Archaeological discoveries have increasingly brought to light evidence of women's involvement in the royal houses of the ancient Near East, yet such evidence has not fundamentally altered the perception of monarchy as an exclusively male-gendered theological, political, and social institution. Solvang's study assembles the evidence in search of an integrated view of royal women's position and power in critical functions of monarchy, challenging customary assumptions about women's place in the royal harem. The historical information serves as a backdrop for a literary reading of biblical texts describing the royal house of Judah. Attention is given to three women representing different royal positions: Michal (daughter), Bathsheba (queen mother), and Athaliah (queen and monarch).

Home Schooling and Home Education provides an original account of home education and examines ways in which the discourses of home education are understood and contextualised in different countries, such as the UK and USA. By exploring home education in the global and local context of traditional schooling, the book bridges a much-needed gap in educational and social scientific research. The authors explore home education from two related perspectives: firstly how and why home education is accessed by different social groups; and secondly, how these groups are perceived as home educators. The book draws upon empirical case study research with those who use home education to address issues of inequality, difference and inclusion, before offering suggestions for viable policy shifts in this area, as well as broadening understandings of risk and marginality. It engages and initiates debates about alternatives to the standard schooling model within a critical sociological context. The scholarly emphasis and original nature of Home Schooling and Home Education makes this essential reading for academics and postgraduate researchers in the fields of education and sociology, as well as for educational policymakers.

What does consumption in the global south signify, and how are its complexities communicated in media discourses? Consumption, Media and the Global South presents original research examining key themes in the ways in which consumption in the global south - by elites, the middle classes, and the poor - is discursively constructed in media texts. With the global triumph of capitalist economies and neoliberal values, consumption is increasingly viewed by populations in the global south as both a right to which they are denied access, and once accessed as evidence of an improved life. The ways in which this debate plays out on the stage of the media is an important element of the picture. This book looks at the media representation of consumer culture in Africa, China, Brazil and India through case studies ranging from celebrity selfies, to travel websites, news reports and documentary film.

Young Homeless People takes a broad approach to the distressing phenomenon of youth homelessness. While politicians, researchers and the media focus on the more visibly homeless--those sleeping in city streets and shelters--this book also considers the young homeless hidden in local communities. It places young people's experiences of homelessness in the context of their biographies as a whole and makes policy and practice recommendations based on the views and preferences of young homeless people themselves.

- Engaging and critical analysis of current and historical economic policies and their implications for the American population and growing inequality. - Wide range of empirical and quantitative facts and journalistic reporting both illustrate the authors' arguments and lend a balanced, credible view at American society. - New edition provides a more well-rounded discussion of inequality and social class by incorporating nuances of race and gender into the framework of their sociological and economic arguments.

Economic Restructuring and the Growing Uncertainty of the Middle Class focuses on a relatively new research area which is becoming increasingly more important: the growing uncertainty of the middle class. Until recently, members of the middle class were not only assured of a good social and economic position but also of the continuation of this position. Nowadays, economic and organisational changes are threatening this once secure position. The boundaries between the middle classes and the working class are becoming less and less visible. Making a career', which was in the past central for middle class people, is becoming ever more difficult. Moreover, organisational restructuring is threatening their employment. It seems that insecurity is becoming a central element in the lives of members of the middle class. In this book experts from several European countries discuss the question of to what extent the position of the middle class is really changing. They also discuss the mechanisms that are propelling these changes, and the effects these changes have on the attitudes of middle-class people. As the experts are from several parts of Europe (Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Russia), the reader can compare the situation of the middle classes in these various countries. This book contains valuable information for anyone interested in this important topic: not only for those involved in the studies of economic and organisational change and social stratification and those interested in the similarities and differences between European countries, but (amongst others) for policy-makers, managers, and trade union representatives who will be dealing with problems induced by the changes that are discussed in the book.

In this collection of essays a number of distinguished scholars examine the proletarianization process and its relation to social protest and class formation. The authors consider how the social origins of the industrial work force and the migration patterns that brought workers to industrial areas shaped the workers' developing identity and led them to participate in mass protests. The essays provide an overview of proletarianization in industrializing regions and in several different countries. Although the authors of these articles employ a variety of disciplines--anthropology, history, and sociology--all the essays deal with historical aspects of the process of class formation and the forging of a modern working class. The essays span three continents and two centuries, and the volume includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography of relevant works drawn from the suggestions of the contributors.

This book examines the structures and texture of rural social relationships, using one type of document found in abundance over all the four component parts of Britain and Ireland: petitions from tenants to their landlords. The book offers unexpected angles on many aspects of society and economy on estates in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against Black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new generation of activists. In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.

One New Haven summer evening in 2006, a retired grandfather was shot point-blank by a young stranger. A hasty police investigation culminated in innocent sixteen-year-old Bobby being sentenced to prison for thirty-eight years. New Haven native and acclaimed author Nicholas Dawidoff returned home and spent eight years reporting the deeper story of this injustice, and what it reveals about the enduring legacies of social and economic disparity. In The Other Side of Prospect, he has produced an immersive portrait of a seminal community in an old American city now beset by division and gun violence. Tracing the histories of three people whose lives meet in tragedy-victim Pete Fields, likely murderer Major, and Bobby-Dawidoff indelibly describes optimistic families coming north from South Carolina as part of the Great Migration, for the promise of opportunity and upward mobility, and the harrowing costs of deindustrialization and neglect. Foremost are the unique challenges confronted by children like Major and Bobby coming of age in their "forgotten" neighborhood, steps from Yale University. After years in prison, with the help of a true-believing lawyer, Bobby is finally set free. His subsequent struggles with the memories of prison, and his heartbreaking efforts to reconnect with family and community, exemplify the challenges the formerly incarcerated face upon reentry into society and, writes Reginald Dwayne Betts, make this "the best book about the crisis of incarceration in America." The Other Side of Prospect is a reportorial tour de force, at once a sweeping account of how the injustices of racism and inequality reverberate through the generations, and a beautifully written portrait of American city life, told through a group of unforgettable people and their intertwined experiences.

.,."Lubrano is a great reporter...he has chosen here a great and often overlooked subject, the role of class in modern American society, and has produced a book rich with insight into both his own and all our lives..."
-Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down

A groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction

In the vein of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, this powerful work of narrative nonfiction uncovers a cultural phenomenon-the limbo existence of people raised in blue-collar families, living white-collar lives. Its approach is threefold: first, the personal story of the author himself, a working-class kid from Brooklyn who crossed over to the middle class after attaining an Ivy League education; second, a distillation of thought about class and mobility from leading experts; and finally, and most importantly, the stories of more than 100 interviewees, all "Straddlers" struggling with the duality that exists in their workplace, their hearts, and their minds.

"In Limbo, people straddle two social zones....The future is never assured when you come from a house of rough hands. There are many profound opinions in this major newspaperman's reporting."
-Jimmy Breslin
Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist and author of The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez

"If you have any bloodlines at all to the working class, you will recognize- and newly discover-yourself in Alfred Lubrano's inspired book. Limbo brings to life the minefield crossover from the blue-collar world to the white-collar one in prose that is at once trout-stream clear and luminous. It's the very American, real-as-a-streetfight story of a bricklayer's son's own uneasy journey out of Bensonhurst wovenmovingly with the journeys of a legion of other 'Straddlers.' Don't pass this gem by."
-Sydney Schanberg
Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist and author of The Death and Life of Dith Pran

"Al Lubrano is a great reporter and the kind of writer whose work is infused with both thought and feeling. He has chosen here a great and often overlooked subject, the role of class in modern American society, and has produced a book rich with insight into both his own life and all our lives. If you are like me, you will nod your head with recognition throughout."
-Mark Bowden
author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo

First Published in 1971. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptions of climate change are features of post-normal times. In Sociology in Post-Normal Times, Charles Thorpe contends that the modern project of creating normalcy within the nation state has broken down. Integral to this is sociology, which is the science of social reform. Drawing from the work of seminal theorists such as Zygmunt Baumann and Anthony Giddens, Thorpe contends that sociology's "society" is no longer viable because globalization has put an end to social reform, thus the assumptions and goals of sociology must be left behind in order to create a new global humanity. In the face of the pandemic and climate change, Sociology in Post-Normal Times demands no less than the birth of a global humanity beyond nation states as the precondition for human survival.

