Social Science

The COVID-19 pandemic took many by surprise when it arrived in Britain in early 2020. Daily lives changed dramatically from March with the introduction of unprecedented restrictions and lockdowns. How did people react?

This book draws on the diaries of 68 men and women aged 70 and above, capturing their thoughts and experiences over the following months. Although these older diarists considered themselves among the more fortunate at the time, their entries reveal both highs and lows. There were anxieties and frustrations but also much positivity and, often, a reluctance for an over-hasty return to pre-pandemic times.

Through these personal and contemporaneous accounts, the book offers a unique contribution to our understanding of the pandemic and its significance in modern social history.

Inspired by and committed to global Indigenous solidarity and South-South encounters, Indigenous Affinities examines the multifaceted connection between Chiapas and Palestine. In tracing unseen threads that connect parallel geographies of struggle found in contemporary Mayan and Palestinian narratives, Indigenous Affinities proposes affinity as a new conceptual framework. Eqeiq shows how—despite emerging from distinct historical processes of minoritization, subalternization, and racialization—Mayan and Palestinian written, visual, and performance texts articulate a common configuration of Indigeneity. These seemingly unrelated connections, Eqeiq contends, can be read through shared histories of land struggle, practices of autonomy, quests for liberation, and collective resistance to racial capitalism, military oppression, and colonial violence.

Eqeiq examines murals that offer a visual testimony to common struggles and transnational connection, explores fragmented bilingualisms that have propelled language revival and revitalization, highlights a shared concern with borders, and documents the performative commemorations of massacres. Reading such sites together in the complexities and specificities of disparate contexts, Indigenous Affinities illuminates how the lens of affinity can elucidate solidarity and resistance within the Global South.

Despite the urgency to understand how 'other' cultures encounter 'the West' in academic and political spheres, feminist economics has yet to tackle critiques from postcolonial and decolonial feminists about Western-centric modernism in the field.

This book introduces a decolonizing approach to feminist economics, offering insights that move beyond the boundaries of modern Eurocentrism. The author explores the relationship between colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy and ecological degradation, while offering critical feminist and decolonizing tools. By investigating global struggles, the author illuminates our hijacked present and imagines a decolonizing feminist economic landscape that is under transformation.

Transdisciplinary and innovative, this book fills a vital gap by exploring the interplay between decolonization and feminist economics, challenging the growth logic, capitalism and Western-centrism, and imagining new possibilities for more just futures.

In the context of global gender inequality, Egypt ranks 129th on the Gender Equality Index. Women in Egypt thus contend with deeply ingrained gender disparities, positioning them as second-class citizens. This patriarchal framework, heavily influenced by interpretations of Sharia Islam, historically suppresses and exploits women.

In Recovering Women’s Voices: Islam, Citizenship, and Patriarchy in Egypt author Reham ElMorally draws upon Sylvia Walby’s Six Structures of Patriarchy, tailored for the Egyptian context, to dissect how this patriarchal construct has historically suppressed and exploited women. The work begins with an exploration of feminism, identity, and the evolving status of women in Egypt from the 19th to the 20th century. The discussion then moves to the codification of the dehumanization of Egyptian women, examining legal and societal frameworks. ElMorally’s analysis examines how religion and class establish patriarchal bargains, followed by an exploration of the hijab's significance in negotiating patriarchal dynamics in both urban and rural contexts. The work also investigates the influence of religious interpretation, comparing Sufi Islam and Sunni Islam, on women’s roles and status in Egyptian society.

In a world where the fight for gender equality transcends borders, this exploration serves as a crucial source of insight into the lived experiences and realities of women, offering valuable insights for scholars across disciplines such as gender studies, women’s studies, sociology, political science, religious studies, and Middle Eastern studies.

Blame the parents. It’s a common reaction to any failure in children’s behaviour or to their safety, and yet so many issues – from education and economic to social care and mental health – arise from the failure of the state to provide adequate support to children and their families.

This edited collection brings together academics, practitioners and activists along with contributions from parents and young people who have experienced the trauma of being caught up in the process of blame. It explores the nature and causes of parent blame and interrogates its prevalence, impact and potential pathways for reform.

In the established historiography of trade in Asia, the emergence of Western trading empires invariably triggered the decline and dispersal of old trading networks. In this transregional ethnographic history of the Manangi, a Buddhist trading community from northern Nepal, Prista Ratanapruck provides counter evidence, elucidating how kinship, social, and religious institutions have facilitated the expansion of Manangi trade across South and Southeast Asia. Expounding on how social and moral values shape capital production, accumulation, and redistribution, Market and Monastery examines the entwining relationship between trade and the Manangi’s pursuit of social and spiritual aspirations, ultimately illuminating an intriguing form of capitalism.

This edited collection brings together social scientists to interpret identity from a wide range of analytical perspectives. Drawing on multiple interpretive traditions from the last 100 years, the book explores how underlying social, cultural and psychological forces shape the dimensions of identity.

Chapters emphasize how identity forms and functions in relation to key sociological issues such as social power, social control and the production and reproduction of social inequalities. Contributors also explore the flexibility of identities, showcasing how different perspectives and analytical tools reveal the nuances of rejected, unrealized and aspirational identities. By navigating these dimensions, the book reveals the interplay between personal biography and broader social life.

Platform Governance and Social Justice outlines principles and mechanisms social media platforms have adopted to govern hate speech, exploring how a social justice approach to hate speech regulation would effectively reduce the circulation of harmful content targeting historically oppressed groups. Focusing on the two interrelated topics of hate speech and platform governance, Paloma Viejo Otero pursues how platform governance (policies, regulation, moderation) are supported by different ideals and approaches to hate speech.

Identifying four traditional approaches that have underpinned hate speech regulation in the contemporary digital landscape, Otero proposes a fifth approach called the Social Justice Approach (SJA), an original contribution to the field of research. Combining interviews with CEOs of platforms that are guided by policies, compared to conventional commercial platforms such as Facebook, and interviews with users/participants on these platforms, SJA is presented as a possible alternative to the dominant policy position of platform governance.

Could an SJA approach possibly reduce the circulation of harmful content directed at marginalised and oppressed groups and subjects? Otero answers this question and more as social media’s influence and popularity continues to grow.

Pay-as-you-go water dispensers are used in many areas in the Global South, particularly those that are ‘off-grid’. This book examines the increasing influence of private corporations and philanthrocapitalist principles in development cooperation in the SDG-era by focusing on water supply to the inhabitants of rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya.

The book explores how private sector approaches and digital technologies open up remote regions to permanent arrangements of transnational market-based water supply beyond state sovereignty, which define their users as paying customers. Considering these technological solutions alongside socio-political realities and local knowledge, it offers a nuanced perspective on the promises and limitations of market-based interventions in the water sector.

Following the highly respected first volume, this book continues to provide a holistic view of Julio Boltvinik’s vast and important work on poverty conceptualisation and measurement. While the previous book introduced the author’s widely adopted Integrated Poverty Measurement Method (IPMM), this new volume outlines his Marxian approach to poverty and human flourishing, focusing on what he conceptualises as human poverty.

Bringing together 20 years of research, this interdisciplinary book provides an alternative to Sen’s Capability approach and details its internal consistency, solid foundations and promising perspectives for applicability.

Social housing continues to decline as existing tenanted homes are sold to their occupiers and run-down council estates are demolished. Demonstrating the value of the ‘Housing Plus’ approach –investment beyond “bricks and mortar” – this book outlines the role social landlords can play in tackling community problems. By investing in estate renewal, helping to house the vulnerable, offering a wide range of tenures and encouraging community housing, this approach builds links between housing design and a wider social value agenda.

With the voices of tenants and frontline staff at the forefront, Anne Power demonstrates how policy and practice can shift the bias against social housing in favour of its re-expansion.

This book offers a unique insider perspective from a queer author and activist who was centrally involved in Ireland’s journey from 1993, the year when homosexuality was decriminalised, to 2015, when it became the first country in which marriage equality was enacted by popular vote. It is the first comprehensive study of the impact of LGBTQ+ youth civil society as a leading force on Irish public policy change.

Interdisciplinary in nature, it uses both activist and academic frames to reassess LGBTQ+ activism histories. It draws on personal, historical and policy analysis to provide a comprehensive account of how civil society can drive progressive change in difficult conditions.

Essential reading for understanding the significant public policy changes that have occurred in Ireland, this book provides deep insight into the dynamics of organised social change over long periods of time and offers lessons for future work in this area.

Digital tools such as smart devices, personal trackers, and social media have become part of daily life for many. ‘Onlife’ (online+life) criminology is the study of crime and social harm produced by the blurring lines between digital engagement and our everyday lives that we may not even be aware of.

From AI, security breaches to the proliferation of conspiracy theories, this thought-provoking book analyses the serious threats of surveillance, targeted indoctrination, and abuse of personal data that can potentially affect us all. The book explores alternatives to the current situation and presents practical and more sustainable solutions for internet use.

This book is a comprehensive and accessible overview of sex trafficking in the United States, examining its underlying dynamics and sharing key research findings. Andrea J. Nichols examines the backgrounds and experiences of survivors, traffickers, and buyers, showing how social and structural dynamics affect trafficking in the United States. She details common risk factors for victimization, emphasizing weak social institutions and safety nets. This book’s intersectional approach foregrounds the ways social oppression and marginalization contribute to heightened vulnerability, accounting for the roles of race, ethnicity, citizenship status, sexuality, gender, age, and disability.

Nichols introduces readers to the theoretical and political perspectives that shape research and policy on sex trafficking, considering abolitionist, neoliberal, feminist, criminological, and sociological viewpoints. She assesses the outcomes of policies relating to commercial sex and analyzes a variety of responses to sex trafficking, including in social services, health care, and the criminal legal system, as well as activism. Nichols reflects on how service providers, activists, and everyday people can effectively advocate for and with survivors of sex trafficking and offers recommendations for practice and policy.

Sex Trafficking in the United States is essential for understanding the dynamics of sex trafficking and its underlying sources. This second edition is thoroughly revised and updated, integrating the most up-to-date research.

This powerful book analyses racism within Britain’s Tory Party along with its immigration policies and imposition of austerity, exposing how 14 years of Tory rule deepened inequality and division.

With vivid examples, from the Windrush scandal and Grenfell tragedy to Islamophobia, Cole reveals how “hostile environment” policies, the “age of austerity” and brutal budget cuts have shaped lives and communities. Combining sharp analysis with historical context, the book uncovers how these issues are deeply tied to capitalism and class struggles.

In the light of the rise of the far right in Britain and offering both immediate solutions and a vision for systemic change, this crucial work challenges us to imagine a fairer, more compassionate society grounded in justice and solidarity.

In today’s world, there are interwoven crises affecting us at every level. This book explores the impact of these crises on applied social research. It shows how using a complexity framework in research is key to tackling global challenges effectively.

By featuring illustrative examples from the UK, China, Brazil, South Africa and the US, the authors demonstrate how an action research programme based around the use of existing social research methods embedded in processes of co-production and participation can drive real-time social change.

In doing so, the book highlights the transformative role of action-oriented research in addressing today's complex global challenges.

A provocative history of Disney’s rise to cultural dominance, pulling skeletons from the corporate closet to decode the political messages hidden in all of your favorite childhood movies.

In The Extended Universe, Vicky Osterweil takes us on a quest to discover how Disney’s “imagineers” have made it impossible to reflect on the wonders of growing up without thinking of Disney's movies, amusement parks, and merchandising. Drawing on extensive interviews with filmmakers, screenwriters, union organizers, and Disney “adults” alike, Osterweil unearths reactionary political commitments and maleficent legal maneuvers so cartoonishly evil they would make one of Walt's own animated villains blush.

Along the way, Osterweil braids together corporate skullduggery with a not entirely unsympathetic analysis of some of Disney's most famous movies. The result is an entertaining and convincing case that Disney's entire business model has been built upon a ruthless and fanatical insistence on intellectual property rights—from Steamboat Willie to Infinity Wars and beyond!

Whether you’re a student, academic, or practitioner working in an applied setting, this text will lead you through the complex terrain of contemporary qualitative research methods.

Written by renowned sociologist Karen O’Reilly, the book distils decades of experience into a valuable toolkit of lessons and insights. Key highlights include:

• tackling challenging issues like how many interviews are enough and what does reflexivity look like in practice;

• a keen focus on what the time-constrained researcher needs to know, delivering essential knowledge efficiently and imaginatively;

• pedagogical features like dos and don’ts, neat summaries, and creative solutions.

Bridging theory and practice, and packed with a wealth of advice, useful tips and resources for further reading, this is the definitive guide to contemporary qualitative research for beginners and seasoned researchers.

Philanthropy has become a staple of American society and culture. Associations, endowments, foundations, and limited dividend companies have funded education, culture, healthcare, religion, and social welfare.

Yet American philanthropy is not as exceptional as it appears to European observers. American philanthropy was built upon European and Mediterranean precedents and evolved through the constant influence of philanthropic practices in other parts of the world.

This book explores how philanthropic practices and institutions were introduced into American society and how they were Americanised during the 19th century. It provides a comprehensive history of American philanthropy and positions it within its wider global context.

The ubiquity of digital platforms in everyday life has considerable ramifications for contemporary leisure travel. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic investigation into the trials and tribulations of travel influencers, Locating the Influencer provides an account of the emergence of a new professional group in global tourism.

Christian S. Ritter assesses the transformative role of travel vlogs in the mediation of tourist places using in-depth interviews, participant observation and network visualisations. In following journeys to European and Southeast Asian destinations, the travel ethnography depicts the spirit of adventure, mobile lifestyles, video-making practices and encounters with local tourism professionals. Locating the Influencer reveals how travel influencers build their professional expertise and engage in collaborations with local destination stakeholders, monetise their travel content, maintain parasocial relationships with large audiences, and the employ tactics to deal with algorithms.

Amid climate disasters inducing lasting debates about both the future of tourism and sustainable tourism, Locating the Influencer comprehensively investigates the digital phenomenon of the travel influencer and offers a way to trace the polyvocal voices of platform-nested storytelling in global tourism.

While responses to the Covid-19 pandemic varied based on the timing of the onset of cases and the severity of the disease, Perceptions of a Pandemic analyzes and compares the perceptions and attitudes of citizens in the US and Finland during the pandemic’s early stages and relates these to health and wellbeing outcomes after the pandemic ended.

With findings based on rich survey data from 1,500 Americans and 1,500 Finns, this study provides a unique contrast between systems of government, welfare approaches, levels of trust, and other factors that shape the citizenry’s relationship with their government and social institutions across continents. What behaviors – from teleworking to media consumption to mask wearing – changed? What attitudes, such as trust in institutions and confidence in science, patterned these behaviors and any changes that occurred in them? How were these factors reflected in opinions on related policies?

Bridging sociology and public policy, this deeply insightful work challenges us to confront the issues and challenges that we need to consider before the next global health crisis emerges.

The story of the emerging professionalization of classical Indian dance forms in Britain is wrought with contradictions. Though becoming increasingly popular within mainstream culture, the forms lack the clear routes to vocational training so essential for creating a dance career in the traditional sense. Towards a British Natyam uses this lens to analyze the cultural, social, and political frameworks that make a profession possible within the arts. Innovatively drawing on the work of decolonial theorists and the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Gorringe illuminates the transformative potential of a classical Indian dance profession to decenter white supremacist modes of knowledge formation and recenter pluriversality.

Abolitionist thought visualizes a world without prisons – or a radical reduction or transformation of prisons and punishment. This fascinating book explores the abolitionist ideas of key early socialists and anarchists, writing from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. It considers how these radical thinkers can provide insights into our present condition, both by highlighting the harms of punishment and by pointing to inspiring alternatives to current policy and practice.

By examining their calls for the ending of legal coercion, domination and repression, the book shows how the ideas of early socialists and anarchists can assist those engaging in emancipatory struggles against penal and social injustice today.

How do individuals address serious challenges in a context where organized gatherings are subject to strict government control? This book brings together a diverse group of scholars to explore the many ways people in China self-organize and create varied forms of coordination to solve important problems.

