Bristol University Press

Structural racism has impacted the lives of African Americans in the United States since before the country’s founding. Although the country has made some progress towards a more equal society, political developments in the 21st century have shown that deep divides remain. The persistence of inequality is an indicator of the stubborn resilience of the institutions that maintain white supremacy.

To bridge our divides, renowned political scientist Terri Givens calls for ‘radical empathy’ - moving beyond an understanding of others’ lives and pain to understand the origins of our biases, including internalized oppression.

Deftly weaving together her own experiences with the political, she offers practical steps to call out racism and bring about radical social change.

Anti-racist movements have continued to grow worldwide after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Following the BLM protests, many promises were made to deal with the impact of structural discrimination. While this led to more talk than action, there has also been meaningful change, some of which has gone under the radar. The US media focused primarily on the backlash that resulted in book bans and laws against having DEI offices in universities.

In contrast, this book, a follow-up to Terri E. Givens’s bestselling book Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides, highlights the promises that were delivered. It focuses on hope and taking action and creating a positive environment including the use of the radical empathy approach to empower ongoing change.

Leading migration researcher Louise Ryan’s topical and intersectional book provides rich insights into migrants’ social networks.

It draws on more than 200 interviews with migrants who followed various transnational routes in every decade since the 1940s, in order to build valuable longitudinal perspectives and comparisons. With a particular focus on London, it charts how social networks are formed and sustained, how trust is developed and how social support is accessed, and explores the key opportunities and obstacles that migrants encounter.

This is a seminal fusion of migration studies and social network analysis that casts new light on both subjects, essential for those interested in immigration, ethnicity, diversity and inequalities.

Racism has deep roots in both the United States and Europe. This important book examines the past, present, and future of racist ideas and politics. It describes how policies have developed over a long history of European and White American dominance of political institutions that maintain White supremacy.

Givens examines the connections between immigration policy and racism that have contributed to the rise of anti-immigrant, radical-right parties in Europe, the rise of Trumpism in the US, and the Brexit vote in the UK. This book provides a vital springboard for people, organizations, and politicians who want to dismantle structural racism and discrimination.

Today's complex research challenges demand effective teams, yet researchers rarely receive training in teamwork skills crucial for collaborative success.

This book fills that gap, outlining theory and providing practical actions that equip researchers with tools to build and sustain effective teams. Drawing on organizational psychology, team science and the authors’ own experience, it offers concrete practices for fostering collaborative innovation, managing diverse perspectives and achieving high-impact outcomes.

An essential reading for researchers, administrators and facilitators seeking to build high-performing teams, this indispensable resource enables researchers to effectively work across different disciplines and sectors to meet the evolving demands of funded research.

Crime research has grown substantially over the past decade, with a rise in evidence-informed approaches to criminal justice, statistics-driven decision-making and predictive analytics. The fuel that has driven this growth is data – and one of its most pressing challenges is the lack of research on the use and interpretation of data sources.

This accessible, engaging book closes that gap for researchers, practitioners and students. International researchers and crime analysts discuss the strengths, perils and opportunities of the data sources and tools now available and their best use in informing sound public policy and criminal justice practice.

There has recently been a global resurgence of demands for the acknowledgement of historical and contemporary wrongs, as well as for apologies and reparation for harms suffered.

Drawing on the histories of injustice, dispossession and violence in South Africa, this book examines the cultural, political and legal role, and value of, an apology. It explores the multiple ways in which ‘sorry’ is instituted, articulated and performed, and critically analyses its various forms and functions in both historical and contemporary moments. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of contributors, the book’s analysis offers insights that will be invaluable to global debates on the struggle for justice.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

What does it mean to love a healthcare system?

It is often claimed that the UK population is unusually attached to its National Health Service, and the last decade has seen increasingly visible displays of gratitude and love. While social surveys of public attitudes measure how much Britain loves the NHS, this book mobilises new empirical research to ask how Britain loves its NHS.

The answer delves into a series of public practices – such as campaigning, donating and volunteering within NHS organisations – and investigates how attitudes to the NHS shape patient experience of healthcare. Stewart argues that these should be understood as practices of care for, and contestation about the future of, the healthcare system.

This book offers a timely critique of both the potential, and the dysfunctions, of Britain’s complex love affair with the NHS.

When the utility of masks or vaccinations became politicized during the COVID-19 pandemic and lost its mooring in scientific evidence, an already-developing crisis of expertise was exacerbated. Those who believe in consensus science wondered: “How can ‘those people’ not see the truth?”

With a foreword by Harry Collins, this book shows that the crisis is not a "scientific" controversy, but an ideological dispute with "believers" on both sides. If the advocates for consensus science acknowledge the uncertainties involved, rather than insisting on cold, hard facts, it is possible to open a pathway towards interaction and communication, even persuasion, between world views.

