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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2026

        Caribbean eco-aesthetics

        Strategies of survival through contemporary art

        by Kate Keohane, Daniella Rose King, Giulia Smith

        This edited volume reframes the Caribbean as a paradigm of ecological resilience and creativity by bringing together the voices of contemporary artists and scholars who are at the forefront of environmental activism in the region and across its diasporas. While dominant narratives percolating from the environmental sciences to the mainstream press present the Caribbean as a frontier of planetary disaster, the contributors to this volume show how the region offers radical models for overcoming the environmental challenges of the present. At the heart of this argument lies the history of the Caribbean as a centre for grassroots forms of anti-colonial and anti-capitalist resistance founded upon nature-centred cosmologies and practices. Caribbean Eco-Aesthetics shows how contemporary artists are mobilising this radical heritage in a bid to unlock alternative planetary futures.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        November 2018

        Art as worldmaking

        Critical essays on realism and naturalism

        by Malcolm Baker, Andrew Hemingway, Andrew Hemingway, Briony Fer, Joshua Shannon, Adrian Rifkin, Malcolm Baker, Martina Droth, Caroline Arscott, Anne Wagner, Martin Powers, Neil McWilliam, Celeste Brusati, T.J. Clark, Rebecca Zurier, Steve Edwards, Tamar Garb, Lisa Tickner, Alistair Rider, Thomas Crow, Gail Day

        Art as worldmaking is a response to Alex Potts's provocative 2013 book Experiments in modern realism. Twenty essays by leading scholars test Potts's recasting of realism through examinations of art produced in different media and periods, ranging from eighth-century Chinese garden aesthetics to video work by the contemporary Russian collective Radek Community. While the book does not neglect avatars of pictorial realism such as Menzel and Eakins, or the question of nineteenth-century realism's historical antecedents, it is contemporary in orientation in that many contributors are particularly concerned with the questions that sculpture, photography and non-traditional media pose for realism as an aesthetic norm. It will be essential reading for students of art history concerned with art's truth value or more broadly with conceptual problems of representation and the intersections of art and politics.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2025

        Europeanisation as violence

        Souths and Easts as method

        by Kolar Aparna, Daria Krivonos, Elisa Pascucci

        The book offers a novel lens to situate Europeanisation as violence - through institutions and technologies of development, cultural heritage, and borders, among others - by bringing South and East within a relational frame. Through four inter-related sections, it foregrounds Europeanisation as infrastructural violence and colonial asymmetries, slow violence and the construction of stratified subalternities, epistemic dispossession, and border epistemologies.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2026

        Vibes as value

        Young workers and affective labour in the service economy

        by David Farrugia, Julia Coffey, Steven Threadgold, Megan Sharp, Lena Molnar

        Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry, and thereby how youth, gender, sexuality, race and social class are embodied and made productive in the service economy. It shows that the key product of hospitality labour is 'vibes', or moments of enjoyment and relationality co-produced through exploitative relationships amongst workers and consumers. In the process, the book theorises hospitality as a form of affective labour organised through the normative and structural relations of precarious service work. It shows how identity construction produces value within the highly unequal social terrain of the service economy, and how hospitality labour enacts hierarchies of value extending far beyond the limits of the industry itself.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2019

        Safe as Houses

        Grenfell, disaster housing, and the outsourced state

        by Stuart Hodkinson

        As the tragedy of the Grenfell tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing, private finance initiatives and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers. Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. He has worked for the last decade with residents groups in council regeneration projects across London. As residents have been shifted out of 60s and 70s social housing to make way for higher rent paying newcomers, they have been promised a higher quality of housing. Councils have passed the responsibility for this housing to private consortia who amazingly have been allowed to self-regulate on quality and safety. Residents have been ignored for years on this and only now are we hearing the truth. Stuart will weave together his research on PFIs, regulation and resident action to tell the whole story of how Grenfell happened and how this could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        September 2025

