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 Helen Worrell, Subject Consultant for Anthropology.

Unruly speech: displacement and the politics of transgression

Saskia Witteborn

Stanford University Press, 2023

DS731.U4.WIT 2023

It was chosen as it is a multi-sited transnational ethnography that encompasses a variety of anthropological topics.  It is relevant to those studying migration and displacement, language and social interaction, advocacy and digital surveillance, and a transnational China.

Book Overview

Unruly Speech explores how Uyghurs in China and in the diaspora transgress sociopolitical limits with “unruly” communication practices in a quest for change. Drawing on research in China, the United States, and Germany, Saskia Witteborn situates her study against the backdrop of displacement and shows how naming practices and witness accounts become potent ways of resistance in everyday interactions and in global activism.

Reviews

“Based on a rigorous, multi-sited ethnography conducted in Xinjiang and within diasporas in Germany and the United States, Unruly Speech is a thorough inquiry into transgressive spaces of testimony and advocacy under digital surveillance in totalitarian regimes. It provides an important contribution to the anthropology of resistance.”

Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Study and the Collège de France

“In Unruly Speech, Saskia Witteborn provides a clever ethnography of communication practices and processes in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China and in the Uyghur diasporas in Germany and the United States…. This way, Witteborn builds a conceptual bridge between the material process of displacement and the symbolic dislocation of meaning.”

Andrew Fallone, International Affairs

“Unruly Speech is itself a testimonio to the strength and resilience of Uyghur communities who have been enduring severe political, social, and cultural dispossessions over the past two decades. The book bridges anthropology and communication studies through its ethnographic methodology of communication and critical self-reflexivity. It contributes to migration literature, language and social interaction literature, and the study of contemporary China and Uyghur lifeworlds from a global perspective. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in delving into a hopeful world of transgressive possibilities.”

Jing Wang, American Ethnologist

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is located on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is DS731.U4.WIT 2023

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 Andy Kernot, Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

Taming the flood: rivers, wetlands and the centuries-old battle against flooding

Jeremy Purseglove

William Collins, 2015

GB1399.PUR 2015

It was chosen because it is regarded as a standard work on flood alleviation, nature conservation and river management.

Book Overview

In recent years the Somerset Levels suffered from the worst flooding in over twenty years, and more recently, flooding in Cumbria and other parts of Britain have reached new levels of severity. Taming the Flood analyses many of the conflicting demands made on rivers and wetlands, offering practical solutions which aim to protect, rather than destroy, these important ecological habitats.

Exploring the old arguments and new solutions raised over the last 400 years, this completely updated edition of the classic Taming the Flood reveals how harnessing nature, rather than attempting to repress it, is the only answer to the environmental disasters we are faced with today.

Reviews

Taming the Flood most deserves its status as a classic […] for its evocation of place […] the descriptions of wetlands are exquisitely written. This fine book calls for, and takes, a longer view.

The Sunday Times

Jeremy Purseglove has a gift that is increasingly rare in these days of scientific specialisation of joining practical wisdom about working with nature and the land to an imaginative appreciation of their place in our history and culture.

Richard Mabey

A most authoritative book which appears at a very appropriate time. It will give rise to new attitudes in an extremely important aspect of conservation, and new hope to those who are fighting for a more enlightened approach to wetlands.

Sir Peter Scott

How can I access it?

We have two lending copies of this book. One of our copies is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is  GB1399.PUR 2015

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 John Southall Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

The arrow impossibility theorem

Eric Maskin and Amartya Sen

Columbia University Press, 2014

JF1001.MAS 2014

It was chosen because of the way it assesses a ground breaking innovation in the history of welfare economics, voting theory, and collective choice.

Book Overview

Kenneth J. Arrow’s “impossibility theorem” was a watershed moment in the development of the Social Sciences, demonstrating that there is no voting rule that satisfies the four desirable axioms of decisiveness, consensus, non-dictatorship, and independence.

In this book Eric Maskin and Amartya Sen explore the implications of Arrow’s theorem. Sen considers its ongoing utility, exploring the theorem’s value and limitations in relation to recent research on social reasoning, and Maskin discusses how to design a voting rule that gets us closer to the ideal – given the impossibility of achieving the ideal. The volume also contains a contextual introduction by social choice scholar Prasanta K. Pattanaik and commentaries from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow himself, as well as essays by Maskin, Dasgupta, and Sen outlining the mathematical proof and framework behind their assertions.

