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This book explores sociological debates in relation to culture, taste and value. It argues that sociology can contribute to debates about aesthetic value and to an understanding of how people evaluate.
This book is a sociological study of a societal grouping that has the popular title ‘middle class’. It argues that it is more precise to describe the middle classes as dominant groupings, and the book draws upon a wide range of characters from such groupings. In a detailed analysis of cultural practices, those making an appearance include omnivores, carnivores, herbivores, the middle-brow, traditional culture vultures, middle class plunderers, the urban arts eclectic and the English gentleman. There is a particular focus on those expressing the ‘silver disposition’; predominantly affluent, middle-aged and white, with a taste for conspicuous consumption and established cultural forms....
In this "GREASED-LIGHTNING" crime debut (Kirkus Reviews), Simon Lewis has created two unforgettable characters and a critically acclaimed novel that will stay with you long after the final page is turned. Inspector Jian is a corrupt Chinese cop who thinks he’s seen it all. But his search for his missing daughter takes him to the meanest streets he’s ever faced—in rural England. Migrant worker Ding Ming is distressed—his gang master is making demands, he owes a lot of money to the snakeheads, and no one will tell him where his wife has been taken. Maybe England isn’t the Gold Mountain he was promised. Two desperate men, lost in a baffling foreign land, are pitted against a ruthless band of human traffickers in this breath-taking thriller.
It's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong side of a river in the mountains of southern Spain and his daughter Chlöe is preparing to fly the nest for university. In this latest, typically hilarious dispatch from El Valero we find Chris, now a local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; discovering the pitfalls of Spanish public speaking; and recalling his own first foray into the adult world of work. Yet it's at El Valero, his beloved sheep farm, that Chris remains in his element as he, his wife Ana and their assorted dogs, cats and sheep weather a near calamitous flood and emerge as newly certified organic farmers. His cash crop? The lemons and oranges he once so blithely drove over, of course.
For Simon Bill's drunken anti-hero, an abstract artist forced to haunt private views to siphon the free booze, the picture looks bleak. He has been dumped by his curator girlfriend and the only dealer left with time for him is the one who sells him drugs. But his luck changes when he's offered a job as artist in residence at a neurological institute. Enthralled by the characters and conditions he encounters - and infatuated by the beautiful amnesiac Emily - he sees a chance to revive his career, and love life, with a neuro-inspired show. However, all is not quite as it seems at the shiny new institute ... In this mordantly witty (modern) art farce, Simon Bill lifts the lid on the venal, novelty-seeking world of London's contemporary art scene, while enlightening us on the fascinating workings of the human brain, particularly as it shapes our response to art. The result is a delightfully dark, highly original novel that is both eye-opening and fun.
This work reveals the hitherto unrepresented relationship that developed between Scotland and Sweden during the second half of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries. Sweden's emergence as an independent Nordic, and indeed European, power required continual military and economic growth, which in turn necessitated a constant supply of manpower. The initially piecemeal migration of private individuals from Scotland bringing both martial and mercantile skills to Sweden gradually grew into an informal alliance, albeit officially sanctioned by the Swedes, based on personal networks. Equally the impact of Sweden's support for the Scottish Covenanting movement on British state-formation is scrutinized. This fresh perspective on Scottish-Swedish connections is aimed at those interested in state-formation, migration studies, diplomatic developments, and military history.
Announcements for the following year included in some vols.
From bestselling author of Fermat's Last Theorem, a must-have for number lovers and Simpsons fans