Society & Politics

Enid Blyton's books are beloved the world over and The Famous Five have been the perennial favourite of her fans. Now, in this new (read more)

Enid Blyton's books are beloved the world over and The Famous Five have been the perennial favourite of her fans. Now, in this new series of Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups, can George, Dick, Anne, Julian and Timmy survive the ultimate test of their friendship: Brexit? It is the night of the referendum and the Five have retired to Kirrin Island to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, fed up with the rancour of public debate. George is firmly a 'remainer,' whilst Julian, who is in the 'Brexit' camp, is tolerated on the grounds that Anne cannot bear to go camping without him.

(Timmy, largely apolitical but not keen on cats or rabbits, joins them too.) The night is tempestuous in more ways than one. George has managed to rig up a satellite link with the mainland so they can keep abreast of the news, and they sit huddled around the fire, amidst some tension, as George's initial hope that the 'remainers' will triumph proves premature...Meanwhile, a violent storm whips up. The damage is apparent as the new day dawns and George declares a new meaning for Brexit: Kirrin Island is exiting Britain...that is, until the red tape becomes too much of a challenge and their happy life together is under threat. (hide)

This popular and engaging text, now revised in a second edition, offers readers a social perspective on food, food practices, and (read more)

This popular and engaging text, now revised in a second edition, offers readers a social perspective on food, food practices, and the modern food system. It engages readers' curiosity by highlighting several paradoxes: how food is both individual and social, reveals both distinction and conformity, and, in the contemporary global era, comes from everywhere but nowhere in particular. With updates and enhancements throughout, the new edition provides an empirically deep, multifaceted, and coherent introduction to this fascinating field.

Each chapter begins with a vivid case study, proceeds through a rich discussion of research insights, and ends with discussion questions and suggested resources. Chapter topics include food's role in socialization, identity, health and social change, as well as food marketing and the changing global food system. The new edition gives more focused attention to labor (both paid and unpaid) in all aspects of the food system. (hide)

Presenting an empirically underpinned synthesis of research and theory, while offering guidance for applied practitioners, this is (read more)

Presenting an empirically underpinned synthesis of research and theory, while offering guidance for applied practitioners, this is the first book to comprehensively map the psychology of learning, playing, and coaching the world's favourite sport. The book provides a complete analysis of key topics that capture the broad range of football psychology such as personality, motivation, cognition, and emotion; coaching and team essentials; psychological skills for performance enhancement; and developing players in youth football. Including contributions from a range of international researchers, each chapter provides a review of the relevant literature, key theories, real-world examples, and reflections on how knowledge can be applied in practice.

Published: 28 May 2019 (hide)

The referendum on Britain's membership of the EU is one of the most controversial political events of our times. For the first time, (read more)

The referendum on Britain's membership of the EU is one of the most controversial political events of our times. For the first time, the man who called that vote talks about the decision and its origins, as well as giving a candid account of his time at the top of British politics. David Cameron was Conservative Party leader during the largest financial crash in living memory.

The Arab Spring and the Eurozone crisis both started during his first year as prime minister. The backdrop to his time in office included the advent of ISIS, surging migration and a rapidly changing EU. Here he talks about how he confronted those challenges, from modernising a party that had suffered three successive electoral defeats to forming the first coalition government for seventy years. (hide)

Stocked 11 June - In 2004, Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for (read more)

Stocked 11 June - In 2004, Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. Together with his team, he invented electronic devices for under-resourced urban schools and developed digital platforms for remote agrarian communities.

But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own. Technologists and policy-makers love to boast about modern innovation, and in their excitement, they exuberantly tout technology's boon to society. But what have our gadgets actually accomplished? Over the last four decades, America saw an explosion of new technologies -- from the Internet to the iPhone, from Google to Facebook -- but in that same period, the rate of poverty stagnated at a stubborn 13%, only to rise in the recent recession. (hide)

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Gender Matters in Global Politics is a comprehensive textbook for advanced undergraduates (read more)

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Gender Matters in Global Politics is a comprehensive textbook for advanced undergraduates studying feminism & international relations, gender and global politics and similar courses. It provides students with an accessible but in-depth account of the most significant theories, methodologies, debates and issues. This textbook is written by an international line-up of established and emerging scholars from a range of theoretical perspectives, and brings together cutting-edge feminist scholarship in a variety of issue areas.

