Böcker utgivna av Polity Press

Rejects much of what criminology has become, criticizing the rigid determinism and rampant positivism that dominate the discipline today. This title draws on a range of research - from urban ethnography to sexology and criminal victimization studies - to illustrate its failings.

In this penetrating analysis, Nikolas Rose critiques the powerful part that psychiatry has come to play in the lives of so many across the world. A series of chapters, each tackling an area of dispute head on, opens wide the terrain of debate. Ultimately, the book argues that, as a branch of social medicine, another psychiatry is possible.

The pace of modern life is accelerating. To keep up, we must keep on moving and adapting constantly striving for greater happiness and success. Or so we are told.

"A sharp critique of our contemporary societies in which pseudo-communication and narcissism have replaced community"--

Climate change has led to political crisis, with massive inequalities and deregulation. Equally, the Left still hopes in globalization - when, everywhere, people are turning back to the protection of national borders. Bruno Latour argues the solution lies in reorienting our perspective. Bringing us down to earth is the task of politics today.

* A new book by the award-winnning sociologist Eva Illouz on modern love. * Sets out to explain why love is such a painful experience for many people - why we invest so much in the search for love and why it so often disappoints us.

Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in western societies. Gosta Esping-Andersen, one of the most distinguished contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes several major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different western countries. Current economic processes, the author argues, such as those moving towards a post-industrial order, are not shaped by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to everyone working on issues of economic development and post-industrialism. Its audience will include students and academics in sociology, economics and politics.

"The price we pay for our modern desire to control the world"--

In this refreshing book, bestselling Danish philosopher Svend Brinkmann reveals the many virtues of missing out on the constant temptations that dominate our experience-obsessed consumer society. By cultivating self-restraint and celebrating moderation, we can develop a more fulfilling way of living and discover the joy of missing out.

In this work, cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han looks at how we have exchanged variety with an age of sameness, not characterised by external repression but by depression through the self. Tracing this violence through phenomena such as terrorism, he argues that by acknowledging the Other again, we can overcome a crushing process of assimilation.

aeo A major new book by one of the most original thinkers today. aeo Develops a distinctive argument about the a liquida nature of modernity. aeo Re--examines key concepts which look at the heart of orthodox accounts of the human condition, including the concepts of emancipation, individuality, work and community.

* A new book by one of the most original and brilliant social thinkers of our time. * Extends and develops some of the key themes in other Bauman titles, namely what it is like to live in a time of 'liquid modernity', identity, culture and consumerism.

As an unprecedented pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its paradoxes and speculate on the profundity of its consequences? Written with his customary brio, Zizek provides a provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.