De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences Handbooks – serie

Globalisation, regionalisation, new technology, demography, voters’ expectations and re-structuring of societies are expected to influence welfare state development for years to come. This handbook analyses how different welfare state models and regimes will be able to cope with contemporary and future challenges, providing a variety of evidence based tools that make it essential reading for students, researchers and policy makers alike.

Welfare States have evolved and developed over now close to the last 150 years, although not in all countries at all times in the same direction implying that they are still very diverse. There was a time of golden growth of the welfare states shortly after the second world war, and then after the oil-price shock in 1th 1970’s has, at least since OECD’s pathbreaking book been argued to be in crisis. This has been followed up with discussions of dismantling of the welfare states , and continued after the financial crisis as with further changes, often under the label of austerity and retrenchment. Over the year’s elements either expected to have or having an impact on the development has been many and varied. The elements have, for the same reasons, not been similar across countries and welfare states. However, there are some common traits that have and can be expected to influence contemporary welfare states development also in the years to come. This includes aspects of globalisation, regionalisation, new technology, demography, voter’s expectation and re-structuring of societies. There are however also new challenges to welfare states. The financial crisis showed the vulnerability of welfare states economic systems, but also that the ability to have a stable economy influences the options and ability to continue and be able to afford a welfare state. The recent COVID19 crisis has showed the possible double pressure of welfare states, including if there are strong challenges in several areas at the same time - in this case health and economy then a strong pressure on the sustainability of the welfare state is at play. This combined with the increasing inequality has implied both economic and political problems in a number of countries, and thereby creating new variants of the existing and possible crises in the future. These crises, including the assessment of whether it is in fact a crisis, may vary according to ideas, but also how the individual country is positioned in relation to solving it. At the same time, a number of the aspects mentioned before continues to be possible threats and pressures on welfare states - such as demographic change and the development of new technology. Possible topics is described later. This book thus takes the "temperature" of welfare states, while also trying to assess the strength of the challenges for different types of welfare states/regimes. It analyses and compares several welfare state models - Nordic; Continental; Liberal, including the US; Southern-Europe; Eastern-Europe; China; South-East Asia - and also points to future opportunities.

In 2010, 60 states had a military drone program. Today at least 113 countries and 65 non-state actors now have access to weaponized drone technologies. Alongside this, established ‘drone powers’ – the U.S., China, Turkey, and Iran – have expanded their own use of military drones, increasing the sale and deployment of drones around the world. In the De Gruyter Handbook of Drone Warfare, drone expert, policy adviser, and historian, Dr James Patton Rogers, brings together 37 of the world’s leading voices on the growing issues of commercial and military drone technologies. From the origins of military drones in the early 1900s and the resurgence of drone use during the War on Terror, through to the global proliferation of drones across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, this handbook explores the moral, ethical, technological, legal, military, geopolitical, social, and strategic issues at the heart of drone warfare. The first handbook of its kind, the volume also addresses Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine, the rise of Iranian and Houthi drones, and provides a focused analysis of the future of drone warfare and the opportunities and perils of AI, autonomy, and swarming technologies in the coming Third Drone Age.

