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.
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Books: Textbooks
This chapter on the work of Axel Honneth continues with the theme of communication by taking up Honneth’s ideas about the importance of recognition. The chapter begins with a brief biographical note and also notes key texts. This chapter on Honneth situates his work by drawing on the symbolic interactionist tradition and the work of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman among others. Critiques of Honneth are also noted. As with previous chapters, the chapter finishes with a summary paragraph detailing how what has been introduced can be used to think about social work. Questions and prompt exercises, recommended readings and a reference list, along with links to further materials round out the chapter.
As a renowned scholar who has covered a wide range of topics and who is well known for her work on the intersectionality of race, capitalism and gender, the work of bell hooks has much to offer those studying or practicing social work. This chapter begins with a brief biographical note while also noting key texts. In the main, this chapter will elucidate hooks’ use of intersectionality, critical thinking and love and community, each of which will be related to social work. As with previous chapters, this chapter will finish with a brief summary followed by an exercise box containing prompts/questions, recommended readings, links to further materials and a reference list.
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 last of the theorists covered in the book, Giorgio Agamben arguably represents one of the most influential and radical thinkers working in the world today. Moreover, his corpus of work, though at times difficult to grapple with, is replete with relevance for social work, yet he remains almost entirely absent from discussion in social work literature. This chapter will introduce the work of Agamben and show how his work can be used to think about social work. Question and prompt exercises, recommended readings, links to resources and a reference list will round out the chapter.
This simple and short chapter introduces readers to social theory and critical social theory and the differences between each. Threaded through with an example, concepts and theories are distinguished from each other and ways to think using theory are introduced. Keywords are defined throughout, and the chapter finishes with prompts, exercises and links to further materials.
Continuing with theorists in the poststructural tradition, Judith Butler represents a well-known and often controversial theorist in the feminist tradition. With theory focusing on areas such as gender and identity, Butler’s work offers a natural bridge back to the work of Honneth while taking ideas about identity and recognition in new directions. As social workers grapple with new frontiers in social work practice, Butler might be said to be a theorist for our times. This chapter begins with a brief biographical note and will also note key texts. In the first part of the chapter, Butler’s work is located within feminism and the work and ideas of Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray and Monique Wittig are briefly introduced. The chapter finishes by offering a summary, further reading materials, links to further resources and a reference list.
Because of his important contribution to theory in the area of communication and because his theory of the lifeworld and the system speaks in a very direct way to the profession of social work, a chapter on Jürgen Habermas makes a natural addition to the book. The chapter begins with a brief biographical note and also notes key texts. The chapter finishes with a summary paragraph detailing how what has been introduced can be used to think about social work. Question and prompt exercises, further materials, recommended readings and a reference list round out the chapter.
In a book on social theory and on critical social theory in particular, this chapter on Marx marks an essential starting point. The chapter starts with a brief biographical note and identifies key texts by Marx. A short introduction follows, and this is followed by an explanation of core Marxist concepts, each of which is related to social work. The chapter finishes with a summary paragraph detailing how what has been introduced can be used to think about social work. Questions and prompt exercises, recommended readings and further materials and a reference list round out the chapter.
This chapter on Michel Foucault signifies a shift in the book from theorists who may generally be said to be associated with traditional modernity to those more associated with postmodernity and poststructuralism. It can be argued that Michel Foucault, in particular, represents the pre-eminent theorist of those broadly referred to as poststructuralists and so a chapter introducing some of his most notable concepts represents a natural addition to the book. The chapter begins with a brief biographical note and also notes key texts. The chapter finishes with a brief summary followed by prompt/question exercises, recommended readings, links to further resources and a reference list.
Pierre Bourdieu is undoubtedly one of the most cited sociologists of the last 20+ years and his contribution to social theory has immediate relevance for social work, offering new ways to think about a range of areas including social class, social reproduction and the distribution of various kinds of capitals. The chapter begins with a brief biographical note and also notes key texts. As with previous chapters, this chapter finishes with a brief summary followed by an exercise box containing prompts/questions, recommended readings, links to further materials and a reference list.
