When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases "global village" and "the medium is the message" in 1964, no-one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. No-one, that is, except for a handful of science fiction writers and Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media was written twenty years before the PC revolution and thirty years before the rise of the Internet.

Yet McLuhan's insights into our engagement with a variety of media led to a complete rethinking of our entire society. ...

In contrast to other disciplines, social psychology has been slow in responding to the questions posed by the issue of ethnicity. The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity, Second Edition, demonstrates the important and diverse contribution that social psychology can make. Comprehensively updated to include the latest research on dual and multiple identities, mutual links between sense of ethnic identity and social contexts, and the development of ethnic identity in adolescence, this new editi...

This accessible book introduces the story of 'social science', with coverage of history, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and geography. Key questions include: How and why did the social sciences originate and differentiate? How are they related to older traditions that have defined Western civilization? What is the unique perspective or 'way of knowing' of each social science? What are the challenges-and alternatives-to the social sciences as they stand in the twenty...

Cybercrime and Society is a student focused and pedagogically developed introduction to the area of cybercrime, which over the past few decades has seen an explosion of growth due to new global forms of electronic communication. Â

We live in a world where seemingly everything can be measured. We rely on indicators to translate social phenomena into simple, quantified terms, which in turn can be used to guide individuals, organizations, and governments in establishing policy. Yet counting things requires finding a way to make them comparable.

And in the process of translating the confusion of social life into neat categories, we inevitably strip it of context and meaning—and risk hiding or distorting as much as we rev...

Health systems have long been considered key determinants of well-being within modern societies, a valuable resource which have faced a series of reform initiatives throughout the past decades. These reforms have been used to manage the cost of development, measure the tenability of health systems in globalizing economies and promote the increasing importance of health problems related to lifestyle and living conditions, yet they have failed to provide a true resolution to the persistent econ...

How do we try to make the world a better place, when the challenges of poverty, disease, war, conflict, and climate change continue to impact millions of lives? Global Development: The Basics is a lively and engaging introduction to the shifting landscape of global development, right from its origins, to present-day problems, and on to what the future for global development might look like. Recognising global development as an economic, political, and social project, this book tackles a serie...

As the EU continues its integration process, the concepts of culture and transnational European belonging remain ambivalent, whether in the realm of socio-historical representation or mass politics. Engaging with recent scholarly debates surrounding the formation of collective transnational identities, this collection draws on the latest empirical case studies to explore the meaning and composition of European identity, the mechanisms that create and shape it and the question of whom it inclu...

Power, Politics and Society: An Introduction to Political Sociology discusses how sociologists have organized the study of politics into conceptual frameworks, and how each of these frameworks foster a sociological perspective on power and politics in society. This includes discussing how these frameworks can be applied to understanding current issues and other "real life" aspects of politics. This second edition incorporates new material on cultural divides in American politics, emerging rol...

Raj Patel, the New York Times bestselling author of The Value of Nothing, teams up with physician, activist, and co-founder of the Do No Harm Coalition Rupa Marya to reveal the links between health and structural injustices--and to offer a new deep medicine that can heal our bodies and our world.

The Covid pandemic and the shocking racial disparities in its impact. The surge in inflammatory illnesses such as gastrointestinal disorders and asthma. Mass uprisings around the world in response to...