Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences – serie

In this fascinating six volume set, Stuart Corbridge brings together more than one hundred articles dealing with the discipline of development in all its diversity. Key topics include the transformation of peasant economies, argibusiness, rural-urban relations, markets, industrialization, workers, trade, aid and structural adjustment. A unique set in its comprehensiveness and diversity, it also considers four key challenges for development theory and practice relating to capabilities, ethics, sustainability and regulation.

These volumes comprise the most extensive guide to past and current research on the topic of consumption ever created. Ranging from the classic discussions of a century and more ago to the latest evidence for the diversity of consumption as it is actually practiced, this set is an essential foundation for one of the most rapidly growing areas of contemporary academic study.The contents are highly inter-disciplinary, with approaches ranging from anthropology and media studies, to geography and business studies. Each discipline provides its own theories, perspectives and methodologies for studying this topic. These volumes also make use of the rapid increase in studies of actual consumption across the globe, with examples from China, Japan, India and South America.

Political geography concerns small-scale intrastate, regional and individual activities, as well as large far-reaching processes of global or international relationships. The field has developed from late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century concerns with geopolitics - the relationships between state power and territory - to a diverse range of topics engendered by new world systems and globalization.In line with the tremendous growth in the study of political geography since the 1970s, this impressive collection charts the historical growth of the discipline, as well as the major themes of post-1970s developments.

Economic geography has long been a key branch of human geography as a whole, but in recent years the subject has undergone considerable theoretical, empirical and public growth. It has become a highly vibrant sphere of academic enquiry amongst the social sciences, and an increasingly prominent arena of political discourse and policy action.Reflecting this, Economic Geography: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences is a comprehensive five-volume set covering the following key areas:the evolving project of economic geography realms of wealth creation in a globalizing economy changing worlds of work and welfare the cultural economyregulating the economic landscape. With a new introduction by the editors, this fascinating collection captures the essential elements involved in the intellectual development of the field, making it an indispensable resource for both student and scholar alike.

Animals are crucial to the functioning of any society: they provide humans with food, labour, raw materials, modes of transport, companionship, scientific knowledge through observation and experimentation, and forms of leisure and entertainment. Given both the wide variety of ways in which animals are involved in human societies, and also the broad range of controversies (from vivisection for scientific and commercial purposes, to factory farming) that have arisen, the study of animals is by its very nature interdisciplinary. Each social scientific discipline has distinctive and interesting things to say about the relations that pertain both historically and in the present day between humans and animals. In subjects such as anthropology and geography, the study of human-animal relations has become in recent years a key area of analysis. Other subjects, such as sociology, are now increasingly recognising the need to put animals firmly on their research agendas.This collection brings together the rich diversity of research work from across the social sciences on the topic of human-animal relations, and also provides overviews of research that has been carried out within particular disciplines in this area.

In the last five years or so, there has been a huge explosion of scholarly work on the history of food and, likewise, pressing problems such as food scares and genetic modification, as well as anorexia and obesity, have become increasingly present in the public consciousness.Drawing on a wide variety of disciplines, this fascinating four-volume collection covers anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, cultural history, land economy, and, outside of the arts and social sciences, disciplines such as health sciences and health economics. An engaging and comprehensive reference, it is undoubtedly a highly useful resource for both student and scholar alike.

The eleven countries that make up the Southeast Asian region provide a rich and diverse context in which to view the development process and experience. The region spans different cultural contexts, colonial experiences, and economic experiments, and is home to some of the world’s most successful developing economies—the so-styled Asian ‘miracle’ economies—and also some which fall into the UN designation of ‘least developed’.This new three-volume collection, from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences series, is guided by a broad definition of ‘development’ and does not limit itself to development economics or even to development studies. Papers on development issues by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, geographers, political scientists, as well as by economists are represented in the volumes. The works are ordered not by disciplinary orientation (economics, anthropology, history, etc.) or by chronology (colonial, postcolonial, and so on) but, predominantly, by context and theme, to enable the intellectual progression of debates regarding, for example, the nature of rural society and rural development, to be more easily identified. The structure and range of works included within Southeast Asian Development ensure that it will be an invaluable reference resource for students and scholars alike.

