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Studies in Critical Social Sciences

The peer-reviewed Studies in Critical Social Science book series offers insights into the current reality by exploring the content and consequence of power relationships under capitalism, by considering the spaces of opposition and resistance to these changes that have been defining our new age.

Modern Capitalism began the 21st Century seemingly victorious as the dominant social and economic organizing principle in the world. Rampant re- and de-regulation accompanied a wholesale attack on social, economic and political gains of the prior century under the guise of increasing competitiveness and the need to respond to the forces of globalization. The end of the cold war, the decline of the former Soviet Union, and the increasing foothold of capitalism in China all point to an unchallenged reorientation of the global political economy to reflect this ascendence of capitalist social relations.

The peer-reviewed Studies in Critical Social Science book series, through the publication of original manuscripts and edited volumes, offers insights into the current reality by exploring the content and consequence of power relationships under capitalism, by considering the spaces of opposition and resistance to these changes that have been defining our new age.

  •

    Liberal Modernity and Its Adversaries

    by Milan Zafirovski
    The book rediscovers and defends liberal democracy from its conservative adversaries.

  • The Destiny of Modern Societies

    by Milan Zafirovski
    Elaborating on the Weberian method, Milan Zafirovski reveals that Calvinism's influence on America stretches far beyond free market capitalism

  • Modernity and Terrorism

    by Daniel G. Rodeheaver and Milan Zafirovski
    Zafirovski and Rodeheaver attempt to redefine contemporary terrorism (state and individual) as stemming from a deep opposition to modernity.

  • Identifying a Free Society

    by Milan Zafirovski

    An important proposal for a rubric by which to measure the freeness of a given society.

  • Dialectic of Solidarity

    by Mark P. Worrell
    A unique, multidimensional view of the political imagination of the American worker during World War II.

  • Settlement Sociology in Progressive Years

    by Vicky M. MacLean and Joyce E. Williams
    The roots of sociology as a public enterprise for social-reform are restored through early research, teaching and social advocacy.

  • Globalization, Violence and World Governance

    by Laura Westra
    International law has failed to promote and protect the rights of society in the face of the neoliberal agenda

  • Faces of State Terrorism

    by Laura Westra
    Terrorism is usually discussed as the actions of individuals. This book argues that Governments carry out most acts of terrorism.

  • The Supranatural Corporation

    by Laura Westra
    Far from being regulated by them, Corporations have outgrown national borders and the states meant to keep them in check.

  • Imperialism, Crisis and Class Struggle

    by Henry Veltmeyer
    An intellectual and political tribute to James Petras

  • The Cuban Revolution as Socialist Human Development

    by Mark Rushton and Henry Veltmeyer
    Already examined from many angles, this is an attempt to analyze the Cuban revolution as a model of socialist-human development.

  • Marxism and Criminology: A History of Criminal Selectivity

    by Valeria Vegh Weis
    A thought-provoking survey of the lessons criminologists should learn from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

  • Crisis of Capitalism

    by Luciano Vasapollo
    Taking capitalism as a world system for his starting point, Vasapollo illustrates our economic system's contradictions and tendency toward crisis.

  • The Poverty of Work

    by David Van Arsdale
    This study takes readers inside the world of temping to discover a type of work dreadfully insecure yet growing rapidly.

  • Modern Colonization by Medical Intervention

    by Nicole Trujillo-Pagán
    Good intentioned or not, Modern Colonization by Medical Intervention documents the often pernicious effect of physicians on the colonial project.

  • Constructing Marxist Ethics

    Edited by Michael J. Thompson
    Bringing together leading Marxist thinkers from various fields, this important volume aims to lay the basis for a Marxist ethics.

  • Crisis and Sequels

    Edited by Martin Thomas

    This volume brings together contributions which take up the key debates regarding the economic crash of 2007–8 and its sequels.

     

  • Economic Nationalism and Globalization

    by Henryk Szlajfer
    Szlajfer interprets economic nationalism as a significant world-wide phenomenon intimately linked with the birth, development and crisis of capitalist modernity

  • The Future of Work

    by Adrián Sotelo Valencia
    Sotelo offers an insightful analysis of the paradigmatic transformation of labor relations under neoliberalism.

