Published this week

April 9, 2009

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

- Open Business Innovation Leadership: The Emergence of the Stakeholder University

Edited by Aldo Romano, professor of innovation management, University of Salento. Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00. ISBN 9780230577473

In a complex environment, change is necessary for survival, and the dynamic capability to continuously learn becomes a critical factor. This book offers guidance for value creation and the development of intellectual capital within networks of individuals and organisations.

HISTORY

- Empowering Interactions: Political Cultures and the Emergence of the State in Europe 1300-1900

Edited by Wim Blockmans, professor of medieval history, University of Leiden, Andre Holenstein, professor of history, University of Berne, Jon Mathieu, lecturer in history, University of Lucerne, and Daniel Schlappi, lecturer in history, University of Berne. Ashgate, £65.00. ISBN 9780754664734

Through a series of case studies and historiographical, methodological and theoretical essays, this volume challenges the top-down model of state development and explores the numerous ways in which non-elite groups could influence the formation of national political institutions.

- Evolutionary Naturalism in Victorian Britain: The 'Darwinians' and their Critics

By Bernard Lightman, York University, Toronto. Ashgate, £70.00. ISBN 9780754659877

Lightman argues that historians have exaggerated the power of scientific naturalism to undermine the role of religion in middle and late Victorian Britain. He shifts the focus to include those who criticised this influential group of intellectuals.

LITERATURE

- Ruskin, the Theatre and Victorian Visual Culture

Edited by Anselm Heinrich, lecturer in theatre studies, University of Glasgow, Kate Newey, professor of drama and theatre arts, University of Birmingham, and Jeffrey Richards, professor of cultural history, Lancaster University. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230200593

This collection of essays sets out to challenge the dominant narrative about Victorian theatre by relating its practices and products to the visual culture of the age.

POLITICS

- The Exclusionary Politics of Asylum

By Vicki Squire, RCUK research fellow at the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, The Open University. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230216594

This critique of the criminalisation of asylum-seeking challenges the claim that asylum-seekers "threaten" receiving states and analyses policy developments in relation to their wider contexts.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- The Politics of Multiculturalism: Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain

By Ben Pitcher, visiting lecturer in sociology and cultural studies, Middlesex University. Palgrave Macmillan, £52.00. ISBN 9780230210349

Taking as a case study racial politics under new Labour, Pitcher advances the idea that multiculturalism is the only conceptual framework that can make sense of the contradictions of race practice, where racism is both rejected and reproduced.

- Moving Histories of Class and Community: Identity, Place and Belonging in Contemporary England

By Ben Rogaly, senior lecturer in human geography, University of Sussex, and Becky Taylor, lecturer in history, Birkbeck, University of London. Palgrave Macmillan, £52.00. ISBN 9780230219939

This study of white working-class Britain since 1930 attempts to challenge accepted wisdom about the white working class by showing how meanings of poverty have changed over time and how individuals reject categorisation by the state.

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Business and management

Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies: Assessing the Contribution of Union Organising Edited by Gregor Gall, research professor of industrial relations, University of Hertfordshire Palgrave Macmillan, £55.00 ISBN 9780230204393 The contributors to this volume evaluate the efficacy of union organisation in terms of strategies, tactics, styles and resources, and assess the impact of differing regulatory regimes on practice.

Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service-Delivery to Co-Production By John Alford, professor of public sector management, University of Melbourne Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 ISBN 9780230223769 Alford explores three cases across three countries to show how government organisations need their clients to contribute time and effort to co-producing public services, and how they can better elicit this work from them.

Education

Educating the Child in Enlightenment Britain: Beliefs, Cultures, Practices Edited by Mary Hilton, university teaching officer in primary literacy and literature, University of Cambridge, and Jill Shefrin, course tutor in children’s books, London Rare Books School, University of London Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754664604 This interdisciplinary collection poses a challenge to more traditional approaches to the history of education and examines the complex web of beliefs and methods by which culture was transmitted to young people in 18th-century Britain.

History

Material Cultures, 1740-1920: The Meanings and Pleasures of Collecting Edited by John Potvin, assistant professor in art history, University of Guelph, and Alla Myzelev, assistant professor of art history, University of Guelph Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754661443 This collection interweaves considerations of identity and subjectivity, spatial contexts, materiality and meaning and addresses the status and interpretation of visual and material culture.

Land and People in Late Medieval England By Bruce M.?S. Campbell, professor of medieval economic history, Queen’s University Belfast Ashgate, £70.00 ISBN 9780754659471 The focus of this collection of articles is late medieval England, an overwhelmingly rural society, and the experiences of people before and after the Black Death.

