Learn about the real, everyday heroes in your community with this nonfiction book. Perfect for young readers, the book includes a short fiction piece related to the topic, a bonus project, and other exciting features. This 20-page full-color book explores the responsibilities of local heroes, from food workers to trash collectors. It also covers key civics concepts like leadership and helping others, and includes an extension activity for kindergarten. Perfect for the classroom, at-home learning, or homeschool to learn about careers, communities, and being responsible.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction to Youth Studies analyses the historical development of the sociology of youth in the context of changing population demographics. Howard Williamson and James Cote explore competing paradigms underlying current understandings of youth with reference to key philosophical, theoretical and methodological debates. Young people's transitions to adulthood and youth cultural behaviour are then explored. The authors conclude with a consideration of youth policies and how, in the future, these may be better informed by sociological research. Key Features: Fact-based analysis of key debates Sociological perspectives informed by multidisciplinary analyses Concise coverage of complex topics Policy recommendations informed by years of experience in the field This Advanced Introduction will provide essential reading for scholars and researchers of sociology and sociological theory, as well as youth workers and students looking for an excellent introduction to youth studies.

This unique Handbook charts shifts in the relationship between risks and inequalities over the last few decades, analysing how inequalities shape risk and how risks condition and intensify inequalities. Expert contributors examine the impacts of environmental, financial, social, urban, economic, and digital risks on inequalities, at both national and global levels. Identifying how the rise of novel risk formations is associated with changes in contemporary political economies, chapters explore new areas of research including the new urban crisis, the gendered impacts of precarious labour and social inequality in relation to agro-biotechnology. Contributing to an underdeveloped area of research, the Handbook breaks new ground to explore how tackling important issues via the prism of risk and inequality can provide novel insights, that solely focusing on only one or the other of these issues cannot. This Handbook will be critical reading for scholars and students of sociology, sociological theory, geography and political science. Its exploration of shifts in contemporary socially produced risks will also be beneficial for practitioners, economists and policy makers in these areas.

This book is an account of the authora s experiences as a Foster carer, and in particular as a Foster carer of teenage children, over a period of more than twenty years. It is intended to dispel the notion set out over the years in the many recruitment advertisements that Fostering is a life of enduring happiness and contentment for both carers and children. It is never that glamorous. It can, however, over time, be a rewarding and fulfilling experience for both. The author and his wife have been Foster carers since 1997 and are still Foster carers to this day.

This book examines how ancient myths have developed and still survive in the collective public imagination in order to answer fundamental questions concerning the individual, society and historical heritage: On what basis do we form our opinion and develop attitudes about key issues? What is, and how should, the relationship between ourselves and nature be oriented? And what is the relationship between ourselves and others? Advancing a critical analysis of myths, Andrea Cerroni reveals the inconsistencies and consequences of our contemporary imagination, addressing neoliberalism in particular. The book elaborates a sociological theology from historical reconstruction, drawing together analytical concepts such as political theology and sociological imagination. It brings into focus a cultural matrix comprising ancient myths about nature, society and knowledge, in opposition to modern myths built around reductionism, individualism and relativism. Providing suggestions for deconstructing these myths, Contemporary Sociological Theology explores concepts of reflexive complexity, Gramscian democratic politics and a general relativisation of knowledge. Highly interdisciplinary, this book will be an insightful read for sociology and social policy scholars, for students with a particular interest in sociological theory, cultural sociology and innovation policy and for all those who seek awareness of the imagination that rules our world.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction examines the economic, social, and political conditions that have shaped the 21st century workplace in wealthy democracies, highlighting the changes in work since the 1970s which have produced the 'new economy'. Amy S. Wharton illuminates important aspects of today's workplace, including the service economy, customer-facing jobs, the transformative effects of digital platforms, and the 'opening' of the employment relationship. Key Features: Analysis of algorithms and the gig economy in the broader context of workplace change Insight into the interconnections between gender, work, and family, as well as the sources of stability and change in these relations over time Understanding changes in the spatial, physical, and temporal aspects of work and their impacts on workers and families Foregrounds inequality, using the intersectional lenses of race, class, gender, and citizenship to explore this issue Revealing the continuities and discontinuities between the workplace of the past and the present, this Advanced Introduction will be a valuable guide for sociology researchers and advanced students. Business scholars, students and leaders will also benefit from its discussion of platform-based service work and the rise of nonstandard, contingent, and temporary jobs.

Timely and original, Rethinking Communication Geographies explores the human condition under digital capitalism, depicting an environment in which digital logistics have taken centre stage in day-to-day life. The book responds to a pressing need to address the key questions of human autonomy and security, as well as the social power relations of the platform economy, in a world in which media and space have become increasingly entangled. Establishing a framework for understanding 'geomedia' as an environmental regime that shapes human subjectivity, Andre Jansson advances a humanistic and interdisciplinary approach to the study of communication geographies, arguing that human activities are accommodated to sustain the circulation of digital data. The book examines concrete examples related to audio-streaming, transmedia tourism, and platform urbanism, ultimately demonstrating how digital skills and logistical expertise have become forms of capital in contemporary society. Mapping ongoing transitions related to how digitalization affects spatial processes, the unique perspectives explored in this book will be of equal interest to postgraduates and researchers in the fields of human geography and media and communication studies. The innovative concepts and approaches to the study of digital geography introduced throughout will also enhance the dialogue between a vast range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences.

This engaging Research Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of research on social factors and mental health, examining how important it is to consider the social context in which mental health issues develop. It illustrates how social factors contribute to problems with mental health and how society, in turn, responds to people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Expert contributors provide an in-depth review of the history of social factors and mental health, and also discuss how boundaries between disorders such as bipolar and borderline personality disorder can be blurred and contested. Past and current social factors are thoroughly reviewed such as refugee mental health, stressors linked to discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation, exposure to police violence and the impact of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges and stigma faced by those diagnosed with disorders, alongside prejudices and discrimination in the health care system are also examined. The Research Handbook on Society and Mental Health will be an excellent resource for scholars studying social issues in relation to mental health or illness and researchers wishing to take an interdisciplinary approach by studying biopsychosocial factors. Mental health providers interested in well-rounded learning and those people experiencing and living with mental illness will find the alternative viewpoints to mainstream psychiatry and psychology informative and illuminating.

Hair is potent. It can be an emotional and intense matter across gender - it will grow in places you don't like, it may desert you - suddenly, or gradually. It is a symbol of gender, sexuality, status, and more. Part memoir, part investigation across history, politics, religion, and culture, Hair/Power explores the power, control and ultimate liberation that hair can provide.