  • Sub-Imperalism Revisited

    by Adrián Sotelo Valencia

    A theoretically rigorous examination of the claims of dependency theory in a world increasingly dominated by regional superpowers.

  • Theory in Action

    by Håkon Leiulfsrud and Peter Sohlberg
    An invaluable guide for scholars and researchers looking to develop and practically apply critical social theory

  • Fair and Affordable Housing in the US

    Edited by Kelly L. Patterson and Robert Mark Silverman
    An analysis of the origins, nature, and direction of attacks lodged against fair and affordable housing policy in the U.S.

  • American Anarchism

    by Steve J. Shone
    A convincing argument that the legacy of American Anarchism, far from being an antiquated relic, remains relevant to the present.

  • Anarchy and Society

    by Jeff Shantz and Dana M. Williams
    Sociology and anarchism share many common interests—although often interpreting each in differently—including community, solidarity, feminism, restorative justice, and social domination

  • Industrial Colonialism in Latin America

    by Victor Manuel Figueroa Sepúlveda
    Confronting the critical problems of Latin American development, this volume expertly roots these challenges in the structures of colonialism.

  • Development and Democracy: Relations in Conflict

    by Víctor Manuel Figueroa Sepúlveda

    Development and Democracy: Relations in Conflict examines the conflicting relations between technological development and democracy as they unfold in a new and ever more challenging environment.

     

  • Trouble in the University

    by Mildred A. Schwartz
    In this incisive critique of corruption throughout higher education, Schwartz draws on extensive research into New Jersey’s University of Medicine.

  • Politics of Precarity

    Edited by Martin Bak Jørgensen and Carl-Ulrik Schierup
    A study of precarity as both a condition and a mobilizing force for resistance in migrant communities across the globe

  • Labor Conflict and Capitalist Hegemony in Argentina

    by Agustin Santella
    A compelling case study of the impacts of Neoliberalism on Argentina’s auto industry.

  • State Capitalism, Contentious Politics and Large-Scale Social Change

    by Vincent Kelly Pollard
    Though it never went away, State capitalism is back en-vouge. This book looks at it's role in Europe and Asia.

  • Extractive Imperialism in the Americas

    by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer
    In this wide-ranging volume two leading scholars of the region critically examine the new extractive-imperialism bearing down on the Americas

  • Power and Resistance

    by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer
    Two of the left’s most important academics analyze the politics and economics of US imperialism’s relationship with Latin America.

  • Human Rights, Hegemony, and Utopia in Latin America

    by Karla Hernández Mares and Camilo Pérez-Bustillo
    In their stirring analysis Pérez-Bustillo and Hernández Mares explore the evolving relationship between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic visions of human rights.

  • Culture, Power, and History

    Edited by Stephen Pfohl, Aimee Van W Patricia Arend, Abigail Brooks and Denise Leckenby
    Theoretical meditations and empirical studies of the intersection of culture, power and history in social life.

  • Marx's Scientific Dialectics

    by Paul Paolucci
    This book brings new insight to the methodological principles that animate Marx's writings

  • Marx and the Politics of Abstraction

    by Paul Paolucci
    Paolucci convincingly argues that by mixing political and scientific analysis, Marx yields a method closest to that of scientific inquiry.

  • The Future of Religion

    Edited by Michael R. Ott
    Is religion any longer relevant or meaningful in the globalizing development of society and its subjects?

  • The Dialectics of the Religious and the Secular

    Edited by Michael R. Ott
    The contemporary world is riven by antagonisms between the religious and secular realms of society. But is this tension necessary?

  • Considering Class

    Edited by Deirdre O'Neill and Mike Wayne

    Considering Class shows why the process of reconstructing class consciousness must take place on the terrain of cultural and subjective formation where everyday values, habits and media practices are in play.

     

  • Profitable Ideas

    by Micheal O'Flynn
    O'Flynn demonstrates the way that liberal ideas have served the interests of capitalist development from their very beginning.

  • Weaving Transnational Solidarity

    by Katherine O'Donnell
    Weaving Transnational Solidarity traces the threads of social justice spun by international activists stretching from Chiapas to the Catskills

  • Critical Practice from Voltaire to Foucault, Eagleton and Beyond

    by John E. O'Brien
    This volume aims to answer why so much 'critical' intellectual activity can be done with so little impact.