As the crisis of expertise continues to be a global issue, this will be an invaluable resource for readers concerned about polarized societies and the distrust of consensus science.

Recent years have seen the rapid spread of far-right movements across the globe. Far beyond Donald Trump, these movements are reshaping the physical world in ways that pose danger to everyone, regardless of their politics.

But how is this happening, and why with such speed? The shocking answer turns out to be aggrieved manhood gone viral, disguised as right-wing populism.

Taking a fresh approach to global politics, Wronged and Dangerous refocuses divisions towards shared human interests. If you care about our common future, discover new ways to engage with the challenges of our time.

Renowned criminologist Mike Hough illuminates the principles and practices of good policing in this important analysis of the police service’s legitimacy and the factors, such as public trust, that drive it.

As concern grows at the growth in crimes of serious violence, he challenges conventional political and public thinking on crime and scrutinises strategies and tactics like deterrence and stop-and-search. Contrasting ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approaches to policing and punishment, he offers a fresh perspective that stresses the importance of securing normative compliance.

For officers, students, policy makers and anyone who has an interest in the police force, this is a valuable roadmap for ethical policing.

At a time when the collective redress landscape is undergoing a period of transformative change, this important and timely research focuses on class actions in England and Wales.

The author provides an objective analysis of the costs and benefits of these proceedings from an access to justice perspective.

Aiming to promote accessibility, this pioneering work separates fact from fiction in an easily digestible way, offering progressive solutions for reform.

With debate about police ethics intensifying, this stimulating book considers afresh the fundamental role of officers and their relations with society.

• It is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to ethical policing, taking a moral philosophical perspective to the evidence base and literature on the subject.

• Leading contemporary thinker Dominic Wood tackles the ethical issues of policing as a matter of compliance and discipline and reviews them in the context of contemporary challenges in policing and the wider criminal justice framework.

• From the parameters of moral policing to the role of human rights and to embedding ethics within police operations, this is a thorough overview of the subject of police ethics and legitimacy, and a springboard for further research and analysis.

A timely contribution to discussions about the police and their legitimacy, this is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and leading the profession.

How have powerful Americans convinced their fellow citizens to support policies beneficial only to the wealthy? Why have so many given up on public education, safe food and safe streets, living wages – even on democracy itself?

Kill it to Save it lays bare the hypocrisy of US political discourse by documenting the story of capitalism’s triumph over democracy.

As the Progressive Left tries to understand how President Trump came to power, Corey Dolgon documents his historical, political and cultural road map. Dolgon argues that American citizens now accept policies that destroy the public sector and promote political stories that feel right “in the gut”, regardless of science or facts.

Covering the post-Vietnam era to present day, Dolgon dismantles US common sense cultural discourse and explains why the endless crisis in US policy will continue until American citizens recognize what has been lost, and in whose interest.

In this second edition of a bestselling book, the authors’ unique, holistic and radical perspective on participatory practice has been updated to reflect advances made in the past decade, the impact of neoliberalism and austerity, and the challenges of climate change and the pandemic.

Bridging the divide between community development ideas and practice, over half of this innovative book comprises new content with updated features including:

• reflective questions

• key points highlighted throughout each chapter

• a glossary of terms

The authors argue that transformative practice begins with everyday stories about people’s lives and that practical theory generated from these narratives is the best way to inform both policy and practice.

This long-awaited new edition will be of interest to academics and community-based practitioners working in a range of settings, including health and education.

Across the globe, patients are no longer passive recipients of care — they are active participants, decision-makers and collaborators.

This timely volume explores the evolving landscape of patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare, focusing on its intersection with the healthcare professions. Drawing on international perspectives, the book examines how patients and professionals navigate changing roles, peer support networks and complex healthcare systems. It considers the sociological and practical implications of patient-centric care and its impact on clinical outcomes and resources.

This book brings fresh insight to a fast-developing field.

Climate Justice in Action celebrates the activism and adaptations of Eastern Africa, one of the most climate vulnerable regions of the world. Contributions from activists and researchers highlight diverse innovations and efforts to curb environmental catastrophe through transforming social inequalities and addressing root causes. The book amplifies community voices and intersectional approaches that integrate environmental sustainability with social and climate justice.

The book highlights the direct actions and policy changes taking place in Eastern Africa today to address the pressing challenges of erratic weather, forced displacement, disasters and energy and food insecurity. It includes case studies on African concepts of climate justice and resistance, youth activism in Uganda and Kenya, climate displacement in Somalia, sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe and environmental graffiti in Sudan.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Today’s political debates are fiercely polarized. But looking beyond the headlines, this book shows that ordinary citizens hold much more nuanced, less divided views.

Drawing on rich survey data and group discussions, this work maps four major areas of conflict: migration, climate change, diversity and economic justice.

Across these conflicts, most citizens take positions that are middle-of-the-road, contradictory or undecided. It is only certain “trigger points” – like gendered pronouns or refugee admissions – that predictably ignite tensions and deep disagreement.

