What is happening to public debate in Western cultures? Is our public sphere disintegrating? In the face of popular tabloid newspapers, new forms of reality television and an increasing lack of respect for traditional authorities, many critics are concerned that our society no longer has a rational, informed and unified space where everyone can communicate about the issues that affect us all. In this book Alan McKee answers these questions by providing an introduction to the concept of the pu...

Objective, critical, optimistic, and with a global focus, this textbook combines international relations theory, history, up-to-date research, and current affairs to give students a comprehensive, unbiased understanding of international politics. It integrates theory and traditional approaches with globalization and research on such topics as terrorism, new economic superpowers, and global communications and social networking to offer unusual breadth and depth for an undergraduate course. The...

This 1983 book is a lively and clearly written introduction to the philosophy of natural science, organized around the central theme of scientific realism. It has two parts. 'Representing' deals with the different philosophical accounts of scientific objectivity and the reality of scientific entities.

The views of Kuhn, Feyerabend, Lakatos, Putnam, van Fraassen, and others, are all considered. 'Intervening' presents the first sustained treatment of experimental science for many years and uses...

This engaging 2005 introduction offers a critical approach to discourse, written by an expert uniquely placed to cover the subject for a variety of disciplines. Organised along thematic lines, the book begins with an outline of the basic principles, moving on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse analysis). It covers topics such as text and context, language and inequality, choice and determination, history and process, ideology and identity.

Blommaert focuses on how la...

A problem-based introduction to phonetics, featuring over three hundred integrated exercises to help students discover and practice the subject interactively. It assumes no previous knowledge of phonetics; concepts are introduced gradually and frequent cross-referencing means that students will see how the subject fits together and how later concepts build on earlier ones.

Measures taken by states in the name of countering terrorism constantly give rise to new international legal issues. Helen Duffy brings the law to life via detailed case studies which show what the war on terror means in practice for affected individuals and for the rule of law more broadly.

Now revised and containing three new chapters, this book provides an accessible introduction to the fundamental problems in the theory of knowledge. Written primarily for students taking a first course in epistemology, it will be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about this important area of philosophy.

This richly illustrated, four-colour textbook introduces the art and archaeology of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age through to the Roman conquest. Emphasizing context and function, Barringer explores the purpose and use of buildings and objects within their particular time and place, leading students to a rich sociohistorical understanding of Greek art.

A version of Peter Laslett's acclaimed Two Treatises of Government, widely recognised as one of the classic pieces of recent scholarship in the history of ideas. This 1988 edition revises Dr Laslett's second edition (1970) and includes an updated bibliography, a guide to further reading and a fully reset and revised introduction which surveys advances in Locke scholarship.

This fully updated second edition is the ideal guide for biomedical engineering technicians looking to increase their understanding of the medical technology involved in patient care. It incorporates recent changes in healthcare, regulations, standards and technology, and includes new chapters on patient safety and the electronic medical record.