Textbooks
Explore our diverse range of digital textbooks designed for course adoption and recommended reading at universities and colleges. We publish over 140 textbooks across the social sciences, and an annual subscription to digital textbooks is possible via BUP Digital.
Our content is fully searchable and can be accessed on and off-campus through Shibboleth, OpenAthens or an institutional authenticated IP. For any questions on digital textbook pricing and subscription information, please contact simon.bell@bristol.ac.uk.
We are happy to provide digital samples of any of our coursebooks by completing this form. To see the full collection of all our core textbooks, browse our main website.
Books: Textbooks
You are looking at 1 - 10 of 143 items for :
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- Policy Press x
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Many planning systems are currently locked into growth-dependence, encouraging market-led development which can widen social inequalities and produce adverse environmental outcomes.
This accessible book introduces students to the debates around growth and planning and sets out the solutions to promote genuinely sustainable communities. It includes:
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a positive proposal for reform of the planning system;
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focussed discussions from the UK and Europe providing lessons for future planning;
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analysis of the challenges of implementing reform.
Covering chapters on cooperatives, community land trusts, local economic development and community assets and infrastructure, as well as commoning, it provides a roadmap for planning system reform with social justice and sustainability at its heart.
In this clear and concise primer, Deirdre Heenan and Jennifer Betts lay out key concepts and debates in the field of mental health.
With overviews of recent developments and stakeholder perspectives, the book introduces contemporary themes in policy and practice. It explores the prevalence, cost and social determinants of mental illness, the changing attitudes and stigma around them, and the roles of the state, voluntary and community sectors in designing and delivering services. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, the guide includes:
• text boxes and figures to illustrate key points;
• end of chapter summaries;
• international case studies;
• further reading guides.
For students, practitioners, policy makers and newcomers alike, this is an accessible and comprehensive guide to an increasingly prioritised and debated topic.
Interactive documentaries, or i-docs, are web based, multimedia documentaries that immerse audiences through dynamic, interactive platforms. This book unlocks the value of i-docs as a creative research method, providing an engaging guide on how to use i-docs to examine and communicate research subjects.
With examples, conceptual discussion, and practical advice, the book explores how i-docs can illuminate topics including temporalities, power and space, affect and feeling, freedom, and epistemic justice. The book addresses i-docs as a digital form but also shows that even just planning an i-doc on paper can open up new analytical perspectives.
Key features of the book include:
- An easy to use template for planning your own i-doc;
- Advice on how researchers can ‘think with i-docs’ without even producing one;
- Discussion of methodological work with i-docs including participatory i-doc making;
Insights into a range of examples of commercial, activist and research i-docs from around the world.
This book is a valuable resource for scholars, students, community researchers, creatives and activists who want to enlist and ignite the possibilities of i-docs.
Covering a range of important social theorists – from W.E.B. Du Bois to Judith Butler – this accessibly written textbook encourages critical thinking and critical approaches to social work, providing an entry point for anyone interested in thinking theoretically about practice.
Key features include:
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essential terms explained throughout;
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end-of-chapter prompts to promote further thinking from students;
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suggestions for further reading complete with commentary; and
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companion website with links to videos, a lesson plan and additional resources.
Written for introductory audiences and experts alike, this book will appeal to students studying social work or other related social and allied professions at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as practitioners engaged in professional development.
The second edition of this best-selling book provides an essential guide to best practice in adult safeguarding. It has been updated to include recent legislative, guidance and research-based developments and relates them to useful practice examples.
Featuring new support materials and key case studies, it includes:
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a focus on working with marginalised groups under the safeguarding and prevention duties, including ‘transitional’ safeguarding;
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an exploration of best practice in light of changes to national guidance and research;
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findings from a range of Safeguarding Adult Reviews with reflections on the outcomes of two national (England) Safeguarding Review Audits; and
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an expansion of the concepts of professional curiosity and trauma informed/aware approaches.
Students and practitioners are guided to reflect on practice and to extend their skills, knowledge and values to become confident and competent in the complex area of adult safeguarding.
This practical handbook provides a step-by-step guide for students who are new to phenomenography.
A qualitative research approach within the interpretivist paradigm, phenomenography explores the different ways in which humans conceive a phenomenon and ‘why’ and ‘how’ they do it. It is used in a wide range of academic subject areas from education to social work, physics and medicine. Today it is gaining popularity as a versatile and robust method with the aim of understanding other people’s perceptions.
Our practical guide features:
• advice on how to construct a phenomenographic research project;
• a thorough overview of the approach’s origins and its evolution;
• examples that show the influence it has across a range of subject and practice areas.
This book will empower readers in making informed decisions regarding the suitability of the phenomenographic approach for their research projects and provide them with the necessary tools to embark on their research journey.
The fully updated Short Guide to Town and Country Planning provides an concise introductory overview of the practice of planning for those with little or no prior knowledge. This second edition considers who planners are and what they do, showing how planning - as an art, science and system - has evolved as an organised action of the state.
The book discusses the planning system, processes, legal constructs and approaches, taking into account the recent regulatory changes within the UK nations. Restructured to improve readability, it explores the interactions of government and society with the planning system, and the relationship between urban planning, the environment, and placemaking. It encourages the reader to adopt a reflective and inquisitive outlook, and features:
• case study boxes;
• further reading and resources;
• guidance on the recent policy and system updates, including those through devolution.
Research doesn’t exist in a bubble but co-exists with a multitude of other tasks and commitments, yet there is more need for people to save time than ever before.
Brilliantly attuned to the demands placed on researchers, this book considers how students, academics and professionals alike can save time and stress without compromising the quality of their research or its outcomes. This third edition:
- is fully revised with new chapters on research and evaluation ethics, creative methods of collecting data and how research can make a positive difference;
-includes illustrative case studies throughout the book and each chapter concludes with exercises, discussion questions and a debate topic;
- is accompanied by a fully updated companion website.
This supportive book is designed for any student or practitioner who wants to know how to do research on top of their main job and still have a life.
The Best Interests Assessor (BIA) Practice Handbook is firmly grounded in real-life practice and remains the only textbook focusing directly on the BIA role. Offering clear and practical advice on the legal elements of the role, and the values and practice elements of working within the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) framework, this is essential reading for BIA students and practitioners.
This fully-updated edition takes account of recent legislative changes, including the planned changes from the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), recent case law and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BIA practice.
Packed with advice on delivering effective, person-centred, rights-driven practice, it includes:
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case studies;
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legal summaries;
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decision-making activities;
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CPD support;
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examples of new case law in practice.
Looking forward, the book considers the new context for practice in the Approved Mental Capacity Professional (AMCP) role within the LPS and the potential roles that BIAs might fulfil in this new framework in the future.
International development is a vibrant, interdisciplinary area of the social sciences. This Short Guide offers a uniquely succinct and balanced account of this politically charged subject. It distils both the classic and newer debates together in a clear framework and illustrates them with contemporary examples.
Designed to introduce a wide readership to international development, the book:
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considers how far the field has been reconfigured over time and to what extent it is likely to change in the future;
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reviews contemporary topics including tourism, migration and digital technologies;
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includes distinctive international case studies and examples.
By providing a succinct evaluation of competing approaches to, and perspectives on, the idea and practice of international development, this book offers students across the social sciences a distinct and invaluable introduction to the field.
