Assume nothing, question everything.This is the message at the heart of Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner's rule-breaking, iconoclastic book about crack dealers, cheating teachers and bizarre baby names that turned everyone's view of the world upside-down and became an international multi-million-copy-selling phenomenon.'Prepare to be dazzled' Malcolm Gladwell'A sensation ... you'll be stimulated, provoked and entertained. Of how many books can that be said?' Sunday Telegraph'Has you chuckling one minute and gasping in amazement the next' Wall Street Journal'Dazzling ... a delight' Economist'Made me laugh out loud' Scotland on Sunday Read more

During the 1960s and 1970s, Britain’s youth justice system removed children from their homes and placed them into Remand Homes, Approved Schools, and Borstals under the language of reform. In reality, many of those children, particularly boys, were exposed to widespread institutional abuse, silenced by fear, and forgotten by the state.Lewis Gell was one of them. At the age of ten, he was sent to a pre-Borstal Remand Home. The abuse he suffered there marked the beginning of a lifelong impact, diagnosed decades later as PTSD with complex triggers. Now, as a trauma recovery specialist, CSE caseworker, and safeguarding consultant, Lewis draws on both his personal history and his professional expertise to confront what the system still refuses to face.The Forgotten Boys: A Borstal Legacy is not a memoir in the traditional sense. It is a professional, victim-led reference work designed for those in safeguarding, social care, criminal justice, education, and mental health sectors. The book serves as a valuable resource for students, academics, and practitioners, featuring a wider gutter margin for annotations, notes, and references, perfect for those using this book as a learning tool to enhance their understanding of institutional abuse and trauma recovery.This book explores:The legacy of institutional abuse in the UK’s youth justice systemThe psychological and emotional cost borne by boys who are now ageing, traumatised menThe structural ignorance that continues to exclude victims from supportThe failure of statutory services to understand lives shaped by institutions that no longer existA call for victim-led, trauma-informed, and reality-based reformLewis is the author of a series of professional white papers used by universities, local authorities, and legal practitioners. His work directly challenges the idea that academic credentials alone prepare professionals to support victims of institutional trauma.The boys failed in Borstal are now men in their sixties and seventies. Many live in silence, unacknowledged by the systems that once harmed them. This book is not just their record. It is their voice. Read more

When one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology in The Order of Things, possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century. Eclipsed by his later work on power and discourse, nonetheless it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant. Pirouetting around the outer edge of language, Foucault unsettles the surface of literary writing. In describing the limitations of our usual taxonomies, he opens the door onto a whole new system of thought, one ripe with what he calls "exotic charm". Intellectual pyrotechnics from the master of critical thinking, this book is crucial reading for those who wish to gain insight into that odd beast called Postmodernism, and a must for any fan of Foucault. Read more

Current theories and views on the differences in the 'mind' of human societies depend very much on a dichotomy between 'advanced' and 'primitive', or between 'open' and 'closed', or between 'domesticated' and 'savage', that is to say, between one of a whole variety of 'we-they' distinctions. Professor Goody argues that such an approach prevents any serious discussion of the mechanisms leading to long-term changes in the cognitive processes of human cultures or any adequate explanation of the changes in 'traditional' societies that are taking place in the world around us. In this book he attempts to provide the framework for a more satisfactory explanation by relating certain broad differences in 'mentalities' to the changes in the means of communication, and specifically to the series of shifts involved in the development of writing. The argument is based upon theoretical considerations, as well as empirical evidence derived from recent fieldwork in West Africa and the study of a wide range of source material on the ancient societies of the Near East. Read more

This vigorously argued book reveals the central role that Islam has played in European history. Following the movement of people, culture and religion from East to West, Goody breaks down the perceived opposition between Islam and Europe, showing Islam to be a part of Europe's past and present. In an historical analysis of religious warfare and forced migration, Goody examines our understanding of legitimate violence, ethnic cleansing and terrorism. His comparative perspective offers important and illuminating insights into current political problems and conflicts. Goody traces three routes of Islam into Europe, following the Arab through North Africa, Spain and Mediterranean Europe; the Turk through Greece and the Balkans; and the Mongol through Southern Russia to Poland and Lithuania. Each thrust made its mark on Europe in terms of population and culture. Yet this was not merely a military impact: especially in Spain, but elsewhere too, Europe was substantially modified by this contact. Today it takes the form of some eleven million immigrants, not to speak of the possible incorporation of further millions through Bosnia, Albania and Turkey. Read more

