The growing child comes to understand the world, makes sense of experience and becomes a competent social individual. First published in 1987, Making Sense reflected the way in which developmental psychologists had begun to look at these processes in increasingly naturalistic, social situations. Rather than seeing the child as working in isolation, the authors of this collection take the view that 'making sense' involves social interaction and problem-solving. They particularly emphasize the role of language; its study both reveals the child's grasp of the frames of meaning in a particular culture, and demonstrates the subtleties of concept development and role-taking.

In this book, which was first published in 1983, Frank Kermode looks in particular at the revived Russian Formalism, a highly original body of literary theory that flourished in the years immediately following the Revolution, and at the work of Roman Jakobson, one of its most distinguished exponents. He discusses its modern ‘structuralist’ descendants, recalling the importance of Roland Barthes and the invigorating effect of his fertile and surprising mind. He considers also the work of Foucault, Laca and Levi-Strauss, as well as that of Jacques Derrida, which uses a novel and de(con)structive method of analysis to question to tacit assumptions on which structuralism is based. In an opening chapter, Professor Kermode surveys his relationship with the new theory, explaining that it is a relation from which he has benefited without ever feeling disposed to join a movement. These essays will be of interest to students of literature.

This thought-provoking book, first published in 1991, examines sexual politics in a world which is being radically changed by the challenges of feminism. Seidler explores how men have responded to feminism, and the contradictory feelings men have towards dominant forms of masculinity. Seidler’s stimulating and original analysis of social and political theory connects personally to everyday issues in people’s lives. It reflects the growing importance of sexual and personal politics within contemporary politics and culture, and demonstrates clearly the challenge that feminism brings to our inherited forms of morality, politics and sexuality.

First published in 1973, this book offers a fascinating and systematic description of the debt-collection process in 1970s England. Basing his research on the words of creditors, debtors, solicitors and debt-collectors, Paul Rock’s research was conducted when imprisonment for debt was still in existence. The book covers the major stages in a defaulter’s career, from enforcement by his creditors and the work of the debt-collector, through the various processes of the law, often to a period of imprisonment. Particular attention is given to the attempts made by debt-collectors to manage an unusual form of deviance and the consequences of their actions.

First published in 1983, this study investigates and compares three leading firms in the British iron and steel industry between 1914 and 1939, analysing their strategies, boardroom politics, and their responses to the problems posed by the Great War and by the vicissitudes of the 1920s and ‘30s. Jonathan Boswell illuminates certain issues that are of perennial importance for students of business: rationality and ‘error’ in decision-making, ethics, centralisation versus decentralisation, and the question of cyclical phases. The central theme throughout is the pursuit of three partly conflicting objectives: growth, efficiency and social action. The trade-offs between these three pursuits are used to examine significant contrasts in corporate strategies and behaviour, including towards government and public opinion. Boswell’s rejection of economic determinism; his insistence that managerial influences fall into definable long-run patterns; and his theses on managerial specialisation and long-term policy biases confront fundamental issues for theories of the firm.

The classic realist text has long been derided by post-structuralist critics as an unsophisticated and reactionary form. In this study, first published in 1992, John Rignall makes a powerful case for the rehabilitation of realism as a self-aware and reflexive genre. Using the novels of Scott, Balzac, Dickens, George Eliot, Flaubert, James, Ford and Conrad, Rignall argues for an understanding of realism through the recurrent figure of the flâneur. The flâneur is the strolling spectator whose problematic vision both of and in the novel makes him the representative figure of the realist text. A significant contribution to the field, this title will be of particular view to students of realism, literary theory, and comparative literature.

Originally published in 1986, this work examines how key figures such as Garfinkel, Sacks and Cicourel have revolutionised thinking about how sociology's presuppositions about 'being social' are grounded. Yet until the appearance of this book there were no clear and authoritative introductions to the main thinkers in the field or their work. In assessing the critical reception of Ethnomethodology, Sharrock and Anderson argue persuasively that much is wide of the mark - as they say, the real argument has yet to begin.

First published in 1989, United Kingdom? examines the three main divisions in British society in the post-war period: class, race and gender. During the 1980s there was an increasing concern about deep, and often bitter, divisions in British society. Events such as the miners’ strike of 1984-5, the riots in Handsworth, Tottenham and Brixton, and the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common all demonstrated the opposing views and cultures of the British public. However, the UK at the time was also able to show remarkable and continuing stability in other areas. This book considers to what extent the United Kingdom really was a kingdom united from the post-war period to the late 1980s. It focuses on issues of cohesion and conflict and debates the security of essential social stability.

Up until the mid-1980s most pragmatic analysis had been done on spoken language use, considerably less on written use, and very little at all on literary activity. This has now radically changed. ‘Pragmatics’ could be informally defined as the study of relationships between language and its users. This volume, first published in 1991, seeks to reposition literary activity at the centre of that study. The internationally renowned contributors draw together two main streams. On the one hand, there are concerns which are close to the syntax and semantics of mainstream linguistics, and on the other, there are concerns ranging towards anthropological linguistics, socio- and psycholinguistics. Literary Pragmatics represents an antidote to the fragmenting specialization so characteristic of the humanities in the twentieth century. This book will be of lasting value to students of linguistics, literature and society. Roger D. Sell discusses the reissue of Literary Pragmatics here: http://www.routledge.com/articles/roger_d._sell_discusses_the_reissue_of_literary_pragmatics/

Criticism is at the heart of any political discussion, and criticism of old policies is central to the development of new ones. In its analysis of political decision-making, this reissue, first published in 1991, examines the principles which control the process of policy criticism. It identifies two fundamental and related obstacles to this process: the privileged status accorded to 'professional judgement' and the conflicting philosophical ideas that shape political argument. Based on the study of Europe's largest local authority, the book presents a theory of decision-making that can be applied to institutions at all levels.