Edited by two leading scholars in the field, Leisure Studies is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. It is a four-volume collection of canonical and cutting-edge research in Leisure Studies.The origin of Leisure Studies is comparatively recent. The subject is largely a postwar development which began to unfold in the 1960s, initially in the USA and Europe. The subject area has continued to evolve internationally from a number of other disciplines and cognate areas—such as outdoor recreation, geography, history, economics, and sociology—and there has been a corresponding growth in Leisure Studies scholarship. Leisure Studies is now a vibrant and dynamic field of study and research, and the sheer scale of the growth in its output makes this collection especially timely. A wide range of social science journals have published leisure-related material and this Major Work makes available foundational pieces of scholarship—as well as cutting-edge research—from these disparate, and sometimes less accessible sources, as well as from the leading UK, European, and North American leisure journals, and from other publications, some of which are no longer in print.As well as bringing together the key studies and journal articles that have shaped leisure thought, the collection is to be welcomed as the first mapping of an area that to date has lacked an interdisciplinary synthesis. The thematic organization of the collection, together with the editors’ introductions and their commentaries on the collected texts, makes sense of the wide range of approaches, theories, and concepts that have informed Leisure Studies, and reviews the history of the subject and the rise of its identity and research agenda. It is an essential collection destined to be valued as a vital research resource by all scholars and students of the subject.

Under what social conditions do particular sorts of arts and aesthetics arise and flourish, and under what conditions do they decline and disappear? What types of artistic and aesthetic practices exist outside of museums, galleries, and other high-cultural institutions? In what ways are social relations and broader cultural forces embedded within particular artworks, or specific artistic genres and forms? What roles can—and do—aesthetic orientations and artistic processes and products play in social life? In what ways are arts and aesthetics socially organized, regulated, distributed, and utilized? How are ‘art worlds’ connected to other major social institutions, such as politics and the economy, and has art become just an offshoot of consumer and celebrity culture?Serious work on dizzying questions such as these has a long pedigree, stretching back at least to the writings of Giambattista Vico and Madame de Staël in the eighteenth century. Very simply put, both these authors were concerned with tracing the manifold relations that can pertain between the arts—and, more broadly, ‘aesthetics’—on the one hand, and ‘society’ on the other. Since then, social scientists in many disciplines have had compelling things to say about art and aesthetics. In some disciplines—such as anthropology—this is a fact of long standing, while in others—like human geography—it is of more recent provenance. But the most striking recent surge of interest in the area has taken place in sociology, where never before have cultural forces and phenomena been so centrally on the research agenda.Addressing the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of this rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of scholarly literature, Art and Aesthetics is a new title in the Routledge series, Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. Edited by two leading scholars, this new Major Work from Routledge brings together in four volumes foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship to provide a synoptic view of all the key issues and current debates.In particular, this new collection brings together for the first time the most important research on how social relations are embodied in artistic and aesthetic products and processes, and how these in turn can affect social life and societal organization. Rooted in sociology, but also embracing a broad range of diverse contributions from other disciplines—such as anthropology, philosophy, art history, cultural studies, media studies, film studies, gender studies, and postcolonial studies—Art and Aesthetics demonstrates the great vitality of this area of research and teaching. It highlights both how social scientists are increasingly developing sophisticated ways of understanding artistic and aesthetic issues, and also how scholars in the humanities are drawing upon social-scientific ideas and methods in order more fully to engage with such matters than hitherto was possible.Art and Aesthetics is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students interested in the relations between arts, aesthetics, culture, and society as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

