The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

August’s book of the month was selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development, Forced Migration, and African & Commonwealth Studies.

Contemporary boat migration: data, geopolitics and discourses

Edited by Elaine Burroughs and Kira Williams

Rowman & Littlefield International

Available at KZ6530.CON 2018 but currently on display at our New Books Display Area.

It was chosen to highlight migration at sea, an issue which is becoming more frequent and precarious as states increasingly make entry illegal.

Book Overview

As migration at sea becomes more common, it has gained attention from a range of actors, including enforcement authorities, political elites, media, and non/inter-governmental organizations. The sea has thus become a space of hope/desperation for migrants as well as conflict over territory and sovereignty, representing wider social debates in and beyond Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United States. Current literature on migration by boat reflects these debates, primarily concentrating on the humanitarian and legal realities of migration by boat and border enforcement at sea, however, few studies have analysed their empirical relationship. This edited volume aims to fill this gap.

Reviews

‘Contemporary Boat Migration’ offers an original and interdisciplinary take on migration by considering people who move from one country to another via sea routes.  The chapters provide rich empirical insights, comprehensive examinations of legal regimes, and analyses of representations of people who migrate by boat.  This volume marks an important contribution to the understudies area of migration by sea’.

Tanya Golash-Boza, Professor of Sociology, University of California.

How can I access it?

A hard copy can be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk), which can be borrowed by Oxford University students and staff. It is usually shelved at KZ6530.CON 2018. This title is also available as an eLegal Deposit Book via SOLO. eLegal Deposit material can only be accessed via a Bodleian Libraries computer

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

July’s book of the month was selected by Andy Kernot, Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

Why are health disparities everyone’s problem?

Lisa A. Cooper

Hopkins University Press, 2021

Available at RA418.COO 2021 but currently on display at our New Books Display Area.

It was chosen because it examines how we can all work together to eliminate the avoidable injustices that plague our health care system and society. Health is determined by far more than a person’s choices and behaviors such as social and political conditions, economic forces or physical environments. Many of these factors are derived from of unequal opportunities and unjust treatment for people of color and other vulnerable communities. But they aren’t the only ones who suffer because of these disparities―everyone is impacted by the factors that degrade health for the least advantaged among us.

Book Overview

In Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem? Dr. Lisa Cooper shows how we can work together to eliminate the injustices that plague our health care system and society. The book follows Cooper’s journey from her childhood in Liberia, West Africa, to her thirty-year career working first as a clinician and then as a health equity researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on her experiences, it explores how differences in communication and the quality of relationships affect health outcomes. Through her work as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, it details the actions and policies needed to reduce and eliminate the conditions that are harming us all.

Cooper reveals with compelling detail how health disparities are crippling our health care system and society, driving up health care costs, leading to adverse health outcomes and ultimately an enormous burden of human suffering. Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem? demonstrates the ways in which everyone’s health is interconnected, both within communities and across the globe. Cooper calls for a new kind of herd immunity, when a sufficiently high proportion of people, across race and social class, become immune to harmful social conditions through “vaccination” with solidarity among groups and opportunities created by institutional and societal practices and policies. By acknowledging and acting upon that interconnectedness, she believes everyone can help to create a healthier world.

Reviews

“Dr. Cooper’s personal and professional journey is both riveting and inspiring; the scenes from her childhood in Liberia alone offer a global history lesson that resonates in present-day America. The unique experiences she brings to this unprecedented moment of the intersection of community health and racial reckoning make Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem? not only an essential read but a central question for our time.”

Marc H. Morial, President/CEO, National Urban League / former Mayor of New Orleans

“In this commanding narrative, Dr. Lisa Cooper—groundbreaking researcher, MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius,’ founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity—outlines innovative health equity solutions that can move us toward a societal ‘herd immunity’ where we’re tackling not just clinical disease but the deep-seeded impacts of structural racism.”

Garth Graham, MD, MPH, Global Head of Public Health, Google Inc. / former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, US Department of Health and Human Services

“A compelling and enlightening record of Dr. Cooper’s journey of awakening to the origins and widespread impacts of health disparities and to the need for health equity in local and global communities. She shares the richness of her experiences and the piercing insights that have fueled her celebrated quest to unmask the underlying causes of and to propose solutions for the pervasive and persistent disparities whose deleterious effects in disadvantaged communities have broad effects on all others.”

James R. Gavin III, MD, PhD, Emory University School of Medicine / Chairman Emeritus, Partnership for a Healthier America, and author of Dr. Gavin’s Health Guide for African Americans: How to Keep Yourself and Your Children Well

How can I access it?

A hard copy can be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk), which can be borrowed by Oxford University students and staff. It is usually shelved at RA418.COO 2021. This title is also available as an eBook via SOLO. Oxford University staff and students can access the title remotely using their SSO.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

June’s book of the month was selected by Jo Gardner, Bodleian Social Science Librarian and Subject Consultant for Politics and International Relations.