Accelerating climate change is widely predicted to have profound impacts on human mobility over the coming decades. Climate mobilities and immobilities invoke issues of justice and social inequality and pose numerous socio-cultural, health, economic, legal and political challenges. Current international legal frameworks and national governance mechanisms provide insufficient protection for people displaced by climate change who are often subjected to health risks, psychosocial trauma, human rights abuse, and even new climatic risks. At the same time, there is a need to better understand how climate change interacts with other mobility drivers and why many climate-affected people decide to stay put or remain trapped in at-risk locations. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary traditions and featuring Indigenous voices and youth perspectives, this book introduces new conceptual frameworks and empirical studies to examine the unique challenges facing people on the move and those staying behind.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies consolidates the cumulative contributions in theory and research on humor from 57 international scholars representing 21 different countries in the widest possible diversity of disciplines. It organizes research in a unique conceptual framework addressing two broad themes: the Essence of Humor and the Functions of Humor. Furthermore, scholars of humor have recognized that humor is not only a universal human experience, it is also inherently social, shared among people and woven into the fabric of nearly every type of interpersonal relationship. Scholars across all academic disciplines have addressed questions about the essence and functions of humor at different levels of analysis relating to how narrowly or broadly they conceptualize the social context of humor. Accordingly, the editors have organized each broad thematic section into three subsections defined by level of analysis. The book first addresses questions about individual psychological processes, then discusses text properties, and finally moves to questions involving broader conceptualizations of the social context addressing humor and social relations, as well as humor and culture. By providing a comprehensive review of foundational work as well as new research and theoretical advancements across academic disciplines, the De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies will serve as the foremost authoritative research handbook for experienced humor scholars as well as an essential starting point for newcomers to the field, such as graduate students seeking to conduct their own research on humor. Further, by highlighting the interdisciplinary interest of new and emerging areas of research the book identifies and defines directions for future research for scholars from every discipline that contributes to our understanding of humor.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology examines how digital devices spread and cut across all fields of crime and control. Providing a glossary of key theoretical, methodological and criminological concepts, the book defines and further establishes a vibrant and rapidly developing field. At the same time, Digital Criminology is not only presented as a novelty, but also as a continuation of the discipline's history. Each chapter can be read as a free-standing contribution or texts can be combined to gain a more holistic understanding of Digital Criminology or to design a research project. Expert contributions vary from Criminology, Sociology, Law, Science and Technology Studies, to Information Science and Digital Humanities. Together, these supply readers with rich and original perspectives on the digitization of crime and control. All contents of the De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology are openly accessible. Open access has been funded by the European Research Council, as outlined in the respective chapters, and by the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. 　　　 Mareile and Heidi would like to thank Vilde B. Winge for her commitment and excellent research assistance in the realization of this book project. Thanks are also due to Gerhard Boomgaarden and his team at De Gruyter who saw this book through to production.

The number of organization theorists and sociologists studying innovation and entrepreneurship has grown rapidly over the past two decades, yet it has been roughly 15 years since any volume has attempted a comprehensive review of the state of the literature. In addition to having grown rapidly, the sociological literatures on entrepreneurship and innovation have evolved relatively independently. However, there are intellectual synergies to be gained in connecting these two literatures. A large share of innovation happens in the context of startups and a large share of startups pursue innovation through the commercialization of products and services. Featuring engaging contributions from leading scholars in the field, the De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a must-have and up-to-date summary of the literatures on the sociology of entrepreneurship and innovation. It is a comprehensive reference work, highlighting emerging areas and cutting-edge research, while also providing a vibrant agenda that empowers scholars and students to generate new ideas and knowledge.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Political Parties in the Global South provides a survey of the literature that illuminates a worrying blind spot in current research. While our knowledge of parties and parliamentary democracies in the West is rich and nuanced, the same cannot be said about parties in the Global South. This handbook defines what constitutes a party in practice beyond the borders of the West and the confines of Western academia, particular in non-democratic states. It analyzes parties’ way of organizing and their relationship with society. With contributions by leading scholars in the field as well as up-and-coming scholars, this volume examines parties in the Global South from various perspectives and in the eyes of both the citizenry and the state.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of key concepts, debates and cutting-edge research in ocean governance and maritime affairs. Due to their increasing economic significance, it is valuable to provide insights into contemporary maritime issues. This handbook explores how the ocean is being used and governed, and analyzes the future challenges in its management. Organized into five themed parts, the book explores political economy, techno-economic developments, green transitions, infrastructure, and geopolitics. International contributions from leading researchers across disciplines offer perspectives on topics such as the control of sea lanes, sanctions, infrastructure and ports, supply lines, the production and transmission of energy, the production and extraction of resources, green initiatives, ocean management and sustainability.

