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.

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.

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 weopnaize 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

How do international climate and energy organizations survive and thrive despite powerful contestation? This analysis reveals how the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) maintain legitimacy when key players like the United States withdraw from global agreements.

Using qualitative research including interviews and participant observation, this book unveils the 'norm for climate change action'—a powerful principle that transforms contestation into reinforcement of international climate governance. In doing so, it demonstrates how opposition doesn't destroy these organizations but paradoxically strengthens their role in global climate action.

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.

How can diversity be practiced without reinforcing the very inequalities it aims to dismantle?

In this book, Maddy Janssens and Chris Steyaert address this pressing question by critically examining the assumptions behind current diversity initiatives and turning to critical practice theory and queer theory for novel insights. Through imaginative concepts, inspiring illustrations, and an integrative case study within the dance world, the authors articulate the ‘conditions of possibility’ for a fresh, impactful alternative. This book advocates for a shift from individual efforts to collective practices, proposing a politics of organizational worldmaking oriented at multiplicity – a practicing of diversity that aspires to transformative change into livable and just work lives.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is recurrently depicted as an enterprise that unites humanity in a common pursuit of a more just and sustainable world. But how is this enterprise pursued on a planet that is enormously unequal? Drawing on biopolitical theory and rich empirical data from different contexts around the world, this book explores how ESD is unpacked depending on whether people are rich or poor.

The book demonstrates how ESD is adapted to the lifestyles and living conditions of different populations. The implication of this depoliticized sensitivity to local ‘realities’, the book argues, is that inequality becomes accommodated and that different responsibilities are assigned to rich and poor. Ultimately, the book considers alternatives to this biopolitical divide.

Healthcare for transgender people is in crisis. Many of the problems stem from bureaucracies within the health system, limiting conceptualizations of sex and gender, and the requirement for a diagnosis of ‘gender dysphoria’.

This book presents a unique argument for full demedicalization of transness as a crucial step towards removing existing barriers to good healthcare. Resisting the current norm of separating sex and gender, it also argues for an understanding of them as necessarily interlinked and co-constructed.

By elevating trans voices and experiences, this book offers a new perspective on transness, medicalization and research methodologies to help trans people, practitioners and policy makers better understand the barriers faced by trans people when seeking healthcare.

Bringing concepts from critical transitional justice and peacebuilding into dialogue with education, this book examines the challenges youth and their teachers face in the post-conflict settings of Bougainville and Solomon Islands.

Youth in these places must reconcile with the violent past of their parents’ generation while also learning how to live with people once on opposing ‘sides'. This book traces how students and their teachers form connections to the past and each other that cut through the forces that might divide them. The findings illustrate novel ways to think about the potential for education to assist post-conflict recovery.

To mitigate climate, biodiversity, and public health crises, the global agrifood system needs radical change. The Global North remains central to agrifood innovation but new players in the South, especially Brazil and China, will increasingly determine its pace and direction.

Investigating climate-controlled agriculture and alternatives to animal proteins, John Wilkinson shows that trade, investment, and innovation in agrifood is reorienting to the South. As the global population becomes increasingly urban, he skilfully illustrates the connections between social movements and technological innovation – and the need for consumer acceptance of new food habits.

Education is considered central to social mobility and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged.

However, the desire to leave school early should not be regarded as evidence of students lacking ambition. This book traces the emergence of the aspiration industry and argues that to have ambitions that do not require qualifications is different, but not wrong.

Reviewing the performance of six schools in England, their Ofsted reports and responses, it evaluates underpinning assumptions of what makes an effective school. This book critically examines neo-liberal education policy developments, including the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the political discourse around changing explanations of education ‘failure’ with the rise in the marketisation of education.

Embodying Irish Abortion Reform has been shortlisted for the 2025 BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

Offering a unique perspective, this book explores the lived, embodied and affective experiences of reproductive rights activists living under, and mobilizing against, Ireland’s constitutional abortion ban.

Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with activists, the author exposes the subtle influence of the 8th Amendment on Irish women and their (reproductive) bodies, whether or not they have ever attempted to access a clandestine abortion.

It explains how the everyday embodied practices, bodily labours and affective experiences of women and gestating people were shaped by the 8th amendment and through the need to ‘prepare’ for crisis pregnancies. In addition, it reveals the integral role of women’s bodies and emotions in changing the political and social landscape in Ireland, through the historical transformation of the country’s abortion laws.

Today drag has an unprecedented mass cultural appeal. Reaching far beyond traditional queer venues and audiences into the mainstream, it has evolved into a booming industry worth millions of dollars.

