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.
Digitized Institutions
In this Byte, the contributions consider the way that digitally meditated social processes are transforming institutions. It examines the interconnectedness of institutions and considers digitization across schooling, work, and media, with an eye on inequality.
Digital Bodies
The pieces in this Byte raise important questions about what it means to bring our embodied selves into contact with digital media technologies. The selections expand our understanding of what it means to live in and through bodies augmented by digital technologies within a deeply unequal social world.
Digital Sociologies
This is the first book to connect digital media technologies in digital sociology to traditional sociological and offers a much needed overview of it. It includes problems of the digital age in relation to inequality and identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of courses.
The Short Guide to Aging and Gerontology
This compact, focused guide is perfect for students and others new to the field of gerontology. Features include further reading for each chapter, a glossary of key terms, and tables that provide easy reference points.
Social Problems in Popular Culture
This is the first book to make the link between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues.
Direct Payments and Personal Budgets
Putting Personalisation into Practice
This third edition of the leading textbook on personalisation considers key policy changes since 2009 and new research into the extension and outcomes of personal budgets. It is essential reading for students, practitioners and policy makers in social work and community care services.
Community Development in Action
Putting Freire into Practice
This exciting and practical book is filled to the brim with useful ideas for busy practitioners. Building on the work of Paulo Freire, theories are presented in interesting and straightforward ways to provide an everyday reference for practice.
Key Thinkers in Childhood Studies
This book presents the perspectives of 22 leading figures involved in shaping the field of Childhood Studies over the last 30 years. They reflect on the changes that have taken place in the study of children and childhood, discuss ideas underpinning the field, examine current dilemmas and explore challenges for the future.
The Short Guide to Social Policy
This fully updated edition of an essential introductory text offers a concise guide to the key structures and concepts in social policy and is designed to work in partnership with unique, innovative digital content that adds depth and provides a truly integrated way of learning.
The Short Guide to Urban Policy
This text makes sense of the multiple ways in which urban issues and problems have been addressed in different places at different times. From initiatives that focus on social tensions within the urban realm, to those which seek to develop cities as economic entities, it provides an accessible discussion and critique of some key approaches.
Effective Writing for Social Work
Making a Difference
Drawing on both research and examples from practice, this book offers students an insight into the nature and challenges of writing in social work practice, enabling them to improve their writing skills.
The Short Guide to Environmental Policy
An essential introduction for all those interested in how policies can address environmental problems, bringing together economic, sociological and social policy perspectives.