Essays from international contributors on the experiences of reading: what reading feels like, how it makes people feel, how people read, under what kinds of conditions, what drives people to read, and conversely, what gets individual and groups of readers stopped in their pursuit of the rewards of reading.

Under present social conditions, neither social theorists nor political scientists can afford to ignore one another. This book is a clear, structured account of the relationship between politics and social theory, examining both the political content of social theory, and how social theory has illuminated our understanding of politics.

Explores the historical experiences and needs out of which the new radicalism arose. Focussing on eighteenth-century Paris, a time and place in which a modern form of society was just coming into its own, this book shows how the ideal of authenticity - of a self that could organize the individual's energy and direct it toward his own happiness.

Many of us may have participated in grassroots groups, changing the world in small and big ways, from building playgrounds and feeding the homeless, to protesting wars and ending legal segregation.

Aims to show that populism has suffered from being considered, usually in relation to particular contexts, and has therefore become a rather fractured and elusive concept. This book also seeks to provide a different definition of populism, a survey of other definitions and perspectives, and a guide to populist politics around the world.

Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis helps analyse how speakers construct their gendered identities within a complex web of power relations. Demonstrated here through a study of teenagers' conversation in class and senior managers' discussions in business meetings, it challenges the view that females are disempowered in mixed-sex settings.

Poverty remains one of the most urgent issues of our time. In this stimulating new textbook, Ruth Lister introduces students to the meaning and experience of poverty in the contemporary world.

Britain is one of the world's richest countries, yet the divide between rich and poor is stark. Some reports suggest that one in five in the UK live in poverty. Shildrick, an expert in inequality issues, gets to the core of Britain's poverty problem showing how social structures, and political and policy decisions are at the heart of the issue.

A fascinating and controversial study of the organization of our society, this well-known volume depicts the style and substance of the men and women at the pinnacles of fame, power, and fortune in mid-1900s America. Alan Wolfe's astute afterword to this new edition shows how Mills was a pioneer in helping readers think about the society they have and the society they might want.

This book is a detailed, empirical investigation into the question of whether academic social research can compete with the commercial sector, with its new technologies and big data, in order to classify, profile, and understand us.

This book, offering in-depth analysis from a native scholar, is a critical examination of the world-renowned community Auroville located in Tamil Nadu, South India as a site of spiritually prefigurative utopian practice.

Illustrates the stages of the ethnographic process from inception through the emergence of a focus, and toward a subsequent formalization of methods and analysis. This book also illustrates several approaches designed to reconcile the contradictory demands of the scientific process and human behavior.

An authoritative overview of the theoretical and methodological problems of the study of professions. Develops a systematic ideal type for professionalism based on fundamental concepts of the sociology of work.

The focus of this book is on three nineteenth century theorists, Henri Saint Simon, August Comte and Herbert Spencer. It builds a clear understanding of important concepts of this era, and provides a social and historical context to the formative ideas of the theorists.

Widely considered as the most informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism, this remarkable volume holds its own as one of the most significant books of the twentieth century.

This book explores the possibility of drawing upon a punk ethos to inspire and invigorate sociology. It uses punk to think creatively about what sociology is and how it might be conducted and aims to fire the sociological imaginations of sociologists at any stage of their careers, from new students to established professors.

This book provides a guide to qualitative research methods in the multidisciplinary field of physical culture. Developing an approach based on the '7 Ps' of research, this text navigates a pathway through the research process that will be invaluable as a teaching tool and to experienced and inexperienced researchers alike.

Brings together research providing perspectives on the status quo and challenges for the future of Queer Theory/Queer Studies. In this title, the chapters offer analyses and insights into changing academic and public discourses on sexual and gender normativities within a wide multi- and trans-disciplinary scope.

Developing the intellectual project initiated in Queering Paradigms, this volume extends queer theorizing in challenging new directions and uses queer insights to explore, trouble, and interrogate the social, political, and intellectual agendas that pervade (and are often taken for granted within) public discourses and academic disciplines.