Political entrepreneurs know this and weaponize trigger points for their agenda. Yet the real key to contemporary conflicts, the book argues, lies in social inequality.

This is a vital work that maps today’s political landscape without sensationalism, offering a fresh lens on public debate.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Our lives depend on digital systems that are powerful—and dangerously exposed. This book uncovers how managing cyber threats shapes politics, influences policy, and quietly steers the way we live and work.

This book traces the colonial foundations of modernity as it emerged in non-Western contexts, offering new theories and challenging Eurocentric accounts.

Focusing on Muslim societies, the book maps the entanglements of empire, secularism, capitalism and the nation-state within global power structures. The chapters reveal how modern political, economic, and social orders have been shaped—and often distorted—by imperial legacies.

From legal renewal to postcolonial governance and global finance, this is a unique study that explores the ways in which states and societies in the Global South continue to grapple with, adapt to and resist the pressures of a hegemonic modernity.

How can sociological thinking help us make sense of today’s biggest global challenges? Climate change, migration, radicalisation and inequality dominate headlines and shape everyday life, yet the insights of sociology are often absent from public debate—drowned out by technological optimism, economic rhetoric or polarising politics.

This accessible, jargon-free textbook brings the sociological voice to the forefront. It demonstrates how evidence-based, critical perspectives can illuminate the causes, interconnections and possible solutions to some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Each chapter is crafted to support students new to sociology, offering tools to think critically and make connections between complex global problems. Key pedagogical and distinctive features include:

· Clear statements of key messages at the start of each chapter;

· Bold-highlighted definitions of sociological terms with minimal jargon;

· ‘Snapshot’ boxes with data, case studies or visual insights;

· Suggested sources for further exploration, including videos and online media.

Essential reading for undergraduate students and anyone working in policy, advocacy or social change—offering the tools to think critically, act thoughtfully and engage with today’s most pressing global challenges.

What is life really like for LGBTQIA+ people behind bars?

This book offers the most up-to-date global research on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals in prison, cutting through layers of secrecy and stigma to reveal the harsh realities of incarceration. Drawing on evidence from the UK, US, Brazil and beyond, it highlights how protective segregation, institutionalised homophobia and identity-based violence compound trauma and social harm. Through a compelling conversational narrative, the authors explore institutionalised homophobia and offer evidence-based recommendations for policy makers.

This essential resource challenges punitive prison norms and advocates for trauma-informed, inclusive approaches to justice and rehabilitation worldwide.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Exploring Russia’s grassroots aid for Ukrainian refugees via Telegram, this book reveals how digital media fuels both solidarity and division. It offers a rare look at participation under authoritarianism, introducing a new lens on collective action in crises.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

What happens when schools can no longer bind society together?

In an era of growing segregation, this book explores how Swedish schools and municipalities work to counteract inequality and foster civil inclusion. Through detailed case studies of school closures, mergers and new openings, the authors trace how local actors try to achieve “civil repair” – to strengthen equality and rebuild cohesion through education.

Drawing on rich ethnographic research, the book reveals the tensions between policy ideals and on-the-ground realities in a marketised school system. These findings speak not only to Sweden but to broader challenges in education systems across Europe and North America.

Centred on creative writing workshops in UK women’s prisons, this book explores what happens when imprisoned women begin to tell their own stories which are shaped by disempowerment and social exclusion.

Blending creative practice with critical analysis, it positions prison writing as both a mode of resistance and a means of reimagining the self. It brings long-overdue attention to the voices of incarcerated women, so often marginalised within the wider prison estate and overlooked in criminological research. This is an urgent, compelling contribution to prison studies, creative criminology and feminist approaches to writing and pedagogy.

What is the true cost of Britain’s housing emergency?

This is the shocking story of Britain’s appalling housing crisis as it has never been told before – through the people stuck in its grip, living in barely believable and totally unliveable conditions, from children brought up in hostels and bedsits to working people sleeping in tents and even their own cars.

Delving into the investigative work that began in a council tower block in Croydon and ended in the Houses of Parliament with changes to the law, Left to Rot exposes who is heard and who is ignored, where money is spent, where it is cut and what it tells us about Britain today.

This book exposes the long-term damage of short-term political thinking at the heart of British government, and lays bare the human cost of the catastrophic and ultimately counterproductive policy of rolling back the state in crucial areas of public life that matter most to people.

This book provides fresh insight into multilateral diplomacy, revealing how informal cooperation—not just formal mechanisms —drives EU foreign policy success. Drawing on interviews with diplomats and analysis of critical cases, including sanctions against Russia and Ukraine response coordination, this groundbreaking study exposes the essential role of behind-the-scenes negotiations and informal coalitions.