Drag is art, politics, lifestyle and entertainment all in one. Yet, studies examining its market value as a product, brand or consumption practice remain scarce. This interdisciplinary collection fills that void, exploring the intersection of drag and markets.

Written by an international group of scholars exploring cases from Europe, Asia and the US, this will be a key resource for anyone curious about drag’s social, political and economic impact.

How can we help children make a difference, allowing them to shape their communities, locally and globally? Drawing on a rich blend of academic research and case studies, Alison Body critically examines societal structures, including education, communities and cultural narratives, that shape children's understanding of active, philanthropic citizenship.

Children as Change-Makers calls for a reimagining of philanthropy as a form of participatory citizenship, advocating for a philanthropic ecosystem framed by justice, solidarity and collective action. It serves as a roadmap for all stakeholders – from individuals to institutions – to empower children as agents of positive social change, fostering a more just world for generations to come.

It is impossible to view the news at present without hearing talk of crisis.

This timely book looks at how three major crises – the economy, pandemic and climate – are related to the crisis of work, making it more precarious, intense and unequal.

Providing an original and critical synthesis of recent trends in the field, expert scholars offer a programme for transcending the crisis of work.

Offering a timely contribution to understanding the important issues facing the world, this book presents an important new way of thinking about work in contemporary societies.

Why have so many radical thinkers advocated for the abolition of prisons and punishment? And why have their ideas been so difficult to popularize or garner the political will for change? This book outlines several different approaches to penal abolitionism and showcases their calls for the ending of legal coercion, domination, and repression.

This exciting and innovative edited collection shows how abolitionist ideas have continued topicality and relevance in the present day and how they can collectively help with devising new ways of thinking about social problems, as well as suggesting alternatives to existing penal policies, practices and institutions.

Pension policy in the UK and US is designed on the assumption that people make informed financial decisions, consistently invest in pensions and manage diverse portfolios. Deviating from this is often deemed irresponsible and irrational. However, this assumption overlooks uncontrollable factors like caring duties, employment breaks or income limitations. Even when individuals act as expected, unpredictable market shifts can hinder long-term planning.

This book redefines deviations to “rational behaviour” as logical responses to a dysfunctional system. Challenging existing theoretical discussions and policy approaches, it proposes a fresh perspective on rationality when it comes to financial practices and policy.

Creative research methods for data generation have expanded over recent decades and researchers are eager to take a creative approach to data analysis.

It is challenging to bring creativity into data analysis while retaining a systematic, rigorous, and ethical approach. Written by experts in the field, this handbook addresses these challenges. The chapters adapt analytical techniques in creative ways for novice and expert researchers. Existing and novel methods from analysis of quantitative data to embodied, performative, visual, written, arts-based, and collaborative analysis are featured with case examples that are transferable across disciplines.

This collection offers a definitive practical guide to creative data analysis.

A rich and enlightening study of Chinese international relations, this book examines Chinese world ordering before the West as both intellectual history and institutional practices in deep world history. It shows how engaging China’s historical pursuit of ordering the world can contribute to our search for global foundations of international thought.

Offering a distinctive English School perspective, this volume is a call to put studies of Chinese international relations in their proper historical context. It argues that such an approach leads to a better understanding of Chinese ideas and statecraft and contends that reimagining the international is indispensable for a fruitful pursuit of knowledge production in the construction of global IR.

Looking at how austerity has become embedded in institutional practices, this book offers new critical insights into the uneven geographies created by austerity.

Reflecting on the spatially and socially uneven impacts of austerity on individuals and families, Julie MacLeavy shows how the ‘new normal’ of post-welfare state governance will negatively condition life chances, even in better economic times. She considers the political, economic and social developments that have led us to the present moment and shows how the rhetoric of austerity has pushed social inequality and uneven development off the political agenda.

What does it mean for the social sciences to take colonialism seriously – not just as an issue of the past, but in terms of its continuing consequences in the present? While calls to decolonize the curriculum are increasing, few resources show what this means in terms of the everyday categories and concepts of the social sciences. This textbook addresses that gap by rethinking key themes—migration, citizenship, inequality, and the environment—through a critical engagement with colonial histories.

Developed from the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project (CSCP) and written by scholars committed to transforming their teaching and research, the book challenges long-standing assumptions and provides practical, classroom-ready resources. It enables teachers and students to approach familiar topics from new angles, opening space for more rigorous and inclusive debates.

