Russell Brand is one of the most high profile and controversial celebrities of our time. A divisive figure, his ability to bounce back from adversity is remarkable. This book traces his various career stages through which he has done this, moving from comedy, to TV presenting; from radio to Hollywood films. It identifies how this eclectic career in entertainment both helped and hindered his high-profile move into political activism. Underpinning the book are interviews with leading activists and politicians, and sophisticated readings of Brand's performances, writing and on-screen work. There are sections on the Sachsgate scandal, his Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman, and his 2015 election intervention for aspiring Prime Minister Ed Miliband. It builds on scholarly work in the area of celebrity politics to develop an original analytic approach that blends the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu with the assemblage theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The concept of ‘generations’ has become a widely discussed area, with recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic revealing our dependence on intergenerational relationships both within and beyond the family. However, the concept can often be misunderstood, which can fuel divisions between age groups rather than generating solutions. This collection introduces and explores the growing field of generational studies, providing a comprehensive overview of its strengths and limitations. With contributions from academics across a range of disciplines, the book showcases the concept’s interdisciplinary potential by applying a generational lens to fields including sociology, literature, history, psychology, media studies and politics. Offering fresh perspectives, this original collection is a valuable addition to the field, opening new avenues for generational thinking.

This book offers an original critique of the billionaire founders of US West Coast tech companies, addressing their collective power, influence, and ideology, their group dynamics, and the role they play in the wider sociocultural and political formations of digital capitalism. Interrogating not only the founders' political and economic ambitions, but also how their corporations are omnipresent in our everyday lives, the authors provide robust evidence that a specific kind of patriarchal power has emerged as digital capitalism's mode of command. The 'New Patriarchs' examined over the course of the book include: Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Peter Thiel. We also include Sheryl Sandberg. The book analyses how these (mostly) men legitimate their rapidly acquired power, tying a novel kind of socially awkward but 'visionary' masculinity to exotic forms of shareholding. Drawing on a ten million word digital concordance, the authors intervene in feminist debates on patriarchy, masculinity, and postfeminism, locating the power of the founders as emanating from a specifically racialised structure of oppression tied to imaginaries of the American frontier, the patriarchal household, and settler colonialism. This is an important interdisciplinary contribution suitable for researchers and students across Digital Media, Media and Communication, and Gender and Cultural Studies.

This book offers an original critique of the billionaire founders of US West Coast tech companies, addressing their collective power, influence, and ideology, their group dynamics, and the role they play in the wider sociocultural and political formations of digital capitalism. Interrogating not only the founders' political and economic ambitions, but also how their corporations are omnipresent in our everyday lives, the authors provide robust evidence that a specific kind of patriarchal power has emerged as digital capitalism's mode of command. The 'New Patriarchs' examined over the course of the book include: Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Peter Thiel. We also include Sheryl Sandberg. The book analyses how these (mostly) men legitimate their rapidly acquired power, tying a novel kind of socially awkward but 'visionary' masculinity to exotic forms of shareholding. Drawing on a ten million word digital concordance, the authors intervene in feminist debates on patriarchy, masculinity, and postfeminism, locating the power of the founders as emanating from a specifically racialised structure of oppression tied to imaginaries of the American frontier, the patriarchal household, and settler colonialism. This is an important interdisciplinary contribution suitable for researchers and students across Digital Media, Media and Communication, and Gender and Cultural Studies.

Issue 54 Summer 2013Buy this issue Hope and experience As well as publishing two more instalments of the Soundings manifesto - Doreen Massey on vocabularies of the economy and Michael Rustin on a relational society - this issue includes articles that engage with and extend its arguments in a number of different directions. Tom Crompton writes from the perspective of long involvement in the environmental movement and discusses how values are articulated in political discourse. Richard Johnson finds sources for hope in Gramsci's work, while Nick Stevenson shows how the arguments in The Long Revolution remain relevant. Kevin Morgan argues that the 1945 Labour government's achievements need to be understood historically as the product of many years discussion and struggle during the interwar period - something that needs to be taken on board by those of us seeking to recreate such a breakthrough. Paolo Gerbaudo discusses the role of young people and horizontal movements in the crisis in Egypt. He is critical of the opposition's welcoming of the army coup and argues that this shows some of the limitations of horizontalism. Anna Coote and Jacob Mohun Himmelweit argue that the distribution of time should become part of political debate, and that we should be putting forward a norm of working thirty hours a week. Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller document the enormous environmental and social damage caused by the growth of the digital economy, and argue that this receives much less attention than might be expected because of our wider technophilia, and the continuing lure of i-gadgetry. Sophie Mayer discusses the movement of international solidarity with Pussy Riot, including the special role of poetry within the campaign. And we also restart our poetry pages in this issue, commissioned by our new poetry editor, Alison Winch. We begin with a selection of three poems from Fit to Work: Poets Against Atos. As Sophie writes: 'The poem and the song are the perfect vehicle for protest - small enough to smuggle by hand, learn by heart or send in a tweet, large enough for the whole world to join in.'

If you are considering getting a pet mouse this is an absolute 'must read' book for you. It covers everything you need to give your furry little friend a happy healthy life, answering all your questions. Inside you'll discover the huge range of different breeds so you can choose the perfect one for you. I cover the important stuff like how to choose a healthy mouse from the start (these tips are really important), plus should you select male or female and look after just one or have a few mice? You'll also have the perfect care guide including the correct temperature and lighting, plus what you should be feeding - and more importantly what to avoid You would be surprised. There is also a great section on mice health. If your mouse does get ill here's what to do and what to look out for. If you want to start breeding I'll share with you a few tips the experts use. Did you know you can actually train your mouse? I'll show you how. You'll both have great fun. Discover all of this and lots more. The perfect guide for mice owners. Hope you enjoy it - Ben Little.