How social movements can save democracy: democratic innovations from below

Donatella della Porta

Polity, 2020

Available at HM881.DEL 2020 but currently on display at our New Books Display Area.

It was chosen because because the author explores a range of opportunities for institutions to encourage direct democracy through popular participation.

Book Overview

Leading political sociologist Donatella della Porta analyses the role that social movements have long played in fostering and deepening democracy. The author investigates contemporary innovations in times of crisis, particularly crowd-sourced constitutions, referendums from below and movement parties, and she reflects on the advantages and limitations of these alternative politics.

Reviews

“An engaging read by one of Europe’s leading scholars of contentious politics.”
Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University

“This is an extremely important book by one of today’s key thinkers on democracy and a poignant rejoinder to those who have responded to the democratic crisis with elitism.”
Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University

How can I access it?

A hard copy can also be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk), which can be borrowed by Oxford University students and staff. It is usually shelved at HM881.DEL 2020.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

May’s book of the month was selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

False economy: a surprising economic history of the World

Alan Beattie

Penguin Books, 2010

Available at HC51.BEA 2010 and as an eBook via SOLO.

Why was it chosen?

It was chosen because of the way Alan Beattie – Financial Times world trade editor – combines economic history, psychology and political analysis to identify the factors that predispose economies to sickness or health.

Book Overview

False Economy takes a look at the many and varied factors that shape contemporary societies and economies and what effects these factors have had on economic success. The author weaves together the economic choices, political choices, economic history, and human stories, that determine whether governments and countries remain rich or poor.

He also addresses larger questions about why they make the choices they do, and what those mean for the future of our global economy. False Economy is a lively and lucid book that engagingly and thought-provokingly examines macroeconomics, economic topics, and the fault lines and successes that can make or break a culture or induce a global depression.

Reviews

“This Lively book is a quirky, selective history of the world emphasizing economic endowments and incentives.” Foreign Affairs

“Each chapter is themed – cities, religion and so on – and the individual stories are mesmerising.” Financial Times.

How can I access it?

This title is available as an eBook via SOLO. It is an electronic legal deposit item, which means it can only be viewed from a Bodleian Libraries reading room PC. A hard copy can also be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk), which is for library use only. It is usually shelved at HC51.BEA 2010.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

April’s book of the month was selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development, Forced Migration, African and Commonwealth Studies.

The Oxford Handbook of Refugee & Forced Migration Studies

Edited by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al.

Oxford University Press, 2016

Available at HV640.OXF 2014 & HV640.OXF 2016 and as an eBook via SOLO.

Why was it chosen?

It was chosen in light of the war in Ukraine and the unprecedented movement of people, both within the country and fleeing across borders. This handbook considers the links between the academic study of forced migration and the advocacy necessary to help those forcibly displaced not only in Europe but worldwide.

Book Overview

This authoritative Handbook critically evaluates the birth and development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, and analyses the key contemporary and future challenges faced by academics and practitioners working with and for forcibly displaced populations around the world. The 53 state-of-the-art chapters, written by leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers working in universities, research centres, think tanks, NGOs and international organizations, provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the key intellectual, political, social and institutional challenges arising from mass displacement in the world today. The chapters vividly illustrate the vibrant and engaging debates that characterise this rapidly expanding field of research and practice.

Reviews

‘The chapters of this Handbook carefully examine all the key elements for the protection of refugees, displaced persons, migrants and other people on the move, identifying both obstacles and opportunities that are relevant to our work and should rightly be contemplated by students of forced migration’

Forward by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

How can I access it?

This title is available as an eBook via SOLO. Oxford University staff and students can access the title remotely using their SSO. A hard copy can be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk) and on the shelves at HV640.OXF 2014 and HV640.OXF 2016.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

March’s book of the month was selected by Jo Gardner, Bodleian Social Science Librarian and Subject Consultant for Politics and International Relations.

Billionaires in world politics

Peter Hägel

Oxford University Press, 2021

Available as an eBook via SOLO.

Why was it chosen?

It was chosen because it provides some timely insight into the political agency of billionaires.

Book Overview

This book shows how the privatisation of politics assumes a new dimension when billionaires wield power in world politics. Six case studies explore the power of billionaires in their pursuit of security, wealth, and esteem. The conclusion evaluates the findings in order to address three major questions: Is it more appropriate to see billionaires as ‘super-actors’, or as a global ‘super-class’? What is the relative power of billionaires within the international system? What does the power of billionaires mean for the liberal norms of legitimate political order?

Reviews

“In a summarising analysis the author concludes that these individuals have engaged in a form of “stealth politics” that lacks democratic legitimacy and renders the idea of class irrelevant. Their ability to “orchestrate” international policy positions is persuasively presented in this heavily documented study.”

R. Heineman, Alfred University

“A beautiful comparative survey built on the analysis of six of these “ultra-rich” who mobilized their wealth to weigh “from the outside” and “from abroad” on the political competition of a country, the course of a regime crisis, or the definition of the priorities of international organizations.”

Antoine Vauchez, CNRS, La Vie des Idees

How can I access it?

This title is available as an eBook via SOLO. Oxford University staff and students can access the title remotely using their SSO. A hard copy can be requested from the Closed Stacks for Library use only.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

February’s book of the month was selected by Andy Kernot, Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

Transport for Humans: Are we nearly there yet?

Pete Dyson & Rory Sutherland

London Publishing Partnership, 2021

Shelfmark: GT5220.DYS 2021

Why was it chosen?

Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success – speed, journey time, efficiency – are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety – and many other factors that engineering equations don’t capture at all.

As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, the greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of roads, railways, planes and pavements – as well as the ways in which we use them – but only when we embrace the messier reality of how people travel.

This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work–life priorities have shaken up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans.

Book Overview

Using behavioural science to examine how transport design can be improved, the book starts by examining the history of transport design before looking at the specific human needs of travel as opposed to cargo, followed by the psychology behind how transport professionals design travel systems. The book concludes by examining how transport systems can better serve our human and societal needs.

Reviews

“Impish yet wise, this book is packed with fresh ideas. Transport would be so much better if even half of them were embraced by planners, politicians and designers. Read, learn and laugh – I did.”

Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up

“This book makes a plea for the application of behavioural science (aka common sense) to transport planning. It offers a way out of two traps: the belief that speed is the only purpose of travel and that everyone is motivated in the same way. It is bursting with ideas to make transport work for real people, and while some of the ideas might prove unsuccessful, all of them are worth trying.”

Bridget Rosewell, Commissioner, National Infrastructure Commission

“A very welcome book that shows how the insights of behavioural science could allow for the range of human attributes to be encompassed by the transport system in the face of economists’ and engineers’ conventional utilitarian thinking.”

David Metz, honorary professor in the Centre for Transport Studies at UCL and former Chief Scientist at the Department for Transport

“Transport is desperately in need of good ideas and innovation. This highly original and entertaining book is filled with both.”

Christian Wolmar, award-winning writer and broadcaster specializing in transport.

How can I access it?

This title is available in hard copy in the SSL. Its shelfmark is GT5220.DYS 2021 but you can currently find it in our New Books Display Area. The title can be borrowed by our readers with borrowing rights.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

January’s book of the month was selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

The Meritocracy Trap

Daniel Markovits

Allen Lane, 2019

Shelfmark: HT684.MAR 2019

Also available as an eBook via SOLO.

Why was it chosen?

It was chosen because of the way it discusses fundamental concerns of Sociology such as social mobility and inequality.

Book Overview

It is an axiom of modern life that meritocracy promises to provide opportunity to all. The idea that reward should follow ability and effort is so entrenched in our attitudes that, even when society divides itself in other ways, all sides can be heard repeating meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we think we are.

However, Markovits argues, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring them to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return.

Reviews

“Markovits shows the tenacity of meritocracy’s narrative pull and how easy it is to get entangled in its logic.” Phil Bell, LSE Review of Books

 “This book flips your world upside down. Daniel Markovits argues that meritocracy isn’t a virtuous, efficient system that rewards the best and brightest. Instead it rewards middle-class families who can afford huge investments in their children’s education.” The Times

How can I access it?

This title is available in hard copy at the SSL at shelfmark HT684.MAR 2019 to consult in the library. It is also available on SOLO for Oxford University staff and students to access remotely using their SSO.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

November’s book of the month was selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online

Whitney Phillips & Ryan M.Milner

Polity Press, 2017

Available in hard copy. Can be found in the SSL at HM851.PHI 2017

Why was it chosen?

It was chosen as an example of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of a key social issue in modern society.

Book Overview

This book explores the playful, weird and mean interactions that characterizes everyday expression online; from absurdist photoshops to antagonistic Twitter hashtags and deceptive identity play.

The authors focus especially on the ambivalence of this expression: the fact that it is too unwieldy, too variable across cases, to be essentialized as either old or new, vernacular or institutional, generative or destructive. Online expression is, instead, all of the above.

Grounded in multidisciplinary literature and vivid examples drawn from US online culture, The Ambivalent Internet presents a methodologically innovative account of the complexity underlying everyday online behaviours, their interaction with the evergrowing availability of information and their impact on wider society as a whole.

Reviews

“(Phillips and Milner take…) as the topic of each chapter in their book a prominent category of online participation: folkloric expression, identity play, constitutive humour, collective storytelling and public debate. In this way, they move from what is individual and intimate to what is collectively social and massively public in their overall examination of ambivalent online expression.”

European Journal of Communication.

“Throughout their exploration of the ambivalent Internet, Phillips and Milner make many compelling arguments that are applicable to a broader readership from everyday Internet users to journalists, cultural critics, policy makers, and digital media and communication scholars.”

Deyei Oh, Information, Communication & Society.

How can I access it?

This title is available in hard copy at the SSL at shelfmark HM851.PHI 2017 and can be borrowed if you have borrowing priviledges.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.