While the theories of Matte Blanco about the structure of the unconscious and the way in which it operates are generally recognised to be the most original since those of Freud, for many people the ways in which his ideas are expressed, including the use of terminology from mathematics and logic, make them difficult of access.Eric Rayner has written the first clear introduction to Matte Blanco's key concepts for psychotherapists and psychoanalysts and all those concerned with moving psychoanalytic thinking forward. He sets out the central ideas in a way which is easy to understand and then shows, with examples, how they relate to clinical practice. He also describes how the ideas are related to those of people in other disciplines - mathematics, logic, psychology (specifically Piaget), and anthropology, among others.Drawing on the work of a group of people who have been inspired by Matte Blanco's thinking to extend their own ideas and test them out in the consulting room, this book reveals the significance of Matte Blanco's thought for future research. Read more

When it was first published in France in 1961 as Folie et Déraison: Histoire de la Folie à l'âge Classique, few had heard of a thirty-four year old philosopher by the name of Michel Foucault. By the time an abridged English edition was published in 1967 as Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault had shaken the intellectual world. This translation is the first English edition of the complete French texts of the first and second edition, including all prefaces and appendices, some of them unavailable in the existing French edition. History of Madness begins in the Middle Ages with vivid descriptions of the exclusion and confinement of lepers. Why, Foucault asks, when the leper houses were emptied at the end of the Middle Ages, were they turned into places of confinement for the mad? Why, within the space of several months in 1656, was one out of every hundred people in Paris confined?Shifting brilliantly from Descartes and early Enlightenment thought to the founding of the Hôpital Général in Paris and the work of early psychiatrists Philippe Pinel and Samuel Tuke, Foucault focuses throughout, not only on scientific and medical analyses of madness, but also on the philosophical and cultural values attached to the mad. He also urges us to recognize the creative and liberating forces that madness represents, brilliantly drawing on examples from Goya, Nietzsche, Van Gogh and Artaud.The History of Madness is an inspiring and classic work that challenges us to understand madness, reason and power and the forces that shape them. Read more

One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial.Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, 'essential' notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category 'woman' and continues in this vein with examinations of 'the masculine' and 'the feminine'. Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality.Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent. Read more

′An excellent introduction to the theoretical, methodological and practical issues of qualitative research... they deal with issues at all stages in a very direct, clear, systematic and practical manner and thus make the processes involved in qualitative research more transparent′ - Nyhedsbrev ′This is a "how to" book on qualitative methods written by people who do qualitative research for a living.... It is likely to become the standard manual on all graduate and undergraduate courses on qualitative methods′ - Professor Robert Walker, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham What exactly is qualitative research? What are the processes involved and what can it deliver as a mode of inquiry?Qualitative research is an exciting blend of scientific investigation and creative discovery. When properly executed, it can bring a unique understanding of people′s lives which in turn can be used to deepen our understanding of society. It as a skilled craft used by practitioners and researchers in the ′real world′; this textbook illuminates the possibilities of qualitative research and presents a sequential overview of the process written by those active in the field. Qualitative Research Practice:- Leads the student or researcher through the entire process of qualitative research from beginning to end - moving through design, sampling, data collection, analysis and reporting. - Is written by practising researchers with extensive experience of conducting qualitative research in the arena of social and public policy - contains numerous case studies.- Contains plenty of pedagogical material including chapter summaries, explanation of key concepts, reflective points for seminar discussion and further reading in each chapter- Is structured and applicable for all courses in qualitative research, irrespective of field.Drawn heavily on courses run by the Qualitative Unit at the National Centre for Social Research, this textbook should be recommended reading for students new to qualitative research across the social sciences. Read more