Key features and benefits of the book: * Introduces students to the wide variety of feminist and gender theory and explains the relevance to contemporary global politics * Explains the insights of feminist theory for a range of other disciplines including international relations, international political economy and security studies * Addresses a large number of key contemporary issues such as human rights, trafficking, rape as a tool of war, peacekeeping and state-building, terrorism and environmental politics * Features detailed pedagogical tools and resources - seminar exercises, text boxes, photographs, suggestions for further reading, web resources and a glossary of key terms * New chapters on - Environmental politics and ecology; War; Terrorism and political violence; Land, food and water; International legal institutions; Peacebuilding institutions and post-conflict reconstruction; Citizenship; Art, aesthetics and emotionality; and New social media and global resistance. This text enables students to develop a sophisticated understanding of the work that gender does in policies and practices of global politics. (hide)

This book offers a feminist analysis of military sacrifice and reveals the importance of a gender perspective in understanding the (read more)

This book offers a feminist analysis of military sacrifice and reveals the importance of a gender perspective in understanding the idea of honourable death. In present-day security discourses traditional masculinised obligations to die for the homeland and its women and children are challenged and renegotiated. Working from a critical feminist perspective, this book examines the political and societal justifications for sacrifice in wars motivated by human rights and an international responsibility to protect.

With original empirical research from six European countries, the volume demonstrates how gendered and nationalistic representations saturate contemporary notions of sacrifice and legitimate military violence. A key argument is that a gender perspective is necessary in order to understand, and to oppose, the idea of the honourable military death. Bringing together a wide range of materials - including public debates, rituals, monuments and artwork - to analyse the justifications for soldiers' deaths in the Afghanistan war (2002-14), the analysis challenges methodological nationalism.

Published:28 Feb 2019 (hide)

Having emerged from the end of the Cold War as a unified country, Germany has quickly become the second largest exporter in the world. (read more)

Having emerged from the end of the Cold War as a unified country, Germany has quickly become the second largest exporter in the world. Its economic might has made it the center of the Eurozone and the pivotal power of Europe. Like other geo-economic powers, Germany's foreign policy is characterized by a definition of the national interest in economic terms and the elevation of economic interests over non-economic values such as human rights or democracy promotion.

This strategic paradigm is evident in German's relationship with China, the Gulf States and Europe, but it is most important in regard to its evolving policies towards Russia. In this book, Stephen F. Szabo provides a description and analysis of German policy towards Russia, revealing how unified Germany is finding its global role in which its interests do not always coincide with the United States or its European partners.
(hide)

Life on earth will come to an end. It's just a matter of when. In this Very Short Introduction, Bill McGuire explores the many potential (read more)

Life on earth will come to an end. It's just a matter of when. In this Very Short Introduction, Bill McGuire explores the many potential catastrophes facing our planet and our species in the future, and looks at both the probability of these events happening and our chances of survival.

From the likely consequences of global warming to the inevitable destruction of the earth in the far future, McGuire considers a range of 'end of the world scenarios', including the New Ice Age, asteroid and comet impact, supervolcanoes, and mega-tsunami. Updated with a number of recent case studies from around the world, this new edition brings our understanding of global disasters and risk research up to date. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. (hide)

This anthology examines the unexplored consequences of globalization on the lives of women worldwide. In a world shaped by mass migration (read more)

This anthology examines the unexplored consequences of globalization on the lives of women worldwide. In a world shaped by mass migration and economic exchange on an ever-increasing scale, women are moving around the globe as never before. Every year, millions leave Mexico, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Eastern Europe to work in the homes, nurseries and brothels of the First World - from Vietnamese mail-order brides to Mexican nannies in LA, from Thai girls in Vietnamese brothels to Czech au pairs in the UK.

In the new global calculus, the female energy that flows to wealthy countries to ease a "care deficit", is subtracted from poor ones, often to the detriment of the families left behind. Is the main resource now extracted from the Third World no longer gold or silver, but love? (hide)