Through compelling, detail-rich case studies, The Extraordinary in the Mundane shows that family structures and networks deeply shape these modes of association. Because the public-private dichotomy does not resonate with many people in China, they rely on informal social ties, not formal organizations or state agencies, to confront personal challenges. Chapters present vivid ethnographic portraits that consider both positive and negative aspects of community formation. A woman with an autistic child creates an organization to advocate for inclusion of neurodivergent children in public schools. A trainee in a psychological counseling course finds mutual support among other participants. A boy is taken by his father to an internet addiction treatment camp that aims to restructure family interactions. A woman in her seventies shows off the burial clothes she prepared for herself, to the admiration of a group of friends. Offering a glimpse into the unofficial realities that often remain off the record, this book provides a wide-ranging and timely examination of the varieties of civic action in contemporary China.

Due to the international importance attached to the reporting of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) over the last two decades, scholars have been able to examine the magnitude of the problem across different situations and types of conflict. But what changes to intensity and type of violence occur during different phrases of conflict intensity? Is reporting consistent across different conflicts and different regional experiences of conflict-related SGBV? This book examines different conflict situations in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia over the past decade, 2010–2020.

The chapters in the book use a mixed-method approach to explore the patterns of violence in situations of one-sided violence, state-led violence, non-state-led violence, low intensity violence, terrorism and fragility. They investigate the trajectory of international and prevention efforts, and the development of country-level responses to reports of sexual and gender-based violence in these various conflict situations. The book explains how and why these responses were mobilised in response to reports and considers the conditions for effective reporting in real time considering the patterns and the structural root causes of the violence.

During the chaos and devastation of armed conflict, children and youth often emerge as powerful agents of change and resilience. Children and Youth as ‘Sites of Resistance’ in Armed Conflict, the first of two volumes, is a compelling exploration of their profound roles as active participants, often functioning as sites of resistance within the complex dynamics of warfare.

The first volume explores the lived experiences of children and youth in conflict zones, uncovering the different forms of resilience and resistance. Unlike conventional portrayals that confine them solely to victimhood, the chapters address themes such as the intersection of women, children, trauma, and memorialization, as well as the critical examination of human rights and children’s rights within the context of armed conflict. They draw from research conducted in conflict areas including Sudan, Israel-Palestine, Ukraine, Kashmir, and Kosovo, which provides a unique insight into the experiences of these children and youth as they navigate the challenges of traumatic events. Highlighting the importance of memorialization in these communities, Children and Youth as ‘Sites of Resistance’ in Armed Conflict demonstrates this as a means for honouring and commemorating the losses suffered and offers a path toward healing and reconciliation. By shedding light on these intersecting aspects, the scholars amplify the voices of affected children and youth, informing policies, and implementing programs that prioritize their well-being and rights in post-conflict societies.

Acknowledging the crucial role of children and youth as catalysts for peace and justice in conflict and post-conflict settings, this is pathbreaking reading for scholars of childhood, youth, peace, and conflict.

Sitting at the extreme end of criminal justice and offending behaviour, public protection policy has been politicised and used to reshape wider debates. Exploring the development of public protection policy and legislation since the early 1990s, Politics and Public Protection considers the necessity for extreme measures and the actual extent of serious crime to unveil the populist nature of the way political debates have been framed over time.

Analysing the UK setting where the public protection debate has been ‘weaponised’ to create public fear and ‘with us or against us’ positions, authors Mike Nash and Andy Williams chronicle how this form of politics has now extended into a range of policy areas, including Brexit. Emphasising the political context of the evolution of public protection policy over time, the chapters investigate different types of dangerous criminal behaviour, public protection agencies and responses to panic and failure, providing a critical analysis of the use of risk to reshape and reframe public protection policy and practice.

Responding to the need for an updated discussion on public protection and criminal justice legislation that links the past to the present, Politics and Public Protection closely examines the interplay between politics and extreme criminal justice measures.

Tackling a global and seismic problem such as climate change requires an equally extensive approach. Investigating current scientific knowledge about climate change in public and policy discussions, as well as the connections between social, economic, and political discourse, The Social Consequences of Climate Change takes a take a multifaceted approach to one of the biggest challenges of our time.

Understanding the role of climate conditions in all aspects of human society – where we live, how we build, how we move – chapters wield relevant approaches and techniques from across disciplines to reframe issues that are essential to improving sustainability and capturing innovative solutions to the climate problem. Covering the role of businesses in combatting climate change, environmental health, the vulnerability of urban communities, the nexus between climate, economy and society, climate and national and international agendas, and more, the authors clarify both scientific and policy arguments about the social repercussions of climate change to offer a working basis for seeking solutions.

A rich collection of reflections from across the social sciences, this is vital reading for researchers and policymakers invested in how best to respond to a world of increasing climate extremes.

In sport, hazing and initiation rites and rituals are commonly justified by team leaders and proponents as upholding traditions, proving one’s commitment to a team, and as a way of strengthening team bonds. This edited collection offers a current critical analysis of sport hazing practices, including diverse perspectives and experiences of hazing and initiation in the contemporary sport landscape.

Providing a much-needed cutting-edge update on the last major publication on sport hazing practices published more than two decades ago, the chapters delve into the continuation of potentially harmful, traditional initiations including the use of alcohol, secrecy, attire, hierarchy, confinement, gender, tradition, heterosexism, homoeroticism, misogyny, power, masculinity, cohesion, symbolism, ritual and the cycle of status from initiated to initiator. With a section dedicated to practical suggestions for enacting positive change to team sport cultures and welcome rituals, authors consider intersections of identity, gender, race, ethnicity, and more, and offer examinations of team hazing from diverse perspectives, analytical frameworks, and theoretical lenses.

Responding to recent shifts in the political and sport landscape, it presents an international view, collectively including multi-disciplinary, pioneering perspectives on the current sport hazing landscape – a timely and rich offering to the sporting literature.

How Mayor Ray Flynn’s leadership and a coalition of activists transformed Boston, challenging established powers and setting new precedents for urban governance

The Battle for Boston captures the remarkable era under Mayor Ray Flynn, whose election in 1983 marked the beginning of a profound shift in the city’s political and social landscape. Don Gillis, a Flynn senior advisor, chronicles the inspiring journey of a city that dared to challenge the entrenched power brokers—including developers, landlords, and banking industry leaders—through powerful grassroots campaigns.

Gillis provides a vivid portrayal of the political dynamics and the coalition of community organiz­ers, neighborhood leaders, and residents that played a pivotal role in rejecting the business-backed growth machine and the city’s historically divisive racial politics. This book charts the strategic battles fought within the corridors of power and on the streets and highlights the substantial impact these movements had on the city’s governance and power dynamics.

In a historic turn, in 2021, Michelle Wu became the first woman, person of color, and Asian- American elected Mayor of Boston. Wu’s victory on a similarly progressive platform as Flynn underscores the enduring relevance of his legacy, signaling a hopeful future for more inclusive and effectively governed cities.

The Battle for Boston poses a critical inquiry: Can cities truly embrace progressivism and gov­ern effectively in the twenty-first century? This qualitative narrative study is a testament to the possibility of such governance, driven by the indomitable spirit of those who strive for a fair and equitable society.

Capitalism and its many manifestations have a marked impact on the way care and compassion are defined and experienced internationally. Addressing a gap in the examination of market-centric and individual-focused aspects of care, this volume of International Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion brings together interdisciplinary insights from across the social sciences to enrich the debate in the field of business and management around the treatment of care, compassion and capitalism.

Considering different care arrangements such as parental care, elder care, care of youth and community and self-care, chapters investigate how capitalist ideologies impact markets, organisations, relationships and labour.

Calling for a ‘responsibilisation’ to curb the corrosive impact of the current market, Care and Compassion in Capitalism offers not only a critique of the capitalist condition but also interrogates the extent to which it is possible to tame and overcome the power inequities induced in the interplay of care, compassion and capitalism.

Globalization has quickened the process of communication across the world, creating changes in material and non-material culture with the flow of ideas. Globalization and the Transitional Cultures: An Eastern Perspective takes different cases from various perspectives, such as gender, modernity and the middle-class, to understand the impact of globalization on Eastern societies.

Globalization and the Transitional Cultures: An Eastern Perspective engages with a range of diverse themes that are shaping cultural discourses, especially in developing nations like India. Debanjana Nag debates the ideological and rational growth of globalisation as a fuel of modernity and analyses the perspectives of marginalized sections of society such as women, tribes and the middle-class society who are at the highest in terms of economic concentration. She also discusses concepts of globalization, communication, and culture to understand how communication plays an important role in the process of globalization for various cultural realms.

