Key Ideas
About the Book Series
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.ย With new editions redesigned to engage with major global challenges, they offer an assessment of the relevance of ideas for todayโs world.ย 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]).
Social Identity
4th Edition
By Richard Jenkins
May 06, 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 ...
Leisure
1st Edition
By Tony Blackshaw
February 12, 2010
No single introductory book has until now captured the range of thought appropriate for scrutinizing the idea of leisure. Beginning with a discussion of expressions in classical thought, etymological definitions and key leisure studies concepts, Blackshaw suggests that the idea abounds with ...
Transnationalism
1st Edition
By Steven Vertovec
March 27, 2009
'Transnationalism' refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of nation-states. This book surveys the broader meanings of transnationalism within the study of globalization before concentrating on migrant transnational practices. Each chapter ...
Cosmopolitanism
1st Edition
By Robert Fine
November 15, 2007
The idea of cosmopolitanism has informed some of the most important developments in current sociology. It has changed the way in which we think about a vast array of issues: the forces of globalization, the resurgence of nationalism, the future of political community in Europe, the role of ...
Childhood: Second edition
2nd Edition
By David Bohm
August 18, 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...
Human Rights
1st Edition
By Anthony Woodiwiss
February 24, 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...
Culture
2nd Edition
By Chris Jenks, Chris Jenks
September 23, 2004
Culture is a concept that has remained on the top of the agenda within the social sciences for two decades. It incites controversy and debate and always appears fresh. This book, updated throughout and with new sections on visual culture, urban culture and subcultures, argues that to understand the...
Racism
2nd Edition
By Robert Miles
June 19, 2003
This second edition brings the book up to date by looking at recent examples of racism, such as the war in the former Yugoslavia and the cases of Stephen Lawrence and Rodney King, and by considering Islamophobia in Western societies. It also looks more widely at recent developments in the debate....
Transgression
1st Edition
By Chris Jenks
March 27, 2003
Transgression is truly a key idea for our time. Society is created by constraint and boundaries, but as our culture is increasingly subject to uncertainty and flux we find it more and more difficult to determine where those boundaries lie. In this fast moving study, Chris Jenks ranges widely over ...
Old Age
1st Edition
By John Vincent
January 16, 2003
Recent decades have seen a fundamental change in the age structure of many western societies. In these societies it is now common for a fifth to a quarter of the population to be retired, for fewer babies to be born than is required to sustain the size of the population and for life expectancy to ...
The Virtual
1st Edition
By Rob Shields
November 28, 2002
This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies ...