Policy Press

Class and classism

As part of an intersectional approach, the role of class in perpetuating social inequality is a vital area of study and self-reflection.

Recognised the importance of listening to different voices, the books here address key issues, including social inequality in academia and the unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In this cross-cutting theme, we aim to address the following goal:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 10

You may also be interested in our Global Social Challenges on equality, diversity and inclusion and poverty, inequality and social justice.

Showing 25-36 of 249 items.

Raising the Nation

How to Build a Better Future for Our Children (and Everyone Else)

Setting out big public policy ideas, enhanced by contributions from academic and campaigning experts, as well as those with lived experience, Raising the Nation shows why we must prioritise child-centred policies to ensure the future strength of our communities, environment and economy.

Policy Press

Women and Welfare Conditionality

Lived Experiences of Benefit Sanctions, Work and Welfare

Drawing on a wealth of qualitative longitudinal evidence, this book casts light on women’s lived experiences of welfare and work. It uncovers the hidden gendered bias of conditional welfare reforms to challenge dominant political discourses, policy design and practice norms.

Policy Press

Class and Social Background Discrimination in the Modern Workplace

Mapping Inequality in the Digital Age

This book exposes how inequalities based on class and social background arise from employment practices in the digital age. Examining the ways in which digitalisation creates risks of discrimination, the book proposes essential law reform and improvements to workplace policy.

Bristol Uni Press

Contextual Safeguarding

The Next Chapter

This book shares stories from child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and peer violence about what has been learnt from the Contextual Safeguarding approach to understanding harm that happens to young people in their communities and what is required to respond.

Policy Press

The Gentrification of Queer Activism

Diversity Politics and the Promise of Inclusion in London

Tracing the extensive LGBTQ+ venue closures in the 2010s, this book explores the queer politics of LGBTQ+ inclusion in London. Drawing on rich ethnographic work with activists, professionals and businesses, it reveals how gender and sexuality come to be reconfigured in the production and consumption of LGBTQ+ inclusion and its promises.

Bristol Uni Press

The Digital Health Self

Wellness, Tracking and Social Media

Putting the spotlight on neoliberalism as a pervasive tool that dictates wellness as a moral obligation, this book critically analyses how users navigate relationships between self-tracking technologies, social media and health management.

Bristol Uni Press

The Battle for Britain

Crises, Conflicts and the Conjuncture

This book addresses the UK's social, political and economic turbulence, exploring proliferating crises and conflicts, from social dissent through rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe and how they have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.

Bristol Uni Press

Creating an Ecosocial Welfare Future

A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change. Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state.

Policy Press

The Liberal Arts Paradox in Higher Education

Negotiating Inclusion and Prestige

By examining the emergence and growth of liberal arts degrees in English higher education, this book tackles one of the key issues in the critical sociology of higher education: the relationship between selective education and elitism.

Policy Press

Analysing the History of British Social Welfare

Compassion, Coercion and Beyond

This book offers insights into the development of social welfare policies in Britain. By identifying continuities in welfare policy, practice and thought throughout history, it offers the potential for the development of new thinking, policy making and practice.

Policy Press

Bringing Home the Housing Crisis

Politics, Precarity and Domicide in Austerity London

Often portrayed as an apolitical space, this book demonstrates that home is in fact a highly political concept. This book explores the legislative changes dismantling vulnerable groups’ rights to decent and affordable housing.

Policy Press

The Political Economy of Fortune and Misfortune

Prospects for Prosperity in Our Times

Bringing together philosophical insights with social theory, this book develops a better understanding of the role luck plays in generating and reinforcing inequality. The author offers a political economy of life chances and an analysis of durable and demonstrable social inequalities, revealing how they are sustained and reproduced.

Bristol Uni Press