        Art as worldmaking

        Critical essays on realism and naturalism

        by Malcolm Baker, Andrew Hemingway

        Introduction : Realism and its others in the 21st century: Why Realism won't go away - Andrew Hemingway Part I: Theory 1. The figure as double agent: realism and abstraction in European post-war art - Briony Fer 2. Realism's Credibility Problem - Joshua Shannon 3. If only; only if ... - Adrian Rifkin Part II: Sculpture 4. Confronting the Veristic Sculptural Portrait - Malcolm Baker 5. Sculpture, Realism and the Neo-classical Ideal - Martina Droth 6. Elasticity and Victorian Sculptural Form - Caroline Arscott 7. Image of the People: Charles Ray's Recent Work - Anne M. Wagner Part III: Garden Design 8. Of Gardens and Persons: the English Engagement with China's Garden Design - Martin Powers 9. Traditional Views. Conservative Anti-Naturalism and Landscape Aesthetics in France around 1900 - Neil McWilliam Part IV: Painting and Photography 10. Willem Kalf on Reflexykonst and the Aesthetics of Transformation in Still Life - Celeste Brusati 11. Democratic light: phenomenology and the worldliness of painting - Brendan Prendeville 12. The Visibility of Labor - T.J. Clark 13. Body and Soul in the work of Thomas Eakins and F. Holland Day - Rebecca Zurier Part V: Photography and Conema 14. Photography as counter forensics - Steve Edwards 15. Woman, War and Social Documentary Photography in South Africa - Tamar Garb 16. Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966): photography and film - Lisa Tickner Part VI: Post-Media / Contemporary Practice 17. Peter Dreher's Everyday Realism - Alistair Rider 18. From grey and rainy Vermont - Thomas Crow 19. 'Every day, something happens to us': Realism at the crossroads - Gail Day Index

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2025

        China as context

        Anthropology, post-globalisation and the neglect of China

        by Di Wu, Andrea E. Pia, Ed Pulford

        Decades-old calls to promote the significance of China for anthropological theory and the social sciences more generally ring more urgently today given China's importance to social, political and economic life globally. Yet Chinese-grounded ideas remain marginal to the discipline, and scholarly discussions retain a sense of China as an 'Other' apart from the 'real' world, and thus unsuitable or generating widely applicable theoretical ideas. Inspired by East Asian postcolonial scholarship, this volume tackles this unsettling situation head-on, arguing that without taking China seriously as a powerful agent, a locus of knowledge production, and a new discursive topos of an emerging post-global imaginary, anthropologists and other social scientists may fail to adequately analyse the global present and make sense of both the material and immaterial forces that animate it, wherever and however they work. Amid the end of Western globalisation and shifting anthropological understandings of relations between ethnography and theory, we show how 'China' must be understood as the ordinary 'context' for anthropological research practices worldwide.

      • Trusted Partner
        2022

        Drugs as Micronutrient Robbers

        What your doctor and pharmacist ought to tell you

        by Uwe Gröber and Prof. Dr. Klaus Kisters

        Many of us have to take drugs on a regular basis. But birth control pills, antibiotics, blood pressure medication, statins, diabetes medication, diuretics, anti-cancer drugs, gastrointestinal remedies or preparations against osteoporosis can all rob the body of essential vitamins and minerals. Often, drug-related micronutrient deficiency is the unrecognized cause of drug side effects. Symptoms such as exhaustion, depression, lack of concentration, irritability, sleep disorders or even dementia can result. Such problems can be prevented. Informed patients can take preventive measures, avoid unwanted side effects and make their drug therapy more effective. This guide explains what to watch out for and how to improve quality of life.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2025

        Queer as folklore

        The hidden queer history of myths and monsters

        by Sacha Coward

        A celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before. Queer as folklore travels across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new. Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward takes you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the 'queerly departed' along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows and created safe spaces in underworlds. But these forgotten narratives tell stories of resilience that deserve to be heard. Join any Pride march and you will see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads, drag queens in mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. These are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots. To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past.

      • Trusted Partner
        Biography & True Stories
        July 2024

        As Good as a Marriage

        by Jill Liddington

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2009

        Governance as social and political communication

        by Henrik Bang, Martin Hargreaves

        Governance is among the most used of new ideas in the social sciences, most notably in the fields of political science, public administration, sociology, social and political theory. As ever, debates within disciplines rarely transcend disciplinary boundaries. This volume, newly available in paperback, brings together authors from these fields to elaborate on the development of governance analysis in new conceptions of political and democratic communication. It not only seeks to identify, describe and evaluate the contribution of each discipline to a theory of communicative governance, but also lays the foundation of a multidisciplinary framework for studying the mediation in communicative governance of societal concerns for effectiveness, order and participation. The book is theoretical and comparative, drawing on authors and research in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US. It adopts an anti-foundational approach to deconstruct the essentialist discourses endemic in each discipline and the disciplinary traditions of each country. Notions such as steering and control in public administration, identities and domination in sociology, and the community and self in social and political theory are analysed in depth. The book will demonstrate clearly how the distinctive traditions of each discipline lead them to construct overlapping, loosely coupled, and sometimes incommensurable ideas about the institutions, politics and policies of governance. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2026