Literature

John Clare’s Religion By Sarah Houghton-Walker, college lecturer in English and fellow, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754665144 Houghton-Walker engages with Clare’s poetry within the context of his faith, engaging with the facts of his more traditional religious habits and the ways in which he was inspired, and how that inspiration connected to his vision of the natural, to his intimations of divinity, and thus to his poetry.

Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present Edited by Alison Forsyth, lecturer in theatre studies, Aberystwyth University, and Chris Megson, senior lecturer in drama and theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London Palgrave Macmillan, £52.00 ISBN 9780230221154 The essays in this book place the work of theatre practitioners in context, exploring historical and contemporary examples of documentary and “verbatim” theatre, and applying a range of critical perspectives.

Music

The Correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause: A Music Lover in the Age of Sensibility By Darrell M. Berg, visiting associate professor in music, Washington University, St Louis Ashgate, £65.00 ISBN 9780754664291 These letters provide information not found in other sources, and express Krause’s strong opinions about leading German musicians with whom he was acquainted, such as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Carl Heinrich Graun and Johann Friedrich Agricola.

Why Music Moves Us By Jeanette Bicknell, visiting assistant professor in philosophy, Carleton University Palgrave Macmillan, £18.99 ISBN 9780230209893 How and why does music affect us? Bicknell attempts to explain what is going on emotionally, physically and cognitively when listeners have strong emotional responses to music.

Politics

Constitutionalizing the European Union By Thomas Christiansen, professor of European institutional politics, Maastricht University, and Christine Reh, lecturer in European politics, University College London Palgrave Macmillan £60.00 and £22.99 ISBN 9781403932495 and 9781403932501 This text outlines the main themes of constitutional debate in the European Union, analyses formal and informal constitution-building since the early days of European integration, and introduces the actors and structures behind treaty changes.

NGOs, Africa and the Global Order By Robert Pinkney, visiting professor of politics, Northumbria University Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 ISBN 9780230547162 Formal political structures have produced little more than “electoral democracy” in Africa without tackling the problems of poverty and exploitation. This book looks at the opportunities for, and limitations of, voluntary bodies seeking justice at African and global levels.

The Diplomacies of Small States: Between Vulnerability and Resilience Edited by Andrew F. Cooper, professor of political science, University of Waterloo, and Timothy M. Shaw, director and professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 ISBN 9780230575493 This is an analysis of the various methods used by small states to overcome their vulnerabilities in the international arena and is aimed at researchers and academics focusing on the developing world and multilateral diplomacy.

The Conservatives under David Cameron: Built to Last? Edited by Simon Lee, senior lecturer in politics, University of Hull, and Matt Beech, lecturer in politics, University of Hull Palgrave Macmillan £60.00 and £19.99 ISBN 9780230575646 and 5653 Lee and Beech present an analysis of “New Conservative” ideology and policy under David Cameron, identifying continuity and change and evaluating the party’s fitness to govern.

Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and Development By B.?C. Smith, emeritus professor of politics, University of Dundee Palgrave Macmillan, £65.00 and £22.99 ISBN 9780230223578 and 3585 This is an introduction to theories of political development and to the comparative politics of the developing world today that has been revised and updated with additional coverage of the impact of democratisation and globalisation.

Contentious Politics in North America: National Protest and Trans-national Collaboration under Continental Integration Edited by Jeffrey Ayres, professor and chair in political science, Saint Michael’s College, and Laura Macdonald, professor and chair in political science, Carleton University Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 ISBN 97802302248 This book is devoted to exploring contentious politics from a North American perspective, including protests, social movements and emergent regional governance processes between Canadian, US and Mexican participants.

Social sciences

The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies Edited by Jens Qvortrup, professor of sociology, Norwegian University of Science, William A. Corsaro, Robert H. Shaffer endowed chair in sociology, Indiana University, and Michael-Sebastian Honig, professor of social work, University of Luxembourg Palgrave Macmillan, £95.00 ISBN 9780230532601 This reference work, with contributions from thinkers across a range of disciplines, is a guide to the study of children and childhood, and sets out future research agendas for the subject.

The Multi-voiced Body: Society and Communication in the Age of Diversity By Fred Evans, professor of philosophy, Duquesne University Columbia University Press, £26.50 ISBN 9780231145008 In this study, Evans straddles both philosophical and political practice, confronting issues of subjectivity, language, communication and identity, and offering an innovative approach to the problems of human diversity and ethical plurality.

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