Economics, Politics and Sociology (58)

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education

Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity and Resilience in Europe

• Olga Burlyuk
• Ladan Rahbari

This volume consists of narratives of migrant academics from the Global South within academia in the Global North. The autobiographic and autoethnographic contributions to this collection aim to decolonise the discourse around academic mobility by highlighting experiences of precarity, resilience, care and solidarity in the academic margins.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

The Last Years of Polish Jewry: Volume 1: At the Edge of the Abyss: Essays, 1927–33

• Yankev Leshchinsky
• Robert Brym
• Eli Jany
• Robert Brym

Ukrainian-born Yankev Leshchinsky (1876–1966) was the leading scholarly and journalistic analyst of Eastern European Jewish socioeconomic and political life from the 1920s to the 1950s. Known as “the dean of Jewish sociologists” and “the father of Jewish demography,” Leshchinsky published a series of insightful and moving essays in Yiddish on Polish Jewry between 1927 and 1937. Despite heightened interest in interwar Jewish communities in Poland in recent years, these essays (like most of Leshchinsky’s works) have never been translated into English. The Last Years of Polish Jewry helps to rectify this situation by translating some of Leshchinsky’s key essays.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• European Studies

Greening Europe: 2022 European Public Investment Outlook

• Floriana Cerniglia
• Francesco Saraceno

The third installment of the ‘European Public Investment Outlook’ series is an important and timely publication that draws together recent analyses to recommend significant increases in public investment in green ventures. Compelling data from key economists affiliated with international organizations like the International Monetary Fund, European Investment Bank and the European Commission, as well as academic departments and policy institutes are a clarion call for green investment to boost the economy and put the planet on a sustainable path.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Media Studies and Journalism
• Philosophy

Engaging with Everyday Sounds

• Marcel Cobussen

'Engaging With Everyday Sounds' is a rich and inspiring exploration of the role of sounds in everyday life, including their impact on human actions, emotions, and imagination. Marcel Cobussen intertwines sonic studies with philosophy, sound art, sociology and more to create an impressively lucid and innovative guide to sonic materialism, calling for a re-sensitization to our acoustic environment and arguing that everyday sounds have (micro)political, social, and ethical impact to which we should attend.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Anthropology of Transformation: From Europe to Asia and Back

• Juraj Buzalka
• Agnieszka Pasieka

This collection of essays is the result of the joint efforts of colleagues and students of the leading social anthropology and post-socialism theorist, Professor Chris Hann. With the thirtieth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 2019 as their catalyst, the authors reflect upon Chris Hann’s lifelong fieldwork in the discipline, spanning regions as diverse as East Central Europe, Turkey, and the Chinese north-west.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

‘Fragile States’ in an Unequal World: The Role of the g7+ in International Diplomacy and Development Cooperation

• Isabel Rocha de Siqueira

This is a book about people. ‘Fragile States’ in an Unequal World: The Role of the g7+ in International Diplomacy and Development Cooperation introduces the members of the g7+, a group formed by 20 conflict-affected states: why they came to believe in politics and policy; how they feel about their work, their family and their communities; and what they want to leave behind for the next generations. It is the story of their personal and collective values, their mistakes, and the challenges they faced, and it will resonate with anyone who has tried to organize and work with a group of very different people.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

The Merger Mystery: Why Spend Ever More on Mergers When So Many Fail?

• Geoff Meeks
• J. Gay Meeks

Drawing on findings from a wealth of statistical analyses and case evidence from many businesses, the book presents answers to this merger mystery. In a synthesis of ideas from several disciplines, solutions are detected in misaligned incentives, distorted financial engineering and information asymmetry. By revealing how weaknesses at multiple points can interact and cumulate to produce inefficient outcomes, the discussion serves as a corrective to the overwhelmingly positive tone of most commentary on M&A, whilst also advocating changes in participants’ contracts, in taxation, and in regulation which could significantly reduce the number of mergers that fail.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Philosophy

A Common Good Approach to Development: Collective Dynamics of Development Processes

• Mathias Nebel
• Oscar Garza-Vázquez
• Clemens Sedmak

This edited collection proposes a common good approach to development theory and practice.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Environmental Studies

Ecocene Politics

• Mihnea Tănăsescu

Anchored in the diverse ecological practices of communities in southern Italy and Aotearoa/New Zealand, this book devises a unique and considered theoretical response to the shortcomings of global politics in the Ecocene—a new temporal epoch characterised by the increasingly frequent intrusion of ecological processes into political life.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education

Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries

• Daniel A. Wagner
• Nathan M. Castillo
• Suzanne Grant Lewis

Improving learning evidence and outcomes for those most in need in developing countries is at the heart of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG4). This timely volume brings together contributions on current empirical research and analysis of emerging trends that focus on improving the quality of education through better policy and practice, particularly for those who need improved 'learning at the bottom of the pyramid' (LBOP).