This is the first handbook to focus exclusively on youth activism, to outline the current state of research and identify promising emerging areas, and to forecast what new developments one might anticipate in the future. It provides a comprehensive introduction to theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as insights into the directions of both the scholarly field and the phenomenon of youth activism itself within the context of global power relations. Youth political socialization, civic engagement, and citizenship attributes have frequently been highlighted as arenas of global concern, often by pundits and politicians declaiming the supposed ‘democratic deficit’ amongst more recent generations. Youth activism scholarship has often engaged with these debates, providing critical responses to more mainstream analyses of young people as apathetic, apolitical, or unconcerned about the society in which they live. In its place, youth activism scholarship provides more nuanced accounts of the possibilities and potentials for meaningful youth engagement in political social change, and, conversely, the barriers and proscriptions that prevent some young people from taking up a place within the polity.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Health and Society explores how digitalization is reconfiguring practices of health and medicine. Digitalisation requires health and medical practices to address and utilise the interrelated challenges posed by increased quantification (e.g., data-intensive medicine), ubiquitous connectivity (e.g., remote access to care providers), and the unprecedented power of algorithms (e.g., communicative AI). Developing important social scientific analyses of the contemporary sociotechnical configuration of health knowledge, therapeutic relationships and medical decision-making, the handbook puts forward theories and methods to inform the development, implementation and governance of Digital Health. It will therefore be an invaluable resource for shaping desirable futures in health and care.

This handbook is a comprehensive and timely contribution to building the field of Conflict and Health, which has yet to be recognized as a key component of public health by professional associations, state health agencies, donors, health research agencies, university accreditors or publishers.It covers fundamentals such as food security, the decolonization of aid and international governance structures, but also topics less covered such as violence as contagion, siege warfare, street medics, the involvement of combatants in humanitarian operations, intergenerational consequences of violence, bereavement, and military involvement in academia, among many other critical issues.

Feminist Political Geography is a relatively new, but rapidly growing, area of interest in Geographical scholarship. It emerged from feminist engagement with the sub-discipline of Political Geography, which broadly concerns the intersection of politics, power, and space, and it responds to silences and absences in this sub-discipline as well as wider silences in Geography scholarship. While early scholarship in Feminist Political Geography concentrated on including women’s bodies and lives in scholarship, its focus has evolved and expanded over time. Today, Feminist Political Geography scholarship advances broader goals that do not necessarily entail a research focus on women, but push us to think about other lives and bodies that are traditionally absent from analysis. It challenges us to reimagine and build just futures. Like all feminist analysis, this body of scholarship is not content with describing or explaining injustices: it advances a normative critique of injustice and overtly commits itself to the project of justice. In this book, the reader will find chapters authored by leading scholars who interrogate key ideas, debates, and developments, with a particular focus on intersectional ideas. Structured into four sections that go from the origins of Feminist Political Geography to its futures, this handbook is the definitive, state-of-the-art survey of this vibrant sub-discipline.

This book presents a survey of contemporary research investigating the psychological processes related to media consumption. As a rapidly growing and changing sub-discipline of mass communication, Media Psychology analyzes how media facilitate communication and how communication, in turn, shapes attitudes, emotions, and behavior. The handbook addresses leading ideas and debates in media psychology, persisting lines of inquiry and new areas of interest. Adopting an organizational approach that embraces a dynamic systems perspective, the book is subdivided into sections that examine nested components of the larger system in question, such as audiences, messages, content and context, while also acknowledging that they do not function in isolation.

This book establishes a new, and much-needed, interdisciplinary field of Political Control. The Earl and Braithwaite layered model of repression integrates previously siloed areas into a larger study of Political Control, connecting research spanning a variety of disciplines (Sociology, Political Science, Communication), interdisciplinary fields (Law and Society, Internet Studies, Surveillance Studies), and various area studies (American studies, China studies). Instead of treating the study of repression as beginning and ending with the direct surveillance and suppression of social movements, nonviolent resistance, and violent contention (e.g., civil wars, terrorism), the layered model of repression broadens the lens to examine how quiescence may be produced and maintained through political controls directed at entire societies and/or minoritized populations and operating through political institutions and/or civil society. This more comprehensive understanding of political control allows scholars to identify the broader strategies and tactics that governments and non-governmental authorities use to prevent, and lacking that, reduce or eliminate dissent. The layered model also highlights how activists and dissidents have countered these attempts at control. By organizing and relating these literatures using the layered model under the umbrella of political control, this volume provides the most comprehensive and wholistic view of the context in which movements form, operate, and dissolve and the overall control complex movements face.