From defence cooperation mechanisms like Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) to the naval Operation Irini, the book demonstrates how informality compensates for institutional rigidity, enabling swift decision-making in crisis situations. It directly speaks to international relations scholars, diplomats and policymakers seeking to understand how global governance functions in practice.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

From parenting and pilgrimage to activism and mourning, this thought-provoking book explores how digital connection—and disconnection—shapes the emotional texture of our lives.

Using the concept of ‘affective atmospheres’, the authors examine the feelings that emerge in the interactions between people, platforms and places. Drawing on rich, real-world examples, it explores how digital media infuse our homes, beliefs, rituals and politics with emotion, tension and meaning.

A timely exploration of the emotional labour of online life, this book offers fresh insights into how we feel our way through digital culture.

The global industrial food system contributes not only to environmental degradation but also to various forms of social inequality. Despite the abundance of reasons for fundamental transformation, there is an intense conflict over the future of food production.

Focusing on Germany, Schoppek explores the transformative potential of strategic agency for social-ecological alternatives to industrialised capitalism within the agricultural sector. Comparing three initiatives who practice reform, innovation and resistance offers compelling insights into how and why change happens - or does not happen - and what it takes to build powerful alliances for a more just and resilient food future.

This book is one of the first to systematically examine the debate about global order in International Relations from an ecological perspective.

Bringing together an international team of expert contributors, chapters offer a well-rounded exploration of the ecological view on world order from a diverse mix of cultural and theoretical backgrounds. The book provides a nuanced understanding of the social structures underlying specific world political challenges and offers valuable insights into the complex interplay of various global orders and their implications for international affairs.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

What happens to sexual and gender identities when crossing borders under duress?

This book offers an unprecedented account of how forced migration shapes the lives of queer Iranian individuals. Tracing movements from Iran through transition countries to Western resettlement, the book explores how identities are expressed, negotiated, silenced and reimagined along the way. Engaging de/postcolonial theory and participatory methods, the authors centre the voices of non-heterosexual and non-cisnormative Iranians in exile.

This is an essential study for scholars of sexuality, migration and Middle Eastern studies seeking to understand queerness in global displacement.

How can sociological thinking help us make sense of today’s biggest global challenges? Climate change, migration, radicalisation and inequality dominate headlines and shape everyday life, yet the insights of sociology are often absent from public debate—drowned out by technological optimism, economic rhetoric or polarising politics.

This accessible, jargon-free textbook brings the sociological voice to the forefront. It demonstrates how evidence-based, critical perspectives can illuminate the causes, interconnections and possible solutions to some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Each chapter is crafted to support students new to sociology, offering tools to think critically and make connections between complex global problems. Key pedagogical and distinctive features include:

· Clear statements of key messages at the start of each chapter;

· Bold-highlighted definitions of sociological terms with minimal jargon;

· ‘Snapshot’ boxes with data, case studies or visual insights;

· Suggested sources for further exploration, including videos and online media.

Essential reading for undergraduate students and anyone working in policy, advocacy or social change—offering the tools to think critically, act thoughtfully and engage with today’s most pressing global challenges.

This innovative volume applies cutting-edge critical theories—including feminist, queer and human security perspectives—to analyse NATO's evolving role as a security and defence institution.

Moving beyond traditional problem-solving approaches, it features diverse international contributors and employs a comprehensive methodological toolkit from discourse analysis to creative research methods. It also reveals how social, political and geopolitical forces shape NATO whilst examining its transformative impact on global affairs.

Essential reading for scholars and practitioners of international relations, security studies and critical theory, this collection offers fresh insights into one of the world's most influential political-military alliances through an inclusive, multi-perspective lens.

What if utopia wasn't a distant dream, but already unfolding around us?

Focusing on South Africa, this compelling book rethinks utopia not as a fictional un-reachable future, but as a lived practice—emerging in social movements and intentional communities.

Rejecting capitalism, it explores how people create alternative ways of living social orders or economies, imagining and organising the world. Blending decolonial sociology, political sociology, utopian studies and real-world experiences, the book offers a fresh and original approach to understanding social transformation in times of crisis.

A powerful read for scholars, students and activists interested in resistance and hope for alternative futures.

What does it mean to grieve a child lost to an act of terrorism?

This book offers a powerful and deeply human exploration of traumatic bereavement, grounded in parents’ first-hand accounts of losing a child to political violence. Drawing on research in France, the book explores how such loss disrupts meaning, time and self. Through a phenomenological lens, it challenges clinical views of grief and trauma, revealing how parents resist closure and seek enduring bonds with the deceased.

This is a compelling interdisciplinary study of love, memory and making meaning in the wake of unthinkable tragedy.

Is food porn a vibrant and democratic new expression of modern food culture or a superficial addition to an image-saturated world? Tracing its origins from the 1970s to today, this timely book examines the evolution of food porn as a desire-inducing aesthetic practice and a visually extravagant food spectacle.