Pedagogical and distinctive features include:

• Structured chapters with learning objectives, summaries, discussion questions and reading lists;

• Thematic case studies that complement conceptual chapters;

• Links to rich digital resources, including videos and teaching tools from CSCP, Global Social Theory and Discover Society;

• Ready-made materials adaptable for undergraduate and sixth-form teaching.

Together, it makes an essential guide for anyone seeking to broaden the scope and depth of social science education.

What does it mean for the social sciences to take colonialism seriously – not just as an issue of the past, but in terms of its continuing consequences in the present? While calls to decolonize the curriculum are increasing, few resources show what this means in terms of the everyday categories and concepts of the social sciences. This textbook addresses that gap by rethinking key themes—migration, citizenship, inequality, and the environment—through a critical engagement with colonial histories.

Developed from the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project (CSCP) and written by scholars committed to transforming their teaching and research, the book challenges long-standing assumptions and provides practical, classroom-ready resources. It enables teachers and students to approach familiar topics from new angles, opening space for more rigorous and inclusive debates.

Pedagogical and distinctive features include:

• Structured chapters with learning objectives, summaries, discussion questions and reading lists;

• Thematic case studies that complement conceptual chapters;

• Links to rich digital resources, including videos and teaching tools from CSCP, Global Social Theory and Discover Society;

• Ready-made materials adaptable for undergraduate and sixth-form teaching.

Together, it makes an essential guide for anyone seeking to broaden the scope and depth of social science education.

What role does journalism play in shaping how we understand climate change and the planet we live on?

This thought-provoking book explores how media systems have helped construct our idea of the “human” Earth, from early nature reporting to today’s digital climate dashboards. Drawing on insights from the humanities and social sciences, it offers a fresh look at how news, data and storytelling influence public thinking in the age of the Anthropocene.

Building on the work of influential thinkers, the book asks how journalism can evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.

What role does journalism play in shaping how we understand climate change and the planet we live on?

This thought-provoking book explores how media systems have helped construct our idea of the “human” Earth, from early nature reporting to today’s digital climate dashboards. Drawing on insights from the humanities and social sciences, it offers a fresh look at how news, data and storytelling influence public thinking in the age of the Anthropocene.

Building on the work of influential thinkers, the book asks how journalism can evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.

How can we make the digital performing arts truly accessible?

Written by experts at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and metaLAB, this pioneering study explores the urgent need to rethink digital access in the performing arts. Drawing on comparative research across the US, UK, EU and Australia, it examines how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed both the potential and the shortcomings of digital programming, particularly for disabled and marginalized audiences. Through rich case studies and critical legal analysis, it advocates for a new global framework that balances copyright protection with the human right to culture.

This is an essential resource for policy makers, arts leaders, disability rights advocates and legal scholars seeking a more inclusive digital future.

Between 1934 and 1939 a wave of violent strikes and riots swept across the Caribbean. Roger Seifert explores how British political parties, trade unions and pressure groups of the labour movement responded to these colonial struggles.

Using diverse primary sources Seifert shows similarities between these disputes and solidarity (or otherwise) with Caribbean workers. The book explores deep ideological divisions on labour, colonialism and political rights within the British Left, which still shape politics today. A timely study of racism, empire and class, this is essential reading for anyone interested in labour history, trade unionism and global inequality.

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

Do our tools for knowing about the world actually obscure important knowledge?

This book uncovers how knowledge infrastructures—including satellite tracking, climate models, machine learning and citizen science apps—shape our understanding of contemporary crises. Rooted in logics of resource assessment, these systems often reinforce extractive thinking, even when intended to protect.

Beaulieu calls for a radical focus on relations to reimagine liveable futures: from monitoring and measuring to fostering connection, care and interdependence.

Drawing on science and technology studies and feminist critique, this book offers tools for transforming data practices, designing more responsive interfaces and building better infrastructures of survival.

Many rail against “woke” ideology. Others dismiss the backlash as a rebranding of conservative concerns. Taking a third way, this book argues that social justice ideology centres identity and direct action and expands concepts of harm, distinguishing it from liberalism. Drawing on the latest datasets, the book offers a sober, evidence-based account of the ideology’s emergence.

As women and minorities have gained visibility and new generations have come of age, progressive ideologies have shifted under pressure. Post-2008 economic crises weakened liberalism, giving social justice ideology mass appeal.

Amid polarized debates over “woke” culture, this is a vital resource for scholars and students seeking an objective study of social justice ideology beyond the usual culture-war framing.