became a year of deep reflection and surprising revelations that challenged the bounds of his scientific worldview and led him to a new appreciation of faith and its place within a secular, mostly fulfilled life.

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The declaration of the Republic of China in 1912 signalled an entirely new era. Not only did the revolution of 1911–12 bring about the fall of the Qing dynasty: it also brought an end to the entire series of dynasties that had marked Chinese history for over two millennia. Radical reforms since 1901 had culminated in the ending of the political status quo and the rejection of the very idea of empire. Drawing on the most recent historical research, Xavier Paulès provides a comprehensive account of the crucial but chaotic period that stretched from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 to the civil war of 1945–9, which ended with the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Paulès challenges various common claims about this period. It is often assumed that the CCP was instrumental in bringing about key events by skilfully mobilizing the population to serve its ends. Paulès argues, by contrast, that the CCP took advantage of fortunate circumstances and that, even then, it was only in a position to challenge the supremacy of the Guomindang as late as 1944. His analysis takes a broad view by considering the importance of political actors both within and external to the revolutionary movement, enabling him to offer a balanced interpretation of the republican period which sheds new light on China’s political, cultural and economic development.

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With a population of nearly 1.5 billion and the world’s second largest economy, China is a major player in the world today, and yet many in the West know very little about contemporary China. This book provides a clear, authoritative and up-to-date history of China since 1949, drawing on extensive research to describe and explain the key developments and to dispel the many myths and misconceptions surrounding this twenty-first-century superpower. In contrast to many commentators who overstate the novelty of the Communist regime, Guiheux emphasizes instead its complex political heritage, highlighting the many continuities it shares with the reformers and revolutionaries of the early twentieth century. At the same time, the ability of China’s authoritarian regime to transform the economy and society is key to understanding its breakneck trajectory of modernization – an ability that, as Guiheux explains, far outweighed the importance and effectiveness of Mao’s utopian vision. Guiheux also aims to ‘de-exoticize’ China. While not on the path of a Western-style modernity, China has experienced the same phenomena that have characterized every historical process of modernization: industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization and globalization. This expertly researched history of the People’s Republic of China will be essential reading for all students and scholars of Chinese history and politics, and for anyone interested in contemporary China.

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Low growth has become the economic default in the West. While China and other Asian Tigers continue to steam ahead, western commentators either argue that stagnation is inevitable, ignoring growth in order to focus on other factors such as inflation or inequality, or disclaim growth altogether. In Why the West is Failing, veteran businessman and economist John Mills strongly refutes these arguments. He maintains that the anaemic performance of western economies since the 1970s is due to the dominance of a policy framework that has fatally ignored the importance of industrial competitiveness. He shows that the key to driving up productivity – and thereby growth – is to promote a revival of manufacturing through investment and a competitive exchange rate policy. This would produce the extra resources needed to tackle climate change and reduce the risk of western politics continuing to spiral towards populist excess. It would also allow us to impede the baleful political consequences of Chinese economic domination.

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Hunting stories will usually glorify the hunters, since it is the hunters who write the stories. In this book, Dénètem Touam Bona takes up the perspective of the hunted, using the concept of marronage to highlight the lives and creativity of colonized and subjugated peoples. In a format that blends travel diary, anthropological inquiry, and philosophical and literary reflection, he narrates the hidden history of fugues – those of the runaway slave, the deserting soldier, the clandestine migrant, and all those who challenged norms and forms of control. In the space of the fugue, in the folds and retreats of dense and muggy woods, runaway countercultures appeared and spread out, cultures whose organization and values were diametrically opposed to those of colonial societies. Marronage, the art of disappearance, has never been a more timely topic: thwarting surveillance, profiling, and tracking by the police and by corporations; disappearing from databases; extending the forest’s shadow by the click of a key. In our cyberconnected world, where control of individuals in real time is increasingly becoming the norm, we need to reinvent marronage and recognize the maroon as a universal figure of resistance. Beyond its critical dimension, this book calls for a cosmo-poetics of refuge and aims at rehabilitating the power of dreams and poetry to ward off the confinement of minds and bodies.