Nag brings together a wide range of concepts that describe the complexity of the globalization question and its impact on profound societal processes.

As with any digital technology, there are concerns about how new advancements may affect our health, safety, security, privacy, and economy. The metaverse has potential, but as with any other universe, whether it be physical or digital, it also faces challenges. It is currently undefinable; neither good nor bad can be applied to it, falling under a spectrum that can be either advantageous or harmful to those who engage in it.

Focusing on the main issues presented by the metaverse, including implementation, governance, ethical decision-making, sustainability, safety and security, intellectual property, and acceptable behavior issues, The Metaverse Dilemma explores a balanced viewpoint of the metaverse from both a theoretical and practical mindset, examining the challenges and opportunities faced when adopting and implementing the metaverse in business and everyday scenarios.

Contributing to the fields of technology and sustainability through the lens of the metaverse, The Metaverse Dilemma is essential reading for entrepreneurs, start-up enthusiasts, students, researchers, and practitioners looking to understand the broader implications of the metaverse on the future of global society.

India, despite being largely rural, has struggled to maintain an adequate social infrastructure in its rural regions due to insufficient need-based development interventions, low public spending, limited market reach and a lack of individual contributions. Examining recent policy changes that are seeking to tackle these issues, Rural Social Infrastructure Development in India advocates for transformative change against the backdrop of poverty intervention and contemporary development discourse.

Delving into a transformative journey focused on inclusive housing development and financial strategies, M Mahadeva celebrates and critically analyses milestones achieved in uplifting marginalised rural populations in India. Dissecting secondary data from official Indian authorities, the author scrutinises housing poverty, amenities deprivation and financial exclusion at both national and regional levels. Focusing on impactful programs like PMAY and PMJDY, chapters illuminate the interplay of public participation, political consensus and economic commitment in shaping rural social infrastructure. Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and emphasizing the pivotal roles of individuals, public authorities and strategic public investment, Mahadeva underscores the critical role of safe housing, sanitation and financial citizenship in fostering well-being and sustainable human settlements.

A compelling call to action for development impact on a global scale, this mission-driven work brings us one step closer to building a more inclusive India.

China has been stereotypically perceived as a place of backwardness. However, the 21st century has been a transitional period for China to express its cultural power. This book explores how digital technology, in particular virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is playing a role in China’s rejuvenation, especially in relation to cultural displays, performances and art exhibitions.
It examines how audiences, both in China and globally, respond to Digital China through digital immersive art. Drawing on the author's anthropological research and empirical studies on stakeholders and audience reception, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of transformative power of digital technology and its impact on cultural experience in contemporary China.
The ‘reform of the cultural system’ over the past two decades in China has fostered a techno-cultural imaginary mixed with the celebration of Chinese civilisation and advanced by digital technology and entrepreneurs. Such a hybrid imaginary influences how people view and consume digital immersive art. Much digital immersive art within China is thus viewed within the framework of modernisation, as the case studies in this book will show. Outside China, however, the dominant narrative of techno-orientalism prevails, constructing a different image of Digital China, a technocratic state.

Disasters have a widescale impact with drastic consequences on human lives, especially those who are marginalised by the wider society. Proposing a fresh approach towards analysing the politics of disasters, climate change and climate justice, 'Natural’ Disasters and Everyday Lives explores the relationship between citizens, the State and the society in the context of the Global South’s highly underdeveloped areas.

Drawing on both theoretical frameworks and lived experience, this is the first book to document the lives of people affected by floods in the Barak Valley, a flood prone area in Southern Assam, which is also one of the most underdeveloped regions of South Asia. Narrating the fear and perils of living in an underdeveloped area in India during natural disasters, Suddhabrata Deb Roy draws from interviews conducted in Silchar, the largest and most developed urban settlement in the Barak Valley, during the floods of 2022 – the worst flood in the region in over 100 years – and during 2024 to expose the processes through which the people of the region suffer from developmental negligence and socio-political apathy. Examining the intersections of natural disasters and marginality, the author relates Marx’s ideas on humanism, nature, alienation and economic development to ideas around climate justice, marginalisation and urbanisation, taking into context the contradictions posed by factors such as class, caste, gender and race in highly underdeveloped regions in India.

Recognising that these issues are addressed quite differently in the Global North, Deb Roy connects flooding in northeastern India to the context of the broader politics surrounding climate change and climate justice in the Global South, making this book important and powerful reading for countering today’s climate emergency.

Filled with the myths and legends of the deep, this new illustrated edition of the cult classic folklore collection reveals the stories that swirled on the open seas, and the customs that remain part of maritime life.

The vivid, often eerie, superstitions, tales and rituals of the sea were the sailors ‘response to danger — immediate and uncontrolled. As a sailing-ship beat for weeks across the Southern Ocean, domain of the albatross, meeting no one in the lonely wastes, her crew felt an urgent need to appease the sea-gods. Even today, with engines, iron or fibreglass hulls, and less credulous seamen, much traditional sea lore has survived, especially in the fishing fleets.

Stories of phantom ships and crews (from the Flying Dutchman onwards), of the perennial sea-serpent, of lonely lighthouses; rituals such as the crossing-the-line ceremonies or blessing the fishing fleet; old weather lore, sailors’ chanties and sea language, taboos and talismans, precautions taken at keel-laying or launching — all these are recorded and interpreted here.

For everyone who enjoys strange stories and the chilly fascination of the unconquered sea, or thrills to watch man pitting himself against merciless elements, this book is a delight and a mine of information. Margaret Baker is unrivalled at collecting traditions of the past and showing the part they have played for generations of men in their daily lives. With brand new illustrations by Philip Harris.

Digital media and mobile-based technologies have changed how young people interact in different spheres of their experiences. Considering the centrality of digital media in young adults’ lives, Young Adulthood Across Digital Platforms explores how they engage with mobile applications, incorporating them into their everyday lives and embodying them in their daily practices.

Rooted in an intersectional and feminist approach, authors incorporate a future focus on new horizons for researching youth uses of apps and their (re)negotiation of gender and sexual identities from a Media Studies perspective. Adopting a critical lens towards contemporary digital media, chapters consider how young adults navigate digital technologies and mobile applications' technicity and conceptual underpinnings, seamlessly integrating them into their daily routines and utilising them to create engagement between communities that promote health and deconstruct myths of disinformation disorder.

As sociocultural products actively reshape gender relations, sexual practices and other core aspects of young people’s lives, Young Adulthood Across Digital Platforms posits technology as a potent generator of meaning, subjectivity and agency intricately intertwined with power dynamics.

The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the everyday worlds of children, young people and families. Exploring their experiences and practices of care during this period, Care and Coronavirus: Perspectives on Childhood, Youth and Family brings developments in the field of Childhood Studies into productive dialogue with care to forge new ways of thinking through care and childhood.

Split into five sections, each bookended with a practitioner reflection, the chapters discuss how the pandemic engendered and necessitated novel forms of caregiving and experiences of receiving care. Highlighting changes to everyday norms and routines, contributors focus on diverse spaces of care and incorporate perspectives from children, practitioners, policymakers and academics. Investigating early childhood systems of care, children and young people’s health and wellbeing, parents as subjects and recipients of care, schooling as care and young people navigating care and control beyond school, authors offer key reflections for thinking through these experiences during the pandemic, challenging the inequalities and commodification of care that was revealed in these times.

Arguing that COVID-19 heightened the attention paid to care and the ways in which care is vital for the maintenance of ourselves and the world around us, Care and Coronavirus calls for a reflection on the failures and successes of care during the pandemic and in its aftermath so that we can plan for a more caring future.

Hegemonic Masculinity, Caste, and the Body investigates the intricate interplay between masculinities, space, and identity within Indian Punjab’s Jat Sikh community.

