Contemporary global sport is in constant, sometimes bewildering flux. This book goes beyond orthodox globalisation theory, deploying the metaphor of ‘playing on the edge’ in analysing the dynamic process of making and remaking sport culture in Asia and Oceania. Beyond sport’s traditionally dominant centres in the West, here the edges of the sport and media fields are vividly exposed, re-positioned, blunted and sharpened, revealing many points of tension – racial, ethnic, gendered, classed,...

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**A Financial Times 2023 book to watch*'Forceful ... The fundamental thrust of Goodwin's argument is right ... a new centre ground of British politics is being formed - even if both parties have yet to fully comprehend it' The TimesWhat has caused the recent seismic changes in British politics, including Brexit and a series of populist revolts against the elite? ...

In this fully revised third edition of Australia's Welfare Wars , Philip Mendes questions many of the key values and assumptions that determine contemporary social welfare policies, and the factors and forces that shape these policies in Australia.

Over the past two decades, Australia has been experiencing a sustained period of accelerated socio-cultural change, accompanied by existential threats from natural disasters and the Covid pandemic, and punctuated by repeated cycles of political upheaval. The divisive and hyper-partisan version of party politics that has accompanied these events has hamstrung the nation' s capacity to respond to the challenges of the day – from dealing with climate change, to advancing gender equity, or to ...

A 2010 Human Rights Commission report found that Asian people reported higher levels of discrimination than any other minority in New Zealand.K. Emma Ng shines light onto the persistence of anti-Asian sentiment in New Zealand. Her anecdotal account is based on her personal experience as a second-generation young Chinese-New Zealand woman. When Asian people have been living here since the gold rushes of the 1860s, she asks, what will it take for them to be fully accepted as...

Australian society and its leaders generally take for granted the importance and value of this nation's relationship with the United States. The US is commonly thought of as the world's great purveyor of liberal values and the rule of law, and as a powerful friend indispensable to Australian security. In The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy Vince Scappatura demonstrates how these conceptions are underpinned by the work of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, Australi...

Indigenous Invisibility in the City contextualises the significant social change in Indigenous life circumstances and resurgence that came out of social movements in cities. It is about Indigenous resurgence and community development by First Nations people for First Nations people in cities.Seventy-five years ago, First Nations peoples began a significant post-war period of relocation to cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. First Natio...

This book moves the discussion forward so that Australia will have a woman Prime Minister sooner rather than later. Underlined with a reflective, interpretive and explorative stance of Julia Gillard’s Prime Ministership, it presents an analysis on issues to do with gender and leadership culminating in key considerations for the nation and for the next woman Prime Minister.“This book is a readable and useful contribution to the still raw and open debate on the meaning of the demise ...

Through the struggles of Indigenous Australians for recognition and self-determination it has become common sense to understand Australia as made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and things. But in what ways is the Indigenous on-Indigenous distinction being used and understood? In The Difference Identity Makes, thirteen Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics examine how this distinction structures the work of cultural production and how Indigenous producers and the...

The spectacle of major cultural and sporting events can preoccupy modern societies. This book is concerned with contemporary mega-events, like the Olympics and Expos. Using a sociological perspective Roche argues that mega-events reflect the major social changes which now influence our societies, particularly in the West, and that these amount to a new ‘second phase’ of the modernization process. Changes are particularly visible in the media, urban and global locational aspects of mega-eve...

The English Premier League (EPL) is one of the world’s most valuable and high-profile sports leagues, with millions of fans around the globe. The 2016/17 season marked the 25th anniversary of the EPL, providing a unique opportunity to reflect on how it has contributed, both positively and negatively, to key developments in football – and in sport and culture more broadly – at local, national and global levels.Drawing on central themes in the social scientific study of sport, such a...

This book critiques how impoverished communities are represented by politicians, the media, academics and policy makers - and how our understanding of these neighbourhoods is, often misleadingly, shaped by these stories.The alleged behavioural failings of 'poor people' have attracted a great deal of academic and political scrutiny. Spatial inequalities are also well documented and poor neighbourhoods have been extensively researched. However, other spaces have been re-imagined in d...