Social media has come to deeply penetrate our lives: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and many other platforms define many of our daily habits of communication and creative production. The Culture of Connectivity studies the rise of social media in the first decade of the twenty-first century up until 2012, providing both a historical and a critical analysis of the emergence of major platforms in the context of a rapidly changing ecosystem of connective media. Such history is needed to understand h...

‘There is no author whose books I look forward to more’ BILL GATES

In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today:

Why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations?

Why is food waste a colossal 1,000kcal per person daily, and how can we solve that?

Could we all go vegan and be healthy? Should we?

How w...

Illuminates the social pretentions of the middle classes in the modern world, focusing on the tastes and preferences of the French bourgeoisie. This book argues that the social world functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement.

Crime, Criminal Justice & Religion: A Critical Appraisal seeks to bridge a gap in the examination of crime and criminal justice by taking both a historical and contemporary lens to explore the influence of religion.

The eighth edition of The Dynamics of Persuasion again guides readers in understanding the power and limits of persuasion in contemporary society. This edition continues its accessible and detailed illustration of the theoretical underpinnings of persuasive communication through contemporary and relevant examples of persuasion in action. It features coverage of new scholarship on misinformation, health communication, and persuasion effects, including careful attention to persuasion’s r...

The updated third edition of this book scrutinizes anew the history of anthropological theory. Covering key concepts and theorists in a lively style, Engaging Anthropological Theory examines the historical context of anthropological ideas and the contested nature of anthropology itself.

This book helps students to understand the relationship between theory and practice in social work.

A complete guide to understanding dementia in social work.

Hall offers a wide-ranging exploration of the issues surrounding cultural identity. He outlines the reasons why the question of identity is so compelling and yet so problematic. Outstanding contributors then interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity providing both theoretical and substantive insights into different approaches to understanding identity.