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The Fatal Breath is the first full-scale history of the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain. Deploying a rich archive of personal testimonies together with a wide range of research reports and official data, it presents a moving and challenging account of the crisis that enveloped Britain (and the world) in the spring of 2020. With sensitivity, care, and an historian’s critical eye, David Vincent places the pandemic in context. While much contemporary commentary has assumed people were forced to develop entirely new ways of living and working during lockdown, Vincent reveals how the population was able to draw upon a wealth of resources and coping strategies already seen over the centuries, often reacting far more quickly and effectively than slow-moving authorities. He tells the stories of doctors’ and nurses’ time on the frontlines, reveals the true extent of supply shortages, conspiracy theories, and vaccine resistance, and explores individuals’ newfound appreciation of nature and community in lockdown. The Fatal Breath will appeal to anyone seeking to reflect on the past few years and how the pandemic has changed Britain – for better and for worse.

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This bookis the first critical anthology in English on the history and legacy of race in the Caribbean. It brings together the major debates, lines of inquiry, and theories around race and racism that have emerged out of the Caribbean from the beginning of European colonization at the end of the fifteenth century to the period of decolonization in the aftermath of World War II. This critical anthology stakes out the unique contribution made by the region to the global history of race. The Caribbean Race Readerprovides students and scholars of the region with vital access to some of the most important contributions on race and Caribbean society, many of which are difficult to access, and assembles them together as part of a series of key debates.At a time when the searing realities of race and antiblack racism stand out as global, existential crises, this volume both documents the Caribbean's important contribution to global histories of race andprovides an excellent ov

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Orlando Patterson’s classic study of slavery in Jamaica reveals slavery for what it was: a highly repressive and destructive system of human exploitation, which disregarded and distorted almost all of the basic prerequisites of normal social life. What distinguishes Patterson's account is his detailed description of the lives and culture of slaves under this repressive regime. He analyses the conditions of slave life and work on the plantations, the psychological life of slaves and the patterns and meanings of life and death. He shows that the real-life situation of slaves and enslavers involved a complete breakdown of all major social institutions, including the family, gender relations, religion, trust and morality. And yet, despite the repressiveness and protracted genocide of the regime, slaves maintained some space of their own, and their forced adjustment to white norms did not mean that they accepted them. Slave culture was characterized by a persistent sense of resentment and injustice, which underpinned the day-to-day resistance and large-scale rebellions that were a constant feature of slave society, the last and greatest of which partly accounts for its abolition. This second edition includes a new introduction by Orlando Patterson, which explains the origins of the book, appraises subsequent works on Jamaican slavery, and reflects on its enduring relevance. Widely recognized as a foundational work on the social institution of slavery, this book is an essential text for anyone interested in the role of slavery in shaping the modern world.

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The greatest threat to modern democracy comes from within and it has a name: resentment. Stemming from feelings of inferiority in relation to others, resentment is a diffuse and obsessive loathing, coupled with delusions of victimhood, which clouds one’s judgment and perspective, so that an individual’s capacity to act and heal is paralyzed. Without the ability to heal, resentment can give rise to violent impulses, to the rejection of the rule of law, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the urge to use violent means to try to regain control of one’s life. As individuals and as societies, we face the same challenge: how to diagnose resentment and its dark forces, and how to resist the temptation to allow it to become the motor of our individual and collective histories. This bestselling and highly original account of the psychic forces shaping modern societies will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the crisis of democracy today and what we can do to address it.

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A victim of the Nazis, then the communists. Twice a refugee, yet always remaining a committed socialist. In countless ways, Zygmunt Bauman lived the political upheavals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He was an actor within them. Bauman’s own lived history informed his politics, which found expression in varying degrees in his sociology, as he wrote extensively on socialism, democracy, bureaucracy, morality, Europe and the Jewish experience. This volume brings together hitherto unknown or rare pieces by Bauman on the themes of history and politics by drawing upon previously unpublished material from the Bauman Archive at the University of Leeds. A substantial introduction by the editors provides readers with a lucid guide through this material and develops connections to Bauman’s other works. The second volume in a series of books that will make available the lesser-known writings of one of the most influential social thinkers of our time, History and Politics will be of interest to students and scholars across the arts, humanities and social sciences, and to a wider readership.

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You are remarkable: You experience a vast range of thoughts and feelings, including falling in love, remembering last Tuesday, and contemplating the meaning of life. And you can carry all sorts of astonishing behaviours, such as sauntering down the street, singing in falsetto and riding a unicycle. Psychologists study every aspect of how you think, feel, and behave. Richard Wiseman takes you on a personal journey into this fascinating world, focusing on what makes for meaningful research. He explores how psychology reveals the hidden workings of the mind, boosts critical thinking, debunks myths, improves lives, and informs debates in politics, philosophy, and education. This insider’s guide lifts the lid on how psychologists go about their work, examines contemporary challenges associated with studying the mind, and encourages students and researchers to reflect on why they do what they do.If you’ve ever wanted to think like a psychologist, spot a liar, uncover the truth about happiness, or discover how to create a more altruistic society, then this book is for you.

