DOWN THE DEEP LANES
Text by Peter Beacham : Photographs by James Ravilious

June 2008, 148pp, 300mm x 225mm, 93 Photographs
Paperback, £19.95, ISBN 978-1-905622-16-0
Hardback, £39.95, ISBN 978-1-905622-15-3

James Ravilious’s stunning photography and Peter Beacham’s wonderfully perceptive text take the reader on a journey down Devon’s deep lanes into the heart of a countryside not usually acknowledged by guidebooks. What is described, illustrated and celebrated here is the stuff of everyday existence in the rural south west – the lane, field and farmstead, the orchard and the vegetable garden, cob and corrugated iron, and the all pervading weather.

Rights and Virtues
Political Essays on Citizenship and Social Justice
By Bryan S. Turner

April 2008, £70, hardback, 320pp.
ISBN 978-1-905622-08-5

The subjects covered in this major new work include the debate about modern citizenship inspired by T.H. Marshall, the globalisation of human rights, national sovereignty, the relationship between religion and conceptions of rights, participation and exclusion, and the concept of social virtue.

Durkheim and the Puzzle of Social Complexity
By Mohamed Cherkaoui

March 2008, £60, hardback, 232 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905622-05-4

In this remarkable defence of Durkheimian social theory, Mohamed Cherkaoui analyses the relevance of the great French sociologist's ideas for understanding contemporary society. These range from the discussion of anomie and suicide, to the role of politics in pedagogy and educational organisation.

More Information :: Purchase Online :: Sample Chapter (pdf)

This book outlines a new perspective on the history and sociology of science that places the devices and instruments of scientific measurement, and the people who design and develop them, at the centre of study. Terry Shinn identifies a hitherto unexplored domain of scientific development that he calls research-technology, and demonstrates its centrality for understanding scientific change and development.

In 1864 Walter Bentley Woodbury introduced a process for mechanically reproducing photographs that changed forever the way the world looked at images. More than a century after its heyday the Woodburytype stands as a pinnacle of photographic achievement. This book traces the history of Woodbury's process from the early technology and experiments to its commercial success and domination of the illustration field, and further attempts to adapt it to industrialized methods, and finally, to its eventual disuse. Also covered is the story of how Woodbury overcame daunting personal odds to bestow this beautiful photographic process upon the world.

Religious Diversity and Civil Society
A Comparative Analysis
Edited by Bryan S. Turner

January 2008, £60, hardback, 208 pp.
ISBN 978-1-905622-11-5

This collection of essays by leading scholars focuses on two controversial propositions central to the contemporary issues faced by multi-religious societies. Firstly, societies that are culturally and ethnically diverse can be more difficult to govern than those that are homogenous. Secondly globalization, particularly of religion, makes these problems increasingly endemic, global and potentially catastrophic.

In this lucid and novel examination of the concept of the social in contemporary critical thought, Simon Susen argues that we can only identify solid grounds for social critique by identifying the grounds of the social itself.

These reflections are about modern capitalism. It is a waste of time to be for or against globalisation. New technology is a fact, the mobility of capital is a fact, the movement of jobs and people across borders is a fact. The political challenge is to master the use of reason in a world economy that is now unbelievably productive in the generation of wealth but also shockingly unfair in the distribution of economic power.