A term of antique provenance, ‘cosmopolitanism’ has developed and cohered into a critical concept in contemporary social and cultural analysis. However, the daunting quantity (and variable quality) of the available research exploring the many, often controversial, issues attendant upon cosmopolitanism—and the breadth and complexity of the canon on which it draws—makes it difficult to discriminate the useful from the tendentious, superficial, and otiose. That is why this new title in the highly regarded Routledge series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, is so timely. It answers the urgent need for a wide-ranging collection to provide easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is often inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books.In four volumes, this new collection addresses how key issues, such as globalization, migration, citizenship, social belonging, and cultural complexity and blending, are illuminated by reflections upon what cosmopolitanism is, or could be; and how cosmopolitan thinking and practice could, or does, impact upon such matters. The gathered materials also make sense of the revolutionary effects that debates on cosmopolitanism are having on research agendas and ways of thinking in sociology, and across the social sciences and humanities more generally.Cosmopolitanism is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.

Until about two hundred years ago, almost everyone faced the prospect of a life that was poor, nasty, brutish, and short, with few if any prospects for betterment. For example, in today’s money, annual average per-capita income during the first millennium was constant at about $500. And most of the next century saw little in the way of expanded opportunities. Indeed, until the early nineteenth century, annual average per-capita income was only a couple of hundred dollars higher, and the average per-capita growth rate barely increased above zero.Why have societies so consistently failed to generate high standards of living and why, even today, do so many societies live far from the frontier of the developed world’s economic possibilities?Political Economy is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. Bringing together canonical and the best cutting-edge scholarship from economics, political science, law, and other disciplines, this four-volume collection meets the need for an authoritative reference work to address these and other fundamental questions in political economy.As serious research in and around the application of economic techniques to political issues flourishes as never before, the work assembled in the first two volumes in the collection (‘Theory: Social Choice and Elections’ and ‘Elections and Institutions’) allows users to understand the fundamental constraints that political processes impose on legal frameworks. Volume III (‘Politics, Law, and Economic Performance’) gathers the vital scholarship on important contributions to theories of economic growth and fluctuations, as well as key work on how those macroeconomic outcomes relate to politico-legal foundations. Finally, Volume IV (‘Governance’) takes a ‘micro-governance’ approach, exploring how, for example, corporate law and intra-firm politics influence the macroeconomic aggregates by which social welfare is often measured.With comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editors, which place the collected materials in its historical and intellectual context, Political Economy is destined to be valued by scholars, advanced students, and policy-makers as a vital research and reference resource.

Science and Technology Studies has attained a strong international profile in recent decades. Science Studies incorporates work in the History and Philosophy of Science, but emphasizes the social, cultural, and political implications of developments in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, and medicine. The Sociology of Science remains a vital part of Science Studies, but many other key contributors in the field identify more strongly with core disciplines such as Anthropology, Political Science, and Communication Studies.Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together classic work and the very best contemporary and cutting-edge scholarship. It provides researchers—and advanced students—with easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is otherwise inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books. In particular, the collection enables users to gain a deep understanding of the current controversies surrounding science. The materials gathered exemplify important arguments, empirical studies, perspectives, and controversies (such as ‘the science wars’ of the 1990s).The collection also includes a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. Science and Technology Studies is an essential work of reference and will be welcomed as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Demography is the scientific study of human populations. Classical demography has at its core three processes: fertility, migration, and mortality. To be human is to be part of the demographic process, so contemporary studies of population focus not only on the implications of population size and change, but also on how social influences affect individual behaviour and how actions at the individual level contribute to the composition of the population.Globally, population issues are of increasing concern to governments and other policy-makers. Particularly over the last fifty years or so, there have been many iterations of the population ‘problem’. From overpopulation to population ageing, to ultra-low fertility, this new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together the most important thinking about, and theories on, population to enable users to make sense of a vast—and rapidly expanding—corpus of scholarship.With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Population Studies is an essential work of reference. For researchers, students, and policy-makers, it is as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

This landmark publication from Routledge reflects the widespread recognition of Childhood Studies as a significant and mature area of cross-disciplinary study and research. And as serious scholarly work in and around Childhood Studies blossoms as never before, this new four-volume collection from Routledge’s acclaimed Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature.With contributions from a broad range of disciplines (including Sociology, Social Policy, Social Work, Education, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Geography, and Law), Childhood Studies assembles the key theoretical and empirical major works in a ‘one-stop’ resource. It covers themes such as: generational relations; everyday lives; practice and participation; and children’s rights and their place in the world. The collection shows how Childhood Studies has widened its focus from developmental issues to the broader concerns of children in society, as actors and agents, and as subjects of policy intervention. Edited by a leading scholar, Childhood Studies is an indispensable resource for all those concerned with the study of children and childhood.