  • Critique of Rationality

    by John E. O'Brien
    A fascinating rectification for the distortion of technical necessity in Western Society due to unbridled instrumental reason.

  • Religious Fundamentalism in the Middle East

    by Stuart A. Karabenick and Mansoor Moaddel
    Moaddel and Karabenick analyze fundamentalist beliefs and attitudes across nations, faith, and ethnicity, using comparative survey data.

  • Globalizing Cultures

    Edited by Vincenzo Mele and Marina Vujnovic
    Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume examines the way cultures and individuals oppose, resist and re-center globalization.

  • Concepts in Action

    Edited by Håkon Leiulfsrud and Peter Sohlberg

    Concepts in Action follows on the earlier Theory in Action (2016) as part of a three volume project broadening our understanding of the interplay of theory and methods.

  • In the Hotel Abyss

    by Robert Lanning
    Adorno is often celebrated as among the most important cultural-theorists. This volume argues that his theoretical perspectives were deeply flawed.

  • God, Guns, Gold and Glory

    by Lauren Langman and George Lundskow
    The past, present and future of Puritanism as a defining feature of the American social character

  • Twenty-First Century Inequality & Capitalism

    Edited by Lauren Langman and David A. Smith

    Twenty-First Century Inequality & Capitalism collects critiques of Thomas Piketty’s 2014 book from different perspectives, such as those of critical theory, global political economy or public sociology, drawing on the work of Marx or the Marxist tradition.

  • The Apprentice's Sorcerer

    by Ishay Landa
    Far from being diametrically opposed, this provocative book convincingly argues that Fascism is indelibly linked to the liberal tradition.

  • Capitalism's Future

    Edited by Daniel Krier and Mark P. Worrell
    This book outlines conjoined critiques of commodity-fetishism and authority fetishism as the emancipatory agenda of 21st century critical theory.

  • NASCAR, Sturgis, and the New Economy of Spectacle

    by Daniel Krier and William J. Swart
    A brilliant and compelling application of the analytic tools of Critical Theory to NASCAR and Motor Cycle rallies.

  • The Underground Church

    by Kathleen Kautzer
    In response to the conservative backlash against Vatican II liberal american catholics have rallied to defend its content.

  • Globalization and the Environment

    Edited by Andrew Jorgenson Jorgenson and Edward Kick
    The articles in this volume examine how the capitalist world-economy impacts the natural world.

  • Hybrid Identities

    Edited by Keri E. Iyall Smith and Patricia Leavy
    This book presents studies of types of hybrid identities: transnational, double consciousness, gender, diaspora, and beyond.

  • Messages from George Simmel

    by Horst J. Helle
    Simmel's influence on Sociology has been immense. This volume aims to re-examine that legacy and draw lessons for today's scholars.

  • China: Promise or Threat?

    by Horst J. Helle
    An insightful socio-cultural analysis of the differences in Chinese and Western relationships to the public and the private spheres.

  • The Reproductive Bargain

    by Heidi Gottfried
    An insightful analysis of gender relations’ role in the Japanese economy’s transition from unstoppable growth to inescapable stagnation.

  • Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion

    Edited by Warren S. Goldstein
    This collection of essays brings together scholars who use Marxist frameworks to analyze religion.

  • Towards a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization

    by Eugene Gogol
    Philosophically engaging, and practically oriented, this book asks whether philosophic clarity can account for effective revolutionary organizational practice.

  • Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin American Liberation

    by Eugene Gogol
    A stirring Marxist-Humanist analysis of recent liberation struggles waged by indigenous communities across Latin American.

  • Beyond Marx and Other Entries

    by David Gleicher

    Beyond Marx and Other Entries explores everything from semiotics, economics, anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy and political science, to Franz Kafka's literary works.

  • Marx and the Political Economy of the Media

    Edited by Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco
    Leading scholars of media and communication studies examine what Marx and his political economy have to offer their disciplines.

  • Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism

    Edited by Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco
    Leading scholars of digital media and internet studies examine what Marx and his political economy have to offer their disciplines.

  • Engaging Social Justice

    Edited by David Fasenfest
    As the economic crisis continues, social-movements North and South have arisen to challenge the neo-liberal policies that have immiserated generations.

