When more than half of the Earth population lives in cities, and living conditions worldwide suffer from a steady increase in environmental issues, historical inquiry provides useful reflections and new perspectives on the present. Urban Narratives about Nature: Socio-Ecological Imaginaries between Science and Entertainment aims at generating specific historical knowledge concerning processes of production, circulation, and management of natural history narratives and the associat...

Environmentalism has relentlessly warned about the dire consequences of abusing and exploiting the planet's natural resources, imagining future wastelands of ecological depletion and social chaos. But it has also generated rich new ideas about how humans might live better with nature.Green Utopias explores these ideas of environmental hope in the post-war period, from the environmental crisis to the end of nature. Using a broad definition of Utopia as it exists in Western ...

This book explores the relationship between reading science in fiction and engaging with science. Focusing on embodied readers and empirical approaches to fiction reading, the authors examine contemporary social, cultural, biographical and political contexts in which science fictions come to matter. Drawing together a distinctive set of research studies and conceptual resources, the book outlines theories, epistemologies and methodologies for understanding how and why we read science ficti...

PREORDER KATHLEEN STOCK'S NEW BOOK DO NOT GO GENTLE: THE CASE AGAINST ASSISTED DEATH (APRIL, 2026)'A clear, concise, easy-to-read account of the issues between sex, gender and feminism . . . an important book' Evening Standard'A call for cool heads at a time of great heat and a vital reminder that revolutions don't always end well' Sunday TimesMaterial Girls is a timely and trenchant criti...

Television Studies: The Key Concepts is the definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest. Among those aspects of television studies covered in this comprehensive and up-to-date guide are:theoretical perspectives which have shaped the study of television - Marxism; semiology; feminismconcepts which have shaped the study of television - narrative; representation; biastelevision genres - soap opera; news; science ficti...

This updated, new edition of Introducing Cultural Studies provides a systematic and comprehensible introduction to the concepts, debates and latest research in the field. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary nature of Cultural Studies, the authors first guide the reader through cultural theory before branching out to examine different dimensions of culture in detail – including globalisation, the body, geography, fashion, and politics.Incorporating new scholarship and interna...

This Open Access book considers the cultural representation of gender violence, vulnerability and resistance with a focus on the transnational dimension of our contemporary visual and literary cultures in English. Contributors address concepts such as vulnerability, resilience, precarity and resistance in the Anglophone world through an analysis of memoirs, films, TV series, and crime and literary fiction across India, Ireland, Canada, Australia, the US, and the UK. Chapters explore litera...

Emphasising the contradictions of fandom, Matt Hills outlines how media fans have been conceptualised in cultural theory. Drawing on case studies of specific fan groups, from Elvis impersonators to X-Philes and Trekkers, Hills discusses a range of approaches to fandom, from the Frankfurt School to psychoanalytic readings, and asks whether the development of new media creates the possibility of new forms of fandom. Fan Cultures also explores the notion of "fan cults" or followings,...

How do you picture identity? What happens when you ask individuals to make visual representations of their own identities, influences, and relationships?Drawing upon an array of disciplines from neuroscience to philosophy, and art to social theory, David Gauntlett explores the ways in which researchers can embrace people's everyday creativity in order to understand social experience.Seeking an alternative to traditional interviews and focus groups, he outlines studies in wh...

The unremitting explosion of reality television across the schedules has become a sustainable global phenomenon generating considerable popular and political fervour.The zeal with which television executives seize on the easily replicated formats is matched equally by the eagerness of audiences to offer themselves up as television participants for others to watch and criticise. But how do we react to so many people breaking down, fronting up, tearing apart, dominating, empathising,...

Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. Questions are raised about what constitutes appropriate literacy teaching in today's world: a world that is both a global village yet one which local diversity is increasingly important.This is a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences ...

Key Issues in Creative Writing explores a range of important issues that inform the practice and understanding of creative writing. The collection considers creative writing learning and teaching as well as creative writing research. Contributors target debates that arise because of the nature of creative writing. These experts – from the UK, USA and Australia – specifically examine creative writing as a subject in universities and colleges and discuss both the creative knowledge and the c...