Reviews

“The pioneers of social choice theory give us lively, enjoyable, and stimulating lectures and exchanges of ideas. Their views, more than sixty years after the publication of Kenneth J. Arrow’s theorem, are of paramount interest to anyone aware of the difficulties of collective decisions.”

Marc Fleurbaey, Princeton University

“How vital it is to understand the ideas behind Kenneth J. Arrow’s impossibility theorem if we want to design reasonably fair ways of coming to consensus decisions that take equitable account of individual preferences. This book is a marvelous introduction to the theorem, a keystone in the theory of social choice.”

Barry Mazur, Harvard University, author of Imagining Numbers

How can I access it?

We have two lending copies and one library use only copy of this book. One of our copies is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is JF1001.MAS 2014 It is also available as an eBook. For the eBook, access it from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your 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.

January’s Book of the Month was selected by Jo Gardner Bodleian Social Science Librarian and Subject Consultant for Politics and International Relations.

Geopolitics and Democracy: The Western liberal order from foundation to fracture

Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon

Oxford University Press, 2023

JC574.TRU 2023

It was chosen because it has been described as a ground-breaking study of Western-led liberal international order.

Book Overview

Combining a novel theoretical framework and empirical strategy, Trubowitz and Burgoon show that support for globalism has been receding for 30 years in Western parties and legislatures. They trace the anti-globalist backlash to foreign policy decisions that mainstream parties and party elites made after the end of the Cold War.

Reviews

“Beautifully written and deeply researched, Geopolitics and Democracy chronicles the decades-in-the-making erosion of support for liberal internationalism in Western societies..”
G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University

“A notable contribution helping us understand our politics today.”
Kathleen R. McNamarra, Georgetown University

“A must-read for students of comparative welfare-state politics as well as international political economy and international relations.”
Jonas Pontusson, Université de Genève

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is JC574.TRU 2023. It is also available as an eBook. For the eBook, access it from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your 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 Sarah Rhodes Subject Consultant for International Development and Forced Migration.

The weaponized camera in the Middle East: videography, aesthetics, and politics in Israel and Palestine

Liat Berdugo

I.B. Tauris, 2021

PN 1992.945 BER 2021

It was selected as offering, in the words of the author, ‘a unique perspective on the strategies and battlegrounds of the Israel-Palestine conflict’.

Book Overview

This book, drawing on unprecedented access to the video archives of B’Tselem (an Israeli NGO distributing cameras to Palestinians), highlights visual surveillance and counter surveillance at the citizen level, and how Palestinians originally filmed to ‘shoot back’ at Israelis, who were armed with shooting power via weapons as the occupying force.  It also traces how Israeli private citizens began filming back at Palestinians with their own cameras, thus creating a simultaneous, echoing counter surveillance.

Reviews

“Berdugo brilliantly proposes a taxonomy of cameras that illuminates new ways out of the political impasse that renders the violence in Israel-Palestine both spectacularly visible and systematically concealed… [She] exposes yet another ‘order of things’, wherein cameras emancipate and shield inasmuch as they are wielded as weapons”.

Daniel Mann, King’s College London.

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is PN 1992.945 BER 2021. It is also available as an eBook. For the eBook, access it from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your SSO. It is also available as an eLegal Deposit Book. The eBook can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer 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.

October’s Book of the Month was selected by Helen Worrell Subject Consultant for Anthropology.

Reciprocity rules: friendship and compensation in fieldwork encounters

edited by Michelle C. Johnson & Edmund (Ned) Searles

Lexington Books, 2022

GN34.3.F53.REC 2022

This recent publication was chosen as a fresh examination of the foundation of anthropology – ethnographic fieldwork. It addresses the dynamics of power that is often present in these encounters and contributes to wider conversations on decolonising anthropology.

Book Overview

Focusing on compensation, friendship, and collaboration, this book explores what anthropologists and research participants give to each other in and beyond fieldwork. Contributors argue that while learning and following the local rules of reciprocity are challenging, they are essential to responsible research and efforts to decolonize anthropology

Reviews

This truly exciting volume addresses an acute aspect of anthropological fieldwork: that of reciprocity. As it can be a thorny issue, a systematic inquiry into it has been neglected far too long. How can, and should, anthropologists give something back to the people who have allowed them into their lives, even into sensitive situations? And for how long should this reciprocity go on? As the editors Michelle C. Johnson and Edmund (Ned) Searles argue, this raises key ethical and methodological issues. Filling an embarrassing gap, Reciprocity Rules is bound to become influential.

