Society & Politics

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where (read more)

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women's lives. Award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the impact this has on their health and well-being. (hide)

Examining the nature of relations between Iran and Palestine, this book investigates the relationship between state and authorities (read more)

Examining the nature of relations between Iran and Palestine, this book investigates the relationship between state and authorities in the Middle East. Analysing the connections of the Iranian revolutionary movements, both the Left and the Islamic camps' perspectives are scrutinized. To provide a historical background to the post-revolutionary period, the genealogy of pro-Palestinian sentiments before 1979 are traced additionally.

Published: 26 Jul 2019 (hide)

01/01/2016 -In late 2010, the wave of civil resistance known as the Arab Spring stunned the world as dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, (read more)

01/01/2016 -In late 2010, the wave of civil resistance known as the Arab Spring stunned the world as dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya were overthrown, while the regimes of Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen brutally suppressed their own revolutions. The Islamic political parties of Tunisia and Egypt have gained particular attention for their success in the national elections following the overthrow of their regimes, and similar electoral success has been seen in Morocco and is predicted throughout the Arab world and beyond in the broader Middle East and in Southeast Asia. While the opposition movements of the Arab Spring are distinctive, each has raised questions regarding equality, economic justice, democratic participation, and the relationship between Islam and democracy in their respective countries, such as: does democracy require a secular political regime? And are religious movements the most effective opponents of authoritarian secularist regimes?The argument that that Islamic political groups' participation in democratic processes is only a ruse to actually impose an anti-democratic theocracy once in power continues to be made, often by former political and economic elites and secularists who would prefer a secularist autocracy to a democracy in which religious parties might control the government.

In Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring, renowned Islamic Studies and History scholars John Esposito, Tamara Sonn, and John Voll examine these uprisings and the democratic process in the Muslim world, while also analyzing the larger relationship between religion and politics. Expanding upon issues initially raised by Esposito and Voll in the mid-1990s with Islam and Democracy, Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring applies a twenty-first century perspective to the question of whether or not Islam is "compatible" with democracy by redirecting the conversation towards a new politic of democracy that transcends both secular authoritarianism and Political Islam. (hide)

Issues in Political Theory provides a stimulating introduction to some of the key concepts, thinkers, and texts in political theory. (read more)

Issues in Political Theory provides a stimulating introduction to some of the key concepts, thinkers, and texts in political theory. Extended case studies at the end of each chapter show students how to examine a key political issue in light of the concepts explored in the chapter, while a range of additional learning features help students to check and develop their understanding, and approach learning materials beyond the text book. Clearly written chapters have been brought up to date with contemporary issues and literature, and the third edition introduces a new chapter on crime and punishment, and one on power, as well as a rewritten chapter on war and intervention.

A number of engaging new cases are featured in the text to demonstrate how theory can be used to examine important political issues. The title is supported by an Online Resource Centre with additional case studies to build students' confidence in using theory to shed light on key issues, and a suite of class activities/exercises and essay questions to provide lecturers with additional teaching materials. (hide)

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Do social media affect the (read more)

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens' lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert Danah Boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger and bullying. Ultimately, Boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers' ability to become informed, thoughtful and engaged citizens through their online interactions.

Yet despite an environment of rampant fear-mongering, Boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity. Boyd's conclusions are essential reading not only for parents, teachers and others who work with teens, but also for anyone interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society, culture and commerce in years to come. Offering insights gleaned from more than a decade of original fieldwork interviewing teenagers across the United States, Boyd concludes reassuringly that the kids are all right. (hide)

`An accomplished and intensely evocative memoir ... A journey of courage and determination ... Joining the Dots ...will become in (read more)

`An accomplished and intensely evocative memoir ... A journey of courage and determination ... Joining the Dots ...will become in time an integral part of our understanding of postwar Britain' Daniel Kynaston, Books of the Year, Observer How has Britain changed - politically, economically, socially and culturally - in the postwar era? Both lyrical and personal, social historian Juliet Gardiner's memoir Joining the Dots is the accessible and empowering living history of a mid-twentieth-century woman who grew into a world so different from the one she was born into. (hide)

'A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice' JON KRAKAUER 'A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching (read more)

'A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice' JON KRAKAUER 'A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching exploration of evil' KATE ATKINSON 'A fascinating accountof a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West' JOHN GRISHAM From the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattison, comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI's first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation.
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Movies like American Sniper and The Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service in a war zone. The moral (read more)

Movies like American Sniper and The Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service in a war zone. The moral dimensions of their psychological injuries-guilt, shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged-elude conventional treatment. Georgetown philosophy professor Nancy Sherman turns her focus to these moral injuries inAfterwar.

She argues that psychology and medicine alone are inadequate to help with many of the most painful questions veterans are bringing home from war. Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of experience working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's longest wars. She explores how veterans can go about reawakening their feelings without becoming re-traumatized; how they can replace resentment with trust; and the changes that need to be made in order for this to happen-by military courts, VA hospitals, and the civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war. (hide)

What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump's twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates (read more)

What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump's twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates to incels on Reddit and 4chan, masculinity is perceived to be 'toxic', 'fragile' and 'in crisis'. In Mask Off, JJ Bola exposes masculinity as a performance that men are socially conditioned into. Using examples of non-Western cultural traditions, music and sport, he shines light on historical narratives around manhood, debunking popular myths along the way.

Published:20 Sep 2019 (hide)

Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', (read more)

Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', and established Solnit as one of the leading feminist thinkers of our time - one who has inspired everyone from radical activists to Beyonce Knowles. Collected here in print for the first time is the essay itself, along with the best of Solnit's feminist writings. From rape culture to mansplaining, from French sex scandals to marriage and the nuclear family, from Virginia Woolf to colonialism, these essays are a fierce and incisive exploration of the issues that a patriarchal culture will not necessarily acknowledge as 'issues' at all.

With grace and energy, and in the most exquisite and inviting of prose, Rebecca Solnit proves herself a vital leading figure of the feminist movement and a radical, humane thinker. (hide)