Joanne Finkelstein

Susan Goodwin

The Sociological Bent: Inside Metro Culture is an engaging introduction to sociology and to some exciting, illuminating and powerful ways of thinking about society. Written in a clear and accessible style, and drawing on the work of both contemporary and classical sociologists, this innovative text explores the relationships between various cultural forms, institutional sites and the practices of everyday life. The text is divided into thirty-seven short, digestible modules that address issues and topics of interest to contemporary students, ranging from passports and car advertising to personal hygiene and sex re-assignment surgery. Core concepts such as modernity, hegemony, ideology, discourse and culture are discussed in order to provide intellectual frameworks for the reading of diverse cultural forms and practices. Students are encouraged to move beyond commonsense assumptions about social experience and to theorise many naturalised and familiar aspects of their everyday lives, such as:* celebrity and the social functions of fame* fashions in food, clothing and consumer goods* globalisation, corporate collapse and crime* the nature of 'belonging' to nations, groups or subcultures* transformations in intimacy, and in sex and gender relations.The text also introduces students to a range of methods for comprehending contemporary life - including social semiotics, discourse analysis, field immersion and ethnography - equipping them with the most sophisticated tools of analysis that current scholarship can provide. The Sociological Bent demonstrates the diversity of sociological thinking and research, and explains the historical background and meaning of the key concepts applied in each area of focus. It provides students with an excellent foundation for developing a sociological understanding of the contemporary world, as well as the sociological framework or infrastructure required for them to undertake further sociological studies.

The Sociological Bent

Carol Bacchi

This book offers a novel, refreshing and politically engaged way to think about public policy. Instead of treating policy as simply the government’s best efforts to address problems, it offers a way to question critically how policies produce “problems” as particular sorts of problems, with important political implications. Governing, it is argued, takes place through these problematizations. According to the authors, interrogating policies and policy proposals as problematizations involves asking questions about the assumptions they rely upon, how they have been made, what their effects are, as well as how they could be unmade. To enable this form of critical analysis, this book introduces an analytic strategy, the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach. It features examples of applications of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality to illustrate the growing popularity of this way of thinking and to provide clear and useful examples of poststructural policy analysis in practice.

A Guide to Practice

Poststructural Policy Analysis

Child Care Programs in Wisconsin

Jennifer Peterson

Molly Sawyer

Does reading the Bible cover to cover seem like an Everest-sized task? Have you tried to read the entire Bible, only to be overwhelmed by the details? Do you hold deep convictions based on the Bible, but you've never read all of it? Are you a serious Bible student ready for fresh insights into a familiar story? The average person can read EVERY WORD of the Bible in 90 hours. It is a challenge, but it is possible if you commit to read an hour a day for the next 90 days. This book is here to help you along the way with: A reading plan to take you through the Bible in chronological order in 90 days Commentary on all 66 Bible books and how each fits into God's big story Notes to help you understand the history and culture of Bible times A focus on the overarching story of the Bible with Jesus at its heart From the opening words "In the beginning" to the closing chapter's "they will reign forever and ever," this reader's guide will help keep your eye on the grand story of God as you experience it for yourself. We can't think of a better challenge. www.everyword90.com

A Reader's 90-Day Guide to the Bible

Every Word

Kate Huppatz

Although the ideals of the 'good mother' change with time, fashion and context, they persist in public policy, the media, popular culture and workplaces; placing pressure on women to conform to particular standards, against which they are judged and judge themselves.The Good Mother demonstrates that prevailing ideas about mothers and motherhood continue to influence the way 'types' of women are represented and the way that all mothers think, act and present themselves.

Contemporary Motherhoods in Australia

The Good Mother

The good mother brings together essays on the contemporary relevance of the 'good mother' in Australia. Although the ideals of the 'good mother' change with time, fashion and context, they persist in public policy, the media, popular culture and workplaces. They place pressure on women to conform to particular standards, against which they are judged and judge themselves.This book captures the diversity of contemporary women's experiences. Chapters address the experiences of executive mothers, mothers working in manual trades, 'yummy mummies' and 'slummy mummies', low income mothers, single mothers, Indigenous mothers, lesbian parents, adoptive mothers and mothers negotiating schools and school choice. The essays demonstrate that while the 'good mother' is no longer exclusively white, heterosexual, economically dependent and child focused, prevailing ideas about mothers and motherhood continue to influence the way 'types' of women are represented and the way that all mothers think, act and present themselves.

Professor Gabrielle Meagher

The provision of social services in Australia has changed dramatically in recent decades, raising a range of important questions about financial and democratic accountability: 'who benefits', 'who suffers' and 'who decides'. This book explores these developments through rich case studies of a diverse set of social policy domains. The case studies demonstrate a range of effects of marketisation, including the impact on the experience of consumer engagement with social service systems, on the distribution of social advantage and disadvantage, and on the democratic steering of social policy.

Susan Goodwin

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