Leisure for Leisure

Rojek, Chris

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Social Work and Received Ideas

Politics & Social Sciences

Peacock, Geraldine

Collins, Stewart

Sociology

Routledge

Social Work & Received Ideas

Social Work and Received Ideas examines the language of both traditional and radical social work as forms of power, arguing that the will to help and care for people unintentionally results in new types of dependency, control and domination.

Social Sciences

Without doubt, Jean Baudrillard is one of the most important figures currently working in the area of sociology an dcultural studies, but his writings infuriate as many people as they intoxcicate. This collection provides a wide-ranging, measured assessment of Baudrillard's work. The contributors examine Baudrillard's relation to consumption, modernity, postmodernity, social theory, feminism, politics and culture. They attempt to steer a clear course between the hype which Baudrillard himself has done much to generate, and the solid value of his startling thoughts. Baudrillard's ideas and style of expression provide a challenge to established academic ways of proceeding and thinking. The book explores this challenge and speculates on the reason for the extreme responses to Baudrillard's work. The appeal of Baudrillard's arguments is clearly discussed and his place in contemporary social theory is shrewdly assessed. Baudrillard emerges as a chameleon figure, but one who is obsessed with the central themes of style, hypocrisy, seduction, simulation and fatality. Although these themes abound in postmodern thought, they are also evident in a certain strand of modernist thought - one which embraces the writings of Baudelaire and Nietzsche. Baudrillard's protestation is that he is not a postmodernist is taken seriously in this collection. The balanced and accessible style of the contributions and the fairness and rigour of the assessments make this book of pressing interest to students of sociology, philosophy and cultural studies.

Forget Baudrillard?

Turner, Bryan

Turner, Professor Bryan S

Capitalism and Leisure Theory (Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1985, this title explores theories of leisure in a capitalist society. Basing his argument on a refutation of the conventional association of leisure with freedom and free time, Chris Rojek examines the four main structural characteristics of modern leisure practice: privatisation, individuation, commercialisation and pacification. The writings of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Freud are used to locate the question of leisure in more mainstream social theory. This interesting reissue will be of particular value to students of sociology and leisure studies, and those with an interest in the relationship between leisure and power.

Sports & Outdoors

Great book for research, study, or review!

Capitalism and Leisure Theory (Key Sociologists)

Routledge& Kegan Paul

Stuart Hall is the leading figure in cultural studies today - noone else has had the same influence in the shaping of the field.This book is the first full-length study of Hall's work. Itexamines every aspect of his work and constitutes a major criticalintroduction and appraisal of Hall's contribution.The book guides the reader through Hall's formative experience inJamaica and Oxford. It examines the increasing politicization ofhis thought and his identification with emancipatory, socialistpolitics. In Birmingham, during his Directorship of the seminalCentre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Hall created a genuinelycollaborative approach to the study of culture. In a series ofdazzling publications in the 1970s, the Birmingham Centre changedthe way in which social scientists think about culture. The bookprovides a complete guide to the debates and contribution of theBirmingham School. It explores Hall's relation with Marx, Gramsci,Althusser and a variety of traditions in continental sociology andphilosophy. In the 1980s Hall occupied the vanguard of criticism againstThatcherism and Reaganism. His passionate, principled attack on theNew Right and his critique of authoritarian populism reached areadership well beyond the confines of the academy. His later work has moved on to the terrain of hybridity, identity,Occidentalism, race relations. multiculturalism and the politics ofdifference. All of these areas are methodically explored in thebook, making it the most complete study of Hall's work andsignificance. It will be required reading by students and lecturersin cultural studies, media studies and sociology.

Stuart Hall (Key Contemporary Thinkers)

History

World

Polity

Stuart Hall is the leading figure in cultural studies today – no one else has had the same influence in the shaping of the field. This book is the first full-length study of Hall's work. It examines every aspect of his work and constitutes a major critical introduction and appraisal of Hall's contribution. The book guides the reader through Hall's formative experience in Jamaica and Oxford. It examines the increasing politicization of his thought and his identification with emancipatory, socialist politics. In Birmingham, during his Directorship of the seminal Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Hall created a genuinely collaborative approach to the study of culture. In a series of dazzling publications in the 1970s, the Birmingham Centre changed the way in which social scientists think about culture. The book provides a complete guide to the debates and contribution of the Birmingham School. It explores Hall's relation with Marx, Gramsci, Althusser and a variety of traditions in continental sociology and philosophy. In the 1980s Hall occupied the vanguard of criticism against Thatcherism and Reaganism. His passionate, principled attack on the New Right and his critique of authoritarian populism reached a readership well beyond the confines of the academy. 
His later work has moved on to the terrain of hybridity, identity, Occidentalism, race relations. multiculturalism and the politics of difference. All of these areas are methodically explored in the book, making it the most complete study of Hall's work and significance. It will be required reading by students and lecturers in cultural studies, media studies and sociology.

Stuart Hall

Frank Sinatra was only one of a handful of popular entertainers who dominated Western popular culture for six decades. From his early fame as 'the Voice' in the early 1940s, through to the high rolling, fast living 'Rat Pack' era, to the protracted Lear-like farewell tours of his twilight years, Sinatra was the epitome of cool. This compelling, consistently insightful book portrays Sinatra in his many contradictory hues of ambition, generosity, menace and vituperation. The book asks why Sinatra's public character which mixed insufferable hauteur with soapy populism and nobility with the lowest kind of vindictive violence proved so enduring with the Western public? What model of masculinity was Sinatra projecting? Why did his recordings, concert performances and film work persuade audiences that he was really talking to them alone? What does his career tell us about the relationship between celebrity and popular culture?  Sinatra may not have found his Boswell with this study, but our understanding of him will never be the same again. Rojek's is the first book to take Sinatra's cultural significance seriously. It is a landmark work in our understanding of celebrity and popular culture. The book will be of interest to students of Cultural, Media and Communication Studies, Sociology and, most of all, anyone who has bought a Sinatra recording or seen a Sinatra film.

Frank Sinatra

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

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