As Digital Cultures becomes the dominant term used by many across a variety of intellectual fields to describe the social, aesthetic, and political impact of digital media, it is necessary to provide a reference volume that specifies and defines the bounds of scholarly debates and curricular outlines for an otherwise amorphous interdisciplinary space. This handbook provides a comprehensive reference for the varied methodologies, historical frames, and theoretical perspectives essential for the study of Digital Cultures today. In outlining these foundations, it serves as a practical guide for educators and students into the broad range of perspectives grouped together for the critical, historical, and social scientific study of digital media. It also looks into the future and outlines an agenda for future research by examining not only the origins of the concept of Digital Culture, but emerging topics and themes still in development, such as the relation between digital technology and climate change, artificial intelligence and knowledge, sensation and aesthetics, and the rise of new infrastructures reinventing not only the built environment, but the boundaries of nations and sovereignty.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Eastern European Politics, Society and Culture provides a comparative analysis of why the region is at the forefront of a momentous turn in European history. It takes stock of the ways in which Eastern Europe has evolved since the region was incorporated into the post-communist order, taking stock of major political, social and cultural developments. Employing a mix of social science research designs and methodologies, this volume discusses key contemporary issues, such as the fate of liberal democracy in the region, the rise of conservative populism, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO expansion, the repression of the LGBT community, the social effects of post-twentieth-century deindustrialization, the role of oligarchs, and migration.

Environmental policy in all of its dimensions represents the response to the clearest and most urgent existential threat to the well-being of the planet and all of the species inhabiting it. The European Union (EU), as both a leading historical and current contributor to this global threat as well as arguably the most consistent global political leader in the last 3 decades for the environmental response, demands scrutiny and understanding of its processes and outlook.This handbook provides a vital contribution in both introducing and giving critically important and cutting-edge analysis of these two key elements of modern global politics. Authored by a diverse group of distinguished scholars in the field, chapters in this handbook isolate the key dynamics that drive environmental policymaking. They focus on the political behavior and interaction of a diverse set of policy actors, while also reflecting on and framing the potential directions of analytical, conceptual and empirical innovation in EU Environmental Policy research.

Although interest in social epidemiology has grown exponentially over the past three decades, there is a glaring need for an edited handbook that provides a contemporary, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art interdisciplinary survey of established and emerging areas of study to better support the training and research activity of scholars and students.The De Gruyter Handbook of Social Epidemiology is an indispensable reference work that brings together the contributions of leading social epidemiologists from around the world. Our interdisciplinary approach represents a range of approaches to social epidemiology, including anthropology, demography, gerontology, medicine, psychology, public health, social work, and sociology. By highlighting established and emerging areas within the field of social epidemiology, this volume offers an invaluable resource for scholars and students who are interested in the ways in which population health intersects with aging, socioeconomic determinants, race and ethnicity, migration, sex and gender, sexual orientation, social relationships, religion, neighborhood context, environmental ecology, area income inequality, and political determinants.

Critical Data Studies as a field looks at data as an instrument of power, making it a focal point for a number of important discussions about our increasingly datafied realities. This handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the current state of Critical Data Studies, looking at data as a site of contested meanings and politics. Its chapters reflect a multidisciplinary approach that includes a diverse set of perspectives from academic fields like Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, Information Science, Political Economy, Digital Humanities, and Media, Environmental, Feminist and Postcolonial studies. The handbook’s five sections focus on contextualizing Critical Data Studies, discussing its methodologies, situating its economic and legal dimensions, presenting multiple case studies and examples, and examining the forms of resistance that it can engender. Readers will benefit from exposure to diverse frames of analysis that seek not only to examine the current ways in which data impacts our lives, but to provide models for thinking about practical responses to these processes.