Human-Animal Studies is a burgeoning multidisciplinary enterprise. Human-Animal Studies places the relationships humans have with other animals, and the relations other animals have with humans, at the centre of scholarly enquiry, artistic practice, and political critique. It draws from, and engages with, subjects across the social sciences, the humanities, and beyond, including anthropology, archaeology, art, biological sciences, cultural studies, environmental studies, ethology, geography, gender studies, history, literary studies, philosophy, religious studies, science and technology studies, sociology, and visual culture.As research in and around Human-Animal Studies blossoms as never before, this new four-volume collection from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature. Edited by two leading scholars, the collection gathers foundational and canonical work, together with innovative and cutting-edge applications and interventions. In particular, the editors have fully incorporated masterworks from South America, Asia, and Africa to capture a truly global diversity of perspectives.With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Human-Animal Studies is an essential work of reference. The collection will be particularly useful as an essential database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. It will also be welcomed by scholars and students as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar—and sometimes overlooked—texts.

In recent years there has been an astonishing growth in scholarly work at the intersection of economics, neuroscience, and psychology. As neuroeconomics (as this domain is usually known) continues to blossom, this new title from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences series provides a much-needed compendium of foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship. The collection also assembles pioneering manifestos and explicates how—rather than being merely an ‘underlabourer’ of economics or neuroscience—neuroeconomics is becoming a specialized discipline in its own right with distinct research methods, insights, and results.Neuroeconomics is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Can we better predict or mitigate the consequences of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes? Can we reduce the number of oil spills? And what should be done to clean up the mess when something does goes wrong? Why are people concerned about nuclear plants, but so reckless when they go skiing, or when they drive their motor cars? And how can we ensure that experts and ordinary citizens exchange meaningful information about hazards?Over the past fifty years or so, eminent scholars from the decision sciences, geography, sociology, anthropology, and many other fields, have offered useful pointers towards finding an answer to these and other crucial questions. Their prolific and converging efforts have established Risk Analysis as a vivid new discipline, a discipline which this new Routledge collection enables users to discover—or to understand better.The collection conveys essential lessons about how risks can be better assessed. Sophisticated models about the probability and magnitude of harms have been developed and tested in a variety of fields, for example, by engineers trying to build safer plants, or by toxicologists trying to understand the pathways of pollutants. The materials gathered here also help us to understand how powerful perception drivers shape our views of different risks and, as a consequence, how risk communication may be best conducted. Risk also brings together and makes sense of a body of knowledge that has allowed the development of specific methods to join together these two crucial elements into a coherent management ‘whole’.

'Nature' is perhaps the most contested term in the social sciences. It has a huge variety of possible meanings, and an equally great number of implications as to what human life actually is and how it should be studied. Questions frequently raised include: What is 'nature'? What is 'human nature'? How does mankind act upon, change, manipulate and otherwise alter the 'natural world', and what might the consequences be thereof? How does the 'natural world' impinge upon human life? What are the moral and ethical issues involved in the areas just mentioned?Containing the main contributions that have been made within this field of study, these fascinating volumes include a new introduction that places the articles in their historical and intellectual context, as well as an extensive index and chronological table of contents.Previous titles in the series include Tourism (0-415-24364-5) 2004, 4 volumes and Material Culture (0-415-26718-8) May 2004, 5 volumes. Forthcoming titles include Political Geography (0-415-33210-9) June 2005, 4 volumes and Economic Geography (0-415-33841-7) 2005, 5 volumes.