This book demonstrates how pop culture examples can be used to demystify complex social theory. It provides tangible, metaphorical examples that shows how it is possible to "do philosophy" rather than subscribe to a theorist by showing that each theorist intersects and overlaps with others. The book is embedded in the literary theory that tapping into background knowledge is a key step in helping people engage with new and difficult texts. It also acknowledges the important role of popular culture in developing comprehension. Using a choose your own adventure structure, this book not only shows students of social theory how various theories can be applied but also reveals the multitude of possible pathways theory provides for comprehending society.

This book explores the transformative role of social media in fostering reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia, a region still grappling with unresolved conflicts and ethnic divides. Focusing on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, it highlights how Balkan influencers blend personal storytelling with commercial outreach to promote interethnic understanding. The study employs digital ethnography and narrative analysis to reveal the intricate dynamics between human actors and algorithms, uncovering how social media facilitate grassroots reconciliation initiatives. The author critiques traditional reconciliation efforts driven by political elites and emphasises the potential of bottom-up approaches enabled by social media. It presents the concept of “algorithmic reconciliation”, where social media algorithms inadvertently foster interethnic collaborations and create transnational online communities. By examining the economic and cultural practices of influencers, the book illustrates how digital platforms can serve as modern arenas for peacebuilding. This book is primarily aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates in social history, digital media studies, and peace studies, but will also be relevant to academics, policymakers, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and social change.

We live in challenging and uncertain times, with profound implications for the purpose and nature of education. The crises of the Anthropocene, with the related climate-related challenges, biodiversity loss, a global pandemic, and changes to the world of work driven by science and technology innovation and the ascendency of data and knowledge, pressure us to rethink how we prepare people for such futures. This, in turn, has changed the landscape of educational research, perhaps particularly in the areas of mathematics, health and environmental education research that are so central to responding to these global pressures and potential solutions. We need to think critically about education research design and practice as part of a considered and robust discussion of education research theory and practice that will inform and help shape education systems into the future. This volume responds to these challenges, casting fresh light on contemporary methodologies fit for reconsidering education into the future. Chapters explore post-qualitative inquiry, with overviews and practices, arts-based and interdisciplinary methodologies, self-study and auto-ethnography for the Anthropocene, co-design with teachers, researching for system change, the ethics of ‘netnography’, and principles and practices of literature review.

The methodological explorations offered in this book (and indeed the book series) enable considerations of how research practices have profound implications for the purpose and nature of education. Methodological complexity and context specificity, along with a need to ensure research participant consideration, are revealed through thirteen chapters. These considerations continue to change the landscape of educational research, particularly in the areas of mathematics, health and environmental education research. The authors featured in this volume think critically about education research design and practice as part of a considered and robust discussion of education research theory and practice that will inform and shape education systems in the future. Chapters explore co-design with teachers, researching for system change, the ethics of ‘netnography’, principles and practices of literature review, and post-qualitative inquiry, with overviews and practices, arts-based and interdisciplinary methodologies, self-study and auto-ethnography.

Prioritizing wellbeing alongside academic development, this book provides practical advice to help students write well, and be well, during their PhD and throughout their career. In this unique book, Katherine Firth offers expert guidance on developing a writing practice and avoiding burnout, providing strategies and insights for developing a sustainable writing career beyond the PhD thesis. The book covers every stage of the academic writing process, from planning and researching, through getting words on the page, to the often unexpectedly time-consuming editing and polishing. Readers are reminded that writing a thesis is hard work, but it needn’t be damaging work. Each chapter includes a toolbox of strategies and techniques, such as meditations, writing exercises and tips to maintain physical wellbeing, that will help doctoral candidates start writing and keep writing, without sacrificing their health, wellbeing or relationships. Relevant at any stage of the writing process, this book will help doctoral students and early career researchers to produce great words that people want to read, examiners want to pass and editors want to publish.

As before, the book presents a clear and critical survey of competing theories of and various approaches to popular culture. Its breadth and theoretical unity, exemplified through popular culture, means that it can be flexibly and relevantly applied across a number of disciplines. Also retaining the accessible approach of previous editions, and using appropriate examples from the texts and practices of popular culture.

