Polity is one of the world's leading publishers in sociology and social theory. We publish many of the key scholars in the field and our list has earned a reputation for innovative, cutting-edge publications. We also have a strong list of textbooks in sociology which are widely adopted at colleges and universities around the world.
Our authors include internationally renowned sociologists and social thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Jürgen Habermas, Theodor W. Adorno, Zygmunt Bauman, Walter Benjamin, Norbert Elias, Jacques Derrida, Cornelius Castoriadis, André Gorz, Stuart Hall, Bob Connell, Jeffrey Weeks, Ann Oakley, Michèle Barrett, Lynne Segal, Nancy Fraser, Seyla Benhabib, Michael Mann, Anthony Smith, Claus Offe, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Immanuel Wallerstein, Stan Cohen, Ray Pahl, Harold Garfinkel and Clifford Geertz.
Visit our highlights page for more information on our new and forthcoming general interest titles.
Giddens: Sociology 5th Edition
Fully revised and updated, and as engaging as ever, this fifth edition of Sociology is the definitive introduction to sociology for undergraduate students. Together with an outstanding website which contains a downloadable Tutor's Guide, useful web links, articles, lectures, and student assignment guides and test-yourself quizzes, it provides the complete sociology teaching and learning package.
Visit the exceptionally supportive Sociology 5th edition website
Nettleton: Sociology of Health and Illness
"Sarah Nettleton’s Sociology of Health and Illness has become a major text for students studying medical sociology. This second edition is a welcome event ... Its up-to-date treatment of changes in research and health care is essential reading for those attempting to understand matters medical in today’s fast changing environment."
Mike Bury, University of London
Nettleton integrates the core tenets of traditional medical sociology with some fresh insights from the current literature. New material includes discussions of the new genetics, food and eating, e-health, the MMR debate, embryo stem cell research, recent approaches to health inequalities, and the health implications of the information age. Carefully annotated suggested further readings have been added to each chapter, to help extend students’ learning and thinking.
Grint: The Sociology of Work 3/e
‘There is simply no better comprehensive introduction to the sociological approaches to work and contemporary trends within the workplace. Keith Grint's text is a thoughtful and comprehensive guide for the student and a useful resource for those more familiar with the field.'
Richard J. Badham, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Browne: Introduction to Sociology 3rd Edition
"Sound, thorough, factually up-to-date and well written. This revised version of a trustworthy text is a must for anyone delivering an introductory course in sociology."
Janis Griffiths, Resources Editor for ATSS
Pierson & Castles: Welfare State Reader 2nd Edition
"In this second and updated version of their Welfare State Reader, Pierson and Castles have collated a masterful compendium of classic texts and important recent contributions to the contemporary and comparative analysis of welfare states. Preceded by useful introductions to each section, the volume covers traditional theories and perspectives, evolving debates and new political responses to enduring and recent challenges to maintaining social policy provision at a large scale. The result is an essential and invaluable resource for students, teachers and researchers interested in the development and the future of modern welfare states."
Jochen Clasen, University of Edinburgh
Pierson: Beyond the Welfare State? 3rd Edition
"Beyond the Welfare State? draws on a careful and exhaustive review of both the theoretical literature and empirical evidence on the contemporary Western welfare state and social democracy. Pierson's overview of the forces that propelled comparative welfare state development, crisis, and change is masterful, critical, and balanced. Packed with fresh insights and sharp reasoning, the book manages to pull together what it is important to know in the field of comparative welfare state studies. It is just about the best review of the literature currently available – a perfect text for upper-level university courses."
Gøsta Esping-Andersen,Pompeu Fabra University
This third edition of the book draws on a wealth of international evidence to survey what are now the most pressing issues surrounding the future of welfare: among them, globalisation, demographic change, declining fertility, postindustrialism and immigration.
Callinicos: Social Theory 2nd Edition
The book has been carefully updated to ensure that it engages with the most up-to-date debates in social theory, and concludes with a substantial new chapter. Here Callinicos assesses the significance of contemporary debates about globalization, including the recent re-emergence of critiques of capitalism and imperialism in the work of Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello, David Harvey, Robert Brenner, Giovanni Arrighi, and Slavoj Žižek
Bradley: Gender
In this lively and accessible book Harriet Bradley provides an introduction to the concept of gender and the different theoretical approaches which have developed within gender studies. Utilizing life narratives, she explores contemporary relations of masculinity and femininity and investigates processes of gendering in three important spheres of contemporary social life: production, reproduction and consumption.
Blaikie: Approaches to Social Enquiry 2nd Edition
"The repertoire of social research grows wider by the day. Norman Blaikie’s Approaches to Social Enquiry has always been the most trustworthy student guide through the methodological quagmire, and this new edition confirms his reputation as the supreme explicator of social inquiry."
Ray Pawson, University of Leeds
Blaikie focuses on questions such as: How is new social scientific knowledge produced or existing knowledge further developed? What status does this knowledge have and how can this be established? To what extent can the ways of advancing knowledge in the natural sciences be used in the social sciences? What major dilemmas do social researchers face in the development of new knowledge?
Alan Aldridge:Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction 2nd Edition
In the new edition of this widely read text, Alan Aldridge examines the complex realities of religious belief, practice and institutions, ranging from the high growth rates of successful minority religious movements such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, to the phenomenal rise of Pentecostalism, the challenge of ‘fundamentalism’ and the apparent turn from religion to spirituality.
The second edition has been carefully revised to make sure it is fully up-to-date with recent developments and debates. Major themes in the revised edition include religious diversity and its implications for social cohesion, and the paradoxical fate of religion in societies that appear to be obsessed with individualism and consumerism.
Browne: Sociology for AS AQA 3rd Edition
"Ken Browne's lively book covers all units of the new AQA syllabus. The chapters are well structured and provide sufficient detail for students to score top marks. The text is clear and accessible and close to students' experiences and perceptions. Concepts are clearly explained and the 'key terms' and glossary are very useful. It is a very good book."
Bill McDonnell, Northampton School for Girls
This series makes available to a wide audience the ideas of some of the most influential thinkers, of our time. Cutting across the boundaries between academic disciplines and between different traditions of thought, the series addresses European as well as Anglo-American thinkers. The books are written in a clear and concise way, making them suitable for students and for the interested general reader.
New and published titles of interest to sociologists are listed below. Please check other subject pages for further titles in this series.
Key Concepts is a series of concise and accessible textbooks exploring core concepts in the social sciences. The books focus on concepts that are central to each discipline and have a high degree of complexity surrounding them. For more information on individual titles please see the series webpage: www.polity.co.uk/keyconcepts.
Titles include:
A major new series of innovative and lively short introductions to the main areas of the social sciences and humanities. For information on individual volumes please go to the series webpage: www.polity.co.uk/shortintroductions.
This ground-breaking series sets a new agenda for debates in the social sciences and humanities. Each volume in the series sheds light on a particular issue or theme shaping social, political, economic, and cultural life in the new millennium. Written by internationally renowned scholars who are leaders in their field, books in this series provide original and accessible overviews of some of the most important topics of our age.
Titles include:
