16 great social sciences books from 2018

 Non-representational Theory & Health The Health in Life in Space-time Revealing

- Gavin Andrews, (Health, Aging & Society)

Non-representational theory is an academic approach that animates the active world; its taking-place. It shows how material, sensory and affective processes combine with conscious thought and agency in the making of everyday life. This book offers an agenda for health geography, providing the first comprehensive overview of what a 'more-than-representational' health geography looks like. It outlines the basis of a new ontological understanding of health, and explores the key qualities of 'movement-space' that are critical to how health emerges within the assemblages that enable it. 

Anti-Oppressive Social Work Ways of Knowing, Talking, and Doing

- Gary Dumbrill, (Social Work)

Anti-Oppressive Social Work: Ways of Knowing, Talking, and Doing provides the conceptual and theoretical background to unravel the intellectual puzzles posed by the authors' personal stories of oppression and anti-oppressive practice. This text works to provide students with the deep understanding that social workers must have a solid knowledge of society and its power relationships so they can create anti-oppression "in the moment" and in partnership with service users. The book begins by defining oppression and anti-oppression and examines ways to think critically about issues of power. It then goes on to explore specific forms of oppression (such as whiteness), as well as various isms (racism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and sanism), colonization and decolonization, and the problem of poverty and social order. Ultimately, the authors contend that the "dream" of doing anti-oppression must be done in partnership with service users. Exercises, activities, and "Key Concept" boxes provide stepping stones and opportunities for students to apply anti-oppression to their everyday life and their future practice.

A Chance to Fight Hitler: A Canadian Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War

  - David Goutor, (Labour Studies)

In late 1936, AS Franco’s armies stormed toward Madrid, Stalin famously termed the defence of Spain “the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.” As a German emigrant to Winnipeg, Hans Ibing recognized the importance of the Spanish Civil War to the struggle against worldwide fascism in a way that most people in Canada did not—joining the International Brigades in their fight to defend the Spanish Republic was his “chance to fight Hitler.”

Drawing on interviews, Ibing’s personal papers, and archival material, David Goutor recounts the powerful story of an ordinary man’s response to extraordinary times.

Remembering the End: Dostoevsky as Prophet to Modernity

- Peter Travis T. Kroeker, (Religious Studies)

 The Dostoevsky scholar Robert Louis Jackson said, Dostoevsky's becoming is, of course, our own becoming; to know Dostoevsky has been to know our century and ourselves. This volume pursues this statement while elucidating the spiritual realism of Dostoevsky's biblically charged literary art. Dostoevsky was one of those writers of the 19th century who came to be regarded by many readers in the following century as a prophet. How does he remain prophetic for us now, in the early 21st century? This text explores and assesses Dostoevsky's critique of modernity, with particular focus on the Grand Inquisitor (in The Brothers Karamazov), where his prophetic vision finds its most intense expression. The authors write to elucidate the spiritual realism of Dostoevsky's biblically charged literary art, and to show how it can help us to remember who we are in this modern/postmodern moment in which individuals and members of communities are required to make critical choices about the meaning of justice, history, truth and happiness.

The Dead Sea Scrolls. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts With English Translations Volume 8a: Genesis Apocryphon and Related Documents

   - Daniel Machiela, (Religious Studies)

The Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project is providing the first critical edition of all the Dead Sea Scrolls which are not copies of books in the Hebrew Bible (the so-called »Old Testament«) in 10 projected volumes along with 2 concordances.

The format of the series is unique; each manuscript is presented with Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek text on the left page with facing English translation on the right. Critical notes help the reader to understand the text, variants, philological subtleties, and the translation. 

Sick and Tired: Health and Safety Inequalities

   - Stephanie Melamed, (Labour Studies)

Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of experts from the fields of labour studies, public health, ergonomics, epidemiology, sociology and law, Sick and Tired examines the inequalities in workplace health and safety. Using an anti-oppressive framework, chapters interrogate a wide range of issues, including links between precarious employment and mental health, the inverse relationship between power and occupational health through the experiences of women, immigrants and older workers, and the need for creative strategies that promote health and safety in ways that support empowerment and equity.

Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation

   - Peter Nyers, (Political Science)

Deportation has again taken a prominent place within the immigration policies of nation-states. Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation addresses the social responses to deportation, in particular the growing movements against deportation and detention, and for freedom of movement and the regularization of status.

The book brings deportation and anti-deportation together with the aim of understanding the political subjects that emerge in this contested field of governance and control, freedom and struggle. However, rather than focusing on the typical subjects of removal – refugees, the undocumented, and irregular migrants – Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation looks at the ways that citizens get caught up in the deportation apparatus and must struggle to remain in or return to their country of citizenship. 

Russia Anthropological Insights

   - Petra Rethmann, (Anthropology)

This book offers a brief introduction to the anthropological study of Russia. Moving beyond the conceptual iron curtain that has divided past study of Russia into "East" and "West," it situates Russia in a global context and provides readers with all of the necessary analytical tools for understanding the complex cultural and social configurations of the contemporary Russian Federation. Based on extensive fieldwork in Russia, it offers unique insights into a number of cultural configurations--including socialism, violence, mythology, colonialism, nationalism, gender, memory, democracy, media, and art. Through the use of interesting case studies and ethnographic "snapshots," the author has produced a lively and engaging overview of Russia's cultural meaning and significance. 

Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes

   - Andrew Roddick, (Anthropology)

Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes explores archaeological approaches to temporalities, social memory, and constructions of history in the pre-Columbian Andes. The authors examine a range of indigenous temporal experiences and ideologies, including astronomical, cyclical, generational, eschatological, and mythical time.

This nuanced, interdisciplinary volume challenges outmoded anthropological theories while building on an emic perspective to gain greater understanding of pre-Columbian Andean cultures. Contributors to the volume rethink the dichotomy of past and present by understanding history as indigenous Andeans perceived it—recognizing the past as a palpable and living presence. We live in history, not apart from it. Within this framework time can be understood as a current rather than as distinct points, moments, periods, or horizons.

Labour Under Attack Anti-Unionism in Canada

Stephanie Ross, (Labour Studies)

This multi-disciplinary edited collection critically examines the causes and effects of anti-unionism in Canada. Primarily through a series of case studies, the book's contributors document and expose the tactics and strategies of employers and anti-labour governments while also interrogating some of the labour movement's own practices as a source of anti-union sentiment among workers. Contributors to this collection are concerned with the strategic implications of anti-union tactics and ideas and explore the possibilities and challenges for unions intent on overcoming them for the benefit of all working people.

Race, Gender, and Culture in International Relations Postcolonial Perspectives

Alina Sajed, (Political Science)

International relations theory has broadened out considerably since the end of the Cold War. Topics and issues once deemed irrelevant to the discipline have been systematically drawn into the debate and great strides have been made in the areas of culture/identity, race, and gender in the discipline. However, despite these major developments over the last two decades, currently there are no comprehensive textbooks that deal with race, gender, and culture in IR from a postcolonial perspective. This textbook fills this important gap.

The Wages Crisis in Australia: What it is and what to do about it

   - Jim Stanford, (Economics)

The persistence of weak wages growth in Australia, at a time when the state of the economy might suggest much better outcomes for workers, has baffled policy makers.

Andrew Stewart, Jim Stanford and Tess Hardy have drawn together expert analysts from business, universities, think tanks, community organisations and trade unions to answer four pressing questions: What is the wages crisis? Why is it happening? Why does it matter? And what should we do about it?

Written in non-technical terms for a general audience, the essays in this book offer many insights into one of Australia’s most pressing economic and social issues. They highlight the key point that wage stagnation is a problem with multiple causes and dimensions. It will not fix itself, but will need decisive policy action. In their conclusion, the editors set out their own views of what that might be.

The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights

   - Netina Tan, (Political Science)

This Palgrave Handbook provides a definitive account of women’s political rights across all major regions of the world, focusing both on women’s right to vote and women’s right to run for political office. This dual focus makes this the first book to combine historical overviews of debates about enfranchising women alongside analyses of more contemporary efforts to increase women’s political representation around the globe. Chapter authors map and assess the impact of these groundbreaking reforms, providing insight into these dynamics in a wide array of countries where women’s suffrage and representation have taken different paths and led to varying degrees of transformation. On the eve of many countries celebrating a century of women’s suffrage, as well as record numbers of women elected and appointed to political office, this timely volume offers an important introduction to ongoing developments related to women’s political empowerment worldwide. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the fields of gender and politics, women’s studies, history and sociology.

The Ways That Often Parted Essays in Honor of Joel Marcus

   - Matthew Thiessen, (Religious Studies)

This volume of essays, from an internationally renowned group of scholars including McMaster's own Dr. Matthew Thiessen, challenges popular ways of understanding how Judaism and Christianity came to be separate religions in antiquity. Essays in the volume reject the belief that there was one parting at an early point in time and contest the argument that there was no parting until a very late date. The resulting volume presents a complex account of the numerous ways partings occurred across the ancient Mediterranean spanning the first four centuries CE.

Other Diplomacies, Other Ties Cuba and Canada in the Shadow of the US

   - Lana Wylie, (Political Science)

Other Diplomacies, Other Ties explores Cuba-Canada relations following the revolution of 1959 and the major geopolitical and economic transformations that have occurred in recent years.

Through the conceptual lens of "other diplomacies," which emphasizes interactions among non-state actors, the contributors challenge the conventional wisdom regarding the actions of diplomats, politicians, journalists, spies, and émigrés. Featuring both Cuban and Canadian contributors, the volume offers a diverse range of research methodologies including ethnography, archival work, and policy analysis to encourage critical examination about the problems, possibilities, and promise of the longstanding relationship between Canada and Cuba. All decades of the post-1959 relationship – from the dramatic early years during which the diplomatic and political relationship was negotiated through to contemporary education exchanges and the gradual formation of Cuban-Canadian diasporas, are critically reappraised.

The Hakkas of Sarawak Sacrificial Gifts in Cold War Era Malaysia

   - Kee Howe Yong, (Anthropology)

This book tells the story of the Hakka Chinese in Sarawak, Malaysia, who were targeted as communists or communist sympathizers because of their Chinese ethnicity the 1960s and 1970s. Thousands of these rural Hakkas were relocated into “new villages” surrounded by barbed wire or detained at correction centres, where incarcerated people were understood to be “sacrificial gifts” to the war on communism and to the rule of Malaysia's judicial-administrative regime.

The Hakkas of Sarawak looks at how these incarcerated people struggled for survival and dealt with their defeat over the course of a generation. Using methodologies of narrative theory and exchange theory, Kee Howe Yong provides a powerful account of the ongoing legacies of Cold War oppression and its impact on the lives of people who were victimized by these policies.