Polity

04/03/2025

"a sober, rational assessment of what influences have impacted the world’s failure to address climate change, and what this means for our shared future.” —
Earth.Org review 'How We Sold Our Future' by Jens Beckert

In How We Sold Our Future, readers can find a rational assessment of what has influenced the world’s failure to address climate change.

03/03/2025

As Steve Biko once famously said, apartheid will end; the real question is what comes after apartheid.

This book situates the nuanced intervention of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa within the international conjuncture of anti-colonial thought and decolonization. It argues that the Black Consciousness Movement, in addition to its urgent political focus, should also be read as a philosophical intervention on the problem of Man that haunts the idea of race.

Maurits van Bever Donker argues that the Black Consciousness Movement found intellectual and conceptual allies in the writings of Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire, tracing the problem of race as foundational to what is called ‘the script of Man’ and, in the process, inventing the possibility of a new sense of Man, one with ‘a more human face’.

Texturing Difference: "Black Consciousness Philosophy" and the "Script of Man" by Maurits van Bever Donker

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=texturing-difference-black-consciousness-philosophy-and-the-script-of-man--9781509562299

02/03/2025

Erving Goffman’s much-loved works are widely cited in media and communication studies.

His books have stimulated research on news framing, mass media and social media, inviting new insights about how communication, self, audiences and public life are mediated by, but also transcend, particular technological forms. What explains the continuing relevance of this highly original theorist?In this book, Peter Lunt critically examines how and why the concepts developed by Goffman – face-work and the mediated self, frontstage and backstage, impression management, media frames and logics, footing and interaction rituals – still resonate across the field.

Ultimately, Goffman’s sociology emerges not only as an enduring influence, but as a source of new inspiration in our ever more interactive world.

Original and incisive, Goffman and the Media is crucial reading for students and scholars encountering this fascinating thinker from a media studies perspective.

Goffman and the Media by Peter Lunt
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=goffman-and-the-media--9780745688886

02/03/2025

“Hanson and Kopstein persuasively argue that the long-term impact of this global backlash against ‘unelected bureaucrats’ will lead not to freer societies but to ones marked by corrupt and personalistic authoritarian rule.”
- Foreign Affairs review The Assault on the State by Stephen E. Hanson and Jeffrey S. Kopstein

Two books present vivid accounts of right-wing movements that seek to undermine the modern regulatory state, or what conspiracists call “the deep state.”

01/03/2025

“Waldenstrom insists that the century has been marked by the democratization of wealth, not spiraling inequality.”
Foreign Affairs review 'Richer and More Equal' by Daniel Waldenström

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/richer-and-more-equal-new-history-wealth-wes

Waldenstrom insists that the century has been marked by the democratization of wealth, not spiraling inequality.

01/03/2025

This book is the long-overdue publication in English of Aimé Césaire’s account of Toussaint Louverture, the legendary leader of the revolution in Saint-Domingue – a slave revolt against French colonial rule that led to the founding of the independent republic of Haiti.

Aimé Césaire’s historical and analytical gifts are magnificently displayed in this highly original analysis of the context and actions of the famous revolutionary leader. .

Toussaint Louverture: The French Revolution and the Colonial Problem by Aime Cesaire
Translated by Kate Nash
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=toussaint-louverture-the-french-revolution-and-the-colonial-problem--9781509559374

28/02/2025

We have two brilliant new books publishing in the UK today.

📚'In Search of Green China' by Ma Tianjie - Is China’s environmental transformation too green to be true? Leading Chinese environmentalist Tianjie Ma offers a unique insider’s view of the progress and shortcomings of China’s ongoing search for a truly green economy.
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=in-search-of-green-china--9781509557219

📚'Disasters: A Sociological Approach, 2nd Edition' by Kathleen Tierney - Natural disasters are not as natural as they seem. Disasters kill, maim, and generate increasingly large economic losses. But they do not wreak their damage equally across nations and populations. Every disaster has social forces at its very core.
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=disasters-a-sociological-approach-2nd-edition--9781509563074

27/02/2025

Concepts like freedom, equality and justice have many uses – and even more misuses. In seeking to manage an increasingly complex world, it is more important than ever to think carefully about the meaning of such concepts which are central to policy debates and integral to implementing effective social policy around the world.

