Sociology of Culture
Interpreting Contentious Memory
Countermemories and Social Conflicts over the Past
This book illustrates how scholars use different interpretive lenses to study profound conflicts rooted in the past. Addressing issues of racism, genocide, war, nationalism, colonialism and more, it highlights how our interpretations of contentious memories are indispensable to our understandings of contemporary conflicts and identities.
The Disney Princess Phenomenon
A Feminist Analysis
Robyn Muir provides an examination of the worldwide Disney Princess commercial and cultural phenomenon in its key representations: films, merchandising and marketing, and park experiences. The book provides a lens through which to view and understand how this franchise has contributed to the depiction of femininity within popular culture.
Interpretive Sociology and the Semiotic Imagination
Written by experts in interpretive sociology, this volume examines semiotic models in a sociological context. Contributors offer case studies to demonstrate ‘how to do things’ with semiotics. Synthesizing a diverse and fragmented landscape, this is a key reference work for understanding the connection between semiotics and sociology.
Ageing and the Media
International Perspectives
Bringing together leading scholars, this international collection examines different dimensions of ageing and ageism in a range of media and how older adults use and interact with the media.
Transgender in the Post-Yugoslav Space
Lives, Activisms, Culture
This powerful book documents the unspoken stories of a diversity of gender embodiments across the post-Yugoslav states, uncovering how they have navigated the murky waters of war, racism, capitalism and transphobia.
Interpreting Religion
Making Sense of Religious Lives
This collection brings together a diverse range of interpretivist perspectives to find fresh takes on the meanings of religion. Cutting across paradigms and traditions, experts from the UK, US, and India apply different approaches to engagement with beliefs and themes, including identity, ritual, and emotion.
Muslims and Humour
Essays on Comedy, Joking, and Mirth in Contemporary Islamic Contexts
In this thought-provoking collection, Muslim and non-Muslim academics take a multi-disciplinary approach to humour in Islam. They draw on examples of comedy practices and styles to scope sociological, cultural, theological and political themes, consider humour’s role in fundamentalism, and correct misconceptions about laughter in the religion.
The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice
Looking at examples across anti-racist movements and developments in nationhood/nationalism, institutional racism, migration, white supremacy and the disparities of COVID-19, Nasar Meer argues for the need to move on from perpetual crisis in racial justice to a turning point that might change deep-seated systems of racism.
Dystopian Emotions
Emotional Landscapes and Dark Futures
This edited collection offers an original investigation of into the changing landscape of emotion in dark and uncertain times.
Challenging the assumption that emotional experiences are purely personal, the authors showcase how they relate to cultural, economic and political conditions.
Intimations of Nostalgia
Multidisciplinary Explorations of an Enduring Emotion
This volume investigates the relationship between nostalgia and contemporary social issues. From history and political theory to marketing and media, each chapter discusses the way nostalgia has been presented within a specific disciplinary context and shows how nostalgia as a topic of research has evolved over time.
Visual Criminology
In this pioneering work, Bill McClanahan provides a concise overview of visual criminology. With examples of the most prominent methods at work in visual criminology, this book explores the visual perspective in relation to prisons, police, the environment, and drugs, while noting the complex ethical implications embedded in visual research.
Southern Craft Food Diversity
Challenging the Myth of a US Food Revival
Using oral histories, this book highlights the voices, experiences and histories of marginalized groups from diverse communities who are the backbone of the artisanal food movement in the US.