implicitly elucidate the social, economic and political effects of the neoliberal worldview. I read RLMs through a psychosocial lens as a symptom of an emerging social melancholia that began to form from the late 1970s in the United Kingdom (UK), arguing that the upheavals of the period, chief among which were the highest levels of unemployment in any post-war period ( Baddeley et al, 1998 : 24), produced a classed and gendered form of melancholia birthed from the excess of these experiences. This article focuses on Chat magazine because of how it established the
implicitly elucidate the social, economic and political effects of the neoliberal worldview. I read RLMs through a psychosocial lens as a symptom of an emerging social melancholia that began to form from the late 1970s in the United Kingdom (UK), arguing that the upheavals of the period, chief among which were the highest levels of unemployment in any post-war period ( Baddeley et al, 1998 : 24), produced a classed and gendered form of melancholia birthed from the excess of these experiences. This article focuses on Chat magazine because of how it established the
The world has changed dramatically since the emergence of post-Marxism, and a reassessment is needed to determine its significance in the modern world.
First published as a special issue of Global Discourse, this book explores the theoretical position of post-Marxism and investigates its significance in recent, global political developments such as Brexit, Trump and the rise of the far right. With valuable insights from international contributors across a range of disciplines, the book puts forward a strong case for the continuing relevance of post-Marxism and particularly for Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy.
Over the course of the last ten years the issue of debt has become a serious problem that threatens to destroy the global socio-economic system and ruin the everyday lives of millions of people. This collection brings together a range of perspectives of key thinkers on debt to provide a sociological analysis focused upon the social, political, economic, and cultural meanings of indebtedness.
The contributors to the book consider both the lived experience of debt and the more abstract processes of financialisation taking place globally. Showing how debt functions on the level of both macro- and microeconomics, the book also provides a more holistic perspective, with accounts that span sociological, cultural, and economic forms of analysis.
There is increasing pressure on the humanities to justify their value and on criminology to undertake interdisciplinary research. In this book, Rafe McGregor establishes a new interdisciplinary methodology, ‘criminological criticism’, harnessing the synergy between literary studies and critical criminology to produce genuine interventions in social reality.
McGregor practices criminological criticism on George Miller’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, Prime Video’s ‘Carnival Row’ and J.K. Rowling’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, demonstrating how these popular allegories provide insights into the harms of sexism, racism and class prejudice.
This book proposes a model for collaboration between literary studies and critical criminology that is beneficial to the humanities, the social sciences and society.
A distinctive and original analysis of how the politics of the UK and the lives of British citizens have evolved in the first decades of the twenty-first century, this book provides an interdisciplinary critical examination of the roots, ideology and consequences of austerity politics, the Brexit vote and the rise of populist politics in Britain.
Bringing together case studies and perspectives from an array of international researchers across the social sciences, it dissects the ways that the UK has become increasingly contested with profound differences of geography, generation, gender, ‘race’ and class, and considers agency as a key concept to understand the links between austerity and Brexit.
Convict criminology is the study of criminology by those who have first-hand experience of imprisonment. This is the first single-authored book to trace the emergence of convict criminology and explore its relevance beyond the USA to the UK and other parts of Europe.
Addressing epistemological issues of ‘insider research’, it presents uniquely reflexive scholarship combining personal experience with critical perspectives on contemporary penality. Taking a gendered approach and focusing explicitly on men, it covers:
• the way prisoners, ex-prisoners and prison research contribute to criminological knowledge
• historical figures in criminology whose prison experiences are rarely recognised
• the way racism, colonialism and class shape penal experience and social worlds
Drawing from his own experience of imprisonment, prison research and criminology, the author demonstrates how this experience can expand the criminological imagination. It is a novel and compelling account for students, teachers, academics and penal practitioners. It will inform, educate and entertain anyone working in criminal justice, the legal and para-legal professions and those with an interest in social justice.
How are multiculturalism, inequality and belonging understood in the day-to-day thinking and practices of local government? Examining original empirical data, this book explores how local government officers and politicians negotiate ‘difficult subjects’ linked with community cohesion policy: diversity, inequality, discrimination, extremism, migration, religion, class, power and change. The book argues that such work necessitates ‘uncomfortable positions’ when managing ethical, professional and political commitments.
Based on first-hand experience of working in urban local government and extensive ethnographic, interview and documentary research, the book applies governmentality perspectives in a new way to consider how people working within government are subject to regimes of governmentality themselves, and demonstrates how power operates through emotions.
Its exploration of how ‘sociological imaginations’ are applied beyond academia will be valuable to those arguing for the future of public services and building connections between the university and wider society, including scholars and students in sociology, social policy, social geography, urban studies and politics, and policy practitioners in local and central government.
Winner of the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2014
Once regarded as taboo, it is now claimed that we are a death-obsessed society. The face of death in the 21st century, brought about by cultural and demographic change and advances in medical technology, presents health and social care practitioners with new challenges and dilemmas.
By focusing on predominant patterns of dying; global images of death; shifting boundaries between the public and the private; and cultural pluralism, the author looks at the way death is handled in contemporary society and the sensitive ethical and practical dilemmas facing nurses, social workers, doctors and chaplains. This book brings together perspectives from social science, health-care and pastoral theology to assist the reader in understanding and negotiating this ‘new death’.
End-of-life care and old age, changing funeral and burial practices, new stigmas such as drug-related bereavements, are highlighted, and theories of dying and bereavement re-examined in their context. The concluding chapters incorporate recent case studies into an exploration of the meanings and shape of holistic and integrated care.
Students interested in death studies from a sociological and cultural viewpoint as well as health and social care practitioners, will benefit from its critical appraisal and application of the established knowledge base to contemporary practices and ethical debates.
Available Open Access under CC-BY licence.
How do environmental policies link to dynamic and relational family practices for children and parents? This Policy Press Short presents innovative cross-national research into how ‘environment’ is understood and negotiated within families, and how this plays out in everyday lives.
Based on an ESRC study that involved creative, qualitative work with families in India and the UK who live in different contexts, this book illuminates how environmental practices are negotiated within families, and how they relate to values, identities and society. In doing so, it contributes to understanding of the ways in which families and childhood are constructed as sites for intervention in climate change debates.
In an area that is increasingly of concern to governments, NGOs and the general public, this timely research is crucial for developing effective responses to climate change.