        A sociology of kindness as everyday enchantment

        On making the world go our way

        by Julie Brownlie

        This book asks us to consider how and why the notion of random acts of kindness and the idea of kindness more generally have come to take a hold in many contemporary English-speaking societies. By introducing and mapping the contours of an emergent kindness industry, marshalling empirical research on contemporary framings of everyday kindness and theoretical resources from cultural sociology to the sociology of emotions and relationships, Brownlie makes the case for a critical sociological engagement with the idea of kindness. In doing so, she argues for kindness to be seen as a form of everyday enchantment - one that, like all enchantments, is ultimately ambivalent.

      • Trusted Partner
        Politics & government
        November 2012

        Understanding AS-Level Government and Politics

        Second edition

        by Moyra Grant

        This is a clearly written, comprehensive and topical textbook on UK government and politics for AS and A Level students. It is suitable for the A Level Edexcel, OCR and AQA exam boards. The content of the book is structured according to the boards' specifications. It covers: political power, participation and democracy; the UK constitution; elections and referenda; MPs, parties and pressure groups; Parliament and government; the courts, judges and civil liberties; local government and devolution; and the European Union. All key terms and concepts are highlighted and succinctly defined. The book has an accessible style and very user-friendly format. It includes sample exam questions with answers, and fun quizzes with answers, plus features such as 'Talking Point' and 'Analyse This' to encourage class discussion and exploration of core topics. Each chapter begins with a summary of contents and ends with sample exam questions and useful websites.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2017

        Popular television drama

        Critical perspectives

        by Jonathan Bignell, Stephen Lacey

        Popular television drama: critical perspectives' is a collection of essays examining landmark programmes of the last forty years, from 'Doctor Who' to 'The Office', and from 'The Demon Headmaster' to 'Queer As Folk'. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and challenge received wisdom by reconsidering how British television drama can be analysed. Each section is preceded by an introduction in which the editors discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The book is split into three sections, addressing the enduring appeal of popular genres, the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and analysing a range of programmes past and present. Popular television drama: critical perspectives will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama. Its breadth and focus on popular programmes will also appeal to those interested in the shows themselves.

      • Trusted Partner
        2023

        Pharmacy Assessment

        Sale and purchase of pharmacies

        by Dipl.-Kfm. Axel Witte and Dipl.-Bw. Doris zur Mühlen

        To avoid unpleasant surprises, it is worth taking a closer look when buying or selling a pharmacy. Whether buyer or seller: both parties ask themselves the question of the market value of an object. This is determined by a multitude of factors. This book shows how both parties arrive at a realistic assessment. The revised and updated edition of the classic work guides you through the process of assessing a pharmacy’s value. Various examples help to assess the facts and support the understanding of relevant factors during the sale or purchasing process, which is usually carried out with the help of an advisor experienced in the field.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2026

        New Labour, new Britain

        How the Blair governments reshaped the country

        by Glen O’Hara

        A bold and balanced re-appraisal of New Labour in power. Rewriting the story of New Labour, Glen O'Hara challenges the prevailing narrative to present a more balanced and positive assessment. New Labour, new Britain is the first book to examine both the intentions behind New Labour's domestic policies and their real-world effects, moving beyond the entrenched left-right debates that have dominated the party's legacy. The period from 1997 to 2007 marked a pivotal moment in modern British history, as New Labour sought to reshape Britain into a more cohesive and forward-thinking society. It saw the rise of socially liberal attitudes and flourishing public services under a government committed to rebuilding and investing in them. Yet New Labour's track record was far from flawless and its legacy remains complicated and contested. Through interviews with key players and rigorous archival research, O'Hara offers a new perspective on Tony Blair's years in power. Painting a fuller picture of New Labour's successes and challenges, he highlights its lasting impact on Britain and offers a thoughtful reassessment of its place in history.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2016

        Debt as Power

        by Richard H. Robbins, Tim Di Muzio, Gurminder K. Bhambra

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