Formations of Modernity is a major introductory textbook offering an account of the important historical processes, institutions and ideas that have shaped the development of modern societies. This challenging and innovative book 'maps' the evolution of those distinctive forms of political, economic, social and cultural life which characterize modern societies, from their origins in early modern Europe to the nineteenth century. It examines the roots of modern knowledge and the birth of the social sciences in the Enlightenment, and analyses the impact on the emerging identity of 'the West' of its encounters through exploration, trade, conquest and colonization, with 'other civilizations'.Designed as an introduction to modern societies and modern sociological analyses, this book is of value to students on a wide variety of social science courses in universities and colleges and also to readers with no prior knowledge of sociology. Selected readings from a broad range of classical writers (Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Freud, Adam Smith, Montesquieu, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) and contemporary thinkers (Michael Mann, E.P. Thompson, Edward Said) are integrated in each chapter, together with student questions and exercises. Read more

Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies is a new sociology textbook which provides a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to the history, sociology and ideas of modern society. It has been written for students and readers who have no prior knowledge of sociology, and is designed to be used in a variety of social science courses in universities and colleges. The book is divided into three parts, corresponding to the formation, consolidation and prospects of modernity. From the start, four major social processes are identified: the social, the cultural, the political, and the economic. These form the basis of the four chapters in Part 1, and organize the narrative or 'story-line' of the rest of the text. In Part 2, they provide the framework for an analyis of what developed industrial societies look like and how they work. And in Part 3,they provide the basis for identifying the emergent social forces and contradictory processes which are radically re-shaping modern societies today. This is the widest-ranging introduction to the nature of modern societies and will be invaluable to introductory and post-introductory students of sociology. Read more

This panoramic analysis of the condition of Western societies has been hailed as a classic. This first English edition has taken its place as a core text of contemporary sociology alongside earlier typifications of society as postindustrial and current debates about the social dimensions of the postmodern.  Underpinning the analysis is the notion of the ′risk society′. The changing nature of society′s relation to production and distribution is related to the environmental impact as a totalizing, globalizing economy based on scientific and technical knowledge becomes more central to social organization and social conflict. Read more

Ulrich Beck′s best selling Risk Society established risk on the sociological agenda. It brought together a wide range of issues centering on environmental, health and personal risk, provided a rallying ground for researchers and activists in a variety of social movements and acted as a reference point for state and local policies in risk management. The Risk Society and Beyond charts the progress of Beck′s ideas and traces their evolution. It demonstrates why the issues raised by Beck reverberate widely throughout social theory and covers the new risks that Beck did not foresee, associated with the emergence of new technologies, genetic and cybernetic. The book is unique because it offers both an introduction to the main arguments in Risk Society and develops a range of critical discussions of aspects of this and other works of Beck. Read more

This book is an attempt to answer the question 'What is a person?'. Although the answer is given in largely theoretical terms, the author is concerned primarily with practice: what does it mean to live as a human person in community with others? What personal, social, and political practices are required by personal being? The central insight, that human identity is most productively understood in communicational terms, leads to an account of personhood which is both compassionate and which - at the same time - keeps sight of the particularity of each individual. Read more

This is a story of how work gets done. It is also a study of how field service technicians talk about their work and how that talk is instrumental in their success. In his innovative ethnography, Julian E. Orr studies the people who repair photocopiers and shares vignettes from their daily lives. He characterizes their work as a continuous highly skilled improvisation within a triangular relationship of technician, customer, and machine. The work technicians do encompasses elements not contained in the official definition of the job yet vital to its success. Orr's analysis of the way repair people talk about their work reveals that talk is, in fact, a crucial dimension of their practice. Diagnosis happens through a narrative process, the creation of a coherent description of the troubled machine. The descriptions become the basis for technicians' discourse about their experience, and the circulation of stories among the technicians is the principal means by which they stay informed of the developing subtleties of machine behavior. Orr demonstrates that technical knowledge is a socially distributed resource stored and diffused primarily through an oral culture.Based on participant observation with copier repair technicians in the field and strengthened by Orr's own years as a technician, this book explodes numerous myths about technicians and suggests how technical work differs from other kinds of employment. Read more

The Revenge of God is a compelling account of the resurgence of religious belief in the modern world. Kepel compares Islam, Christianity and Judaism revealing the similarities between all three religions and uncovering a hidden and often disturbing reality. Read more