The book shines a light on two different perspectives when it comes to the influence that social media has on politics: For advocates of a digital democracy, the abundance of unfiltered information social media provides constitutes a decentralisation of power relations within the body politic, and a removal of old hierarchies. Conversely, critical theorists argue social media has created societal and political dislocations, which have eroded rational debate in favour of ideological polarisation. Celebrity politicians such as Donald Trump and tech giants like Elon Musk are examples of this within electoral and party politics. States and non-state actors have sought to enhance their soft power attraction to foreign publics. This book analyses the transformation in the behaviour of governing institutions, parties and the media through the digital commons.

The birth of the newspapers, radio and television in the 19th century brought various interconnected social, behavioral and cultural changes in the lives of the colonizer and the colonized in the economically ‘developing’ nations. Then in the 20th century and now the 21st century, the birth of digital media for political, social, cultural, and economic communications have witnessed divergent results in the West and the non-Western countries. The Global South is currently facing digital divides and issues related to media illiteracy that tend to impact people’s lives more than those in the North. Furthermore, a significant shift in online and offline communicative behavior has had various effects in the way the young and the old, male and female, the haves and the have-nots interact in the media space. This handbook brings together a multidisciplinary group of authors from the Global South and the diaspora to document, examine, expose and critically assess the nature, role and impact of the social changes brought by the emergence of the mediated forms of communication in the Global South. This remarkable volume is a must-have resource for anyone interested in communication and social change, and development and social change in the Global South.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Disruptive Urban Technologies and Society provides an incisive and comprehensive exploration of the revolutionary technologies that are reshaping our urban landscapes, and meets a critical need for an integrated understanding of how these innovations are transforming urban spaces and significantly influencing societal dynamics, public health, and governance.This handbook is the first publication focused on exploring the disruption and change resulting from rapid technological change. It synthesizes, critically evaluates, and advances the field of urban technologies specifically, while highlighting the extent to which these changes will impact society. The volume will provide a dynamic characterization of the constellation of topics associated with urban development and civilization, which essentially touch on every aspect of life.Covering topics from the impact of autonomous vehicles and green transit solutions to the adoption of digital technologies for enhanced city living, the De Gruyter Handbook of Disruptive Urban Technologies and Society will serve as an essential resource for understanding and navigating the complexities of modern urban development. It offers readers a nuanced perspective on how these advancements are shaping the future of our cities.

This handbook offers readers an overview, including policy implications, of research into the psychology of radicalization, terrorism, and response to terrorism. The Editors, themselves leading terrorism scholars, introduce psychological theories of terrorist behavior, examining both risk and protective factors, the role of leadership, environments that can be identified as radicalization breeding grounds, as well as the way that emotions impact radicalization and terrorism. The book not only looks at recent directions of radicalization, and how we can assess or predict their potential for terrorist violence, but also at the latest programs of deradicalization and the psychological tools they employ.

Structural violence as an analytical term emerged in the late 1960s to characterize the harm and injustice of poverty and other forms of inequality and the oppressive institutions and social structures that cause the injustice and inequality. The term goes beyond physical violence to show how social structures and institutions limit people’s lives. In the broadest sense, it is intended to capture the manifold ways they stunt or inhibit people's potential. Structural violence can be seen explicitly or implicitly as a point of departure for contemporary studies of homelessness and malnutrition, the ongoing predations of neo-colonialism and neoliberalism, the harms of institutionalized racism and gender inequality, but also the psycho-social toll of living in fear.This handbook brings together contributions from a range of fields to provide an overview of how researchers, theorists, advocates, policymakers and practitioners use, critique, and expand upon the concept of structural violence. It provides a space for analysis and conceptualization that bridges traditional divides between researchers and practitioners and between academic disciplines, and shows how the notion of structural violence has been crucial in establishing fields such as Peace Studies, and influencing others, such as health policy.

