Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND.Drawing on Roma community voices and expert research, this book provides a powerful tool to challenge conventional discourses and analyses on Romani identity, poverty and exclusion.Through the transformative vehicle of a ‘Social Europe’, this edited collection presents new concepts and strategies for framing social justice for Romani communities across Europe. The vast majority of Roma experience high levels of exclusion from the labo...

This major new manifesto offers a “clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society” and shows how left-wing politics can be rebuilt for the 21st century (Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism)Neoliberalism isn’t working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite.Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto f...

The idea of finding a 'third way' in politics has been widely discussed over recent months - not only in the UK, but in the US, Continental Europe and Latin America. But what is the third way? Supporters of the notion haven't been able to agree, and critics deny the possibility altogether. Anthony Giddens shows that developing a third way is not only a possibility but a necessity in modern politics.

Social movements have an elusive power but one that is altogether real. From the French and American revolutions to the post-Soviet, ethnic and terrorist movements of today, contentious politics exercises a fleeting but powerful influence on politics, society and international relations. This study surveys the modern history of the modern social movements in the West and their diffusion to the global South through war, colonialism and diffusion, and it puts forward a theory to explain its ...

Why does racism exist? Is Big Brother watching us? Why are women paid less than men? Investigate society's hidden truths, from gender and identity politics to consumer culture with this insightful guide.Sociology is the study of how societies are organized and what helps them function or go wrong. Heads Up Sociology explores a range of curious social phenomena, including poverty and class status, white-collar crime, religious beliefs, and internet anxietie...

Just about everyone is 'for' development as an assumed 'good', yet few seem to have a concrete idea of what the term actually entails. Development offers a comprehensive and wide-ranging analysis of the various ways in which this important concept has been used in social and political analysis over the past 200 years.

Specifically, the book tackles the question: Who exactly are the anti-capitalists and what do they want? Simon Tormey examines the ideas of the various components that make up the movement: the anarchists and Marxists, the greens and environmentalists, the anti-corporate activists and autonomists, among many others. He looks in detail at how the movement operates its reliance on a unique combination of word-of-mouth, the internet, and communications technology. The examples he draws on inc...

Globalization is undoubtedly the great overarching paradigm of our era. However, there is still little agreement on what globalization actually ‘is’ and some do not accept that it ‘is’ anything at all.This new book addresses the contestation of globalization by the anti- or counter-globalization movement. To contest means to challenge, to call into question, to doubt, to oppose and to litigate. This study shows how globalization is ‘contestable’ in many different ways and how the c...

Globalization has reconfigured both the external institutional framework and the intrinsic operating mechanisms of capitalism. The global triumph of capitalism implies the embracing of the market by the state in all its variants, and that global capitalism is not confined to the shell of nation-state democracy. Guoguang Wu provides a theoretical framework of global capitalism for specialists in political economy, political science, economics and international relations, for graduate and un...

Heralding a push for higher education to adopt a more global perspective, the term "globalizing knowledge" is today a popular catchphrase among academics and their circles. The complications and consequences of this desire for greater worldliness, however, are rarely considered critically. In this groundbreaking cultural-political sociology of knowledge and change, Michael D. Kennedy rearticulates questions, approaches, and case studies to clarify intellectuals' and institutions' responsib...

The central paradox of the contemporary world is the simultaneous presence of wealth on an unprecedented scale, and mass poverty. Liberal theory explains the relationship between capitalism and poverty as one based around the dichotomy of inclusion (into capitalism) vs exclusion (from capitalism). Within this discourse, the global capitalist system is portrayed as a sphere of economic dynamism and as a source of developmental opportunities for less developed countries and their populations...

In recent years "smartness" has risen as a buzzword to characterize novel urban policy and development patterns. As a result of this, debates around what "smart" actually means, both theoretically and empirically, have emerged within the interdisciplinary arenas of urban and regional studies. This book explores the changes in discourse, rationality and selected responses of smartness through the theme of "transition."The concept of transition provides the broader context and points...