Through discussions on class, gender, sexuality and national identities, it questions whether food porn reinforces social hierarchies or empowers individuals. Also exploring anti-food porn aesthetics, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the deeper social implications of food’s digital allure.

As racial boundaries are constantly negotiated in Europe and across the globe, this book explores how Russian migrant workers navigate racial capitalism in the Nordic region.

Challenging the idea of a ‘race-neutral’ Eastern Europe, the book reveals how Russian migrants actively claim whiteness, often finding themselves on the margins of acceptability. Uniquely combining postsocialist and postcolonial perspectives, the author examines how these migrants, seeking recognition as European, reinforce economic and racial divides shaped by global capitalism.

This timely work offers fresh insights into race, migration and the boundaries of whiteness across Europe’s borders.

Beginning with the forced deportation of refugee women from Rome to Lagos in 2015, this book builds a compelling case for an intersectional rethinking of migration and refugee law. Grounded in women’s lived experiences of borders, it exposes the deep interconnections between mobility, labour and social reproduction. Drawing on feminist theory, Rigo challenges binary legal categories—forced versus economic migration, free versus paid labour—while making a radical claim for freedom of movement.

By foregrounding gender as a critical lens, this book offers fresh insights into global migration regimes and reimagines hospitality as a space of resistance and decolonial praxis.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Since the UK’s dramatic departure from the European Union, student mobility has become a frontline issue in the reshaping of higher education.

This book investigates how cross-border movement into and out of the UK has been transformed in the wake of Brexit. Drawing on extensive empirical data, the book explores changing mobility patterns, the rise of new infrastructures and the politics surrounding schemes like Turing. It critically examines how government policies and stakeholder responses are redefining international education.

This is vital resource for researchers, policymakers and practitioners navigating the evolving landscape of global student mobility.

Almost a third of children in Britain today live in poverty. Levels of deprivation in the UK are now higher than at any point in recent history. But how did we get here – and what can be done to turn the tide?

In Impoverished, Joanna Mack traces the roots of Britain's poverty crisis to decades of political choices that have left millions unable to withstand the turmoil of the 2020s.Drawing on four decades of pioneering research, Mack offers a clear-eyed analysis of how Britain’s social contract has been undermined – and what it will take to rebuild it. She sets out bold, practical strategies to create a fairer society, alongside pro-poor policies to protect the most vulnerable from the impacts of climate change. Urgent, evidence-based and forward-looking, Impoverished is a blueprint for renewal.

Since Sweden launched the world’s first Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP), the concept has become ubiquitous in foreign policy studies and practice. This book examines its rapid global diffusion, the challenges it faces and the fierce resistance it has provoked.

Featuring contributions from academics, activists and practitioners, the book interrogates FFP’s intersections with militarism, colonialism and patriarchy, while tracing its spread beyond the Global North. Amid democratic decline and surging far-right forces, it not only explores the rollback of feminist gains but also the resilience and creativity of civil society advocacy. Enriched with creative entries like poetry, this collection offers a bold multidisciplinary exploration of FFP’s transformative possibilities, and contested, uncertain future in global politics.

This pioneering collection breaks new ground by examining how post-atrocity justice affects and is informed by familial relationships, particularly between parents and children.

Moving beyond traditional discussions of victims and perpetrators, this volume centres the dynamics of care, responsibility, and identity in the aftermath of mass atrocity. It explores how attempts at addressing legacies of mass atrocity can undermine or strengthen families. Drawing on global case studies and innovative interdisciplinary insights, chapters reveal how socially constructed ideas about parenthood and childhood inform notions of responsibility with and for children within transitional justice frameworks.

This book brings fresh insights into how social spaces shape the way we experience and understand security. Chapters unite voices from critical security studies, urban geography, criminology and political science to rethink the link between security and space, from neighbourhood crime to global conflict.

By viewing security through a spatial lens, the book uncovers the social, economic and political forces that shape security issues in everyday life offering vital insights for current debates on power, space and security.

Conventional research methods often marginalise the voices of those most affected by the issues being studied, limiting the potential for meaningful, transformative change. In education, health, social care, community development and many other fields, there is a growing need for research that is inclusive, accessible and responsive to real-world complexity.

This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to co-operative inquiry: a participatory research methodology grounded in collaboration, reflection and shared knowledge creation. Acting as a how-to guide and companion text, it supports readers in designing and conducting ethical, practice-based research that draws on lived experience as much as professional expertise. The authors demonstrate how co-operative inquiry can integrate action research and mixed methods to produce both nuanced and authentic insights.

With guidance from leading experts and emerging voices in the field, this book is an essential resource for ethical researchers at every career stage. It equips readers with the confidence, tools and inspiration to generate impactful, equity-driven knowledge.

A wide-ranging look at football’s powerful but controversial governing body.

Football is the world’s most popular sport and truly a global phenomenon. As a result, it attracts huge sums of money from its advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters, including FIFA, the sport’s international governing body. So, given its decidedly chequered history, the question of what FIFA is for is crucial to the game’s future.