Through a series of insightful chapters, Navjotpal Kaur delves into the dynamic landscape of Jat masculinity, examining its historical roots, contemporary expressions, and global dimensions. Beginning with an exploration of hegemonic masculinity in the context of Jat identity, Kaur traces the influences of colonial-era valorization of Jat Sikh soldiers to present-day transnational forces, providing a comprehensive understanding of the socio-historical factors shaping Jat masculinities. She further investigates the entanglement of masculinity with Punjab's agrarian landscape, where the exclusionary practices often sideline women and men belonging to other castes, illustrating how economic hardships have led to dire (gendered) consequences like farmer suicides. With a unique focus on the embodiment of caste among Jat men, her analysis also unveils deeper societal shifts impacting the formation of Jat identity by examining how spaces like agricultural fields symbolize masculinity. Utilizing Bourdieu's framework, chapters unpack the significance of corporeal customs in perpetuating caste affiliations, revealing the layered nature of Jat identity as warriors, farmers, and socially privileged individuals. Kaur also explores the shifting gender dynamics within the Punjabi community, shaped by migration trends and economic challenges, before delving into the vulnerabilities faced by transnational masculinities, particularly among second-generation Indo-Canadians. From investigating gang-related activities to navigating intraethnic othering, Kaur also sheds light on the complex journeys of migrant youth in shaping their identities abroad.

Offering a nuanced exploration of the Jat Sikh identity, Hegemonic Masculinity, Caste, and the Body highlights its resilience, complexities, and vulnerabilities amidst changing socio-economic landscapes, thoughtfully invoking wider conversations around gender, culture, and self-perception.

With the increasing popularity of K-pop and K-drama, South Korean culture has stepped into the spotlight with interest from the public and academia. The recent success of Korean sport stars in global sports leagues such as EPL, MLB and LPGA have served to introduce young sport celebrities to global fans.

With growing interest in Korean sports and its social significance from academia and in public, Sport in Korea: Culture, Politics and Policy brings together research on social, cultural, and political aspects of Korean sports today. This volume is designed as a collection of three distinctive themes: 1) sport culture and consumption in 21st century Korea; 2) key issues and controversies in Korean sport; 3) Korean sport policy and its impact on shaping the Korean sport structure and process.

Taken as a whole, the chapters provide a clear – and, crucially, new - understanding of Korean sport culture and structure and expand the scope of sociological research of sport which has been North American and European centric for too long.

In today's digital societies, parenting is shaped by algorithms daily - in search engines, social media, kids' entertainment, the news and more. But how much are parents aware of the algorithms shaping their parenting and daily lives? How can they prepare for children’s futures in a world dominated by data, algorithms, automation and AI?

This groundbreaking study of 30 English families sheds light on parents’ hopes and fears, their experiences with algorithms in searching, sharing and consuming news and information, and their awareness and knowledge of algorithms at large.

Looking beyond tech skills and media panics, this book is an essential read for social scientists, policy makers and general readers seeking to understand parenting in datafied societies.

The category of the Dougla, that is the mixed Indian/Black body located in Trinidad, exists at a crossroads between multiculturalist discourses and essentialist ideas of Indian and African identities. Racialisation is often erased under the deployment of hybridity, creolisation and the ‘callaloo nation’ as meta narratives. Such mixing is seen as quintessentially Trinidadian, yet ontological understandings of race continue to operate as a distinctive marker of difference, particularly in the specifically Indian/Black mixed-race body of the Dougla.

Dougla Poetics: Orientations of Indianness and Mixedness in Trinidad explores the meaning and negotiation of mixedness and the category of Dougla for a group of young Trinidadian women. Dr Kavyta Kay examines race and gender as lived and configured through discursive processes, through a raced gender performativity lens, deployed at the level of aesthetics, nation and culture. Drawing on conversations which took place across a range of religiously inflected and multicultural spaces, Kavyta focuses on these racialised, gendered identities as linked to socially constructed norms and practices, as well as what their talk reveals in terms of fluid and fixed notions of mixing.

Confronting both popular and scholarly debates on the relationships between raced identities, this book acts as a challenging corrective to mixed-race studies which often prioritise Black/white binaries in the Global North while excluding multiracial experiences across the Global South.

This book contains an Open Access chapter.

The integration of new technologies has opened unparalleled opportunities for shaping the discourse of marginalized groups and facilitating decentralized communication during crises. Yet, a divide exists between individual experiences and societal perceptions and how these narratives are portrayed and perceived in the media. These dynamics form the basis of exploration in Children and Youth in Armed Conflict: Responses, Resistance, and Portrayal in Media, the second of two volumes, offering a compelling exploration of how children and youth endure conflict and how their stories are told and retold in the public sphere, influencing advocacy, policymaking, and community responses worldwide.

The second volume examines diverse global perspectives of media use by post-war generations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia. It explores cybersecurity, AI, and their impact on children in conflict, analyzes narratives in art and online memorials, children’s agency in Ukraine and Syria, and investigates social media's role in youth activism in India and Israel-Palestine. Chapters highlight issues such as Boko Haram's impact on girls through media representation, social media narratives in the Israel-Palestine conflict, China's portrayal in films, and the analysis of children's art and poetry within conflict zones.

Acknowledging the crucial role of children and youth as catalysts for peace and justice in conflict and post-conflict settings, this is pathbreaking reading for scholars of childhood, youth, peace, and conflict.

The use of protective symbols, also known as apotropaic marks, is often part of folk magic traditions. The symbols appear in homes and churches and on personal items, and even graves, across Europe, Australia, and North America. The most common and well-known of these marks is the hexfoil, otherwise known as the daisy wheel, witch hex, or rosette. Hexfoils have a history of use for personal protection and were both intentionally carved and graffitied into church pews and walls, bed frames, doors, and gravestones. This research sheds light on the use of this historic symbol to protect the bodies and souls of the deceased, across several thousand years and multiple countries.

Interest in true crime as a form of popular entertainment has sky-rocketed in recent years. Drawing on this current popularity and its significance in the context of digital culture, Gender, True Crime and Criminology challenges traditional definitions of the genre, expanding representations of victimhood and how we understand true crime audiences in gendered terms.

Tackling male consumption of true crime and exploring texts which might appeal to men as consumers, Louise Wattis reveals a new opportunity to analyse representations of masculinity, class and violence, as well as how male audiences engage with cultural portrayals of these violent subjects. Embracing the breadth of the true crime genre, including features such as online engagement, sexual violence and the figure of the murdered woman, chapters critically analyse themes of gender, masculinity, race and class, as well as their representations in victim/survivor-centred documentaries. Situating wider debates within the renewed mainstream focus on violence against women, chapters also raise timely questions around ethics and the nature of victim visibility.

Recognising the value of popular criminology as an academic resource, this is a much-needed text for advancing contemporaneous debates around the importance and diversity of true crime.

This incisive intellectual history of Japanese social science from the 1890s to the present day considers the various forms of modernity that the processes of “development” or “rationalization” have engendered and the role social scientists have played in their emergence. Andrew E. Barshay argues that Japan, together with Germany and pre- revolutionary Russia, represented forms of “developmental alienation” from the Atlantic Rim symptomatic of late-emerging empires. Neither members nor colonies of the Atlantic Rim, these were independent national societies whose cultural self-image was inescapably marked by a sense of difference from the ostensibly advanced societies that provided the late-comers with the institutional models they sought to follow— or reject. Building on a historical overview of major Japanese trends, Barshay focuses on two of the most powerful streams of Japanese social science, one associated with Marxism, the other with Modernism (kindaishugi), whose most representative figure is the late Maruyama Masao. Demonstrating that a sense of developmental alienation shaped the thinking of social scientists in both streams, the author argues that they together provided Japanese social science—and indeed the wider society itself—with moments of shared self-understanding. The book ends with a question for others to answer: if the condition of developmental alienation in Japan has been resolved, what is the purpose and orientation of social science now?

RUS

В своей книге Эндрю Баршай представляет исторический обзор основных японских социологических тенденций с 1890-х годов до наших дней и рассматривает два наиболее мощных течения японской социальной науки. Одно из них связано с марксизмом, а другое — с модернизмом (киндайсюги). Демонстрируя, как чувство отчуждения японцев от стран Атлантического кольца формировало мышление социологов обоих течений, автор утверждает, что, несмотря на все различия, они придали японской социальной науке единство и общее самопонимание.

Human movement and mobility are at an all-time high, making it more important than ever to understand how discourses around migration shape and influence individuals and the socioeconomic conditions of the countries they both inhabit and leave behind.

