Sociology, as the systematic study of social institutions, inevitably looks at how major institutional areas (the political, the legal and the economic) intersect and mutually shape each other. At the same time, to quote the famous words of American sociologist C. Wright Mills, sociologists concern themselves with the interface between “private troubles and public issues.” Anthem Key Issues in Modern Sociology publishes books that explore these characteristics of sociology – how societies are interconnected systems and how social change at the institutional level has unavoidable consequences for the everyday world. How does the public realm connect with the private?
The quest of Anthem Key Issues is to publish ‘big books’ on ‘big issues’: climate change; religion, violence and the state; social movements and radical politics; democracy and its problems; neoliberalism and social change; the city and sustainability. At no time in recent history has sociology been more relevant to the analysis of modern crises and developments. Anthem Press has a bold and imaginative publishing strategy that aims to capture this opportunity to publish sociological texts that can change our world for the better.
Key Issues publishes studies of contemporary social theory – such as the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski – but it also reflects the classical tradition of sociology aiming to publish works on Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. It has a catholic view of social theory in which the series publishes studies, for example of A.N. Whitehead.
Globalization is changing our world radically. The series seeks to reflect these changes through the topics included (such as Christian evangelism in modern day China) and through the authors it include
—Bryan S. Turner, Series Editor of Key Issues in Modern Sociology
City University of New York, USA & University of Western Sydney, Australia