Social theory is a crucial resource for the social sciences. It provides rich insights into how human beings think and act and how contemporary social life is constructed. But often the key ideas of social theorists are expressed in highly technical and difficult language that can hide more than it reveals.The new edition of this popular book continues to cut to the core of what social theory is about. Wide-ranging in scope and coverage, it is concise in presentation and free from ...

Culture is unquestionably a central topic in the contemporary social sciences. In order to understand how people think, feel, value, act and express themselves, it is necessary to examine the cultures they create, and are in turn created by. Here, David Inglis shows how the study of culture can be transformed by focusing in on how cultural forces shape, influence, structure - and occasionally disrupt - the day-to-day activities of individuals.Reconsidering different views on 'cultu...

It is impossible to enter any foreign country for the first time, without experiencing some mental excitement; and it seems to me, that among all the countries of Europe, Spain is the most calculated to awaken interest and expectation: for even if it were possible to forget all that links the history of Spain with Carthagenian enterprise, and Roman ambition, and Moorish grandeur, the present condition of the country, and the desire of gratifying curiosity, respecting the manners, character...

Cultural Sociology: An Introduction is the first dedicated student textbook to address cultural sociology as a legitimate model for sociological thinking and research. Highly renowned authors present a rich overview of major sociological themes and the various empirical applications of cultural sociology.A timely introductory overview to this increasingly significant field which provides invaluable summaries of key studies and approaches within cultural sociology

This textbook puts sport in the spotlight of cultural inquiry for the first time. The authors provide the essential resources for the study of sport within culture and popular culture. Sport is an important part of cultural life, yet until recently it has tended to remain on the margins of academic cultural studies.Beginning by considering sport in relation to the pre-cultural studies tradition of cultural commentary, The Uses of Sport then moves on to a critical engagemen...

Since participating in the original development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos over forty years ago, David Inglis has written more than sixty articles on various aspects of the subject. These articles not only provide a useful background for specific issues of the arms race, but also point out missed opportunities for making our future safer and the major obstacles in reaching any agreements in arms reduction. This book is built around selections from those articles.

The Globalization of Wine is a one-stop guide to understanding wine across the world today. Examining a broad range of developments in the wine world, it considers the social, cultural, economic, political and geographical dimensions of wine globalization. It investigates how large-scale changes in production, distribution and consumption are transforming the wine that we drink.Comprehensive background discussion is complemented by vivid case study chapters from a variety ...

Just 5 miles south from the Welsh capital of Cardiff lies the charming seaside town of Penarth. It boasts some fine examples of Victorian and Edwardian architecture from the town’s heyday in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when it was fondly referred to as ‘the garden by the sea’. David Ings guides the reader along its elegant seafront and through the charismatic streets; with the help of a handy location map, readers are invited along to discover for themselves the changing ...

How do fashions in drinks work, and how are drinks fashions related to changing trends in clothes and apparel? These twin questions are posed and answered by the book Drinks in Vogue.Taking a radically cross-disciplinary set of perspectives and ranging far and wide across time and space, the book considers beverages as varied as cocktails, wine, Champagne, craft beer, coffee, and mineral water. The contributors present rich case materials which illuminate key conceptual is...

Dark and shocking psychological suspense about a man at war with himself. This is a skillful and assured debut about a deeply unsettling subject Jonathan has returned from prison to his almost deserted, run-down neighbourhood. He has returned to his mother, to his dog, to filling the days with walks on the dunes and caring for the fish he keeps in an aquarium in his bedroom - struggling, like him, to survive the oppressive summer heat. But there is a young girl with a chipped front tooth l...

As the United Nations Convention against Corruption celebrates 20 years, there could be a sense that anti-corruption discourses, policies, and practices are settling into a stable, consensus-driven phase. This edited volume argues they are not.Bringing together perspectives from around the world, this book captures the turbulent contemporary practice of anti-corruption. It shows it to be an arena in which domestic and transnational politics play out, shaping outcomes in often unpre...

Organizations embark on open innovation initiatives to sweep in external knowledge, practices and resources in cooperation with partners. This contrasts to the mainstream private innovation approach of in-house research and development sponsored solely by an incorporated funder, with intellectual property protected by copyright. Few organizations simultaneously engage in both approaches, within and across the levels of programs, projects and individuals. How does lear...