The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty, and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta—the honest courtesan who recast virtue as intellectual integrity and offered wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life? Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was such a woman, a writer and citizen of Venice, whose published poems and familiar letters offer rich testimony to the complexity of the honest courtesan's position. Margaret F. Rosenthal draws a compelling portrait of Veronica Franco in her cultural social, and economic world. Rosenthal reveals in Franco's writing a passionate support of defenseless women, strong convictions about inequality, and, in the eroticized language of her epistolary verses, the seductive political nature of all poetic contests. It is Veronica Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women—and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries—that makes her literary works and her dealings with Venetian intellectuals so pertinent today. Combining the resources of biography, history, literary theory, and cultural criticism, this sophisticated interdisciplinary work presents an eloquent and often moving account of one woman's life as an act of self-creation and as a complex response to social forces and cultural conditions. "A book . . . pleasurably redolent of Venice in the 16th-century. Rosenthal gives a vivid sense of a world of salons and coteries, of intricate networks of family and patronage, and of literary exchanges both intellectual and erotic."—Helen Hackett, Times Higher Education Supplement The Honest Courtesan is the basis for the film Dangerous Beauty (1998) directed by Marshall Herskovitz. (The film was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for release in the UK and Europe in 1999.) Read more

The location of the author’s investigations, the body itself rather than the sphere of subjective representations of self and of function in cultures, is wholly new.... I believe this work will be a landmark in future feminist thinking." ―Alphonso LingisThis is a text of rare erudition and intellectual force. It will not only introduce feminists to an enriching set of theoretical perspectives but sets a high critical standard for feminist dialogues on the status of the body." ―Judith Butler Volatile Bodies demonstrates that the sexually specific body is socially constructed: biology or nature is not opposed to or in conflict with culture. Human biology is inherently social and has no pure or natural "origin" outside of culture. Being the raw material of social and cultural organization, it is "incomplete" and thus subject to the endless rewriting and social inscription that constitute all sign systems.Examining the theories of Freud, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, etc. on the subject of the body, Elizabeth Grosz concludes that the body they theorize is male. These thinkers are not providing an account of "human" corporeality but of male corporeality. Grosz then turns to corporeal experiences unique to women―menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause. Her examination of female experience lays the groundwork for developing theories of sexed corporeality rather than merely rectifying flawed models of male theorists. Read more

This fascinating book documents the everyday abuse, assault, and intimidation that is suffered by black and Asian people in Great Britain every day, using information gathered in an East London London case study. The author explains and analyses the process through which violence is targeted at these minorities, and the role that the ideas and language of racial exclusion take in this process. The failure of the police to respond to this problem is then looked at in depth. This book is based on detailed analysis of official documents, a victimization survey, interviews, and direct observation, seen in the overall context of the history of race relations in Britain. The author describes many of the thousands of racist attacks that have occurred in recent years and the events in the last two decades that have shaped English racism, and the political response to it. In this paperback edition Ben Bowling's Preface examines the racist murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, whose killing in cold blood on an ordinary English street in April 1993 did not hit the headlines until February 1999, causing reverberations across the whole body of British politics and beyond. Read more

The Holy Grail and its quest is a legend that has had a powerful impact on our civilization and culture. The Grail itself is an ancient Celtic symbol of plenty as well as a Christian symbol of redemption and eternal life, the chalice that caught the blood of the crucified Christ. The story of the Grail sheds profound light on man's search for the supreme value of life, for that which makes life most meaningful. Writing in a clear and readable style, two leading women of the Jungian school of psychology present this legend as a living myth that is profoundly relevant to modern life. We encounter such universal figures as the Fool (the naive young Perceval), the Wise Old Man (the Hermit Gornemanz), the Virgin Maiden (Blancheflor), the Loathly Damsel, and such important themes as the Waste Land, the Trinity, and the vessel of the Grail. Weaving together narrative and interpretation, the authors show us how the legend reflects not only fundamental human problems but also the dramatic psychic events that form the background of our Christian culture. Emma Jung--analyst, writer, and wife of the famous psychologist C. G. Jung--researched and worked on this book for thirty years, until her death in 1955. Marie-Louise von Franz, also eminent in the field of depth psychology, completed the project. Read more