This concise and readable book is a guide to those essential social policy concepts. In addition to freedom, equality and justice, the book covers concepts like social risks and rights that are critical for understanding welfare states, and examines social policies through the lenses of power, recognition and investment. It also reflects on the role of social policy in addressing the biggest challenges that humanity faces in the twenty-first century, including the megatrends of inequality and climate change.

Drawing on key works and examples from diverse contexts, this book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of social policy, sociology, social work and other social sciences, as well as researchers, policymakers, practitioners and activists looking for an accessible introduction to the heart of social policy.

Social Policy: The Quest for Freedom, Equality and Justice by Virpi Timonen
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=social-policy-the-quest-for-freedom-equality-and-justice--9781509566037

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26/02/2025

Two key processes shape the contemporary public sphere.

On one hand, there are the processes of news provision which select out a range of facts and events and bring them to the attention of a large number of people who have not, for the most part, experienced them directly. On the other, there are processes of politicization which problematize the facts made known by news provision and treat them as issues that concern citizens and the state. Politicization is typically characterized by a diversity of interpretations which, in turn, gives rise to a proliferation of commentary, discussion, polemic and division.

In order to study these processes and their interaction, Boltanski and Esquerre draw on a vast repository of user comments left on the site of a major daily newspaper, as well as the thousands of comments posted on an online video site. They uncover what is sayable by comparing published comments with those deleted by moderators. They capture opinions in the course of their formation, rather than describing views which have long become cemented; these are often reflexive and wise, deriving from responses to interviews or opinion polls. They map out the parameters of politicization today, touching on various hot topics such as feminism, the environment, immigration, religion, nationalism and Europe.

This is not just a book about the news and the press, but a major new work which shows how political opinion comes into being and the way in which it affects our daily lives. It will be of great value to students and scholars in media studies, sociology and politics, as well as to anyone interested in the state of politics and the media in our contemporary digital age.

The Making of Public Space: News, Events and Opinions in the Twenty-First Century by Luc Boltanski & Arnaud Esquerre is out now and available worldwide.

See more: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-making-of-public-space-news-events-and-opinions-in-the-twenty-first-century--9781509562770

21/02/2025

We have two brilliant books publishing in the UK today.

📚 'Fighting Antisemitism Today' by Theodor W. Adorno - A penetrating analysis of the nature of antisemitism by one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=fighting-antisemitism-today-a-lecture--9781509566907

📚 'A Subjective Approach to International Relations: The Battle for Meaning' by Bertrand Badie - A plea for a new approach to international relations which puts meaning, culture and emotion at the centre.
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=a-subjective-approach-to-international-relations-the-battle-for-meaning--9781509567089

20/02/2025

As the world faces increasingly complex problems – from pandemics to global poverty and climate change – how do we decide where to concentrate our efforts and resources to do the most good possible?

Effective altruism offers a way to do just that, focusing on evidence and rational arguments to identify crucial issues and the most impactful ways of solving them.

In this new book, philosopher Jacob Bauer cuts through the uncritical hype and wholesale dismissal around effective altruism to offer a balanced overview of this movement’s core concepts and approaches to “doing good better.”

With examples spanning malaria-preventing bed nets to the dangers of AI, he illuminates how effective altruism is addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems, all the while acknowledging its real limitations and showcasing its immense promise. Whether you are a skeptic or a new adherent seeking to understand the philosophy and community of effective altruism, this book is the definitive guide.

Effective Altruism: An Introduction by Jacob Bauer is out now.

See more: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=effective-altruism-an-introduction--9781509562435

20/02/2025

“Piketty and Sandel have got a point: something has gone very wrong in the balance between wealth and political power. That relationship must be fixed.”

'Equality' in The New European

Two new books on the current threat to western democracy come to very different conclusions about who’s to blame and what to do about it

19/02/2025

While there has been a wealth of research and conversation about the role of racism in shaping our social, political and economic structures, antiracism – its highly publicized counterpart – has been very little studied, discussed or debated. Veteran race scholar John Solomos argues in this slim intervention that we urgently need to re-focus research and activist agendas to address this gap in knowledge.

