Julia Coffey – författare

Falling somewhere between childhood and adulthood, ‘Youth’ is a key period of transition. It can be difficult to define and make sense of this period in one’s life.However it is categorised, young people face a number of challenges and issues growing up in today’s world. From the pressures created by social media to the increasing precarity of employment, the major social, cultural and economic developments of our time are each impacting this period of the lifecourse in myriad ways. Youth Sociology helps readers to understand how such changes factor into the experience of being young today, and illuminates the realities of the world in which young people live.Embedding perspectives and insights from a wide range of disciplines beyond sociology, this authoritative new textbook will be incredibly useful for all students of youth.

Falling somewhere between childhood and adulthood, ‘Youth’ is a key period of transition. It can be difficult to define and make sense of this period in one’s life.However it is categorised, young people face a number of challenges and issues growing up in today’s world. From the pressures created by social media to the increasing precarity of employment, the major social, cultural and economic developments of our time are each impacting this period of the lifecourse in myriad ways. Youth Sociology helps readers to understand how such changes factor into the experience of being young today, and illuminates the realities of the world in which young people live.Embedding perspectives and insights from a wide range of disciplines beyond sociology, this authoritative new textbook will be incredibly useful for all students of youth.

The rise of the health, beauty and fitness industries in recent years has led to an increased focus on the body. Body image, gender and health are issues of long-standing concern in sociology and in youth studies, but a theoretical and empirical focus on the body has been largely missing from this field. This book explores young people’s understandings of their bodies in the context of gender and health ideals, consumer culture, individualisation and image. Body Work examines the body in youth studies. It explores paradoxical aspects of gendered body work practices, highlighting the contradiction in men’s increased participation in these industries as consumers alongside the re-emphasis of their gendered difference. It explores the key ways in which the ideal body is currently achieved, via muscularising practices, slimming regimes and cosmetic procedures. Coffey investigates the concept of ‘health’ and how it is inextricably linked both to the bodily performance of gender ideals and an increased public emphasis on individual management and responsibility in the pursuit of a ‘healthy’ body.This book’s conceptual framework places it at the forefront of theoretical work concerning bodies, affect and images, particularly in its development of Deleuzian research. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students in fields of youth studies, education, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, affect and body studies.

The rise of the health, beauty and fitness industries in recent years has led to an increased focus on the body. Body image, gender and health are issues of long-standing concern in sociology and in youth studies, but a theoretical and empirical focus on the body has been largely missing from this field. This book explores young people’s understandings of their bodies in the context of gender and health ideals, consumer culture, individualisation and image. Body Work examines the body in youth studies. It explores paradoxical aspects of gendered body work practices, highlighting the contradiction in men’s increased participation in these industries as consumers alongside the re-emphasis of their gendered difference. It explores the key ways in which the ideal body is currently achieved, via muscularising practices, slimming regimes and cosmetic procedures. Coffey investigates the concept of ‘health’ and how it is inextricably linked both to the bodily performance of gender ideals and an increased public emphasis on individual management and responsibility in the pursuit of a ‘healthy’ body.This book’s conceptual framework places it at the forefront of theoretical work concerning bodies, affect and images, particularly in its development of Deleuzian research. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students in fields of youth studies, education, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, affect and body studies.

What does it mean to be pedagogical in a post-truth landscape? How might feminist thought and action work to intervene in this environment? Gender in an Era of Post-truth Populism draws together leading feminist scholars of gender and education to explore the current significance of the rise of populist policies and discourses and the challenges it poses to the hard-won battles regarding the rights of women, immigrants, and minorities. Offering the first detailed feminist intervention in this space, the collection explores the significance of populism for feminist pedagogies and practices in relation to gender and education. This exploration has significance for broader and urgent questions of our times regarding knowledge, authority, truth, power and harm and considers the potential for feminist interventions in relation to pedagogies and activisms to speak back and disrupt populist agendas.

What does it mean to be pedagogical in a post-truth landscape? How might feminist thought and action work to intervene in this environment? Gender in an Era of Post-truth Populism draws together leading feminist scholars of gender and education to explore the current significance of the rise of populist policies and discourses and the challenges it poses to the hard-won battles regarding the rights of women, immigrants, and minorities. Offering the first detailed feminist intervention in this space, the collection explores the significance of populism for feminist pedagogies and practices in relation to gender and education. This exploration has significance for broader and urgent questions of our times regarding knowledge, authority, truth, power and harm and considers the potential for feminist interventions in relation to pedagogies and activisms to speak back and disrupt populist agendas.

Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry, and thereby how youth, gender, sexuality, race and social class are embodied and made productive in the service economy. It shows that the key product of hospitality labour is ‘vibes’, or moments of enjoyment and relationality co-produced through exploitative relationships amongst workers and consumers. In the process, the book theorises hospitality as a form of affective labour organised through the normative and structural relations of precarious service work. It shows how identity construction produces value within the highly unequal social terrain of the service economy, and how hospitality labour enacts hierarchies of value extending far beyond the limits of the industry itself.

The social and cultural dimensions shaping body ideals and young people’s body image concerns have not been adequately explored in the current landscape of social media and youth body cultures.

The social and cultural dimensions shaping body ideals and young people’s body image concerns have not been adequately explored in the current landscape of social media and youth body cultures.

'Learning Bodies’ addresses the lack of attention paid to the body in youth and childhood studies. Whilst a significant range of work on this area has explored gender, class, race and ethnicity, and sexualities – all of which have bodily dimensions – the body is generally studied indirectly, rather than being the central focus.