Bücher der Reihe Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society

The Symbol Theory draws together three central themes. At the first level the book is concerned with symbols in relation to language, knowing and thinking. Secondly, Elias stresses that symbols are tangible sound-patterns of human communication. Finally, the book addresses theoretical issues about the ontological status of knowledge.

This book frames speculation on what postcapitalist societies could be, with regimes of private accumulation replaced by a politics and ethics of a democratic and ecologically-grounded Commons.

This book teaches us to read the contemporary Chinese city. Li Shiqiao deftly crafts a new theory of the Chinese city and the dynamics of urbanization. He traces a thread between ancient Chinese city formations and current urban organizations, revealing hidden continuities that show how instrumental the past has been in forming the present.

A fully revised edition of a seminal text from a world class authority in tourism. Each chapter has been significantly updated to include fresh data, examples and critical theory and three entirely new chapters have been added. A modern classic.

Dynamic and insightful exploration of the 'everyday' individual's willingness to turn themselves into media content. How are 'ordinary' people being integrated into current media formats?

'This is an ambitious, original, and complex treatment of key aspects of contemporary capitalism. It makes a major contribution because it profoundly destabilizes the scholarship on globalization, the so-called new economy, information technology, distinct contemporary business cultures and practices' - Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and its Discontents

Vikki Bell explores the ways in which oppression must be understood outside feminist boundaries and why the history of 'race' came to be thought of as parallel to the history of feminism.

A critical examination of `right' radicalism: from Nietzsche and nihilism to a comparative analysis of recent nationalist conservatism in Europe.

Third edition of Bryan Turner's seminal text on the body and social theory. One of the biggest authors in the field today.

Explains the sweeping changes to twentieth-century regimes of manners and self. Broad in scope and deep in analytic reach, this book provides a wealth of empirical evidence to demonstrate how changes in the code of manners and emotions in four countries (Germany, Netherlands, England and the US) have undergone increasing informalization.

Consumer Culture and Postmodernism

This selection of Bataille's work recognizes the full breadth of his contribution as a key thinker in debates on modernity and postmodernity, to critical theory, and as a major influence on Foucault, Derrida and Baudrillard.

Demonstrates how dress shapes and is shaped by social processes and phenomena such as beauty, time, the body, the gift exchange, class, gender, and religion.

What do we mean by 'diaspora' and 'hybridity'? Why are they pivotal concepts in contemporary debates on race, culture and society? This book is a politically inflected, assessment of the key debates on diaspora and hybridity. It relates the topics to contemporary social struggles and cultural contexts.

What is phenomenological sociology? Why is it significant? This book argues that phenomenology was the most significant, wide-ranging and influential philosophy to emerge in the twentieth century.

Explores the meaning of leisure in the context of key social formations of our time. This title brings together the insights of feminism, Marxism, Weber, Elias, Simmel, Nietzsche and Baudrillard to produce a survey - and rethinking - of leisure theory.

This is an examination of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of culture and habitus. Within the wider intellectual context of Bourdieu's work, this book provides a systematic reading of his assessment of the role of "culture capital" in the production and consumption of symbolic goods.

This book provides a systematic account of the intellectual context as well as an exhaustive analysis of the key themes informing Deleuze and Guattari's work. It will be invaluable in situating the philosophy of these two major figures within the perspective of the social and human sciences.

This book provides a critical introduction to de Certeau's work and influence, looks at his key ideas and asks how we should try to understand him in relation to theories of modern culture and society.

What is postcolonial studies? What are its achievements, strengths and weaknesses? This book deals with one of the most important issues with special emphasis on neo-liberalism within world poverty and the 'third world'. It clarifies: the territory of postcolonial studies; how identity and postcolonialism relate; and more.

Deals with questions about how power and resistance operate in contemporary society. This title argues that critique must take place from within information flows, rather than from the safety of 'academic detachment' and that information is power. It presents the prospects of intellectual life in an age dominated by global flows of information.

`It is difficult to qualify excitement and enthusiasm for this book.... For those studying and teaching on the body... the book is an essential text....' - Sociology of Health and Illness`...enriches the conceptual arsenal for interdisciplinary analysis of political, social and cultural change...' - The American Journal of Sociology

Asks why we see some bodies as monstrous or vulnerable and examines what this tells us about ideas of bodily normality and bodily perfection. Drawing on feminist theories of the body, biomedical discourse and historical data, this title argues that the response to the monstrous body has always been ambivalent.

Drawing on long term empirical research into cultural practices, lifestyles and identities, this volume explores how far reaching global changes are articulated locally.

Shilling offers the most comprehensive overview of the field to date and an innovative framework for the analysis of embodiment, founded on a revised view of the relation of classical works to the body. Shilling believes the body should be read as a multi-dimensional medium for the constitution of society.

This delightful, thought-provoking book tackles head-on the assumption that laughter and humour are necessarily good in themselves. The author proposes a social theory that places humour central to social life. Billig argues that all cultures use ridicule as a disciplinary means to uphold norms of conduct and conventions of meaning.