Examining the organisation’s successes such as the explosion of interest in the women’s game, alongside its failures and continuing crises over corruption and ethics, Alan Tomlinson asks: what will it take for FIFA to truly live up to its own mission of integrity, fair play and accessibility?

Conventional research methods often marginalise the voices of those most affected by the issues being studied, limiting the potential for meaningful, transformative change. In education, health, social care, community development and many other fields, there is a growing need for research that is inclusive, accessible and responsive to real-world complexity.

This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to co-operative inquiry: a participatory research methodology grounded in collaboration, reflection and shared knowledge creation. Acting as a how-to guide and companion text, it supports readers in designing and conducting ethical, practice-based research that draws on lived experience as much as professional expertise. The authors demonstrate how co-operative inquiry can integrate action research and mixed methods to produce both nuanced and authentic insights.

With guidance from leading experts and emerging voices in the field, this book is an essential resource for ethical researchers at every career stage. It equips readers with the confidence, tools and inspiration to generate impactful, equity-driven knowledge.

This innovative book examines how videogames engage with crime and its control. It treats games as ideological representations, in which ideas about policing, justice, and criminality are formed and reproduced. Covering over fifty videogames and blending insights from criminology, game studies, affect and social theory, the book explores how games reproduce injustice and inequality.

Central to the book is the idea of the ‘ludic unconscious’—the notion that in videogames the convergence of gameplay mechanics and narrative sensibilities are affectively and politically meaningful. It is an essential read for students and academics interested in the intersections of crime, ideology, and play.

This powerful and reflective book explores the losses encountered during social research—of people, communities and environments—collectively referred to as The Lost. Drawing on the contributors’ varied research experiences, it gives voice to lives marked by marginalisation, trauma or quiet disappearance. Stories emerge from women who didn’t survive domestic abuse to those displaced by ‘natural’ disasters, or affected by homelessness. Through deeply personal and ethical reflections, each chapter considers how these losses shape both research and researcher.

Offering new insights into harm, reflexivity and the emotional toll of fieldwork, this is an essential contribution to critical criminology and social research methodology.

What if we reimagined ageing, illness and disability not as barriers to sexuality—but as starting points for new forms of desire, intimacy and pleasure?

This groundbreaking book challenges the silence and stigma surrounding the sexuality of older, ill and disabled people. Drawing from sociology, health studies, cultural theory and lived experience, the authors explore diverse expressions of sexuality that defy long-established views.

From queer ageing to sex work and legal rights, this collection offers bold, inclusive perspectives and policy ideas that centre pleasure, agency and dignity. A vital resource for academics, practitioners and anyone invested in social inclusion and justice.

A new perspective on the role of the market, and its future place in society.

Markets are apparently straightforward: they connect buyers to sellers. But their operation is complex, depending on places, things, networks and performances. Belief in markets is a cultural and political ideology. They are a means of governance in modern society, linked to individualistic self-responsibility.

But markets also have a darker side. Not everything should be for sale. Markets wield political power; they benefit those who already have resources; they impair collective action; they can be exploitative. As well as asking what markets are for, this book asks who they are for and what needs to change if they are to enable us to thrive in the 21st century.

This book offers a vivid, critical exploration of young adults’ experiences of the contemporary night-time economy, drawing on rich ethnographic research from Stoke-on-Trent. Adopting recent conceptual advancements in ultra-realism, critical criminology and psychoanalytic theory, it examines how young people navigate relationships, substance use, violence and consumer culture through their night-time leisure rituals.

Advancing our understanding of social harm, the book also exposes the deeper political-economic forces that shape youth behaviours, identity and the many corrosive subjectivities that have flourished under late neoliberal capitalism. Engaging with timely concerns around mental health, individualism, and the nature of desire, the book provides a powerful theoretical and empirical contribution to contemporary criminology and sociology.

From parks and libraries to pubs and schools, social infrastructures are the everyday places that bring people together, support community life and foster connection. As interest in the concept grows, this timely and accessible edited collection offers a comprehensive overview of social infrastructure—its origins, development and practical impact.

Packed with innovative case studies from the UK, Europe, Australia and the US, it highlights how these shared spaces can shape urban life and wellbeing. Featuring contributions from leading scholars, the book provides a vital framework for understanding and researching places that support social connection in an increasingly fragmented world.

Since the late 1970s, student, mortgage, and medical debt have continued to rise in line with lowered public spending and the privatization of key services by Western governments. Gouzoulis shows how working households beholden to these economic burdens are prevented from demanding better working conditions and pay.

By tracing the link between household financialization and workers’ ability to unionise and take action, Gouzoulis reveals how today’s financialized capitalism is sustained, and offers a radical plan on how unions can push back through collaboration and collective action to defend workplace democracy.