Helena Wulff, Stockholm University

A very welcome volume about that fundamental question within anthropological fieldwork: How to compensate our hosts? Based on the extensive long-term fieldwork experiences of the authors and richly illustrated with telling ethnographic details the chapters convincingly and insightfully demonstrate the importance of a nuanced understanding of reciprocal fieldwork obligations. Topics as the importance of studying local gifting practices, the pros and cons of different kinds of gifts and support, the importance of nonmaterial forms of compensation, the obligations—and joys—of fictive kinship relationships, reciprocal writing strategies, the context of decolonization, and many more, each exemplify the essential ethical and moral fieldwork lessons that can be learned from this original volume. Highly recommended for classes in ethnographic research methods.

Geert Mommersteeg, University of Utrecht

Reciprocity Rules is a great contribution to our understanding of fieldwork. Applying “the Gift” and “reciprocity” in concrete and reflexive ways, this collection portrays the inside story of how relations between ethnographers and those they are working with actually develop over time. Like all close relationships, those in the field engage challenges and misunderstandings as well as treasures of deep connection. Based on diverse fieldwork across four continents, the book’s authors average 24 years of connection with their field communities. For those interested in the ethics, methods, and experience of fieldwork, including junior scholars, this work is a gold mine of concrete and practical insights that reach far beyond the standard generalities of research design and methods.

Bruce Knauft, Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Anthropology, Emory University

A brilliant and moving intervention into the fraught but fecund terrain of encounter between anthropologist and interlocutor, researcher and host community, and a profound set of meditations on the ethics of such engagement. Trail-blazing in its treatment of the unstated in anthropological fieldwork, this book should be required reading for fieldworkers, not only in anthropology but in all the qualitative research disciplines.

Charles D. Piot, Duke University

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is GN34.3.F53.REC 2022

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.

Septembers’s Book of the Month was selected by Andy Kernot Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

Understanding the Digital World: what you need to know about computers, the internet, privacy, and security

by Brian W. Kernighan

Princeton University Press, 2021

QA76.KER 2021 (library use only)

It was chosen because it is a must-read for all who want to know more about computers and communications. It explains, precisely and carefully, not only how they operate but also how they influence our daily lives, in terms anyone can understand, no matter what their experience and knowledge of technology.

Book Overview

Computers are everywhere. Some of them are highly visible, in laptops, tablets, cell phones, and smart watches. But most are invisible, like those in appliances, cars, medical equipment, transportation systems, power grids, and weapons. We never see the myriad computers that quietly collect, share, and sometimes leak vast amounts of personal data about us. Through computers, governments and companies increasingly monitor what we do. Social networks and advertisers know far more about us than we should be comfortable with, using information we freely give them. Criminals have all-too-easy access to our data. Do we truly understand the power of computers in our world? Understanding the Digital World explains how computer hardware, software, networks, and systems work. Topics include how computers are built and how they compute; what programming is and why it is difficult; how the Internet and the web operate; and how all of these affect our security, privacy, property, and other important social, political, and economic issues.

Reviews

“This is the clearest and simplest explanation of the world we now all depend on–how it works and why it does what it does—from one of our best-known inventors. Everyone on Earth needs to read it.”

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. and Google

“This book takes the mystery out of computers and the Internet, and everyone can learn from it. With a friendly and accessible style, Kernighan connects what is happening inside machines to the news of the day and developments about the digital world.”

Harry Lewis, coauthor of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion

“Kernighan tells us exactly what we need to know about computers and computer science, focusing on ideas that are useful and interesting for everyday computer users. He covers a fascinating range of topics, including fundamentals such as computer hardware, programming, algorithms, and networks, as well as politically charged issues related to government surveillance, privacy, and Internet neutrality.”

John MacCormick, Dickinson College

How can I access it?

We have one library use only copy of this book, which is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is QA76.KER 2021 (library use only). It is also available as an eLegal Deposit Book. The eBook can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer 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.

August’s Book of the Month was selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

Penguin Books, 2022

HB75.RAW 2022

It was chosen because of the way it dissects seven core principles of Economics and considers how they can be updated for the 21^st Century.

Book Overview

Raworth critiques the idea of ‘rational economic man’ and what really makes us act in the modern world. She argues an obsession with equilibrium has left economists helpless when facing the boom and bust of the real-world economy. She highlights the dangers of ignoring the role of energy and nature’s resources – and the far-reaching implications for encouraging economic growth when we take them into account.