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education
• Other languages
• Performing Arts

Replanteando la acción social por la música: la búsqueda de la convivencia y la ciudadanía en la Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín

• Geoffrey Baker
• Claudia García

Este libro pionero examina el desarrollo de La Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín, una red de 27 escuelas fundada en 1996 en la segunda ciudad principal de Colombia como respuesta a su reputación como la ciudad más peligrosa en la Tierra. Inspirada en El Sistema, el programa venezolano fundacional de educación musical, La Red es, no obstante, notablemente diferente: su historia es una de múltiples reinvenciones y de una búsqueda continua para mejorar su oferta educativa y alcanzar mejor sus objetivos sociales. Sus reflexiones internas e intentos de transformación arrojan luz valiosa sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro de ASPM.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Democratising Participatory Research: Pathways to Social Justice from the South

• Carmen Martinez-Vargas

In this book Carmen Martinez-Vargas explores how academic participatory research and the way it is carried out can contribute to more, or less, social justice. Adopting theoretical and empirical approaches, and addressing multiple complex, intersectional issues, this book offers inspiration for scholars and practitioners to open up alternative pathways to social justice, viewed through a Global South lens.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• European Studies

The Great Reset: 2021 European Public Investment Outlook

• Floriana Cerniglia
• Francesco Saraceno
• Andrew Watt

This timely and insightful collection of essays written by economists from a range of academic and policy institutes explores the subject of public investment through two avenues. The first examines public investment trends and needs in Europe, addressing the initiatives taken by European governments to tackle the COVID-19 recession and to rebuild their economies. The second identifies key domains where European public investment is needed to build a more sustainable Europe, from climate change to human capital formation.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Environmental Studies

Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis

• Steffen Böhm
• Sian Sullivan

Climate change negotiations have failed the world. Despite more than thirty years of high-level, global talks on climate change, we are still seeing carbon emissions rise dramatically. This edited volume, comprising leading and emerging scholars and climate activists from around the world, takes a critical look at what has gone wrong and what is to be done to create more decisive action.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Environmental Studies
• European Studies
• European Studies: Eastern European Studies

Politics and the Environment in Eastern Europe

• Eszter Krasznai Kovacs

This volume draws together essays by early-career academic researchers from across eastern Europe.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Human Cultures through the Scientific Lens: Essays in Evolutionary Cognitive Anthropology

• Pascal Boyer

This volume brings together a collection of seven articles previously published by the author, with a new introduction reframing the articles in the context of past and present questions in anthropology, psychology and human evolution. It promotes the perspective of ‘integrated’ social science, in which social science questions are addressed in a deliberately eclectic manner, combining results and models from evolutionary biology, experimental psychology, economics, anthropology and history.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Health
• Philosophy

Towards an Ethics of Autism: A Philosophical Exploration

• Kristien Hens

What does it mean to say that someone is autistic? Dynamics of Autism is an exploration of this question and many more.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Media Studies and Journalism

Technology, Media Literacy, and the Human Subject: A Posthuman Approach

• Richard S. Lewis

This book addresses these issues by providing a transdisciplinary method that allows for both practical and theoretical analyses of media investigations. Informed by postphenomenology, media ecology, philosophical posthumanism, and complexity theory the author proposes both a framework and a pragmatic instrument for understanding the multiplicity of relations that all contribute to how we affect—and are affected by—our relations with media technology.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Mathematics
• Science: Applied Science
• Textbooks and Learning Guides

Inventory Analytics

• Roberto Rossi

Inventory Analytics is the first book of its kind to adopt a practicable, Python-driven approach to illustrating theories and concepts via computational examples, with each model covered in the book accompanied by its Python code.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education
• Performing Arts

Rethinking Social Action through Music: The Search for Coexistence and Citizenship in Medellín’s Music Schools

• Geoffrey Baker

How can we better understand the past, present and future of Social Action through Music (SATM)? This ground-breaking book examines the development of the Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín (the Network of Music Schools of Medellín), a network of 27 schools founded in Colombia’s second city in 1996 as a response to its reputation as the most dangerous city on Earth.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education