The core questions addressed in the book include: what does antiracism mean in the contemporary environment? How do states, political institutions and civil society define and practise antiracism? What is the role of alliances across race, class and gender in shaping possible futures beyond racism? Moving beyond the valuable work which has already uncovered the ways in which race and racism are made and re-made, these questions cut to how to develop meaningful political and policy initiatives framed by antiracist ideas and values. If we hope to make sense of the evolution of contemporary racisms in the world around us in order to tackle them head on, antiracism needs to be better understood.

Antiracism: A Critique by John Solomos is out now.

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=antiracism-a-critique--9781509556212

18/02/2025

When Theodor W. Adorno returned to Germany from his exile in the United States, he was appointed as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Frankfurt and he immediately made a name for himself as a leading public intellectual. Adorno’s widespread influence on the postwar debates was due in part to the public lectures he gave outside of the university in which he analysed and commented on social, cultural and political developments of the time.

This first volume brings together Adorno’s lectures given between 1949 and 1968 on music, literature and the arts.

With an engaging and improvisational style, Adorno spoke with compelling enthusiasm. Germany, restoring its social and intellectual institutions, needed to embrace the new music and writers who had been neglected.

To rebuild was taken to mean rediscovery, but Adorno also nurtured a vision of tradition which – far from being unthinkingly conservative – would attest to society’s honestly-appraised relationship to the past while it underwent the process of modernization. The volume illustrates Adorno’s deep commitment to holding contemporary music and culture to standards commensurate with the aspirations of a modern world emerging from the horrors of war.

This volume of his lectures is a unique document of Adorno’s startling ability to bring critical theory into dialogue with the times in which he lived.

Lectures 1949-1968, Volume 1: Music, Literature and the Arts by Theodor W. Adorno is out now.
Translated by Nicholas Walker

See more: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=lectures-1949-1968-volume-1-music-literature-and-the-arts--9781509552382

17/02/2025

"In the beginning was the word, but where we have ended up now is in a world of mere verbiage."

Read Gérald Garutti's piece for the polity blog:

We live in a world full of sound and fury; full of gossip, conspiracy theories, false news, and alternative facts.

17/02/2025

"AI does not care about you. It can only represent behaviour that aims to come across as if it does.”
Roanne Van Voorst, author of 'Six in a Bed' in the Irish Examiner

Fast-evolving AI means it's increasingly likely we will turn to a virtual mate programmed to be always kind, attentive, and available for companionship. But will it ever replace the heart-to-heart exchange between humans?

17/02/2025

“this is the kind of art book to which all art books should perhaps aspire.”
- The Irish TimesTimes review The Magic of Silence by Florian Illies

Friedrich was the go-to for showing figures from behind – mainly, it transpires, because he wasn’t very good at faces

17/02/2025

The digital communication technologies that emerged at the turn of the century have profoundly disrupted long-practiced norms of nearly every media industry. In particular, internet distribution has fundamentally changed the foundation of the media industry to enable the emergence of new sectors while posing a challenge for others.

Media Industries in the Digital Age reframes our understanding of media businesses in the light of these substantial changes. To develop an integrated understanding of media industries today, the book foregrounds the different funding sources that are now common. It begins by mapping the foundations and developments of media industry operation, and exploring all forms of advertiser-funded and consumer-funded media to identify connections across sectors, including digital and legacy media. The final section grounds the book’s conceptual work in examples of media making to explore how some “old” media have successfully adapted to internet disruption, and the differences and similarities of media making outside of corporations. Looking to the future, the book anticipates implications for the emerging “metaverse” media experiences and the key issues generative AI poses to the sector. Ultimately, the book argues that the contemporary differences in media industry operation vary by sector, but meaningful patterns can be identified by considering how advertiser, consumer, or government funding sets different priorities.

Offering a new and original way of understanding the media industries today, this book is enlightening reading for students and scholars of media studies and media industries, as well as global industry professionals.

Media Industries in the Digital Age: How Media Businesses Work Today by Amanda D. Lotz & Timothy Havens
See more: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=media-industries-in-the-digital-age-how-media-businesses-work-today--9781509565900