Series Editor: Anthony Elliott, University of South Australia
The Key Ideas series explores major concepts and pressing issues and debates in sociology and the social sciences, from class and sexuality to racism and consumption. The accessible guides offer concise and accessible overviews of core and cutting-edge topics, including class, sexuality, racism and consumption. Each volume is written by a leading expert in the field and uses the latest research findings and cutting-edge approaches from the social sciences to offer critical perspectives and lively, and starkly original interpretations of issues. With new editions redesigned to engage with major global challenges, they offer an assessment of the relevance of ideas for today’s world. Books in the Key Ideas series are perfect primers and pre-course reading for students of sociology, political science, economics, psychology, philosophy, and geography, as well as approachable introductions to contemporary issues for the interested general reader.
To discuss a proposal, please contact the commissioning editor Helen Pritt ([email protected]).
By David Bohm
December 01, 1994
In Thought as a System, best-selling author David Bohm takes as his subject the role of thought and knowledge at every level of human affairs, from our private reflections on personal identity to our collective efforts to fashion a tolerable civilization. Elaborating upon principles of the ...
By Stephen Edgell
October 20, 1993
This succinct introductory text argues that class remains a key concept in sociology. The author examines the classic contributions of Marx and Weber and the recent works of Wright and Goldthorpe. The book provides students with an accessible review of class structures, social mobility, inequality...
By Matthias Gross, Rüdiger Mautz
October 12, 2015
Renewable Energy normally refers to usable energy sources that are an alternative to fuel sources, but without the negatively evaluated consequences of the replaced fuels. Although energy issues have a long tradition in sociology and other social sciences, it may now be high time to conceptualize ...
By Chris Jenks
February 27, 2015
In this book Chris Jenks looks at what the ways in which we construct our image of childhood can tell us about ourselves. After a general discussion of the social construction of childhood, the book is structured around three examples of the way the image of the child is played out in society: the...
By Nico Stehr, Reiner Grundmann
November 10, 2014
In this book, Stehr and Grundmann outline the theoretical significance and practical importance of the growing stratum of experts, counsellors and advisors in contemporary society, and claim that the growing spectrum of knowledge-based occupations has led to the pluralisation of expertise. As ...
By Richard Jenkins
May 07, 2014
Social Identity explains how identification, seen as a social process, works: individually, interactionally and institutionally. Building on the international success of previous editions, this fourth edition offers a concise, comprehensive and readable critical introduction to social science ...
By Keith Faulks
November 06, 2000
This book presents a clear and comprehensive overview of citizenship, which has become one of the most important political ideas of our time. The author, an experienced textbook writer and teacher, uses a postmodern theory of citizenship to ask topical questions as:* Can citizenship exist without ...
By Gerard Delanty
March 28, 2003
The increasing individualism of modern Western society has been accompanied by an enduring nostalgia for the idea of community as a source of security and belonging and, in recent years, as an alternative to the state as a basis for politics.Gerard Delanty begins this stimulating introduction to ...
By Malcolm Waters
January 16, 2001
The constraints of geography are shrinking and the world is becoming a single place. Globalization and the global society are increasingly occupying the centre of sociological debates. Widely discussed by journalists and a key goal for many businesses, globalization has become a buzz-word in recent...
By David Bohm
September 09, 2005
In this book Chris Jenks looks at what the ways in which we construct our image of childhood can tell us about ourselves. After a general discussion of the social construction of childhood, the book is structured around three examples of the way the image of the child is played out in society: the...
By David Chaney
October 21, 1996
In the modern world our lifestyle helps to define our attitudes and values as well as show our wealth and social position. This clearly written introduction to the concept of lifestyle offers a concise guide to how the term is used in sociological accounts to refer to this modern social form. ...
By Anthony Woodiwiss
May 19, 2005
Are human rights part of the problem or part of the solution in the current 'clash of civilizations'? Drawing on a hitherto neglected body of work in classical social theory and combining it with ideas derived from Barrington Moore, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, Woodiwiss poses and answers the...