This accessible introduction to planning law covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in equal depth. Linking legal principles to real-world planning practice, it shows how planning law shapes our built environment.

Fully updated to reflect the latest legislative changes, this second edition explores key topics such as governance, environmental assessment and major infrastructure projects. It features:

- recommended reading lists;

- illustrative photographs;

- case study text boxes.

Designed for students of planning, law and property-related fields, this textbook provides the essential knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework you’ll need in practice. Whether you're studying planning law for the first time or looking for a concise reference, this is your go-to guide.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY 4.0

This book shares insights from the Healthy Ageing Challenge, bringing research, policy and practice together to create age-friendly homes, workplaces and communities.

Spanning co-design with older people, business collaboration and innovations in design, work, housing, culture and health, it explores the real-world impact of ageing research and the opportunities for business in developing an ageing market.

From age-friendly homes to climate-resilient communities, the book provides a rich evidence base for healthier, more connected lives.

This accessible introduction to planning law covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in equal depth. Linking legal principles to real-world planning practice, it shows how planning law shapes our built environment.

Fully updated to reflect the latest legislative changes, this second edition explores key topics such as governance, environmental assessment and major infrastructure projects. It features:

- recommended reading lists;

- illustrative photographs;

- case study text boxes.

Designed for students of planning, law and property-related fields, this textbook provides the essential knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework you’ll need in practice. Whether you're studying planning law for the first time or looking for a concise reference, this is your go-to guide.

How might vulnerability be rethought beyond its traditional associations with weakness and reimagined as the basis of solidarity?

Across the world, there are unprecedented numbers of dispossessed people; rights and resources are increasingly inaccessible to those who need them most, and the responsibilities we have to one another are continually undermined and exploited.

Referencing three sets of social relations – breathing, grieving and appearing, this book examines how recognition of our shared but always socially situated vulnerability could be the basis for organizing our lives in ways that better support relationality, solidarity and care, now and for the future.

This book examines how global humanitarian systems shape partnerships in education in emergencies. Focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis and the education response in Lebanon, it reveals how colonial legacies, structural racism and the marketization of aid enable Global North actors to dictate policies and practices, while marginalizing local voices and knowledge. Yet in moments of crisis, community-led initiatives and smaller partnerships proved to be agile and responsive.

Rather than offering celebratory accounts of “partnership,” the book draws on rigorous research to foreground the structural inequities that constrain them—while also pointing to possibilities for more just, community driven alternatives. A vital resource for scholars, practitioners and policy makers, it offers concrete pathways for reshaping humanitarian practice to support sustainable, responsive education for refugee learners.

This book examines how global humanitarian systems shape partnerships in education in emergencies. Focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis and the education response in Lebanon, it reveals how colonial legacies, structural racism and the marketization of aid enable Global North actors to dictate policies and practices, while marginalizing local voices and knowledge. Yet in moments of crisis, community-led initiatives and smaller partnerships proved to be agile and responsive.

Rather than offering celebratory accounts of “partnership,” the book draws on rigorous research to foreground the structural inequities that constrain them—while also pointing to possibilities for more just, community driven alternatives. A vital resource for scholars, practitioners and policy makers, it offers concrete pathways for reshaping humanitarian practice to support sustainable, responsive education for refugee learners.

A deeply-researched look at the debate around immigration policy, and possible paths forward.

Does political rhetoric on immigration policy match what is actually happening on the ground? Why do well-intentioned plans fail? Could immigration policy be done better?

This book explores what immigration policy seeks to achieve and why so many people end up unhappy with the outcome. Drawing on decades of research and examples from high-income countries around the world, it exposes the unavoidable trade-offs governments face, and the impacts of their choices on people and communities.

It reveals how we got here, why the policy challenge is so difficult, and how we get to a better place.

This powerful volume brings together scholars, activists, artists and experts-by-experience offering a radical critique of immigration detention and border carceral regimes more broadly, testifying to their inherent harms.

The contributors critically examine how COVID-19 intensified state control, abandonment, and marginalisation while highlighting inspiring acts of resistance and solidarity. Combining abolitionist and no-border perspectives alongside critical scholarly analysis, the book offers urgent insights into dismantling oppressive detention infrastructures and building caring communities.

Essential reading for academics, practitioners and activists committed to social justice, human rights and imagining abolitionist futures beyond borders and systems of incarceration.

This book exposes how policing and licensing practices shape UK nightlife as a racialised space, with harmful consequences for Black and Gypsy and Traveller communities. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with key nightlife stakeholders, it reveals how governance structures – from police-led meetings to licensing decisions – work to suppress racialized night-time events and Black male performers.

Through critical analysis of police diversity training, the discriminatory actions of door staff and security teams as well as street-level policing practices, this study offers a timely intervention into debates on race, surveillance and nightlife. It is essential reading for scholars of policing, racial justice and night-time economy studies in the UK and beyond.

