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
What does it mean to be a feminist? What can feminism say about ourselves, the work we do, and our ways of living together?
This book draws on the work of Fraser, Butler, and Braidotti to examine how societal and organizational processes shape and are shaped by our perception of work, value, and identity. Disrupting the long-established mind-body dualism, the book reveals its impact on our understanding of value, raising critical questions about how different forms of feminism influence work practices and recognition.
This is a unique and insightful analysis that sparks critical reflection, offering a foundation for corporeal ethics to drive meaningful change in organizations and society.
This book offers a unique perspective on Sweden’s COVID-19 response in its publicly funded welfare sector, which was initially highly criticised but later recognised as exemplary on the global stage in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Using diaries, stories and interviews from 73 workers across 30 professions, it reveals the everyday experiences of those maintaining welfare services, both on the front lines and behind the scenes. Covering 2020 to 2022, it spans major cities and smaller municipalities across Gothenburg, Uppsala and Stockholm and introduces 'pandemicracy,' a concept exploring pandemic-era governance and organisation of the public sector.
This insightful analysis sparks a wider discussion on adapting to unforeseen challenges in public welfare.
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.
The symptoms of menopause transitions have profound implications for work and are, in turn, affected by work. Despite this, the topic is rarely discussed in management and organization studies.
Providing an overview of existing knowledge in the field of menopause in the workplace, this collection re-theorises the management of human resources as it relates to the connections between gender, age and the body in the workplace environment with an intersectional analysis.
Offering theoretical frameworks from experts as well as possible practical approaches that can be implemented in workplaces to support women transitioning through menopause, this is a go-to reference for academics and policy makers working in the field.
Insurance is an important – if still poorly understood – mechanism for dealing with a broad variety of risks associated with modern life.
This book conducts an in-depth examination of one of the largest and longest-established private insurance industries in Europe: British life insurance. In doing so, it draws on over 40 oral history interviews to trace how the sector is changed since the 1970s, a period characterised by rampant financialisation and neoliberalisation.
Combining insights from science and technology studies and economic sociology, this is an unprecedented study of the evolution of insurance practices and an invaluable contribution to our understanding of financial capitalism.
Why is finance so important? How do stock markets work and what do they really do? Most importantly, what might finance be and what could we expect from it?
Exploring contemporary finance via the development of stock exchanges, markets and the links with states, Roscoe mingles historical and technical detail with humorous anecdotes and lively portraits of market participants.
Deftly combining research and autobiographical vignettes, he offers a cautionary tale about the drive of financial markets towards expropriation, capture and exclusion. Positioning financial markets as central devices in the organisation of the global economy, he includes contemporary concerns over inequality, climate emergency and (de)colonialism and concludes by wondering, in the market’s own angst-filled voice, what the future for finance might be, and how we might get there.
Presenting the complexities of doing planning work, with all its attendant moral and practical dilemmas, this rich ethnographic study analyses how places are made through stories of four diverse public and private sector working environments.
The book provides a unique insight for educators, students and researchers into the everyday lives of planners and those in associated built environment occupations. This exceptional account of the micro-politics of a knowledge-intensive profession also provides an excellent resource for sociologists of contemporary work. The authors use team ethnography to push the methodological frontiers of planning research and to advance organisational ethnography into new areas.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence
In this enlightening study of modern working lives in Britain, leading experts on the sociology of work draw on detailed statistical analyses to assess job quality and job satisfaction.
Drawing on decades of research data on hundreds of occupational groups, the authors challenge conventional notions of ‘good work’ and consider them afresh through the lens of workers themselves. With examples from many professions, the book examines why some occupations feel more rewarding than others, regardless of factors like pay and security.
Exploring fresh policies to promote the agenda for fulfilling employment, it builds an important case for genuine and sustained satisfaction in working lives.
