Research

 

You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.

Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
 

Books: Research

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Navigating Datafication and Family Life in Digital Societies
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In today's digital societies, parenting is shaped by algorithms daily - in search engines, social media, kids' entertainment, the news and more. But how much are parents aware of the algorithms shaping their parenting and daily lives? How can they prepare for children’s futures in a world dominated by data, algorithms, automation and AI?

This groundbreaking study of 30 English families sheds light on parents’ hopes and fears, their experiences with algorithms in searching, sharing and consuming news and information, and their awareness and knowledge of algorithms at large.

Looking beyond tech skills and media panics, this book is an essential read for social scientists, policy-makers and general readers seeking to understand parenting in datafied societies.

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Contemporary Cultures, Identities and Business

Today drag has an unprecedented mass cultural appeal. Reaching far beyond traditional queer venues and audiences into the mainstream, it has evolved into a booming industry worth millions of dollars.

Drag is art, politics, lifestyle and entertainment all in one. Yet, studies examining its market value as a product, brand or consumption practice remain scarce. This interdisciplinary collection fills that void, exploring the intersection of drag and markets.

Written by an international group of scholars exploring cases from Europe, Asia and the US, this will be a key resource for anyone curious about drag’s social, political and economic impact.

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How Digital Technologies Are Stifling Public Debate and What to Do About It
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How can we have meaningful public conversations in the algorithmic age?

This book explores how digital technologies shape our opinions and interactions, often in ways that limit our exposure to diverse perspectives and fuel polarization. Drawing on the ancient art of arguing all sides of a case, the book offers a way to revive public debate as a source of trust and legitimacy in democratic societies.

This is a timely and urgent book for anyone who cares about the future of democracy in the digital era.

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Natures, Futures, Politics

Bringing together contributors from Europe, North America and Australia, this book questions the purpose and outcomes of speculation in practical settings.

In the context of interrelated and complex global challenges, speculation is not just useful but necessary. The chapters in this book present a cross-disciplinary dialogue of people that are developing work in speculation and interrogates its practices and ethical and political charges. Through these discussions, the book explores the potential of speculation in addressing issues such as climate change, urban futures and new political practices.

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How to Recover from the Enlightenment and Survive the Current Crisis

Love is fundamental to the flourishing of society and nature. However, the competition of the market economy has resulted in a fractured and traumatised modern world.

Revisiting philosophical developments and countercultures since the Enlightenment, this book offers a ‘loving critique’. It shows how learning to love better is the key to releasing ourselves from the alienating grip of the market.

The utopian template presented draws on archaeology, the witch trials, hippies, Hinduism, Buddhism, quantum mechanics, and psychedelics to describe how we can build a more loving society that can survive and flourish through the ecological, ethical, economic, and existential crises that we all now face.

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Redefining Generosity
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Moomins, beloved troll creatures of Moominvalley, have captivated hearts worldwide since the 1940s.

This book unveils the Moomin business management journey, from Tove Jansson’s creations to a global art-based brand and a growing ecosystem of companies. Emphasising generosity as a key management principle, it champions caring for people as vital for a thriving organisation.

Generosity, rooted in love, courage and belief in equality, shapes the Moomin ethos, underpinning not just the brand, but also strategic partnerships, engagement with technologies and the virtual world.

Offering rare insights from the Moomin inner circle, this management guide advocates sustainable practices. It unveils the keys to a business devoted to comforting people and fostering good, inspiring a blueprint for lasting success.

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Techno-Human Evolution and Advanced Capitalism

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

Transhumanism is a philosophy which advocates for the use of technology to radically enhance human capacities.

This book interrogates the promises of transhumanism, arguing that it is deeply entwined with capitalist ideology. In an era of escalating crisis and soaring inequality, it casts doubt on a utopian techno-capitalist narrative of unending progress. In critiquing the transhumanist project, the book offers an alternative ethical framework for the future of life on the planet.

As the debates around the advancement of AI and corporate-led digital technologies intensify, this is an important read for academics as well as policy makers.

Open access
Realizing Children’s Rights in Ghana’s Pluralistic Society

Focusing on Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from European colonial rule and the first in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this book explores how dominant children’s rights principles interact with the lived realities of a range of children’s lives.

The author considers the changeability and inconsistencies of childhoods within this context and the factors that underpin these varied intersections, including cultural norms, British colonial legacy, the influence of Christianity, urbanization, and social, economic and political transformations.

Challenging one-dimensional portrayals of childhoods in the Global South, the author highlights the need for more holistic approaches to the study of children’s lives and children’s rights realization in Southern contexts.

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Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice
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We all sometimes ‘lurk’ in online spaces without posting or engaging, just reading the posts and comments. But neither reading nor lurking are ever passive acts. In fact, readers of social media are making decisions and taking grassroots actions on multiple dimensions.

Unpacking this understudied phenomenon, this book challenges the conventional perspective of what counts as participatory online culture. Presenting lurking as a communication and literacy practice that resists dominant power structures, it offers an innovative approach to digital qualitative methods.

Unique and original in its subject, this is a call for internet researchers to broaden their methods to include lurkers’ participation and presence.

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Venturing Beyond the Bifurcation of Nature

In a present marked by planetary crisis, a radical rethinking of aesthetics is necessary. This inspirational collection proposes a new way of thinking about aesthetics as fundamental to cultivating more liveable futures.

Drawing on the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead and Félix Guattari, the book develops aesthetics as central to all more-than-human forms of experience, including knowledge practices. Each contribution invites readers on an adventure to explore how this broader view of aesthetics can reshape areas including biomedicine, geological forensics, nuclear waste, race, as well as arts and education.

This is an agenda-setting contribution to understanding the significance of aesthetics in science and technology studies, as well social and cultural research more broadly.

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