How might vulnerability be rethought beyond its traditional associations with weakness and reimagined as the basis of solidarity?

Across the world, there are unprecedented numbers of dispossessed people; rights and resources are increasingly inaccessible to those who need them most, and the responsibilities we have to one another are continually undermined and exploited.

Referencing three sets of social relations – breathing, grieving and appearing, this book examines how recognition of our shared but always socially situated vulnerability could be the basis for organizing our lives in ways that better support relationality, solidarity and care, now and for the future.

This book exposes the strategies that make migrants’ lives unliveable and explores their resistance to this violence. Drawing on years of research across Europe, the author captures the lived reality of asylum seekers, refugees and other marginalised migrants, including their struggles with constant evictions, detention, push-backs, deportations and violence.

Blending feminist, intersectional and decolonial perspectives, the book reframes exhaustion as both a tool of governance and a site of struggle. By amplifying neglected voices and envisioning politics grounded in solidarity, care and friendship, this is a powerful call to rethink how movement, borders and resistance are understood.

This book exposes the strategies that make migrants’ lives unliveable and explores their resistance to this violence. Drawing on years of research across Europe, the author captures the lived reality of asylum seekers, refugees and other marginalised migrants, including their struggles with constant evictions, detention, push-backs, deportations and violence.

Blending feminist, intersectional and decolonial perspectives, the book reframes exhaustion as both a tool of governance and a site of struggle. By amplifying neglected voices and envisioning politics grounded in solidarity, care and friendship, this is a powerful call to rethink how movement, borders and resistance are understood.

Popular media is a powerful mirror and maker of meaning around suicide.

This book brings together scholars from across disciplines to examine how suicide is mythologised, politicised and challenged across film, TV, young adult literature, digital platforms, online communities, and more. From news coverage of celebrity suicide to social media interventions with at-risk youth, this wide-ranging collection explores suicide’s intersections with class, gender, chronic illness and cultural identity.

Bridging academic analysis and lived realities, this volume offers vital tools for understanding, teaching and reimagining how suicide circulates in the stories we consume and create.

This groundbreaking book offers a powerful sociological and criminological exploration of disability, autism and mental health within the criminal justice system (CJS). Through life stories and critical analysis, it exposes the stigmatisation, miscommunication and injustices faced by neurodivergent individuals and their families. Drawing on care ethics and the concept of ‘careless’ and ‘careful’ spaces, the book reveals how structural inequalities shape everyday experiences and responses to difference.

With a focus on the emotional, practical and socio-political landscape, it addresses an overlooked area of research into the CJS. It offers new insights for policy, practice and research—insights that respect complexity, encourage empathy and make the invisible visible.

Much has been said about the concept of the ‘left-behind’ in modern Britain and the role that this played in Brexit, but why have the many problems facing coastal communities been overlooked by the media and national policy?

With evidence that coastal areas have generally borne the brunt of deprivation and may be the last to recover from the current economic downturn, the need for a sustainable model of coastal regeneration has never been greater. This book explains the factors behind the decline of coastal areas, provides new data on the ways this has manifested with respect to economic, social, health and education outcomes and suggests how policy reform can create dynamic, thriving coastal communities.

This book poses a straightforward set of questions: What is happening to trust in our democracies? Where is it faltering and where is it stable? And among which groups is this taking place? To answer these, the book assesses the state of trust in established democracies in the twenty-first century.

It looks beyond political trust in government to examine confidence in a wide range of institutions, including courts, universities and the media. This broader view reveals not a uniform collapse but a patchwork of outcomes. In many places, citizens still report moderate or high trust in government, while confidence in other institutions often remains strong.

The findings challenge crisis-driven narratives. While trust has eroded in some nations, especially the United States, in many others it has stayed steady for decades. This book invites readers to move beyond the drama of crisis narratives and towards a richer reality in which trust is not vanishing wholesale, but shifting unevenly across countries and institutions.

This book delivers a compelling analysis of how Central and Eastern European nations work to reclaim their political and national identities after decades of communist rule. It reveals the historical, cultural and political factors that make nationalism particularly salient in the region, examining its various manifestations and far-reaching implications.

Filling a significant gap in current scholarship, the book positions nationalism as a driving force behind the region’s political and territorial transformation and current challenges. In particular, it demonstrates how rising populism and authoritarian regression in the region can be connected to nationalism.

Practitioners and managers in child protection often struggle to focus on the needs of children and families in the face of ever-expanding bureaucracy.

This book brings together authors from across Europe to explore the strategies and solutions that promote doing things right by those in need rather than to the letter of procedure. It argues that more flexible, community/relationship/partnership-based approaches are required to meet the needs of parents and children experiencing difficulties and risk of harm.

Essential reading for academics, practitioners, managers and policy makers in social work and child welfare, it contributes to the development of reflective thinking and spotlights the potential of co-production and co-creation.