Sociology of Culture Books

New and Published Books

1. Celebrity Society

   By Robert van Krieken

   On television, in magazines and books, on the internet and in films, celebrities of all sorts seem to monopolize our attention. Celebrity Society brings new dimensions to our understanding of celebrity, capturing the way in which the figure of ‘the celebrity’ is bound up with the emergence of...

   Published May 27th 2012 by Routledge
2. Analysing Media Discourses

   Edited by John E. Richardson, Joseph D. Burridge

   The continual growth in the significance of mass-mediated communication makes it essential that we are able to reflect upon and critically appreciate the semiotic processes that are involved in their impact upon social and cultural life. This edited collection showcases a range of diverse...

   Published May 16th 2012 by Routledge
3. Cultural Technologies

   The Shaping of Culture in Media and Society

   Edited by Göran Bolin

   Series: Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies

   The essays in this volume discuss both the culture of technology that we live in today, and culture as technology. Within the chapters of the book cultures of technology and cultural technologies are discussed, focussing on a variety of examples, from varied national contexts. The book brings...

   Published May 15th 2012 by Routledge
4. Gambling, Freedom and Democracy

   By Peter J. Adams

   Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought

   As a consequence of the rapid proliferation of commercial gambling in Western-style democracies, governments and communities are encountering a complex array of economic, social and cultural harms associated with this expansion. This book focuses specifically on harms to democratic systems. It...

   Published May 14th 2012 by Routledge
5. Olympic Aspirations

   Realised and Unrealised

   Edited by J. A. Mangan, Mark Dyreson

   Series: Sport in the Global Society - Historical perspectives

   Olympic Aspirations: Realised and Unrealised surveys more than a century of the Olympic Movement’s promotion of Olympic ideals internationally. The idea for Olympic Aspirations emerged at the world-renowned annual Beijing Academic Forum just months after the city hosted the impressive 2008 Beijing...

   Published May 7th 2012 by Routledge
6. The Gay Games

   A History

   By Caroline Symons

   Series: Routledge Critical Studies in Sport

   The Gay Games is an important piece of new social history, examining one of the largest sporting, cultural and human rights events in the world. Since their inception in 1980, the Gay Games have developed into a multi-million dollar mega-event, engaging people from all continents, while the...

   Published April 30th 2012 by Routledge
7. City, Street and Citizen

   The Measure of the Ordinary

   By Suzanne Hall

   Series: Routledge Advances in Ethnography

   How can we learn from a multicultural society if we don’t know how to recognise it? The contemporary city is more than ever a space for the intense convergence of diverse individuals who shift in and out of its urban terrains. The city street is perhaps the most prosaic of the city’s public parts,...

   Published April 25th 2012 by Routledge
8. The Psychology and Politics of the Collective

   Groups, Crowds and Mass Identifications

   Edited by Ruth Parkin-Gounelas

   Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought

   What are the psychological factors in operation when we form groups or crowds, and how are these affected by socio-historical circumstances? History offers endless examples of different forms of human collectivity, both private and public, small-scale and large: from the primal horde to the modern...

   Published April 24th 2012 by Routledge
9. Handbook of Cultural Sociology

   Edited by John R. Hall, Laura Grindstaff, Ming-cheng Lo

   The Handbook of Cultural Sociology provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary scholarship in sociology and related disciplines focused on the complex relations of culture to social structures and everyday life. With sixty-five essays written by scholars from around the world, the book...

   Published April 18th 2012 by Routledge
10. Intentional Communities (Routledge Revivals)

    Ideology and Alienation in Communal Societies

    By Barry Shenker

    Some communities exist for tens, even hundreds, of years. Others short-lived. What, then, makes for communal 'success'? Bary Shenker, who lived on a Kibbutz for a number of years, compares the Hutterites, the Kibbutzim and therapeutic communities - and argues that there is no simple formula....

    Published April 15th 2012 by Routledge