Social theory

When the Matrix trilogy was published in the mid-1980s, it introduced to mass culture a number of post-human tropes about the conscious machines that have haunted our collective imaginaries ever since.

This 2003 book explores the links between social theory and the social scientific study of religion.

Evolutionary Social Theory and Political Economy traces the origins, extension, marginalization and revival of evolutionary approaches to social theory from the Enlightenment through the beginning of the 21st century.

In June 2014, Brazil opened the twentieth FIFA World Cup with a spectacular ceremony.

While it was evident to the classics of social theory that modern societies are highly dynamic forms of social organization, and that this dynamic nature must be reflected explicitly and confronted directly in modes of analysis across the social sciences, over the course of the twentieth century, the acknowledgement of this fact has been weakening.

This book celebrates the life and work of scholar-activist Chip Berlet.

David R.

This book explores the concept of 'home' in Liverpool over phases of 'regeneration' following the Second World War.

Contemporary political and public discourse has come alive with the issues and conflicts surrounding questions of national identity.

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences.

This book describes the transition in Indian healthcare system since independence and contributes to the ongoing debate within development and institutional economics on the approaches towards reform in the public health system.

Can heterotopia help us make sense of globalisation?

Meta-regulation presents itself as a progressive policy approach that can manage complexity and conflicting objectives better than traditional command and control regulation.

The city is a paradoxical space, in theory belonging to everyone, in practice inaccessible to people who cannot afford the high price of urban real estate.

This book uses Norbert Elias’s theory of the civilising process to provide a sociological and historical study of Portuguese bullfighting.

Belonging is often overlooked in its relationship to society and social change, and yet it forms the bedrock of how we relate to the world around us.

This book explores the dynamics of the recent 'progressive cycle' in Latin American politics, associated with a red and pink tide of regime change.

This book explores the dynamics of the recent 'progressive cycle' in Latin American politics, associated with a red and pink tide of regime change.

The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Mental Health offers the most comprehensive collection of theoretical and applied writings to date with which students, scholars, researchers and practitioners within the social and health sciences can systematically problematise the practices, priorities and knowledge base of the Western system of mental health.

Architecture and the urban are connected to challenges around violence, security, race and ideology, spectacle and data.

This book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the social practice of taste in the wake of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of taste.

This book radically re-examines Europe's imaginaries of its origin in the ancient Greek world.

There may not be a concept so central to sociology, yet so vaguely defined in its contemporary usages, than institution.

Drawing inspiration from Pierre Bourdieu's social space theory, this book provides an unprecedent overview of class relations, covering topics such as class polarisation, cultural reproduction, political orientations, and globalisation.

This book analyses the conceptual and concrete relationships between rhythm and law.

To date, approaches to understanding serial murder have focused on individual cases rather than the social context in which they occurred.

From the Great Game to the present, an international cultural and political biography of one of our most evocative, compelling, and poorly understood narratives of history.

Presenting a survey of the social, cultural and theoretical issues which surround and inform our understanding of masculinity, this book explores the interface between traditional sociological approaches and the work covered by more post-structural, media-driven or cultural perspectives.

Today the smallest details of our daily lives are tracked and traced more closely than ever before, and those who are monitored often cooperate willingly with the monitors.

Martin Harbusch beschäftigt sich zunächst mit der Frage, wie (fehlende) soziale Teilhabe sozialwissenschaftlich beschrieben wird, um daraufhin zu untersuchen, welche lebensweltlichen Analogien diese Konzepte haben.

Is society possible without accounting?

Social Sequence Analysis is a comprehensive guide to analytic methods that brings together foundational, theoretical and methodological work on social sequences.

First published in 1983, this book examines the problems of concept formation in the social sciences, and in particular sociology, from the standpoint of a realistic philosophy of science.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of caste in contemporary India.

This book surveys the growing field of Queer Criminology.

How does Bauman understand the concept of freedom, and how does this understanding relate to the political traditions of conservatism, liberalism and socialism?

For the better part of its history sociology shared with commonsense its assumption of the 'nature-like' character of society - and consequently developed as the science of unfreedom.

When do we interpret?

How can sociology inform our understanding of young people's experiences?

Teaches students how to use Stata to conduct the statistical analyses most commonly used in political science.

An exploration of the inherent and often hidden logic of political conflict.

This book applies the general theory of critical rationalism in order to develop a new sociology of the open society, in general, and a new analysis of the transition from a closed society to an open society in particular.

This book offers a re-examination of art production in terms that understand the process of learning as the production of art itself.

Through a wide range of international and interdisciplinary case studies, this book develops the notion of legacy, and in particular, 'living legacy'- that is, it explores power relations in the context of time as a means to considering and challenging social injustice.

In this fascinating book, Ann Woodall investigates and compares the work and thought of William Booth and Karl Marx, who both arrived in London in 1849.

This title was first published in 2001.

Challenging the inference in social science that taking subjectivity into account somehow conflicts with approaches that emphasize the reality of the material conditions of existence, this book shows how subjective perceptions of one's future can help to capture class and inequality, considering the extent to which material conditions (such as wealth, income, and power) are revealed by subjective indicators.

Political leaders and the popular press tell us that society is in the grip of a moral crisis.