Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
About the Book Series
This series explores core issues in political philosophy and social theory. Addressing theoretical subjects of both historical and contemporary relevance, the series has broad appeal across the social sciences. Contributions include new studies of major thinkers, key debates and critical concepts.
Intellectuals in the 21st Century: Reconfiguring Ideologies and Global Struggles Against the Elitization of Knowledge
1st Edition
Edited
By Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo
May 19, 2026
This book sees international academics from across five continents come together to critique the role of the present-day intellectual. Arguing that the elitization of the social sciences and humanities has reached a major climax in the 21st century, owing to the commercialisation of knowledge and ...
Public Intimacy: The Dissolution of the Private in Liquid Society
1st Edition
By Carlo Bordoni
April 18, 2026
This book examines the paradoxical collapse of privacy in contemporary society. The text analyses how personal boundaries are increasingly dissolved through digital technologies and how social networks and new media technologies encourage individuals to publicly expose their most intimate thoughts ...
Activism, Identity, and Social Theory in the 1960s: The Dawn of Life Politics
1st Edition
By Shaun Best
March 20, 2026
Activism, Identity, and Social Theory in the 1960s examines the crucial connection between social analysis and everyday practice using a study of the transformative social movements of the 1960s. It demonstrates how personal experiences of discrimination can reflect broader mechanisms of social ...
Myth, Society and Profanation
1st Edition
By William Pawlett
January 30, 2026
This work challenges the dominant pejorative view of myth by showing how myth is implicated in the deepest layers of society, politics, individuality and temporality. This work draws upon European cultural theorists, particularly Schelling, Nietzsche, Freud, Bataille and Baudrillard, to challenge ...
Liberty, Governance and Resistance: Competing Discourses in John Locke’s Political Philosophy
1st Edition
By John William Tate
December 25, 2025
John Locke is widely perceived as a foundational figure within the liberal tradition. This book investigates the competing discourses that inform Locke’s political philosophy, each underwritten by a distinct purpose, not all of which result in philosophical outcomes consistent with what we today ...
Communicative Reason: A Sociological Restatement
1st Edition
By Patrick O'Mahony
November 28, 2025
The book examines philosophical and sociological approaches within critical theory and more widely from the vantage point of communicative reason. It seeks to revitalize the sociological dimension of critical theory by advancing a critical sociology of reason. It does so fully in the knowledge that...
The Politics of Commitment: Towards a Better Future for Humanity
1st Edition
By Anthony M. Clohesy
November 21, 2025
This book examines the nature of our commitment to the long-term survival of humanity. It addresses the lack of a sustainable and ethical commitment to a shared and binding future for the well-being of those who will come after us. While other texts focus on the threats to our survival, such as ...
China in Later Enlightenment Political Thought
1st Edition
By Simon Kow
November 03, 2025
China in Later Enlightenment Political Thought examines the ideas of China in the works of mid- to late-eighteenth century European Enlightenment political thinkers. Like its predecessor volume, China in Early Enlightenment Political Thought, this book is distinctive in providing in-depth ...
Italian Theory and New Political Extremisms
1st Edition
Edited
By Alfonso Galindo Hervás
November 03, 2025
So far this century, the most developed democratic societies have witnessed the emergence of various extremist political movements. Some have nationalist connotations, others religious; there are right-wing and left-wing, pacifist and violent, with environmental or social motivations, etc. But they...
The Reality of This World: Volume Two: The Fate of This World and The Future of Humanity
1st Edition
By Charles P. Webel
October 28, 2025
The Reality of This World analyzes one of the most influential concepts known to humanity—“the world”—focusing primarily on the material conditions of our existence. It is the companion to The World as Idea: A Conceptual History (Routledge, 2021). Together, the two volumes constitute “The Fate of ...
The Return of the Common Good: The Postliberal Project Left and Right
1st Edition
By Stefan Borg
October 15, 2025
In this book, Stefan Borg reconstructs and engages a contemporary strand of thought known as postliberalism. Postliberalism, Borg argues, advances a distinct critique of liberalism, as well as an emphasis on the common good as a corrective to the perceived shortcomings of liberalism. The central ...
Practice Theory and Process Philosophy: Towards a Sociology of Becoming
1st Edition
By Stanley Blue
September 10, 2025
This book breaks new ground in sociological theory, presenting a process-oriented practice theory for conceptualising and studying the dynamism, interconnectedness, and ongoing transformation of everyday social life. Drawing on process-inspired approaches from disciplines such as anthropology, ...