This book demonstrates how pop culture examples can be used to demystify complex social theory. It provides tangible, metaphorical examples that shows how it is possible to "do philosophy" rather than subscribe to a theorist by showing that each theorist intersects and overlaps with others. The book is embedded in the literary theory that tapping into background knowledge is a key step in helping people engage with new and difficult texts. It also acknowledges the important role of popular culture in developing comprehension. Using a choose your own adventure structure, this book not only shows students of social theory how various theories can be applied but also reveals the multitude of possible pathways theory provides for comprehending society. .

Combining global, media, and cultural studies, this book analyzes the success of Hallyu, or the "Korean Wave” in the West, both at a macro and micro level, as an alternative pop culture globalization. This research investigates the capitalist ecosystem (formed by producers, institutions and the state), the soft power of Hallyu, and the reception among young people, using France as a case study, and placing it within the broader framework of the 'consumption of difference.' Seen by French fans as a challenge to Western pop culture, Hallyu constitutes a material of choice for understanding the cosmopolitan apprenticeships linked to the consumption of cultural goods, and the use of these resources to build youth’s biographical trajectories. The book will be relevant to researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in sociology, cultural studies, global studies, consumption and youth studies.

The connection between American popular culture and religion is the subject of this multifaceted and innovative collection. In fourteen lively essays whose topics range from the divine feminine in The Da Vinci Code to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," and from the world of sports to the ways in which cyberculture has influenced traditional religions, this book offers fascinating insights into what popular culture reveals about the nature of American religion today. Revised throughout, this new edition features three new essays—including a fascinating look at the role of women in apocalyptic fiction such as the Left Behind series—and editor Bruce David Forbes has written a new introduction. In addition to the new textual material, each chapter concludes with a set of suggested discussion questions.

Feminist Theory and Pop Culture synthesizes feminist theory with modern portrayals of gender in media culture. This comprehensive and interdisciplinary text includes an introductory chapter written by the editor as well as nine contributor chapters of original content. Included in the text: • Historical illustration of feminist theory • Application of feminist research methods for the study of gender • Feminist theoretical perspectives such as the male gaze, feminist standpoint theory, Black feminist thought, queer theory, masculinity theory, theories of feminist activism and postfeminism • Contributor chapters cover a range of topics from Western perspectives on Belly Dance classes to television shows such as GIRLS, Scandal and Orange is the New Black, as well as chapters which discuss gendered media forms like “chick lit”, comic books and Western perspectives of non-Western culture in film • Feminist theory as represented in the different waves of feminism, including a discussion of a fourth wave • Pedagogical features • Suggestions for further reading on topics covered • Discussion questions for classroom use Feminist Theory and Pop Culture was designed for classroom use and has been written with an eye toward engaging students in discussion. The book’s polished perspective on feminist theory juxtaposes popular culture with theoretical perspectives which have served as a foundation for the study of gender. This interdisciplinary text can serve as a primary or supplemental reading in undergraduate or graduate courses which focus on gender, pop culture, feminist theory or media studies. “This excellent anthology grounds feminism as articulated through four waves and features feminists responding to pop culture, while recognizing that popular culture has responded in complicated ways to feminisms. Contributors proffer lucid and engaging critiques of topics ranging from belly dancing through Fifty Shades of Grey, Scandal and Orange is the New Black. This book is a good read as well as an excellent text to enliven and inform in the classroom.” Dr. Jane Caputi Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Communication & Multimedia at Florida Atlantic University “Feminist Theory and Pop Culture is destined to be as popular as the culture it critiques. The text plays up the paradoxes of contemporary feminism and requires its readers to ask difficult questions about how and why the popular bring us pleasure. It is a contemporary collection that captures this moment in feminist time with diverse analyses of women’s representations across an impressive swath of popular culture. Feminist Theory and Pop Culture is the kind of text that makes me want to redesign my pop culture course. Again.” Dr. Ebony A. Utley, Assistant Professor of Communication at California State University-Long Beach, author of Rap and Religion Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Ph.D. is a professor of sociology at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. She is the author of Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman: Female Fans and the Music of Tori Amos (Scarecrow 2013) and the co-editor of Gender & Pop Culture: A Text-Reader (Sense 2014). www.adriennetrier-bieniek.com