Overall, Doughnut Economics is excellent at describing economic concepts in accessible terms. In addition, Raworth’s in-depth summary of climate change is very well argued, and in this sense, the book is also more about sustainable development than economics.

Reviews

“This rigorous collection brings home how we are living through a crucial period in which data is mobilised in increasingly powerful and pervasive ways.”

Mike Savage, Professor of Sociology, LSE.

“An admirable attempt to broaden the horizons of economic thinking.”

Martin Wolf, Books of the Year, Financial Times

 “the book holds multidisciplinary promise and Raworth draws upon appealing and evocative metaphors and examples to convey economic concepts”

Maria Zhivitskaya, LSE Review of Books

How can I access it?

We have 7 copies of this book, one is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is HB75.RAW 2022 (see HB75.RAW 2017 and HB75.RAW 2018 for additional copies). All copies are available to be borrowed by Oxford University students and staff members. It is also available as an eLegal Deposit Book. The eBook can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer 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.

Julys’s Book of the Month was selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development, Forced Migration, and African & Commonwealth Studies.

Sanctuary cities and urban struggles: rescaling migration, citizenship, and rights

edited by Jonathan Darling and Harald Bauder

Manchester University Press, 2019

JV6483.SAN 2019

It was chosen in light of Oxford receiving University of Sanctuary status, and signing the City of Sanctuary Organisation Pledge. Find out more at:  https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation/oxford-community-sanctuary

Book Overview

In an era when migrant rights are under attack and nationalism is on the rise, the question of how citizenship, rights, and mobility can be recast at the urban scale is more relevant than ever.

This book makes the first sustained intervention into exploring how cities are challenging the primacy of the nation-state as the key guarantor of rights and entitlements. It brings together cutting-edge scholars of political geography, urban geography, citizenship studies, socio-legal studies and refugee studies to explore how urban social movements, localised practices of belonging and rights claiming, and diverse articulations of sanctuary are reshaping the governance of migration. It proposes not a singular alternative but rather a set of interlocking sites and scales of political imagination and practice.  In an era when migrant rights are under attack, the question of how citizenship, rights, and mobility can be recast at the urban scale is more relevant than ever.

How can I access it?

This title is available in hard copy in the library and is currently located in our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is JV6483.SAN 2019 and it is available to borrow by Oxford University students and staff members. It is also available as an eBook. For the eBook, access it from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your 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. 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 is a ten-volume history of Ukraine by its first President, Mikhailo Hrushevsky (1866 – 1934), and translated into English during the 1990s.

History of Ukraine-Rus’

Mykhailo Hrushevsky ; translated by Marta Skorupsky ; edited by Andrzej Poppe, and Frank E. Sysyn ; with the assistance of Uliana M. Pasicznyk.

All 10 volumes are available to order from the Bodleian Closed Stacks to the SSL, to consult in the library.

It was chosen because Hrushevsky’s inspired and meticulous work demonstrates the power of rigorous scholarship to counteract attempts at cultural erasure.

Book Overview

Hrushevsky set out to write the history of the Ukrainian people during the 1890s, at a time when the Russian Imperial state forbade the publication of Ukrainian-language texts, and even the use of the word ‘Ukraine’. He concentrated on the history of ordinary people, rather than the Imperial elites – and he used every source and methodology he could find, including the new discipline of Sociology. His writing was so careful and detailed that his ten volumes reach only to the seventeenth century – while his lifelong dedication to his project was such that he continued working on it despite arrest, exile and illness.

The History of Ukraine-Rus’ charts the formation and ongoing history of the Ukrainian people, rebutting claims from a succession of Tsarist, Soviet and Russian historians and politicians that the Ukrainian people never really existed prior to the Soviet Union. Hrushevsky’s meticulous scholarship demonstrates the inaccuracy of these accounts, as it also presents sources that are now unavailable, after the destructions of the twentieth century. This book stands as testament both to the continuity of Ukrainian history, and to the political power of detailed, accurate academic work.

Review

‘Hrushevsky’s combination of objectivity and optimism motivated his impressive scholarly productivity. His History stands as a lasting monument both to his scholarship and to his devotion to Ukraine. One can only applaud its wider dissemination…’

Charles J. Halperin, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Bloomington Indiana.

How can I access it?

All 10 volumes of this title are available to order up from the Bodleian Closed Stacks to consult in our library.

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.