Featuring both intercontinental and intracontinental perspectives, authors Kunle Musbaudeen Oparinde and Rodwell Makombe present new, much-needed data from the African continent in terms of how discourses around migration are socially constructed in Africa and how this compares globally. Collected from social media and online platforms, this data spotlights the everyday realities of Nigerians and Zimbabweans, and by extension many Africans, in their quest to relocate. Unpacking reasons for migration, as well as the dominant discourses post-migration, the authors analyse the inherent feelings of migrants, potential migrants, unwilling but forced migrants and those who have chosen to remain in their countries despite harsh socioeconomic realities.

Examining this pressing field of study in an underexplored regional context, Social Constructions of Migration in Nigeria and Zimbabwe takes a refreshing new angle to deepen our understanding around the causes and effects of migration.

Bringing together leading as well as emerging scholars involved in research on sport and body, this volume of Research in the Sociology of Sport invokes the postcolonial sporting body to understand the long history of contemporary practices of play as well as their renewed, re-charged and re-signified animation within new conditions and contexts.

Responding to an ongoing critical need for decolonisation in and through academic work related to sport in postcolonial nation-states, the dual focus of the collection is to unite a dwindling and often opaque body of scholarship on post-coloniality with the robust, exciting and cutting-edge work on the body in order to illuminate the challenges of sport studies in particular contexts and geographies, as well as possibilities for the future.

Rooted in the belief that scholarship discussing postcolonial sporting bodies has a central role in the shaping of future policies and practices, The Postcolonial Sporting Body occupies the meeting point between post-coloniality, sport and body to consider the future not only of sport, but of global politics and identity in a world striving towards greater equity and decolonisation.

Recent debates regarding abortion law in the US, China, and many EU countries, the rise of far-right politics, and conservatist and extremist movements indicate elevated threats for women rights and the LGBTQ community in a global context. At the same time, ‘#Metoo’ movements were structured through online platform monopolies. In Future Feminisms, female academics from around the globe critically discuss the contemporary postfeminist media culture and bring different stories together to provide opportunities to imagine a connected feminist future.

Future Feminisms is an interdisciplinary exploration of the contemporary experiences of women within three different contexts - the private, public, and online spheres. Chapters explore women’s experiences of insecurity, instability and change, migration, and diaspora as experienced in both physical and digital communication environments. The diversity of the topics and the thought-provoking chapters are divided into the three sections of ‘Gender, Migration, and Decolonization’, ‘Digital Gender Activism’, and ‘Motherhood, Home, and Work’.

The juxtaposition of how women experience technology, digital media, activism, and feminism is explored through performative practices, including digital, thereby providing an innovative approach in relation to the interplay between political action, the body and artistic works.

Advances in computer science, artificial intelligence and data management have made engineering a dynamic and rapidly expanding industry. But have these advances enabled the manifestation of wrongdoing? If so, what can we do to counter this?

The Ethics Gap in the Engineering of the Future challenges readers to think about our moral compasses and the multifaceted impact of technology on our everyday lives. Reshaping engineering ethics by considering the ‘colonization of lifeworld’ by technology and AI-based systems, contributors question human ontology, the cultural status quo and the future of modern civilization. Setting moral reflection at the core of both the engineer's professional practice and the user’s personal responsibility, the chapters address the moral implications of biotechnology and artificial intelligence, the ethical challenges of regulation and digital governance and the ethics of space exploration. Offering visionary case studies, authors explore issues such as privacy, regulation, inequality, social exclusion/inclusion, human judgment, decision-making, freedom, legitimacy, responsibility, safety and other ethical issues in engineering.

Challenging philosophers, academics, engineers, researchers, educators and scholars to prioritise these moral quandaries before it’s too late, this is an insightful look into engineering ethics and the technology of tomorrow.

Consumption studies are underrated in the social sciences. Drawing specific attention to this need for further analysis, this latest volume of Comparative Social Research presents a rich collection of chapters offering an up-to-date view of the sociology of consumption.

Providing a theoretically informed discussion of the specificities of sociology of consumption, Consumers and Consumption in Comparison focuses on three main approaches: Consumption and social inequality; Consumption and gender; and Consumption and social movements.

With chapters covering consumer collective action, health and food consumption, sustainable consumption, the cost-of-living crises, gendered online play, and more, this is compelling read for scholars across the social sciences interested in a comparative view of consumers and consumptions.

Since the Age of Enlightenment, Black bodies have been sites of trauma. Drawing on anti-colonial theory, From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter interrogates how this has shaped understandings of Black life, Black trauma and Black responses to trauma within psychiatry and other mental health professions.

Focusing on the impact of racism on the mental health of Black communities in Canada, the UK and the US, author Ingrid R.G. Waldron examines the structural inequities that have contributed to the legacy of racial trauma in Black communities. Drawing on existing literature, as well as the voices of Black Canadians who participated in recent studies conducted by the author, Waldron uses an intersectional analysis to pinpoint how the intersections of race, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age and citizenship status shape experiences of racial trauma, mental illness and help-seeking in Black communities. Tracing the ideological representations of Black people within psychiatric and other mental health institutions that influence the diagnoses applied to them, chapters also highlight the beliefs and perceptions Black communities hold about mental health and help-seeking.

A timely challenge to the colonial and imperial legacy of psychiatry, From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter demonstrates how the politics of race and psychiatric diagnosis collide when diagnosing Black people and what this means for our current public health crisis.

Challenging the Northern-centric approach that has dominated the literature on punishment-and-society, Punishment in Latin America draws on innovative theoretical perspectives to make sense of punishment, penal trends, institutions and practices in peripheral settings, taking Latin American countries as its case studies.

Engaging with both historical trajectories and recent theoretical perspectives, contributors examine different aspects and dimensions of punishment and prison, identifying specific dynamics and features in a truly South-South conversation. Taking part in contemporary movements to decolonize, southernize and democratize criminology, the chapters focus on in-depth case studies covering Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, as well as wider, comparative analyses that go beyond country-specific contexts. Placing a critical emphasis on the insufficiency of Northern concepts and arguments to make sense of punishment within Latin America, the authors engage with these theories while at the same time avoiding a sense of subordination or dependency disconnected from their own contexts.

Bringing together researchers working across Latin American, European and North American universities, this collection advances the southernization and decolonization of this field of knowledge.

Few studies have explored the lives of imprisoned transgender women and none consider non-binary prisoners. Transgender and Non-Binary Prisoners’ Experiences in England and Wales fills this gap by delving deep into their ordeals.

Drawing on a three-year project of correspondence with nineteen trans women and four non-binary persons incarcerated in men’s prisons as well as a critical analysis of the Prison Service policies and practices, Olga Suhomlinova and Saoirse Caitlin O’Shea bring to light the realities of these lives, in the prisoners’ own words. Rich in inimitable detail, Transgender and Non-Binary Prisoners’ Experiences in England and Wales documents the struggles against harassment and abuse, the challenges of access to transgender healthcare and feminine items, and the complexities of relationships with other prisoners and staff, revealing the strength of character required to maintain individual identity in a totalising institution. The participants’ introductions and “Life in the Day” essays also offer a close-up of what it takes to be a trans prisoner.

Steeped in unique empirical evidence, Transgender and Non-Binary Prisoners’ Experiences in England and Wales acts as a timely intervention, voicing the concerns of these marginalised groups and suggesting ways to improve their conditions of confinement. The book is of interest to students and scholars in penology/criminology, sociology, and gender/transgender studies, prison policy makers and practitioners, and human rights activists.

For nearly twenty years, Glasgow has been coined Europe’s murder capital, and identified as having the continent’s highest drug harms. The Contemporary History of Drug-Based Organised Crime in Scotland examines converging multiple complexities that contributed to Scotland’s criminal modus operandi concentrating on drug-based organised crime.

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland. The region is likewise responsible for a disproportionate number of the country’s crimes. Police Scotland’s serious organised crime unit has identified as much as 70% of the country’s organised criminal activity to occur within or have ties to the region. A significant amount of these crimes is both directly and indirectly related to the illegal supply of drugs. Numerous law enforcement and political and public responses have been undertaken to reduce violence, organised crime, and drug harms in Scotland. Drawing on key case studies, McLean, Holligan and Pugh shed light on the historical factors that contributed to the embedding of violence, gangs, and drugs into the social fabric of the region.