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After the harrowing experience of the pandemic and lockdown, both states and individuals have been searching for ways to exit the crisis, many hoping to return as soon as possible to ‘the world as it was before the pandemic’. But there is another way to learn the lessons of this ordeal: as inhabitants of the earth, we may not be able to exit lockdown so easily after all, since the global health crisis is embedded in another larger and more serious crisis – that brought about by the New Climate Regime. Learning to live in lockdown might be an opportunity to be seized: a dress-rehearsal for the climate mutation, an opportunity to understand at last where we – inhabitants of the earth – live, what kind of place ‘earth’ is and how we will be able to orient ourselves and exist in this world in the years to come. We might finally be able to explore the land in which we live, together with all other living beings, begin to understand the true nature of the climate mutation we are living through and discover what kind of freedom is possible – a freedom differently situated and differently understood. In this sequel to his bestselling book Down to Earth, Bruno Latour provides a compass for this necessary re-orientation of our lives, outlining the metaphysics of confinement and deconfinement with which we will all be obliged to come to terms by the strange times in which we are living.

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Even though we often think of bodies as natural and given, or else as freely plastic objects, bodies are both constructed and fundamental to our sense of self. This book investigates the body as an essential vector of inequality, shaped by institutions, interaction and culture, and how in turn it contributes to partly modify them. Sassatelli and Ghigi show how the process of embodiment is at the same time naturalized and contested, particularly evident in the case of gender. Drawing on classical sociological research about modernity and contemporary studies that emphasize intersectionality, the book looks at how the gendered body has been conceptualized with special attention to body politics, the power of appearance and the representation of embodied identity. It also considers the interplay between body, sex and sexuality and the way gendered bodies intersect with other dimensions of social inequality such as race, age, class and disability. This exploration of the rich field of sociological inquiry into the gendered body will be an invaluable read for all seeking to understand gender, sexuality and embodiment in contemporary society.

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Even though we often think of bodies as natural and given, or else as freely plastic objects, bodies are both constructed and fundamental to our sense of self. This book investigates the body as an essential vector of inequality, shaped by institutions, interaction and culture, and how in turn it contributes to partly modify them. Sassatelli and Ghigi show how the process of embodiment is at the same time naturalized and contested, particularly evident in the case of gender. Drawing on classical sociological research about modernity and contemporary studies that emphasize intersectionality, the book looks at how the gendered body has been conceptualized with special attention to body politics, the power of appearance and the representation of embodied identity. It also considers the interplay between body, sex and sexuality and the way gendered bodies intersect with other dimensions of social inequality such as race, age, class and disability. This exploration of the rich field of sociological inquiry into the gendered body will be an invaluable read for all seeking to understand gender, sexuality and embodiment in contemporary society.

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Leading philosophers Alice Crary and Lori Gruen offer a searing and desperately needed response to systems of thought and action that are failing animals and, ultimately, humans too. In the wake of global pandemics, mass extinctions, habitat destruction, and catastrophic climate change, they issue a clarion call to address the intertwined problems we face, arguing that we must radically reimagine our relationships with other animals. In stark contrast to traditional theories in animal ethics, which abstract from social mechanisms harmful to human beings, Animal Crisis makes the case that there can be no animal liberation without human emancipation. Borrowing from critical theories such as ecofeminism, Crary and Gruen present a critical animal theory for understanding and combating the structural forces that enable the diminishment of so many to the advantage of a few. With seven case studies of complex human-animal relations, they make an urgent plea to dismantle the “human supremacism” that is devastating animal lives and hurtling us toward ecocide.

