Bücher der Reihe CRESC

Plastic has become emblematic of economies of abundance and ecological destruction. If the post-war `plastics age¿ was cleaner and brighter than all that preceded it, this boosterism has now become intertwined with anxiety as the burdens of accumulating plastic wastes register in environments and bodies. This innovative book investigates how plastic accumulates functions, concerns, politics, properties and more.

Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion sheds important light on the ways in which society is intimately linked to and characterized by mimetic patterns.

Studio Studies is an edited collection which explores and examines the studio as the principal site of aesthetic and material production, inextricably linked with ¿ and a key feature of ¿ contemporary forms of capitalism. The volume presents case studies addressing a wide range of sociocultural practices that are dependent on the studio as the setting for bringing tangible and immaterial cultural objects into being.

The idea that research needs to become more interdisciplinary has been widely argued in recent decades. This book presents a series of empirical, historical and theoretical studies that interrogate contemporary forms of interdisciplinary research, cutting across the boundaries between the natural sciences and engineering and the social sciences, arts and humanities.

The idea that research needs to become more interdisciplinary has been widely argued in recent decades. This book presents a series of empirical, historical and theoretical studies that interrogate contemporary forms of interdisciplinary research, cutting across the boundaries between the natural sciences and engineering and the social sciences, arts and humanities.

This volume links contemporary debates on cosmopolitanism to historical and comparative case studies on international broadcasting. Through the prism of the BBC World Service, it illuminates how diasporic broadcasters at the BBC translate and produce news in dozens of languages and, as skilled cultural intermediaries, are integral to British diplomacy.

Models matter and have material effects on the lives of people. They emerge and change in historical, social and cultural conjunctures that operate at different scales and promote different subjective experiences and conditions of possibility for action. Industry and Work in Contemporary Capitalism engages critically with models of the economy and blueprints of the future, providing an ethnographically rich account of the enactment of models in specific communities. It also addresses the uses of projections into the future as forms of knowledge that are simultaneously powerful instruments of transformation.

Methods texts in social and cultural research have not kept pace with the increasing importance of interdisciplinary work, changing conceptions of the empirical, and the need to communicate with diverse users and audiences. This volume proposes a set of approaches for the empirical investigation of the contemporary world.

In 2010 Shanghai hosted the largest, most spectacular and most expensive expo ever. Attracting a staggering 73 million visitors, and costing around US$45 billion dollars, Shanghai Expo broke the records in the history of world's fairs and universal expositions. The thirteen essays in Shanghai Expo, written by a team of interdisciplinary researchers, offer a uniquely detailed analysis of this globally significant event.

This book gathers some of the most influential international scholarship in an emergent social science of infrastructures. Approaching infrastructures as complex, dynamic and fragile assemblages the volume aims to introduce readers to a new field of analytical approaches that draws attention to how the study of infrastructures can offer politically and theoretically generative perspectives on key areas of contemporary concern.

Theorizing Cultural Work brings together leading theorists to reflect on the ways in which forms of cultural work are embedded historically and socially, and to assess the extent to which they are illustrative of some putatively new social relations of work. It analyzes both local and internationally inter-linked cultural/creative labour processes as they unfold across different territories and economic regimes, considering the history and the future of cultural work in light of the immediate (post-crisis) and longer term social context.

Migrants bring music from the homeland to the metropolis. But music also migrates via the media: `world¿ music, hip hop, bossa nova ... . With case studies from across the world this ground-breaking collection shows how migrating music is key to the construction of a still-emerging, global cosmopolitan imagination.

Presents a socio-material analysis of the British milk industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This title is suitable for any researcher interested in the hybrid socio-material, economic and political factors underpinning the transformation of the milk industry.

A collection of essays that explore the achievements and limitations of a Bourdieusian approach to cultural analysis and the implications for future research.

Explores and develops fresh understandings of how power is made up and exercised by examining the role of material infrastructures in the organisation of state power and the role of material cultural practices in the organisation of colonial forms of governance.

Media studies needs richer and livelier intellectual resources. This book considers key processes of media change, using a number of critical perspectives. It is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers of cultural studies, media studies and social theory.

Media studies needs richer and livelier intellectual resources. This book considers key processes of media change, using a number of critical perspectives. It is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers of cultural studies, media studies and social theory.

Offers a contribution to international debates regarding the role of cultural capital in relation to modern forms of inequality. Drawing on a national study of the organisation of cultural practices in contemporary Britain, this work reviews Bourdieu's classic study of the relationships between culture and class in the light of subsequent debates.

What is it like to work in the media? Are media jobs more 'creative' than those in other sectors? This book explores the creative industries, using a combination of original research and a synthesis of existing studies. It is suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of subjects including business and management studies.

This book explores and develops new understandings of how power is made up and exercised by examining the role of material infrastructures in the organization of state power and the role of material cultural practices in the organization of colonial forms of governance.

This book represents the first anthropological ethnography of Ikea consumption and goes to the heart of understanding the unique and at times frantic popularity of this one iconic transnational store. In Unpacking Ikea, Garvey explores why Ikea is never `just a store¿ for its customers, why it is described in terms of a cultural package; as `everyday¿ and decidedly classless. Using in-depth interviews with householders over several years, this ethnographic study follows the furniture from the Ikea store outwards to probe what people actually take home with them.