Traditionally academia has been seen as an elite profession, for those with an academic background and from the middle/upper classes. This is what makes the life of a working class academic all the more interesting, rich and powerful. How have they become who they are in an industry steeped in elitism? How have they navigated their way, and what has the journey been like? Do they continue to identify as working class or has their social positioning and/or identities shifted? Iona Burnell Reilly presents a collection of autoethnographies, written by working class academics in higher education - how they got there, what their journeys were like, what their experiences were, if they faced any struggles, conflicts, prejudice and discrimination, and if they had to, or still do, negotiate their identities. Told in their own words the academics chart their journeys and explore their experiences of becoming an academic while also coming from a working class background. Although a working class heritage under-pins the autoethnography of each of the writers, the interlocking sections between class, race, gender and sexuality will also be relevant.

This sequel to Randall Collins' world-influential micro-sociology of violence introduces the question of time-dynamics: what determines how long conflict lasts and how much damage it does. Inequality and hostility are not enough to explain when and where violence breaks out. Time-dynamics are the time-bubbles when people are most nationalistic; the hours after a protest starts when violence is most likely to happen. Ranging from the three months of nationalism and hysteria after 9/11 to the assault on the Capitol in 2021, Randall Collins shows what makes some protests more violent than others and why some revolutions are swift and non-violent tipping-points while others devolve into lengthy civil wars. Winning or losing are emotional processes, continuing in the era of computerized war, while high-tech spawns terrorist tactics of hiding in the civilian population and using cheap features of the Internet as substitutes for military organization. Nevertheless, Explosive Conflict offers some optimistic discoveries on clues to mass rampages and heading off police atrocities, with practical lessons from time-dynamics of violence.

Providing a historical development of the UK education system and its policies, Alex McInch offers insight on how structural decisions impact how working-class pupils view and navigate the educational field. This ethnographic investigation explores topics such as compensatory educational policies, including Free School Meals, and how these attempt to close the attainment gap between the working and middle classes. This timely book is a welcome addition to the current literature on working-class schooling in the UK and comes at a time when British society has never been more divided on a number of social issues. The landmark theories of French Socio-Philosopher Pierre Bourdieu provide a fitting framework in which to understand how young working-class people currently orientate towards education in post-industrial Britain. Also presenting thought-provoking arguments on how we need to think differently about social class in the UK, rather than using current reductionist models, this book is of interest to anyone currently working in policy, academia or education with an interest in social inequality and its supplementary effects.

Increasingly, social researchers are engaging with marginalized communities and becoming aware of their obligations to those they research. This book identifies issues associated with researching in what have traditionally been recognised as "hard to reach" communities and offers both conceptual analyses and practical suggestions on undertaking research that emphasizes the experience and contribution of those with whom the research is undertaken.

A story about hope and how every one of us can make a difference. Unsheltered Love is a first-hand reported account of how the pandemic greatly exacerbated an already dire homelessness situation in New York City. In March 2020, the usually crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan were empty, stores were closing, people were afraid to go out. But homeless people were still on the streets, cold and very hungry, and much less able to panhandle in the deserted city. Unable to ignore their suffering, the author and her husband started walking the empty streets in their neighborhood, handing out food to the men and women they met. As they showed up, trust replaced the fear and suspicion that had existed within them, as well as within the homeless people they befriended. They listened as the homeless revealed their daily struggles living on the streets, as well as the details that had led to their homelessness. Unsheltered Love also provides an in depth look at one of the ten characters in the story-a homeless woman named Maggie Wright who adds her perspective to the narrative. Following each chapter is a journal entry written by Maggie-her viewpoint of the same events in the story, as well as an inside look at her personal journey into homelessness and her rise out of it. Her entries provide a look into the psychology of homelessness, what can lead a person to this fate, and more importantly, bind them to it.

American Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy. In particular, how we can understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an overworld of the corporate rich. To trace the evolution of the American state, the author takes a deep politics approach, shedding light on those political practices that are typically repressed in "mainstream" discourse. In its long history before World War II, the US had a deep political system--a system of governance in which decision-making and enforcement were carried out within--and outside of--public institutions. It was a system that always included some degree of secretive collusion and law-breaking. After World War II, US elites decided to pursue global dominance over the international capitalist system. Setting aside the liberal rhetoric, this project was pursued in a manner that was by and large imperialistic rather than progressive. To administer this covert empire, US elites created a massive national security state characterized by unprecedented levels of secrecy and lawlessness. The "Global Communist Conspiracy" provided a pretext for exceptionism--an endless "exception" to the rule of law. What gradually emerged after World War II was a tripartite state system of governance. The open democratic state and the authoritarian security state were both increasingly dominated by an American deep state. The term deep state was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it herein refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions. Key institutions involve the relationships between the overworld of the corporate rich, the underworld of organized crime, and the national security actors that mediate between them. History-making interventions include the toppling of foreign governments, the launching of aggressive wars, and the political assassinations of the 1960s. The book concludes by assessing the prospects for a revival of US democracy.