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Have you ever considered how mobile media change what we see, hear and pay attention to, or how they alter our movement through the city? Over the last decade, mobile media and communication technologies have become deeply integral to our perception and bodily experience of the world. In Bodies and Mobile Media, Ingrid Richardson and Rowan Wilken explore mobile media as a lens through which to understand how embodiment both shapes, and is shaped by, media experience. It offers a unique approach by focusing on specific sensory affordances and body parts – including the eyes, ears, face, hands and feet – to consider the uneven ratios of sensory perception at work in our engagement with mobile devices. Each chapter provides rich and accessible narratives of mobile media practices interwoven with current scholarship in media studies and phenomenology, with a concluding chapter that reflects on mobile media use as a synesthetic experience. By interpreting theoretical insights about the relationship between the body and technology, the book serves as an important work of knowledge translation. This work is crucial, the authors argue, if we are to critically understand how our perception and experience of the world are mediated by technology. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in media, communication and cultural studies.

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Reality exists independently of human observers, but does the same apply to its structure? Realist ontologies usually assume so: according to them, the world consists of objects, these have properties and enter into relations with each other, more or less as we are accustomed to think of them. Against this view, Rein Raud develops a radical process ontology that does not credit any vantage point, any scale or speed of being, any range of cognitive faculties with the privilege to judge how the world ‘really’ is. In his view, what we think of as objects are recast as fields of constitutive tensions, cross-sections of processes, never in complete balance but always striving for it and always reconfiguring themselves accordingly. The human self is also understood as a fluctuating field, not limited to the mind but distributed all over the body and reaching out into its environment, with different constituents of the process constantly vying for control. The need for such a process philosophy has often been voiced, but rarely has there been an effort to develop it in a systematic and rigourous manner that leads to original accounts of identity, continuity, time, change, causality, agency and other topics. Throughout his new book, Raud engages with an unusually broad range of philosophical schools and debates, from New Materialism and Object-Oriented Ontology to both phenomenological and analytical philosophy of mind, from feminist philosophy of science to neurophilosophy and social ontology. Being in Flux will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy and the humanities generally and to anyone interested in current debates about realism, materialism and ontology.

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Affirmative action in college admissions – considering whether an applicant is part of an underrepresented group when making selection decisions – has long been a topic of heated public debate. Some argue that it undermines racial equity. Others advocate for its ability to promote equal opportunity in a racially unequal society. Who is right? Natasha Warikoo dives into the arguments for and against a policy that has made it to the US Supreme Court many times. She digs into the purposes of higher education and the selection process itself to argue that it is a mistake to equate college admissions with personal merit and reward. College admissions should be based on furthering the mission of higher education: contributing to our shared democracy and to the human condition. Ultimately, Warikoo concludes that a focus on individual fairness conceals much more important questions about justice. No matter what their perspective, readers will find themselves thinking anew and asking the deeper questions that underlie this emotive debate.​

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Despite the global movement to tackle plastic pollution, demand for plastics continues to rise. As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, plastics are set to be the biggest driver of oil demand. Single-use plastics – deemed essential in the fight against COVID-19 – have been given a new lease of life. In a world beset with crisis fatigue, what can we do to curb the escalating plastics crisis? In this book, Alice Mah reveals how petrochemical and plastics corporations have fought relentlessly to protect and expand plastics markets in the face of existential threats to business. From denying the toxic health effects of plastics to co-opting circular economy solutions to plastic waste and exploiting the opportunities offered up by the global pandemic, industry has deflected attention from the key problem: plastics production. The consequences of unfettered plastics growth are pernicious and highly unequal. We all have a part to play in reducing plastics consumption but we must tackle the problem at its root: the capitalist imperative for limitless growth.

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As the environmental crisis accelerates, we can easily feel overwhelmed, but our feeling of powerlessness is partly due to a misunderstanding of the natural world. We tend to think of nature as a cathedral on fire, like Notre Dame engulfed in flames. But the living world is not a cathedral on fire – if it were, the battle would already be lost. The living world is itself a fire that reconstitutes itself continuously and creates countless forms of life as soon as we leave it the space and time to do so. So the problem we face today is not to stop the fire – rather, it is how to defend and rekindle the embers of life that are all around us.Drawing lessons from conservationist initiatives aimed at allowing the natural forces of forests to take over again through a process of free evolution, and from agro-ecological farming initiatives which make lands hospitable for wildlife, Baptiste Morizot shows how specific actions can release the prodigality of life, its jungle-like power to regenerate itself. Actions like these are possible because the power of the living world lies in its abundance and creativity: the biosphere is a living fire that covers the earth, and it can always start up again if we know how to defend and kindle its embers.

