Burgess and Green: YouTube

“Jean Burgess and Joshua Green insightfully weave together an engaging and much-needed cultural narrative of the astonishing new phenomenon that is YouTube with an incisive critique of its rapidly mythologized yet deeply uncertain transformative potential."

Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science

YouTube is one of the most well-known and widely discussed sites of participatory media in the contemporary online environment. In this timely and comprehensive introduction to how YouTube is being used and why it matters, Burgess and Green discuss the ways that it relates to wider transformations in culture, society and the economy.

Ono and Pham: Asian Americans and the Media

“Ono and Pham present a fascinating read on the representational politics of Asian Americans. Using history as a guide to read these images, Ono and Pham underscore the necessity of understanding the cultural politics and social construction of the category ‘Asian American’ itself. By exploring contemporary images, they offer insightful readings and constructive directions for future work in media and communication studies. This is a very important work at the contemporary moment that does not ignore the past.”

Thomas K. Nakayama, Northeastern University

Asian Americans and the Media provides a concise and thoughtful analysis of U.S. media representations of Asian Americans. The book also explores ways Asian Americans have resisted, responded to, and conceptualized the terrain of challenge and resistance to those representations, often through their own media productions.

Connell: Gender (Second Edition)

“Presenting the leading edge of gender theory and research, the second edition of Gender is the smartest and most compelling introduction to critical gender studies that is currently available. Connell remains a steady and reliable guide for the student of gender and society.”

Steven Seidman, State University of New York at Albany

The second edition of this influential and accessible book brings the review of research up to date and includes new discussions of gender theory in the global periphery, the legacy of colonialism, the intersection of structures, the impact of deconstructionist theory and politics, and understanding transsexual and transgender lives.

Scott: Making Sense of Everyday Life

“This book is a wonderful introduction to sociology. It makes the reader rethink and re-evaluate the meaning and importance of everyday events such as gardening, shopping and eating out. It makes the familiar strange but not unrecognizable.”

Phil Manning, Cleveland State

This accessible, introductory text explains the importance of studying ‘everyday life’ in the social sciences. Susie Scott examines such varied topics as leisure, eating and drinking, the idea of home, and time and schedules in order to show how societies are created and reproduced by the apparently mundane ‘micro’ level practices of everyday life.

Hopper: Understanding Cultural Globalization

“Hopper’s book should be required reading for anyone wishing to see globalization’s ‘big picture’.”

Steve Jones, University of Illinois

Paul Hopper leads the reader through the varied issues associated with globalization and culture, including deterritorialization, cosmopolitanism, cultural hybridization and homogenization, as well as claims that aspects of globalization are provoking cultural resistance. In exploring the cultural dynamics of globalization, the book investigates the interrelationship between globalization and culture, seeking in the process to problematize both concepts.

Rojek: Cultural Studies

“Chris Rojek has for decades worked on the cutting edge of cultural studies. His book Cultural Studies presents an excellent introduction to the field; case studies in how to do cultural studies; an overview of significant moments and debates in the field; and the articulation of original categories and insights that should be of use to beginning students and seasoned scholars alike.”

Douglas Kellner, University of California-Los Angeles

Longhurst: Popular Music and Society 2nd Edition

“A thoughtful and systematic introduction, full of up-to-date information, this book speaks simultaneously to students of socio-musical analysis and to all of us for whom music matters.”

Tia DeNora, University of Exeter

Topics covered include:

• The contemporary organisation of the music industry;
• The effects of technological change on production;
• The history and politics of popular music;
• Gender, sexuality and ethnicity;
• Subcultures;
• Fans and music celebrities.

Elliott: Concepts of the Self, 2nd edition

“No-one writing today has the range and depth of ‘Elliott’s’ understanding of self-theory ... No reader, whether student or scholar, will want to be without this brilliant book – a claim certified by the thousands of students who enjoyed the first edition.”

Charles Lemert, Wesleyan University

Mead, Freud, Goffman, Foucault, Chodorow, Kristeva and Baudrillard are among the figures covered; the new edition also introduces material on Žižek. Elliott also connects debates about the self directly to identity politics, the sociology of personal relationships and intimacy, and the politics of sexuality. Among the traditions of thought discussed are symbolic interactionism; modern sociology; post-structuralist thought; feminist and queer theory; psychoanalysis; and postmodernism.

Sandvoss: Fans

“A magisterial book, which expands the range of examples in the discussion, opens up a range of new questions, and poses some provocative new conceptual models. Many established scholars (myself among them) are going to spend many hours rebutting or revising some of his claims, but we are also going to appreciate the catalyst he provides for us to question and rethink our own positions. Let the sparks fly!”

Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sandvoss looks at the nature and development of whole fan cultures, but also focuses on the experience and identity of the individual fan. In addition, he proposes a new perspective on fans and popular culture, arguing that the modern self is reflected and constituted through media consumption.

Lash and Lury: Global Culture Industry

“This pathbreaking study will stimulate the intellectual debate for years to come.”

Manuel Castells, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Tells the compelling story of how material objects such as watches and sportswear have become powerful cultural symbols, and how the production of symbols, in the form of globally recognized brands, has now become a central goal of capitalism.

Tomlinson: Globalization and Culture

“It is not simply the theoretical balance and clarity of writing that makes Globalization and Culture a worthy introductory text. It is also in the way that the book manages to anchor key issues such as deterritorialization in specific case examples and practical illustrations ... [It] is a sophisticated, balanced, and highly readable book.”

Scope

At the heart of the book is a far-reaching analysis of the complex, ambiguous "lived experience" of global modernity. Tomlinson argues that we can now see a general pattern of the dissolution between cultural experience and territorial location.

Cartelli and Rowe: New Wave Shakespeare on Screen

“[Cartelli and Rowe] are expert guides to a fascinating range of film adaptations and to subtle and provocative ways of thinking about the motive to adapt Shakespeare, about the strategies these films use, and about the theoretical models we can use to understand them. I learned much from every chapter – and so will my students as they engage in my courses with all that this book so clearly and helpfully encourages them to consider.”

Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame

The study maps a critical vocabulary for interpreting Shakespeare film; addresses script-to-screen questions about authority and performativity; outlines varied approaches to adaptation such as revival, recycling, allusion, and sampling; parses sound as well as visual effects; and explores the cross-pollination between film and other media, from ancient to cutting-edge.