Like Nobody's Business: An Insider's Guide to How US University Finances Really Work

• Andrew C. Comrie

Grounded in hard data, original analyses, and the practical experience of a seasoned administrator, this book provides refreshingly clear answers and comprehensive insights for anyone on or off campus who is interested in the business of the university: how it earns its money, how it spends it, and how it all works.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Media Studies and Journalism

Introducing Vigilant Audiences

• Daniel Trottier
• Rashid Gabdulhakov
• Qian Huang

This ground-breaking collection of essays examines the scope and consequences of digital vigilantism – a phenomenon emerging on a global scale, which sees digital audiences using social platforms to shape social and political life. Longstanding forms of moral scrutiny and justice seeking are disseminated through our contemporary media landscape, and researchers are increasingly recognising the significance of societal impacts effected by digital media.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Women and Gender Studies

Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora

• Grace Aneiza Ali

Liminal Spaces is an intimate exploration into the migration narratives of fifteen women of Guyanese heritage. It spans diverse inter-generational perspectives – from those who leave Guyana, and those who are left – and seven seminal decades of Guyana’s history – from the 1950s to the present day – bringing the voices of women to the fore. The volume is conceived of as a visual exhibition on the page; a four-part journey navigating the contributors’ essays and artworks, allowing the reader to trace the migration path of Guyanese women from their moment of departure, to their arrival on diasporic soils, to their reunion with Guyana.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Education

Discourses We Live By: Narratives of Educational and Social Endeavour

• Hazel R. Wright
• Marianne Høyen

This book is a rich and multifaceted collection of twenty-eight chapters that use varied lenses to examine the discourses that shape people’s lives. The contributors are themselves from many backgrounds – different academic disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, diverse professional practices and a range of countries and cultures. They represent a broad spectrum of age, status and outlook, and variously apply their research methods – but share a common interest in people, their lives, thoughts and actions.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• European Studies

A European Public Investment Outlook

• Floriana Cerniglia
• Francesco Saraceno

The essays in this outlook collectively foster a broad approach to and definition of public investment, that is today more relevant than ever. Offering up a timely and clear case for the elimination of bias against investment in European fiscal rules, this outlook is a welcome contribution to the European debate, aimed both at policy makers and general readers.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Environmental Studies

Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing

• Sam Mickey
• Mary Evelyn Tucker
• John Grim

Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing is a celebration of the diversity of ways in which humans can relate to the world around them, and an invitation to its readers to partake in planetary coexistence. Innovative, informative, and highly accessible, this interdisciplinary anthology of essays brings together scholars, writers and educators across the sciences and humanities, in a collaborative effort to illuminate the different ways of being in the world and the different kinds of knowledge they entail – from the ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities, to the scientific knowledge of a biologist and the embodied knowledge communicated through storytelling.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Textbooks and Learning Guides

Models in Microeconomic Theory ('He' Edition)

• Martin J. Osborne
• Ariel Rubinstein

Models in Microeconomic Theory covers basic models in current microeconomic theory. The book focuses on the concepts of model and equilibrium. It states models and results precisely, and provides proofs for all results. It uses only elementary mathematics (with almost no calculus), although many of the proofs involve sustained logical arguments. It includes about 150 exercises.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Textbooks and Learning Guides

Models in Microeconomic Theory ('She' Edition)

• Martin J. Osborne
• Ariel Rubinstein

Models in Microeconomic Theory covers basic models in current microeconomic theory. The book focuses on the concepts of model and equilibrium. It states models and results precisely, and provides proofs for all results. It uses only elementary mathematics (with almost no calculus), although many of the proofs involve sustained logical arguments. It includes about 150 exercises.

• American and Latin American Studies
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies: Perspectives on the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

• William Boone Bonvillian
• Richard Van Atta
• Patrick Windham

This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North

• Joachim Otto Habeck

Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North breaks new ground by exploring the concept of lifestyle from a distinctly anthropological perspective. Showcasing the collective work of ten experienced scholars in the field, the book goes beyond concepts of tradition that have often been the focus of previous research, to explain how political, economic and technological changes in Russia have created a wide range of new possibilities and constraints in the pursuit of different ways of life.