  • Max Weber's Theory of Personality

    by Sara R. Farris
    Widely considered the founding-father of Sociology, Sarah Farris's excellently argued book shows that Max Weber was also deeply orientalist.

  • "Is the Turk a White Man?"

    by Murat Ergin
    A critical study of race, racialization and representation in the context of Turkish modernization

  • The Dialectic of Position and Maneuver

    by Daniel Egan
    An illuminating examination of the role that the metaphors ‘war of position’ and ‘war of maneuver’ play in Gramsci’s theory.

  • The Age of Knowledge

    Edited by James Dzisah and Henry Etzkowitz
    This volume argues that to understand knowledge itself requires analyzing the social and historical context from which said knowledge springs.

  • Russia: From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution

    by Raya Dunayevskaya

    A sweeping introduction to the thought of one of the 20th century’s most important Marxist-Humanist philosophers: Raya Dunayevskaya

  • Emancipation and History

    by José Maurício Domingues

    Emancipation and History assesses critical theory today, focusing on the connection between history and emancipation and on the trends that structure modernity and may lead us beyond it.

  • Come Hell or High Water

    by Tine Destrooper
    In this insightful new book Destrooper examines the relationship between revolutionary politics and feminist struggles in Latin America.

  • Imperialism, Neoliberalism, and Social Struggles in Latin America

    Edited by Richard A. Dello Buono and José Bell Lara
    This collection of works by prominent Latin Americanists explores the region's move beyond the neoliberal era

  • Social Change, Resistance and Social Practices

    Edited by Richard A. Dello Buono and David Fasenfest
    From post-Katrina struggles to Muslim women refusing to unveil, the logic of a new generation of protest is emerging

  • A Dialectical Pedagogy of Revolt

    by Brecht De Smet
    Creatively weaving insights from Gramsci and Vygotsky, this volume offers a unique perspective on the Egyptian Revolution.

  • Neoliberalism?s Fractured Showcase

    Edited by Ximena de la Barra
    Neoliberalism has dominated Chile for 35 consecutive years. In this collection prominent Chilean experts assess its impact and offer alternatives.

  • Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World

    by Raju J. Das
    A persuasive and thorough response to those fashionable social theorists who challenge both the explanatory and emancipatory power of ‘class.’

  • Media and Left

    Edited by Savas Çoban
    This engaging collection examines the contradictory nature of the media, revealing it to be democracy’s greatest asset and greatest threat.

  • Race and Ethnicity

    Edited by Rodney D. Coates
    Scholars dare to contemplate, to evaluate, and analyze issues regarding race and ethnicity today.

  • Covert Racism

    Edited by Rodney D. Coates
    Covert racism, subtle in application, often appears hidden by norms of association, affiliation, group membership and/or identity.

  • Confronting Gouldner

    by James J. Chriss
    An important new appraisal of one of the 20th century’s most important activist sociologists.

  • Empires and Walls

    by Mohammad A. Chaichian
    Usually viewed as a symbol of imperial might, Chaichian argues that Walls better fit as signs of an empire's decline.

  • Eros and Revolution

    by Javier Sethness Castro
    In Eros and Revolution, Javier Castro presents a comprehensive intellectual and political biography of the world-renowned critical theorist Herbert Marcuse

  • Crisis, Politics and Critical Sociology

    Edited by Graham Cassano and Richard A. Dello Buono
    In order to understand the forces that created our social world, we need the tools provided by a critical sociology.

  • A New Kind of Public

    by Graham Cassano
    This engaging and original work argues that modern Hollywood was forged in the fires of class struggle and economic inequality

  • Mobilizing Public Sociology

    Edited by Victoria Carty and Rafael Luévano

    Mobilizing Public Sociology combines theory and scholarly perspectives with a grassroots approach to challenges that [email protected] immigrants face in the U.S.