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Activist, journalist, and visionary Claudia Jones was one of the most important advocates of emancipation in the twentieth century. Arguing for a socialist future and the total emancipation of working people, Jones’s legacy made an enduring mark on both sides of the Atlantic. This ground-breaking biography traces Jones’s remarkable life and work, beginning with her immigration to the United States and culminating in her advocacy for the emancipation of the most oppressed. Denise Lynn reveals how Jones’s radicalism was forged through confronting American racism, and how her disillusionment led to a life committed to socialist liberation. But this activism came at a cost: Jones would be expelled from the US for being a communist. Deported to England, she took up the mantle of anti-colonial liberation movements. Despite the innumerable obstacles in her way, Jones never wavered in her commitments. In her tireless resistance to capitalism, racism, and sexism, she envisioned an equitable future devoted to peace and humanity – a vision that we all must continue to fight for today.

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This book offers a comprehensive reflection on the existential condition of the 21st century. A visionary introduction to existential posthumanism, it takes the form of eight meditations. This posthuman journey of self-inquiry engages with a wide range of knowledge and wisdom: from the Paleolithic times to the futures of radical life extension, from multi-species evolutions to the rights of Nature, the Anthropocene and the rise of Artificial Intelligence. The book declutters the habit of being human. Letting go of the need for anthropocentric mastery and species-specific ambitions, the reader emerges regenerated. The manifold paths of posthuman self-realization reveal that we are all co-creators in the existential unfolding: our lives are our ultimate works of art. The Art of Being Posthuman is a self-help guide to navigate our brave new world.

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Industrial robots, self-driving cars, customer-service chatbots and Google’s algorithmic predictions have brought the topic of artificial intelligence into public debate. Why is AI the source of such intense controversy and what are its economic, political, social and cultural consequences? Tracing the changing fortunes of artificial intelligence, Elliott develops a systematic account of how automated intelligent machines impact different spheres and aspects of public and private life. Among the issues discussed are the automation of workforces, surveillance capitalism, warfare and lethal autonomous weapons, the spread of racist robots and the automation of social inequalities. Elliott also considers the decisive role of AI in confronting global risks and social futures, including global pandemics such as COVID-19, and how smart algorithms are impacting the search for energy security and combating climate change. Making Sense of AI provides a judiciously comprehensive account of artificial intelligence for those with little or no previous knowledge of the topic. It will be an invaluable book both for students in the social sciences and humanities and for general readers.

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We were drowning in in record levels of debt before the COVID-19 crisis, and we are now deluged in it. U.S. private-sector loans have tripled relative to income since 1950 – and government debt is also at an all-time high. Soaring debt burdens individuals, stifles growth, compounds inequality, and brings falling living standards for millions. Richard Vague’s new book argues that, contrary to mainstream assumptions, we cannot simply hope that the trend will correct itself. Mounting debt is a feature of our economic system, not a bug: debts perpetually grow and compound, polarizing and impoverishing economies if not overtly dealt with. He offers a detailed plan for how we can restructure a range of debts – such as student loans, auto loans, medical debt and more – and offer hard-pressed debtors a ‘jubilee’ now, not in some utopian future. Vague’s bold polemic contains a wealth of ideas that will free millions from modern-day debt peonage, reduce inequality and bring new vigor to the economy as it struggles to emerge from the pandemic.

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This book sets out to understand the ethical dimension of Black lives and deaths in the modern period. Recent events—from the brutal murder of George Floyd to the pervasive violence meted out daily on the streets of our cities—have demonstrated all too clearly the fundamental trait that shapes our contemporary moment: the Black condition is defined by indignity. Ajari takes dignity as his starting point because dignity is what white people try to abolish in their violence toward Black people, and it is what they deprive themselves of in exerting this violence. Dignity is also what Black people collectively affirm when they rise up against white domination. When a young Black man or woman’s dignity is taken from them as the result of assault, rape, or assassination at the hands of the state, the roots of a long history of struggle, conquest, and affirmation of African humanity are exposed and shaken. Above all, dignity is the ability of the oppressed, trapped between life and death, to remain standing. Dignity or Death offers an uncompromising critical analysis of the European philosophical tradition in order to recover the misunderstood history of radical thought in Black worlds. Slave uprisings, Negritude, radical Christian traditions in North America and South Africa, and political ontology are all steps on a long and troubled path of liberation.

