Textbooks
Education is at the heart of our mission to make a difference. Our goal is to support students’ learning with materials that foster understanding, confidence and skills.
We have a diverse and growing programme of textbooks and learning resources that are designed for Social Science courses at university and college level. We take pride in publishing quality content at affordable prices, and we cater to a wide range of learning styles in print and digital formats.
All of our textbooks are available on inspection and e-inspection (order here or use the link on the book pages). Lecturers are welcome to request print or digital inspection copies for potential recommendation on their reading lists and for student and library purchase. In return, we just ask for feedback on the books’ suitability for teaching purposes, in order to help us develop our publishing.
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Take a look at our textbooks below or browse by subject.
Changing Children's Services
Working and Learning Together
This book focuses on the drive towards increasingly integrated ways of working in children’s services across the UK. The new edition of this bestselling textbook critically examines the potential and reality of closer ‘working together’, asking whether such new ways of working will be able to respond more effectively to the needs of children.
Organisational Behaviour for Social Work
Using real social work case examples, Organisational behaviour for social work unites the well-established study of behaviour in organizations with the special, and sometimes unusual, organizational settings of social work practice.
Rationing in health care
The theory and practice of priority setting
The challenges faced by those rationing scarce health care resources have intensified recently. In an accessible style, this book tackles this challenge by exploring the latest thinking and practice on priority setting methods.
Evidence Based Policing
An Introduction
Examining what makes something evidence-based and not merely evidence-informed, this book unifies the voices of police practitioners, academics, and pracademics. It provides real world examples of evidence-based police practices and how police research can be created and applied in the field.
Understanding the policy process
Analysing welfare policy and practice
Using core concepts of policy analysis "Understanding the policy process" builds up a full explanation of social policy change that can be applied to any aspect of welfare policy, public and social policy. This second edition of the book updates the first edition for the post-Blair era with international case studies from numerous countries.
Children and Young People's Worlds
This substantially updated new edition sets out the contexts of children's and young people’s lives and encourages students to explore their complexities and contexts. Each chapter challenges students’ assumptions and examines crucial issues in the field, such as participation, race, and transnational childhoods.
How to Use Social Work Theory in Practice
An Essential Guide
In this clear and systematic book covering the both general practice concepts and theoretical insights, best-selling author Malcolm Payne shows you how to work with the main social work theories and practice techniques and pinpoint their strengths and limitations.
Critical Practice with Children and Young People
This new edition for advanced students and practitioners is substantially updated to reflect the changes in the field since the publication of the first edition and contains multiple additional chapters discussing new and emerging topics for those in the fields of social work, education and health care.
Social theory for beginners
Aimed at first-year undergraduates studying sociology and related disciplines, this introductory-level textbook presents key ideas and concepts in social theory and an account of their intellectual background.
An introduction to genetic epidemiology
This book brings together leading experts to provide an introduction to genetic epidemiology that begins with a primer in human molecular genetics through all the standard methods in population genetics and genetic epidemiology required for an adequate grounding in the field.
Doing Qualitative Desk-Based Research
A Practical Guide to Writing an Excellent Dissertation
Using two key visual pedagogical tools, this book shows you how to produce vibrant and stimulating in-depth qualitative research that draws on data readily available via the internet. Concise, practical and jam-packed with valuable tips, this book will enable you to complete a successful desk-based research project you can be proud of.
Human Growth and Development in Children and Young People
Theoretical and Practice Perspectives
Covering key concepts, theories, themes and issues, this textbook uses a range of multi-disciplinary insights to show how children and young people negotiate crucial challenges and transitions in their lives. Covering different practice dimensions, it provides fresh insights on key topics and includes a range of learning support features.