The Contemporary History of Drug-Based Organised Crime in Scotland provides insight into the development of drug based organised crime in the region, and how this process has subsequently shaped the wider criminal landscape of Scotland.

Tired of reading negative and disparaging remarks directed at Indigenous people of Winnipeg in the press and social media, artist KC Adams created a photo series that presented another perspective. Called “Perception Photo Series,” it confronted common stereotypes of First Nation, Inuit and Métis people to illustrate a more contemporary truthful story. First appearing on billboards, in storefronts, in bus shelters, and projected onto Winnipeg’s downtown buildings, Adams’s stunning photographs now appear in the book, Perception: A Photo Series.  Meant to challenge the culture of apathy and willful ignorance about Indigenous issues, Adams hopes to unite readers in the fight against prejudice of all kinds.

Perception is one title in The Debwe Series.

Given China’s investment in sport, success in international competitions and recent hosting of high-profile events, there is no doubt the country is a rising power in the realm of global sports. Encouraging readers in other international settings to consider this topic from their own cultural contexts, this collection addresses the question of why China has so tightly embraced modern sport. How does this interact with China’s mediated ability to play and compete with the west?

The first English collation of works from both established and emerging sociological scholars on sport culture in China, this collection analyses how sport is seen as a channel of observing global, political and economic challenges. Bringing a foundational Chinese context to each chapter, contributors analyse topics including traditional sports, nationalism, football fandoms, commercialisation and esports. Offering critical insights into ‘glocalized’ sporting cultures and political hegemony, authors dig deep into common sociological theories to address issues around mediating power and China’s sport culture. Examining the relationship between sport and social transformation, contributors also reflect on how we might research the sociology of sport in China going forward.

Exploring how sporting cultures, practices and attitudes differ across cultural settings, The Mediating Power of Sport demonstrates how China has created new forms of influence through sport and considers what this might mean for how we think about soft power, international prowess and the deeper role sport can play on the world stage.

Popular discourse around British Muslims has often been dominated by a focus on Muslim women and their sartorial choices, particularly the hijab and niqab. This book takes a different angle and focuses on Muslim men, examining how factors like the global war on terror influenced and changed their sartorial choices and use of language. The book denaturalises the ubiquitous and deeply problematic security lens through which knowledge of Muslims has been produced in the past two decades.

British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End offers an alternative reading of these communities and how their political subjectivities emerge. Drawing on historical events, field research and existing academic work, the book aims to address the multiple ways British Bangladeshi Muslim men and women create their relationship with dress and language. This is the first book to empirically examine how dress and language shape the identities of British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End, using in-depth analysis useful for anyone interested in the study of British Muslims broadly. While the book focuses on a specific Muslim community, the emerging themes demonstrate the interconnectedness of Muslims locally and globally and how they manifest their identities through dress and language.

Cover illustration by Waheeda Rahman-Mair: prints available at https://www.waheeda.co.uk/store

International laws governing the conduct of war and the behaviour of soldiers on the field of battle is a topic of strong academic and legal interest. Moving beyond contemporary work on the laws of war that is legalistic in nature, A Socio-Legal History of the Laws of War demonstrates how the content and application of these laws are driven as much by cultural worldview and normative practice, as by legal principle.

Tying the story of the development of the laws of war to key structural and cultural changes occurring within the societies that develop and adopt such behavioural proscriptions, this history, the second of two volumes, examines the emergence of international law and legal orders whereby warfare and its conduct begin moving out of the realm of cultural norms and into a quasi-legal space, where specific principles of international law in general, and laws of war in particular, become more precisely articulated, formalized, and codified.

Examining the evolution and multiplication of laws constraining how warfare is waged from the founding of the United Nations and the formalized creation of the Geneva Conventions to the contemporary era, the utilization of ad hoc tribunals in the post-war period, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court in the early 21st century, Mullins provides a cogent understanding of how this historical moment developed and what paths potential lie ahead.

sambo is racialised naming, deeply rooted in the colonial legacies of white European settler colonial societies globally, including Australia, the Caribbean, South Africa, the USA, Canada and Latin America.

This second edition of Decolonising Sambo: Transculturation, Fungibility and Black and People of Colour Futurity develops further the Black decolonial feminist theoretical framing of sambo as a white settler colonial psyche artefact by incorporating 'whiteness as property' into the critical theories used to analyse its construction. Tate examines manifestations of sambo in different contexts, including Canada’s Prairies, while shedding light on the persistence of racist caricature across the Americas, Europe and beyond. The work offers an analysis of Indigenous Australians’ experiences within the framework of global Black liberation thought and continuing dispossession. It also discusses the ongoing Caribbean Reparations movement. Throughout, the text underscores the enduring significance of sambo as colonial psychic remainder amidst broader discussions on global anti-Blackness, particularly in the aftermath of the #BLM movement.

Drawing from historical, cultural and socio-political perspectives, this new edition provides scholars and students with insights into anti-Black racial formations, colonial power structures and critical theories, enriching discussions on race, identity and decolonisation across academic disciplines.

When you think of a person with dwarfism, what image springs to mind? Now, hold onto that image and consider how you are expected to respond to it. Is your response laughter, amusement or maybe curiosity? Do you even see them as human, or just a novelty for the entertainment of others?

Rectifying the lack of representation of dwarfism in Disability arts, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy brings together leading activists, both academics and arts practitioners with lived experience of dwarfism, to raise awareness within academia and society and challenge ableist representations of people with dwarfism. Raising a collective voice, authors offer their thoughts, experiences and, most importantly, recommendations for improving representations of dwarfism and counteracting ableist attitudes both in popular media and in everyday life.

Disputing derogatory representations of this condition, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy opens up a new avenue for disability studies, encouraging advocacy and challenging able-bodied readers to re-examine their perceptions of this community.

This book presents a socio-legal enquiry into the civic marginalisation of Roma in Europe. Instead of looking only at Roma’s position as migrants, an ethnic minority or a socio-economically disadvantage group, it considers them as European citizens, questioning why they are typically used to describe exceptionalities of citizenship in developed liberal democracies rather than as evidence for how problematic the conceptualisation of citizenship is at its core. Developing novel theoretical concepts, the book investigates a variety of topics including migration and free movement, statelessness and school segregation. It argues that while Roma are unique as a minority, the treatment that marginalises them is not. This is demonstrated by comparing their position to that of other marginalised minorities around the globe.

An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

The debut work of non-fiction by award-winning slam poet Vanessa Kisuule, this is a love letter to the musicians we adore and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship

Why do famous musicians mean so much to us? How does the pop culture industry both mirror and magnify the worst aspects of human nature? Why is it so hard to accept that the people we love, famous or not, can be capable of doing terrible things?

As conversations about abuse perpetrated by public figures become louder and from her very personal perspective as a Michael Jackson obsessive, Kisuule examines the nuances of 'fandom': of celebrities as symbols and fantasies, of child stars and power imbalances. Neverland invites us to question the dangers of idolising and villainising individuals and asks us to be unafraid of scrutinising the ugly and contradictory aspects of these issues. It also holds space for the joy we all get from music and explores ways we can preserve this.

With verve and incisiveness, Kisuule explores her own experience of being a mega fan and the evergreen question of whether we can, or should, separate the art from the artist. With references to R Kelly, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and other famous figures, this is both a love letter to the musicians we adore and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship.

Uncut explores the significance of the foreskin in contemporary culture

Uncut: A Cultural Analysis of the Foreskin takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the foreskin and its position in contemporary Anglo-American culture. From language to art, from religion to medicine and public health, Uncut is a provocative book that asks us to ask ourselves what we know and don’t know about this seemingly small piece of skin.

The “uncut” penis is viewed by some as attractive or erotic, and by others as ugly or undesirable. Secular parents of male infants worry about whether or not the foreskin should be removed so their little boy can grow up to “look like dad” or to avoid imagined bullying in the locker room. Medical experts and public health organizations argue back and forth about whether circumcision is medically necessary, while “intactivists” advocate that removing an infant’s foreskin without their consent is mutilation.

Drawing on all these threads, Jonathan A. Allan leads us through the history and cultural construction of the foreskin—from Michelangelo’s David to parenting manuals, from nineteenth-century panic over masturbation to foreskin restoration—to ultimately ask: what is the future of the foreskin?

The Covid-19 pandemic both popularized and politicized the designation of essential work. Interrogating the dialectics of essential work, this volume of Research in the Sociology of Work presents original research that explores the essentiality of work and highlights the experiences of essential workers during the pandemic, drawing on empirical studies in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Demonstrating an enduring struggle for recognition and dignity, as well as for revaluing and materially rewarding essential work, contributors examine the emotional labour involved in gendered care work, the impact of COVID-19 on residential care work, the politics of essentiality and the diversity and intersectional inequality of essential workforces. The final chapters are the first of a new recurring section spotlighting ethnography by presenting both new empirical research and in-depth reviews of extant contributions. Raising pressing questions about the essence of work and its place in contemporary society, Essentiality of Work inspires new debates about the centrality of the work experience and how labour is understood in modern life both for those undertaking work as well as those who benefit.

This special issue of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society contributes to a nuanced understanding and exploration of state of exception and emergency rule in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first chapter plunges us into the European perspective on the state of exception and emergency rule, demonstrating how, as the pandemic unfolded, Europe grappled with redefining its legal and political boundaries. Iraklis Ioannidis, in his probing exploration, questions whether the pandemic truly constituted an exceptional event. Marin Beroš invites us to contemplate “sequestered cosmopolitanism”, unraveling the tensions between cosmopolitan ideals and the realities of seclusion as borders closed and global connections. João Cruz Ribeiro’s meticulous analysis focuses on Portugal, a nation navigating the pandemic while safeguarding democratic checks and balances. Tatu Hyttinen and Saila Heinikoski turn their gaze towards Finland and its cautious approach, inviting us to reflect on the trade-offs between safety and liberty. Finally, José María Rosales embarks on a comparative journey, contrasting Germany and Spain’s divergent constitutional responses to emergency rule during the pandemic.

A glimpse into the complexities of governance during extraordinary times, this collection bolsters our understanding of exceptional circumstances, constitutional choices, and the fragile dynamic between safeguarding public health and upholding democratic norms.

Focusing on understanding business offenders through an exploration of workplace deviance and crime, this book closely examines a number of illustrative contemporary case studies and underpins the analysis of original comparative fieldwork, with an interdisciplinary approach, which informs, develops, and augments the existing literature on white-collar criminology. The book contends, inter alia, that the traditional centrality of the individual actor within narratives of white-collar offending has receded somewhat in recent years despite being a founding artifact within its late twentieth- century discourse, and that therefore a detailed reassessment is overdue.

Engaging with critical gaps and building on existing knowledge, this volume of Research in the Sociology of Sport brings to the fore new stories from across Oceania, extending the horizon of regional sport scholarship beyond the Global North and tackling the ever-critical question of global disparity and sport.

Taking stock of existing knowledge and sociological relevance, contributors reveal the latest research on the sports and issues most widely studied in the region to date, such as sport migrations in rugby unions and sport for development. Presenting insights from emerging research on indigenous or ‘traditional’ sports such as indigenised cricket, outrigger canoeing and indigenous physical activities/games, chapters fill a lacuna in existing scholarship with a further emphasis on women’s football, minority ethnic women’s engagement with sport/exercise and ethnic politics in sport.

Positioning these narratives as fundamental to the central project of the sociology of sport, rather than simply an exercise in inclusion, Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport offers an exciting opportunity for sociology of sport scholars to widen the scope of their research in search of fuller understandings of the forms, meanings, dynamics and impacts of sport for Pacific peoples.

Das 21. Jahrhundert muss als ein Zeitalter des Spiels verstanden werden. Dies zum einen, da die Kulturtechnik des Spiels alle anderen Medientechniken inkludiert, zum anderen, da das Avancieren der Computerspiele zum neuen Leitmedium und die Ausweitung des Spiels in die militärische und politische Sphäre als Zeichen einer globalen Radikalisierung des Spiels interpretiert werden kann. Das Spiel mit dem genetischen Code könnte darüber hinaus sogar dazu führen, dass der Mensch, verstanden als Homo Ludens, in naher Zukunft von der Weltbühne verschwindet.

Um den existentiellen Ernst des Spiels zu verstehen, ist es nicht mit einer Definition des Spiels getan. Vielmehr werden aus der Gegenüberstellung von Videospielklassikern mit theoretischen Texten von u.a. Freud und Wittgenstein Vorschläge entwickelt, wie man das Spiel in seinen mannigfaltigen und oft maskierten Erscheinungsformen identifizieren kann. Schrift und Sprache werden so in ihrer welterschließenden Funktion als spielförmig erkennbar, zugleich werden Termini wie Ludum mundi, Ludisches A priori, Ludic (Re-) Turn und Ludische Probabilistik als Instrumente der Analyse eingeführt, die in eine Definition des Spielakts münden.

Für Gamer und Politiker, Candycrush-Süchtige und Unternehmer – der Mensch als Homo Ludens kann sich entscheiden: Entweder er spielt, oder er wird gespielt.

The exploration of masculinity in celebrity culture sheds light on the complex interplay between gender norms, media influence, and the construction of modern masculinity. Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal, and Barry Keoghan whose unique approach to fashion, style, and self-presentation challenges traditional notions of masculinity, provide fruitful subject matter for deep analysis.

In Fashionable Queerness: Straight Appropriation of Queer Fashion, author Angelos Bollas weaves together gender theory, sexuality studies, and celebrity research to create fresh pathways of understanding. Through this nuanced exploration, Bollas focuses on the intricate connections between gender dynamics, sexuality, and celebrity culture. From the red carpet to glossy fashion magazines, Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal, and Barry Keoghan, rising stars known for their acting prowess, have become icons for their distinctive fashion choices and their blurring of gender boundaries. By analyzing how Chalamet, Mescal, and Keoghan navigate the norms of celebrity culture, Bollas provides insights into how masculinity is both reinforced and transformed in the public eye. Bollas unravels the complexities of how gender and sexual identity and representation intersect with the construction of celebrity personas.

Examining representations of masculinity in celebrity culture and uncovering broader societal implications related to gender norms, this is valuable reading for scholars of Gender Studies, Media and Communication, Fashion and Style, Cultural Capital Theory, and Queer Studies

Paternal, patriarchal, and fraternal concepts, metaphors, and images have long dominated thinking about politics. But the political, Gil Anidjar argues, has always been maternal.

In a series of finely woven meditations on slavery, sovereignty, and the social contract, this book places mothers and mothering at the crux of political thought. Anidjar identifies a maternal sovereignty and a maternal contract, showing that without motherhood, there could be no constitution, preservation, or reproduction of collective existence in time. And maternal power is also power over life and death, as he reveals through a nuanced consideration of abortion.

Through the concept of the maternal, Anidjar offers new insights into abiding sources from the Bible and ancient Greece to classical and modern political philosophy—the story of Hagar and Sarah, Oedipus and his two mothers, Hegel’s dialectic of master and slave—reinterpreted in light of Black and feminist criticism, psychoanalytic theory, and autotheoretical reflection. Elegantly written and provocative, On the Sovereignty of Mothers offers the maternal as a new frame for understanding the political order.

How does automation affect us, our environment, and our imaginations? What actions should we take in response to automation? Beyond grand narratives and technology-driven visions of the future, what more can automation offer?

With these questions in mind, The De Gruyter Handbook of Automated Futures provides a framework for thinking about and implementing automation differently. It consolidates automated futures as an inter- and transdisciplinary research field, embedding the imaginaries, interactions, and impacts of automation technology within their social, historical, societal, cultural, and political contexts. Promoting a critical yet constructive and engaging agenda, the handbook invites readers to collaborate with rather than resist automation agendas. It does so by pushing the agenda for social science, humanities and design beyond merely assessing and evaluating existing technologies. Instead, the handbook demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences are essential to the design and governance of sustainable sociotechnical systems. Methodologically, the handbook is underpinned by a pedagogical approach to staging co-learning and co-creation of automated futures with, rather than simply for, people. In this way, the handbook encourages readers to explore new and alternative modes of research, fostering a deeper engagement with the evolving landscape of automation.