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As capitalism triumphs on the ruins of utopias and faith in progress fades, revolts are breaking out everywhere. From London to Hong Kong and from Buenos Aires to Beirut, protests flare up, in some cases spreading like wildfire, in other cases petering out and reigniting elsewhere. Not even the pandemic has been able to stop them: as many were reflecting on the loss of public space, the fuse of a fresh explosion was lit in Minneapolis with the brutal murder of George Floyd. We are living in an age of revolt. But what is revolt? It would be a mistake to think of it as simply an explosion of anger, a spontaneous and irrational outburst, as it is often portrayed in the media. Exploding anger is not a bolt from the blue but a symptom of a social order in which the sovereignty of the state has imposed itself as the sole condition of order. Revolt challenges the sovereignty of the state, whether it is democratic or despotic, exposing the violence that underpins it. Revolt upsets the agenda of power, interrupts time, throws history into disarray. The time of revolt, discontinuous and intermittent, is also a revolt of time, an anarchic transition to a space of time that disengages itself from the architecture of politics. This brilliant reflection on the nature and significance of revolt will be of interest to students of politics and philosophy and to anyone concerned with the key questions of politics today.

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The study of public health aims to protect and promote the wellbeing of the public as well as reduce health inequalities. Public health ethics asks how far we should go to achieve these goals, balancing the rights and needs of individuals against those of the community. But what are these and how much weight should be given to each of them? In the third edition of his well-loved textbook, Stephen Holland shows how philosophy is key to evaluating the suitability of public health interventions. Holland explores the key goals of public health ethics in relation to both moral and political philosophy, reflecting on our everyday intuitions about which public health policies are justified. In light of recent developments, he includes new content exploring equity and health inequalities, and on how public health information is gathered and used. The book is updated throughout with material on contemporary cases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health Ethics continues to provide a lively, accessible and philosophically informed introduction. As well as being an ideal student text, Holland’s systematic discussion will engage the more advanced reader and inform scholarship in the field.

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The time of the landscape is not the time when people started describing gardens, mountains and lakes in poems or representing them in works of art: it is the time when the landscape imposed itself as a specific object of thought. It is the time when both the harmony of arranged gardens and the disharmony of wild nature led to a revolution in the criteria of the beautiful and in the meaning of the word “art.” It coincided with the birth of aesthetics, understood as a regime for shaping how art is seen and thought, and also with the French Revolution, understood as a revolution in the very idea of what binds together a human community. The time of the landscape is the time when the conjunction of these two upheavals brought into focus, however hazily, a common horizon: that of a revolution that no longer concerns only the laws of the state or the norms of art, but the very forms of sensible experience. This brilliant and wide-ranging book will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, literature, the visual arts, and the humanities generally, and to anyone interested in critical theory and philosophy.

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More and more people have turned to Marxian economics in recent years. But isn’t it a defunct branch of the ‘dismal science’, disproven by the experience of the past 150 years, of no interest to anyone except historians? In this book, David Ruccio demonstrates why the answer to that question is a resounding ‘no’. He offers a clear and accessible introduction to the basic concepts and theoretical strategies of Marxian economics, its key differences from mainstream economics, and its many applications to the real world. Focusing on Marx’s critique of both mainstream economic theory and capitalism, Ruccio extends that analysis to contemporary topics—from inequality and economic crises to racial capitalism and the climate crisis—and outlines the key debates among Marxian economists. He concludes with a discussion of the ways Marxian economists today think about the possibility of moving beyond capitalism. The book is suitable for students and professors, as well as readers outside the academy interested in learning about Marxian economics. It will be useful both as a stand-alone text and as a companion to reading Capital.

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In the merciless arena of life, we are all subject to the law of the jungle, to ruthless competition and the survival of the fittest – such is the myth that has given rise to a society that has become toxic for our planet and for our and future generations. But today the lines are shifting. A growing number of new movements and thinkers are challenging this skewed view of the world and reviving words such as ‘altruism’, ‘cooperation’, ‘kindness’ and ‘solidarity’. A close look at the wide spectrum of living beings reveals that, at all times and in all places, animals, plants, microorganisms and human beings have practised different forms of mutual aid. And those which survive difficult conditions best are not necessarily the strongest, but those which help each other the most. Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle explore a vast, forgotten continent of mutual aid in order to discover the mechanisms of this ‘other law of the jungle’. In so doing, they provide a more rounded view of the world of living things and give us some of the conceptual tools we need to move beyond the vicious circle of competition and self-destruction that is leading our civilization to the verge of collapse.

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