Pekka Sulkunen – författare

Commercial gambling is a recent historical phenomenon. It has developed into a profitable industry that supplies a range of recreational activities to its customers, and is a significant way of collecting money from players to distribute to companies, state budgets, and other beneficiaries. Many of these are civil society organizations, using the money for producing services in sports, culture, social work, and health care. However, gambling can also develop into pathological behaviour. Using a public interest framework, this book discusses the policies that will best serve the public good and minimize individual and collective harms. After describing the historical context of the gambling and the current global burden of the activity, available methods of regulating the industry are evaluated using the available scientific evidence. By analysing the effectiveness of gambling policies and their alignment with the public interest, the epidemiological obstacles to successful regulation are considered in detail. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of restrictions on availability and access, but preventing gambling-related harm is not possible without limiting the overall volume of the activity, and hence the profits for the gambling industry and governments. Taking an international approach, this book delivers a comprehensive review of the epidemiological evidence documenting the harmful effects of gambling on individuals, communities, and societies. Essential reading for policymakers, social and behavioural scientists in gambling research, and public health researchers, Setting Limits examines a global view of an emerging epidemic of gambling problems.

Commercial gambling is a recent historical phenomenon. It has developed into a profitable industry that supplies a range of recreational activities to its customers, and is a significant way of collecting money from players to distribute to companies, state budgets, and other beneficiaries. Many of these are civil society organizations, using the money for producing services in sports, culture, social work, and health care. However, gambling can also develop into pathological behaviour. Using a public interest framework, this book discusses the policies that will best serve the public good and minimize individual and collective harms. After describing the historical context of the gambling and the current global burden of the activity, available methods of regulating the industry are evaluated using the available scientific evidence. By analysing the effectiveness of gambling policies and their alignment with the public interest, the epidemiological obstacles to successful regulation are considered in detail. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of restrictions on availability and access, but preventing gambling-related harm is not possible without limiting the overall volume of the activity, and hence the profits for the gambling industry and governments. Taking an international approach, this book delivers a comprehensive review of the epidemiological evidence documenting the harmful effects of gambling on individuals, communities, and societies. Essential reading for policymakers, social and behavioural scientists in gambling research, and public health researchers, Setting Limits examines a global view of an emerging epidemic of gambling problems.

Commercial gambling is a recent historical phenomenon. It has developed into a profitable industry that supplies a range of recreational activities to its customers, and is a significant way of collecting money from players to distribute to companies, state budgets, and other beneficiaries. Many of these are civil society organizations, using the money for producing services in sports, culture, social work, and health care. However, gambling can also develop into pathological behaviour. Using a public interest framework, this book discusses the policies that will best serve the public good and minimize individual and collective harms. After describing the historical context of the gambling and the current global burden of the activity, available methods of regulating the industry are evaluated using the available scientific evidence. By analysing the effectiveness of gambling policies and their alignment with the public interest, the epidemiological obstacles to successful regulation are considered in detail. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of restrictions on availability and access, but preventing gambling-related harm is not possible without limiting the overall volume of the activity, and hence the profits for the gambling industry and governments. Taking an international approach, this book delivers a comprehensive review of the epidemiological evidence documenting the harmful effects of gambling on individuals, communities, and societies. Essential reading for policymakers, social and behavioural scientists in gambling research, and public health researchers, Setting Limits examines a global view of an emerging epidemic of gambling problems.

How can policy makers justify public intervention into private life? And why does this interference often translate into contradictory or non-reflexive politics on lifestyles?

This engaging title discusses the social, cultural and policy consequences of these conditions as well as showing the effect of agency and choice upon regulation.

The book critically examines:

-Neo-Liberal ideology and the free market

-The Sociology of Modernity

-The New Consumer Society

-Citizenship in Mass Society

-The power of Autonomy

-The interaction of Regulation and Agency

It provides a developed 'genealogical' account of society, is enriched by original case-studies, and engages with a broad range of traditional approaches and sources - including the work of Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, Adam Smith and Pierre Bourdieu.

This well researched and thought-provoking work will be of interest to students of social policy and sociology as well as policy-makers and field workers.

This book argues that the coming of the ''a new consumerism'' in the affluent societies marks a distinct phase of modernity. Limits of production no longer confine consumption to what is necessary or instrumental. Demands for increasing production no longer shape ideology and culture as they did previously. Important contemporary themes of morality, the body, citizenship and inequality are here placed in a new theoretical light. The book provides examples of new codes of happiness in consuming products, culture and entertainment. Issues of nutrition, consumer policy, environmental risk and health are discussed in the light of these new codes.

”Käsittelen kahdenlaisia tosiasioita: suomalaisen ja pohjoismaisen yhteiskunnan muutosta, jossa olen elänyt ja jota olen tarkkaillut, sekä muutosta koskevia käsityksiä ja mielikuvia, joita olen tutkinut.”Moderni yhteiskuntatiede on liittänyt valinnanvapauden ja demokratian toisiinsa. Klassinen sosiologia tuki 1800-luvun lopulla edustuksellisen demokratian kehittymistä kääntämällä päälaelleen aikaisemmat teoriat, joiden mukaan yhtenäinen valtio sitoo erilaiset ihmiset yhteiskunnaksi. Politiikan katsottiin johtuvan sosiaalisista siteistä eikä päinvastoin.Vajaa sata vuotta myöhemmin uusklassinen sosiologia selitti, että teollinen ja kaupallinen yhteiskunta edellyttää erilaisuuden hyväksymistä ja yksilönvapautta. Modernisaatioteorian näkyvin edustaja Suomessa oli Erik Allardt.Tässä teoksessa esitetään uusi näkökulma sosiologiaan ja kehitetään teoria moniarvoisuuteen kohdistuvasta vastarinnasta. Pohjoismaissa luterilaiset valtionkirkot ja varhainen hyvinvointivaltio ovat sekä jarruttaneet että edistäneet yksilökeskeisyyttä. Populistinen vastarinta on syntynyt demokratian ja liberalismin liitosta mutta kääntyy nyt poliittisten siteiden murskaavalla voimalla niitä vastaan.Kirjoittaja on sosiologian professori emeritus.