Intrigued by reports of increasing poverty and despair within America's white-collar corporate workforce, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to infiltrate their world as an undercover reporter and learn about the problems facing middle-class executives at first hand. Thinking she had set herself an easy challenge, the author was quite unprepared for what happened next. Ehrenreich found herself entering a shadowy world of Internet job searches, lonely networking events and costly career-coaching sessions, a world in which 'professional' mentors and trainers offer pop-psychology and self-help mantras to desperate would-be employees. Her story is an important one - poignant and blackly funny - that delivers a stark warning about the future that faces corporate employees everywhere and calls for collective action to guard against it.

Discovery of Hidden Crime presents a history of the self-report crime survey as a method of criminological inquiry, describing how it was born within a distinct moral framework by pioneers out to show that crime was very prevalent and, therefore, normal. This books recounts how, during the 1930s and 1940s, a handful of US criminologists discovered the method of the self-report delinquency survey - a method used to ask people directly about their crimes. Previously, criminologists had to rely on official statistics produced by the police and other control authorities; their studies were therefore constrained by the 'official control barrier', which perpetuated the notion that crime was linked to the lowest social strata and/or to psychological abnormality. By confronting the domination of psychiatrists and psychologists in the study of crime, criminologists began to challenge the punitive attitudes of society; thus, exposing the so-called white collar offenders and alerting people to see crime as something that could also be found among the middle and upper classes. Expounding both the history of that discovery and its implications for criminological work, past and present, this book offers a fascinating perspective on how criminology has developed, and how it continues to advance amid the twin pressures of facts and policy goals.

In the emotional public debate about women and work, conventional wisdom holds that middle-class women "choose" whether or not to work, while working class "need" to work. Yet, despite the recent economic crisis, national trends show that middle-class women are more likely to work than working-class women. In this timely volume, Sarah Damaske debunks the myth that financial needs determine women's workforce participation, revealing that financial resources make it easier for women to remain at work, not easier to leave it. Departing from mainstream research, Damaske finds not two (working or not working), but three main employment patterns: steady, pulled back, and interrupted. Looking at the differences between women in these three groups, Damaske discovers that financial resources made it easier for middle-class women to remain at work steadily, while working-class women often found themselves following interrupted work pathways in which they experienced multiple bouts of unemployment. While most of the national attention has been focused on women who leave work, Damaske shows that both middle-class and working-class women found themselves pulling back from work, but for vastly different reasons. For the Family? concludes that the public debate about women's work remains focused on need because women themselves emphasize the importance of family needs in their decision-making. Damaske argues that despite differences in work experiences, class, race, and familial support, most women explained their work decisions by pointing to family needs, connecting work to family rather than an individual pursuit. In For the Family?, Sarah Damaske at last provides a far more nuanced and richer picture of women, work, and class than conventional wisdom offers.

The twenty-first century has so far been characterized by ongoing realignments in the organization of the economy around housing and real estate. Markets have boomed and bust and boomed again with residential property increasingly a focus of wealth accumulation practices. While analyses have largely focussed on global flows of capital and large institutions, families have served as critical actors. Housing properties are family goods that shape how members interact, organise themselves, and deal with the vicissitudes of everyday economic life. Families have, moreover, increasingly mobilized around their homes as assets, aligning household transitions and practices towards the accumulation of property wealth. The capacities of different families to realise this, however, are highly uneven with housing conditions becoming increasingly central to growing inequalities and processes of social stratification. This book addresses changing relationships between families and their homes over the latest period of neo-liberalization. The book confronts how transformations in households, life-course transitions, kinship and intergenerational relations shape, and are being shaped by, the shifting role of property markets in social and economic processes. The chapters explore this in terms of different aspects of home, family life and socioeconomic change across varied national contexts.