• Asian Studies
• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Infrastructure Investment in Indonesia: A Focus on Ports

• Colin Duffield
• Felix Kin Peng Hui
• Sally Wilson

Infrastructure Investment in Indonesia: A Focus on Ports presents an important and original collation of current material investigating the efficient facilitation of major infrastructure projects in Indonesia and Australia, with an emphasis on infrastructure investment and a focus on port planning and development

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Labor and Value: Rethinking Marx’s Theory of Exploitation

• Ernesto Screpanti

In this book Ernesto Screpanti provides a rigorous examination of Marx’s theory of exploitation, one of the cornerstones of Marxist thought. With precision and clarity, he identifies the holes in traditional readings of Marx’s theory before advancing his own original interpretation, drawing on contemporary philosophy and economic theory to provide a refreshingly interdisciplinary exegesis.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations
• Textbooks and Learning Guides

History of International Relations: A Non-European Perspective

• Erik Ringmar

Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International Relations courses, and by explicitly focusing on non-European cases, debates and issues.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Biography
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Visual Arts
• Women and Gender Studies

Women and Migration: Responses in Art and History

• Deborah Willis
• Ellyn Toscano
• Kalia Brooks Nelson

The essays in this book chart how women’s profound and turbulent experiences of migration have been articulated in writing, photography, art and film. As a whole, the volume gives an impression of a wide range of migratory events from women’s perspectives, covering the Caribbean Diaspora, refugees and slavery through the various lenses of politics and war, love and family.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Science
• Science: History of Science

Hanging on to the Edges: Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life

• Daniel Nettle

Pragmatically arguing from the intersection between social and biological sciences, Nettle reappraises the virtues of policy initiatives such as Universal Basic Income and income redistribution, highlighting the traps researchers and politicians are liable to encounter. This provocative, intelligent and self-critical volume is a testament to the possibilities of interdisciplinary study—whose virtues Nettle stridently defends—drawing from and having implications for a wide cross-section of academic inquiry. This will appeal to anybody curious about the implications of social and biological sciences for increasingly topical political concerns. It comes particularly recommended to Sciences and Social Sciences students and to scholars seeking to extend the scope of their field in collaboration with other disciplines.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Health

Undocumented Migrants and Healthcare: Eight Stories from Switzerland

• Marianne Jossen

This urgent study uses a grounded theory approach to explore the ways in which undocumented migrants are included in or excluded from healthcare in a Swiss region. Marianne Jossen explores the ways migrants try to obtain healthcare on their own, with the help of NGOs or via insurance, and how they cope if they fail, whether by using risky strategies to access healthcare or leaving serious health issues untreated. Jossen shows that even for those who succeed, inclusion remains partial and fraught with risks.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus

• Manja Stephan-Emmrich
• Philipp Schröder

This collection brings together a variety of anthropological, historical and sociological case studies from Central Asia and the Caucasus to examine the concept of translocality. The chapters scrutinize the capacity of translocality to describe, in new ways, the multiple mobilities, exchange practices and globalizing processes that link places, people and institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus with others in Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates.

• American and Latin American Studies
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History

The Jewish Unions in America: Pages of History and Memories

• Bernard Weinstein
• Maurice Wolfthal

From the pages of this book emerges a vivid picture of workers’ organizations at the beginning of the twentieth century and a capitalist system that bred exploitation, poverty, and inequality. Although workers’ rights have made great progress in the decades since, Weinstein’s descriptions of workers with jobs pitted against those without, and American workers against workers abroad, still carry echoes today. The Jewish Unions in America is a testament to the struggles of working people a hundred years ago. But it is also a reminder that workers must still battle to live decent lives in the free market.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Philosophy
• Science
• Science: History of Science

Science as Social Existence: Heidegger and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

• Jeff Kochan

In this bold and original study, Jeff Kochan constructively combines the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) with Martin Heidegger’s early existential conception of science. Kochan shows convincingly that these apparently quite different approaches to science are, in fact, largely compatible, even mutually reinforcing.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Philosophy
• Textbooks and Learning Guides

Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice: The Capability Approach Re-Examined

• Ingrid Robeyns

Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice also endeavors to resolve historical disputes in the literature and thus will be equally engaging to those familiar with the field. The author offers a novel and illuminating account of how the capability approach can be understood in a variety of academic disciplines and fields of application. Special attention is paid to clarifying misunderstandings that have been caused by different disciplinary assumptions and the interpretive consequences they have for our consideration of the capability approach.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture

• Agner Fog

Are humans violent or peaceful by nature? We are both. In this ambitious and wide-ranging book, Agner Fog presents a ground-breaking new argument that explains the existence of differently organised societies using evolutionary theory. It combines natural sciences and social sciences in a way that is rarely seen.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

World of Walls: The Structure, Roles and Effectiveness of Separation Barriers

• Said Saddiki

In this timely and original book, Said Saddiki scrutinises the physical and virtual walls located in four continents, including Israel, India, the southern EU border, Morocco, and the proposed border wall between Mexico and the US. Saddiki’s detailed analysis explores the tensions between the rise of globalisation, which some have argued will lead to a "borderless world” and "the end of the nation-state”, and the rapid development in recent decades of border control systems.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Just Managing? What it Means for the Families of Austerity Britain

• Mark O'Brien
• Paul Kyprianou

At a time when the impact of austerity is more relevant than ever, Just Managing? cuts through the debates and sloganeering to give some of the real people behind the headlines and statistics a chance to tell their stories. It tracks the lives of thirty working families in Liverpool over one year, as they struggle to manage on incomes at or around the National Minimum Wage. Their accounts are placed within the economic and political context that has shaped their experiences and that of millions of other working families across the country.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Security in a Small Nation: Scotland, Democracy, Politics

• Andrew W. Neal

The 2014 Referendum on Scottish independence sparked debate on every dimension of modern statehood. Levels of public interest and engagement were unprecedented, as demonstrated by record-breaking voter turnout. Yet aside from Trident, the issue of security was relatively neglected in the campaigns, and there remains a lack of literature on the topic. In this volume Andrew Neal has collated a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives on security and constitutional change in Scotland and the UK, including writing from experts in foreign policy analysis, intelligence studies, parliamentary studies, and journalism.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Deliberation, Representation, Equity: Research Approaches, Tools and Algorithms for Participatory Processes

• Love Ekenberg
• Karin Hansson
• Mats Danielson
• Göran Cars

In democratic societies there is widespread acknowledgment of the need to incorporate citizens’ input in decision-making processes in more or less structured ways. But participatory decision making is balancing on the borders of inclusion, structure, precision and accuracy. To simply enable more participation will not yield enhanced democracy, and there is a clear need for more elaborated elicitation and decision analytical tools. This rigorous and thought-provoking volume draws on a stimulating variety of international case studies, from flood risk management in the Red River Delta of Vietnam, to the consideration of alternatives to gold mining in Roșia Montană in Transylvania, to the application of multi-criteria decision analysis in evaluating the impact of e-learning opportunities at Uganda's Makerere University. This book is important new reading for decision makers in government, public administration and urban planning, as well as students and researchers in the fields of participatory democracy, urban planning, social policy, communication design, participatory art, decision theory, risk analysis and computer and systems sciences.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

The Infrastructure Finance Challenge

• Ingo Walter

Infrastructure and its effects on economic growth, social welfare, and sustainability receive a great deal of attention today. Infrastructure finance is among the most complex and challenging areas in the global financial architecture. Ingo Walter, Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics Emeritus at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and his team of experts tackles the issue by focussing on key findings backed by serious theoretical and empirical research. The result is a set of viable guideposts for researchers, policy-makers, students and anybody interested in the complex challenges of contemporary economy.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Performing Arts

Theatre and War: Notes from the Field

• Nandita Dinesh

Nandita Dinesh places Kipling’s "six honest serving-men" (who, what, when, where, why, how) in productive conversation with her own experiences in conflict zones across the world to offer a theoretical and practical reflection on making theatre in times of war. This timely and important book weaves together Dinesh’s personal narrative with the public story of modern conflict, illustrating as it does, the importance of theatre as a force for ethical deliberation and social justice.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Law

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century: A Living Document in a Changing World

• Gordon Brown

The Global Citizenship Commission was convened, under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the auspices of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study, to re-examine the spirit and stirring words of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The result – this volume – offers a 21st-century commentary on the original document, furthering the work of human rights and illuminating the ideal of global citizenship. What does it mean for each of us to be members of a global community?