Following the failure of both the traditional Western bloc as well as the United Nations in sustaining the post-1945 order, the international system is now in flux, and it remains unclear what a new international order might look like. As the two world wars have demonstrated, it is possible that it will emerge after open conflict. In addition, globalization has led to the emergence of a swathe of non-traditional challenges, such as environmental security, energy security, terrorism, cybersecurity, food security and pandemics. Furthermore, it is also entirely plausible that existential threats to states, societies and even humanity, could occur as a result of unexpected “black swan” developments, such as threats arising from the emergence of new technologies, artificial intelligence, the sudden outbreak of nuclear conflict, and even unidentified anomalous phenomenon,  highlighting the broad array of security challenges that the world faces today.The De Gruyter Handbook of GlobalSecurity Challenges provides a state-of-the-art survey of current research and emerging questions on a range of challenges that the international community is facing. This volume clarifies the nature of the challenges, explains the current state of literature, suggests solutions or better strategies for management, and suggests the research agenda for the coming years.

Based on Stuart Hall’s understanding that "Race is one of those major concepts that helps organize the great classificatory system of difference that operates in human societies", this handbook contributes to the study of Race through a spatial lens. Whether articulated as a caste, ethnicity, racialized ethnic group, ethicized racial group, national origin, citizenship, or class, Race is a complex and integrated system of division in a society. In addition to the social, historical, and cultural foundations, there is a need to examine the geographical basis in order to find any definition and understanding of Race.The De Gruyter Handbook of the Geographies of Race is a visionary reference work which features contributions from a broad range of disciplines to present a global, state-of-the-art, and holistic exploration of the ways in which the geographies of Race can be studied. It critically engages with pressing questions of Race and racism, drawing from, and contributing to, an intellectual history rooted in anti-colonial and liberatory struggles. This pioneering volume will benefit academics and students of Geography, Sociology, Political Science and related disciplines.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Social Entrepreneurship Research responds to a growing need within scholarship and practice to better understand social entrepreneurship as a complex, evolving, and context-sensitive field. Bringing together diverse voices and perspectives, it moves beyond narrow definitions to highlight the plurality, interdisciplinarity, and global scope of contemporary research. Rather than seeking conceptual closure, the volume maps the field’s intellectual trajectories and offers a comprehensive yet accessible entry point into key debates, while prefiguring a more integrated and reflexive research agenda.A key contribution lies in its focus on digitally enabled social entrepreneurship. By examining how sociotechnical infrastructures—such as platforms, data systems, and digital networks—shape participation, coordination, and value creation, the handbook highlights technology as both an opportunity and a source of new tensions around inclusion, governance, and ethics. This lens offers a timely understanding of how digitalisation is transforming the ways social value is created and sustained.This handbook also foregrounds marginalised and Global South contexts as sites of both empirical insight and theoretical innovation. By engaging with issues of inequality, institutional complexity, and community agency, it broadens the scope of the field and advances more plural and contextually grounded perspectives.

This truly unique, global and multidisciplinary reference work offers a comprehensive and analytically rigorous examination of the multifaceted relationship between religious phenomena and processes of social transformation. While the study of religion has long acknowledged its capacity to preserve existing social arrangements, this volume focusses on the equally significant ways in which religious ideas, institutions, actors, and practices motivate and shape diverse forms of social change across historical periods and cultural contexts.Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, the De Gruyter Handbook of Religion and Social Change provides a systematic account of how religion intersects with political institutions, economic systems, and cultural formations. The contributions challenge reductive assumptions that cast religion primarily as a conservative force, demonstrating instead its dynamic and sometimes ambiguous role in both stabilizing and transforming social orders.This informative resource will benefit scholars and students of Religious Studies, Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Political Science, and Colonial Studies seeking a nuanced understanding of religion’s complex place within social change.