Category Archives: reading lists

Ladies in the Lords: Chrystal Macmillan Lecture Oct 2014

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On Thursday 30th October the Lord Speaker Baroness D’Souza will deliver the Chrystal Macmillan Lecture on the topic of Ladies in the Lords: Women’s Representation in Political Life.

house_of_lordsToday there are 189 women in the House but it is only since the 1958 Life Peerages Act that women (as well as those without an inherited title) were allowed to sit in the House of Lords.

We’ve put together just a short reading list of journal articles available online through the University Library that allow you to read about and around this particular topic. So if you are unable to attend the Lecture or just wish to find out a bit more then read on. Access only available to University of Edinburgh students and staff unless otherwise noted. Continue reading →

Sport and social sciences: A Commonwealth Games inspired reading list

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The 2014 Commonwealth Games start today and we’ve had a look through the wealth of e-books currently available to University staff and students at the Library, to pull together just a small number of titles that look at different aspects of sport related to social and political science.

sport_culture_societySport, culture and society: an introduction by Grant Jarvie with James Thornton looks at the place of sport in contemporary society and culture. It argues that sport is part of our social and cultural fabric, possessing a social and commercial power that makes it a potent force in the world, for good and for bad. It looks at how sport has helped to start wars and promote international reconciliation, while every government around the world commits public resources to sport because of its perceived benefits. Continue reading →

50 Years of Sociology at Edinburgh: Professor Tom Burns

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In 1964 the Sociology department at University of Edinburgh was founded by Tom Burns. A prominent sociologist and one of the first sociologists to be elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy, Professor Burns worked at the University until his retirement in 1981.

The Centre for Research Collections at the University Library holds Professor Burns papers. Although these are currently uncatalogued and require some extensive conservation work, I was allowed a sneak peak at a box of offprints that is part of his collection of papers (Tom Burns offprints: Accession no. E2002.6).

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The City as Looking Glass by Tom Burns in Prospect (1960)

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Chrystal Macmillan Lecture: Professor Veena Das reading list

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On Wednesday 18th June 2014 Professor Veena Das will deliver this year’s Chrystal Macmillan lecture.

Krieger-Eisenhower Professor at John Hopkins University and a founding member of the Institute of Socio-Economic Research in Development and Democracy, Professor Das is an established figure in Indian anthropology and her research interests also include feminist movements and gender studies, anthropology of violence, social suffering and subjectivity.

For the Chrystal Macmillan Lecture she will be speaking on the topic:

War and Intimate Violence: Reading the Ethnographic Record in the Light of the Mahabharata.

Professor Das has been published extensively and has worked as an editor on a number of publications. Using Resource Lists @ Edinburgh we’ve put together a Professor Veena Das reading list with just a small selection of books and articles authored or edited by Professor Das that University of Edinburgh staff and students can access through the University Library.

Professor Veena Das reading list

For more information on the 2014 Chrystal Macmillan lecture and how to book see:

Professor Veena Das to deliver 2014 Chrystal Macmillan lecture

For previous lectures see: Chrystal Macmillan lectures

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science

Fitba’ crazy, fitba’ mad? A football inspired reading list

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The World Cup kicks off tomorrow in Brazil and we’ve pulled together just a small number of the e-books currently available to staff and students of the University in the Library’s collections that look at different aspects of the beautiful (or not so beautiful) game.

globalfootballleaguecoverThe Global Football League: Transnational Networks, Social Movements and Sport in the New Media Age by Peter Millward addresses the themes that have come to define the global flow of images, capital and people that exist in contemporary football today, including case studies on Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City football clubs.

Foreign Players and Football Supporters: The Old Firm, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain by David Ranc looks at supporters’ reactions to the increase in the number of foreign players in the clubs they support. It concentrates on three case studies on Glasgow (Celtic and Rangers), Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in London and the book charts the evolution of the link between supporters and club between 1995 and today.

Organisation and Governance of Top Football Across Europe : An Institutional Perspective aims to provide an extensive overview of how football is organised and managed on a European level and in individual European countries, and to account for the evolution of the national, international and transnational management of football over the last decades.

9781137371263.inddFootball’s Dark Side: Corruption, Homophobia, Violence and Racism in the Beautiful Game by Ellis Cashmore and Jamie Cleland aims to express the views of thousands of football fans on the game they love, but which they know has an unpleasant underside demonstrating that beyond  football’s assumed social value, the glamour and the spectacle an array of serious problems and exclusions endure.

An ethnography of English football fans: Cans, cops and carnivals by Geoff Pearson is based upon sixteen years observation of English football fans who travel home and away with their team – Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. The book challenges a number of the myths about hooliganism and crowd control and describes the interpretations, motivations and behaviour of these groups of fans both at home and abroad.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science