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Tyneside Neighbourhoods: Deprivation, Social Life and Social Behaviour in One British City

• Daniel Nettle

Tyneside Neighbourhoods uses multiple research methods to explore social relationships and social behaviour, attempting to understand whether the experience of deprivation fosters social solidarity, or undermines it. The book is distinctive in its development of novel quantitative methods for ethnography: systematic social observation, economic games, household surveys, crime statistics, and field experiments.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia: Foreign Policies and the Korean Peninsula

• Peter Hayes
• Kiho Yi

Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia offers the latest understanding of complex global problems in the region, including nuclear weapons, urban insecurity, energy, and climate change. Detailed case studies of China, North and South Korea, and Japan demonstrate the importance of civil society and ‘civic diplomacy’ in reaching shared solutions to these problems in East Asia and beyond.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• Science
• Science: History of Science

The Scientific Revolution Revisited

• Mikuláš Teich

With a narrative that moves from pre-classical thought to the European institutionalisation of science – and a scope that embraces figures both lionised and neglected, such as Nicole Oresme, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, René Descartes, Thaddeus Hagecius, Johann Joachim Becher – The Scientific Revolution Revisited illuminates the social and intellectual sea changes that shaped the modern world.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Democracy and Power: The Delhi Lectures

• Noam Chomsky

Chomsky’s early insights into the workings of power in the modern world remain timely and compelling. Published for the first time, this series of lectures also provides the reader with an invaluable introduction to the essential ideas of one of the leading thinkers of our time.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Feeding the City: Work and Food Culture of the Mumbai Dabbawalas

• Sara Roncaglia
• Angela Arnone

Every day in Mumbai 5,000 dabbawalas distribute 200,000 home-cooked lunchboxes across the city. Giving employment and status to thousands of largely illiterate villagers, this co-operative provides one of the most efficient delivery networks in the world. This book is an ethnographic study of the fascinating inner workings of Mumbai’s dabbawalas. Sara Roncaglia explains how they cater to the dietary requirements of a diverse and increasingly global city, where food preparation and consumption is pervaded with religious and cultural significance. Developing the idea of ‘gastrosemantics’, Roncaglia’s study helps us to rethink our relationship to food at a local and global level.

• Asian Studies
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler

• Lionel Gossman

Born into a prominent German Jewish banking family, Max von Oppenheim was a keen amateur archaeologist and ethnologist, whose excavation of Tel Halaf in Syria marked an important contribution to knowledge of the ancient Middle East. He was also an ardent German patriot, eager to support his country’s pursuit of its ‘place in the sun’. Ranging widely over many fields – from war studies to archaeology and banking history – this book tells the gripping and at times unsettling story of one part-Jewish man’s passion for his country in the face of persistent and, in his later years, genocidal anti-Semitism.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Is Behavioral Economics Doomed? The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary

• David K. Levine

With the current fashion for criticizing economic theory for focusing too much on rationality and ignoring the imperfect and emotional way in which real economic decisions are reached, behavioral economics – the effort to incorporate psychological ideas into economics – has become all the rage. This book questions the idea that behavioural economics is the answer to economic problems. It not only provides an overview of popular behavioral theories and their history, but also gives the reader the tools for scrutinizing them. Levine’s book is essential reading for students and teachers of economic theory and anyone interested in the psychology of economics.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Asian Studies
• Economics, Politics and Sociology
• History
• History: International Relations

Frontier Encounters: Knowledge and Practice at the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Border

• Franck Billé
• Grégory Delaplace
• Caroline Humphrey

China, Russia and Mongolia share thousands of miles of border, but their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Presenting varied perspectives on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced and crossed, this book illuminates global uncertainties: China’s search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia’s fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious economic independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Economic Fables

• Ariel Rubinstein

Part memoir, part crash-course in economic theory, this deeply engaging book by one of the world’s foremost economists looks at economic ideas through a personal lens. Together with an introduction to some of the central concepts in modern economic thought, Ariel Rubinstein offers some powerful and entertaining reflections on his childhood, family and career. In doing so, he challenges many of the central tenets of game theory, and sheds light on the role economics can play in society at large. The book is as thought-provoking for seasoned economists as it is enlightening for newcomers to the field.

• Economics, Politics and Sociology

Peace and Democratic Society

• Amartya Sen

Emphasizing the need to understand the relationship between violence, peace and democracy, Amartya Sen’s introductory essay explores ideas around ‘organised violence’ and violence against the individual. Highlighting the inadequacies of some of the widely accepted explanations for violence, Sen makes a plea for a global, multilateral debate on the causes of conflict, and an understanding of the multiple identities of the individuals involved. This challenging and insightful essay introduces the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding’s timely report “Civil Paths to Peace”, which stresses the need to understand the complexities around violent behaviour and its causes.