  • Rethinking Private Higher Education

    by Daniele Cantini
    In-depth ethnographic studies of universities as rapidly evolving, key contemporary institutions, interrogating in particular the fast-growing private sector

  • European Bloc Imperialism

    by Dennis C. Canterbury
    Debates on contemporary imperialism have focused on the U.S., to the exclusion of E.U. countries, this book corrects these trends

  • Capital Accumulation and Migration

    by Dennis C. Canterbury
    An important and ground breaking work on the importance of migration in the context of development studies

  • Malcolm X

    Edited by Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri
    An engaging examination of the religious and political philosophy of one of the most important African-American thinkers of the 20th-century

  • Islam in a Post-Secular Society

    by Dustin J. Byrd
    Byrd uses Critical Theory to reject the ‘clash-of-civilizations’ thesis, and compellingly argue for the compatibility of Islam and secularism.

  • Ali Shariati and the Future of Social Theory

    Edited by Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri

    An exploration into the lasting influence of the Iranian sociologist and revolutionary, Ali Shariati, who is thought to be the most important intellectual behind the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

  • Labor Régime Change in the Twenty-First Century

    by Tom Brass
    Conventional wisdom holds that Capitalism depends on the exploitation of 'free labor.' This volume challenges those ideas.

  • Class, Culture, and the Agrarian Myth

    by Tom Brass
    Using examples from different historical contexts, this book examines the relationship between class, nationalism, modernity and the agrarian myth.

  • Labour Markets, Identities, Controversies

    by Tom Brass

    Tom Brass takes the lessons drawn by Development Studies and deftly applies them to metropolitan capitalist nations.

  • Cooperativism and Democracy

    Edited by Bartłomiej Błesznowski

    Cooperativism and Democracy contains a selection of texts in socio-political thought focusing on Polish cooperativism which make an important contribution to the debate over the relationship of contemporary economics and politics.

     

  • An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity

    by Andy Blunden
    An immanent critique of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the pschychology originating from Lev Vygotsky

  • Concepts

    by Andy Blunden
    Drawing on the work of renowned psychological theorist Lev Vygotsky, Blunden extends his work begun with Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity

  • Collaborative Projects

    Edited by Andy Blunden
    ‘Projects’ shape nearly every aspect of our lives, and yet this concept is rarely examined. This book changes that.

  • The Origins of Collective Decision Making

    by Andy Blunden
    With invaluable insight and poignant analysis, Blunden traces the hidden origins of three paradigms of decision-making: Counsel, Majority, and Consensus.

  • Neoliberalism and National Culture

    by Cory Blad
    Despite many claims to the contrary, Québec and Canada demonstrate the continued importance of state institutional authority, even under Neoliberalism

  • The Entropy of Capitalism

    by Robert Biel M
    Capitalism sews chaos throughout society with crises and wars. In the twenty-first century it has begun feeding on this entropy.

  • Reinventing Race, Reinventing Racism

    Edited by John J. Betancur and Cedric Herring
    Though far from a 'post-racial' society, the form of race and racism in the U.S. has changed over the years.

  • The Neoliberal Pattern of Domination

    by José Manuel Sánchez Bermúdez
    Capitalism has always dominated our lives. In its Neoliberal phase this domination takes on new forms which are explored here.

  • The Agrarian Seeds of Empire

    by Brad Bauerly
    An innovative discussion of the influence of agrarian movements on the process of US state building between 1840 and 1980.

  • Western Europe, Eastern Europe and World Development 13th-18th Centuries

    Edited by Jean Batou and Henryk Szlajfer
    Collected together, and in many cases translated, for the first time, this volume contains the key essays of Marian Malowist

  • Social Structures of Direct Democracy

    by John Asimakopoulos
    A stirring, grounded, and scholarly case for Direct Democracy as the route to a more just society.

  • Transforming Globalization

    Edited by Bruce Podobnik and Thomas Reifer
    Examines the emergence of the movement of resistance that has arisen to challenge neoliberal globalization.

  • Theorizing Globalization

    by Marko Ampuja
    Theorizing Globalization offers a reassessment of mainstream perspectives on globalization, providing essential insights into an enormously popular field of study.

  • Religion and the New Atheism

    Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam
    Scholars from a diverse array of disciplines critically appraise the intellectual fad championed by Richard Dawkins and his co-thinkers.

  • Black Toledo

    Edited by Abdul Alkalimat and Rubin Patterson

    Black Toldeo is a documentary history of the African American experience of resettlement focusing on the particular experience of Toledo, Ohio.