Books published by Pluto Press

Western society is individualised; we feel at ease talking about individuals and we study individual behaviour through psychology and psychoanalysis. Yet anthropology teaches us that an individual approach is only one of many ways of looking at ourselves. *BR**BR*In this wide-ranging text Morris explores the origins, doctrines and conceptions of the self in Western, Asian and African societies passing though Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confuscism, Tao and African philosophy and ending with contemporary feminism. *BR**BR*Scholarly and written in a lucid style, free of jargon, this work is written from an anthropological perspective with an interdisciplinary approach. Morris emphasises the varying conceptions of the self found cross-culturally and contrasts these with the conceptions found in the Western intellectual traditions.

Growing up in a Northern Irish ghetto

Corporate power has a huge impact on the rights and privileges of individuals -- as workers, consumers, and citizens. This book explores how the myth of individualism reinforces corporate power by making people perceive themselves as having choices, when in fact most peoples' options are very limited.*BR**BR*Perelman describes the manufacture of unhappiness - the continual generation of dissatisfaction with products people are encouraged to purchase and quickly discard - and the complex techniques corporations employ to avoid responsibility and accountability to their workers, consumers and the environment. He outlines ways in which individuals can surpass individualism and instead work together to check the growing power of corporations. *BR**BR*While other books have surveyed the corporate landscape, or decried modern consumerism, Perelman, a professor of economics, places these ideas within a proper economic and historical context. He explores the limits of corporate accountability and responsibility, and investigates the relation between a wide range of phenomena such as food, fear and terrorism.*BR**BR*Highly readable, Manufacturing Discontent will appeal to anyone with an interest in the way society works - and what really determines the rights of individuals in a corporate society.

'I know of no book in English dedicated with such focus and depth on Berlusconi's politics. ... Geoff Andrew's grasp of political culture is profound and reflective.' Gino Bedani, Research Professor in Italian, University of Swansea*BR**BR*'[Andrews provides] unusually penetrating insights ... Beautifully written.' Jim Newell, Reader in Politics, University of Salford*BR**BR*Not a Normal Country explores Italian politics and culture in the era of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and one of its longest serving prime ministers. Geoff Andrews argues that the 'Berlusconi phenomenon' was a populist response to widespread cynicism towards politics. Berlusconi posed as an 'anti-politician', and based his appeal on his virtues as a salesman rather than a statesman.*BR**BR*The second part of the book discusses the varied opposition to Berlusconi. This ranges from the anti-global demonstrations in Genoa in 2001 to unconventional protests such as the Girotondo movement led by the film director Nanni Moretti. According to Andrews, this new associationism has helped rebuild Italian politics.*BR**BR*Finally, Andrews looks to the future and, through the examples of anti-mafia protests in Sicily as well as opposition to the Americanisation of Italian culture, considers the prospects for the new post-Berlusconi Italy.

A classic book on cultural identity by a major Caribbean writer.

Cuts through the propaganda of the media's coverage of Iraq

This book is a unique insight into the beliefs and political ideology of the Ulster Defence Assocation (UDA) and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF). Featuring interviews with key members of these paramilitary groups, many conducted inside the Maze prison, Colin Crawford presents a thorough analysis of Loyalism and the role that Loyalist paramilitary groups continue to play in Northern Ireland's troubles. He also provides an insider's account of the workings of state-sponsored terrorism.*BR**BR*Crawford explores these tensions and assesses the difficulties that the UDA faces in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. He analyses the Ulster Democratic Party's failure to win seats in the 1998 elections, and he examines the conflict between those who are motivated by the profits of crime and drug trafficking, and those motivated by political ideals.*BR**BR*The book makes disturbing and often heartbreaking reading, and it marks an important step forward in understanding the Loyalist position - for it is only through improving our understanding of the experience of all citizens in Northern Ireland that lasting peace can be achieved.

Sylvia Pankhurst was a tireless activist for a variety of radical causes, including women's suffrage, labour movements and international solidarity campaigns. She made pioneering contributions to gender and class politics, revolutionary communist politics and the struggles against imperialism, racism and fascism. In addition, Pankhurst founded and edited four newspapers, and wrote and published twenty-two books, and numerous pamphlets and articles.*BR**BR*In this biography, Mary Davis provides a much-needed reappraisal of a woman whose contribution to a wide variety of causes is too often marginalised or overlooked, whether as the employer of the first black journalist in Britain - the activist and writer Claude McKay - or as an early campaigner for pan-Africanism. Pankhurst's changing affiliations and commitments - from her early suffragette activities, though her involvement with disenfranchised and impoverished women in London's East End, to her passionate embrace of the Soviet revolution, the cause of communism worldwide and the fight against imperialism and fascism - mirror the history of radical politics in the twentieth century. *BR**BR*Mary Davis's lucid and accessible account of Pankhurst's political life restores a remarkable woman to her rightful place in twentieth-century history.

Essays in which the ethnic literatures of North America are added to the developing postcolonial canon

This book explores the practice of organisation development and group change in a way that will appeal to anyone involved in working towards social transformation. Drawing on extensive experience gained through many years of process consultancy within the development sector - mainly in Africa and Europe - as well as on the work of Goethe and Jung, Allan Kaplan presents a radically new approach to the understanding of organisations and communities and to the practice of social development.*BR**BR*Challenging the tendency to reduce development to a technical operation that attempts to control, Kaplan's approach embraces the full complexity of the process of social transformation. He describes the terrain of social change whilst simultaneously providing exercises through which practitioners can enrich their abilities to respond to the mix of chaos and order which characterise social development. Exploring this delicate balance, Kaplan inspires a sense of responsibility and possibility for the discipline, and reveals how development groups can intervene in social situations in a manner that is both humane and effective.

How and why are European welfare systems and the labour market changing? How do they affect the daily lives of those facing unemployment or precarious work? *BR**BR*Anne Gray shows how the idea of unemployment benefits as a right is evolving into a regime closer to American 'workfare'. She explains how this policy forces the unemployed into low paid, temporary or part-time jobs associated with the new 'flexible' labour market. Drawing on unemployed people's own accounts of their experiences - in the UK, Germany, France and Belgium - Gray illustrates the job market as seen from the dole queue. Exploring the changing nature of work in Europe, Gray reveals why is there a shortage of full-time permanent jobs, what is to be done, and what the future holds for labour market regulation in Europe.*BR**BR*Providing clear explanations about shifts in welfare policy, this book is ideal for trade unionists, activists and students, and makes an important contribution to wider debates on globalisation and the future of work.

Explores new developments in kinship studies in anthropology -- including the impact of new reproductive technologies and changing conceptualisations of personhood and gender.

This book argues that the global development and security agendas are merging. No longer is the language of security confined within the straitjacket of the state and associated national security concerns. The spotlight is shifting to the legitimate security concerns of human beings. The book examines how development is promoted by global governance institutions and how this has impacted on human security in the 1990s. *BR**BR*Caroline Thomas focuses on the effects of trade, finance, and investment liberalisation on deepening inequality. She explores different approaches for addressing the deepening inequality which threatens the economy at all levels, from the household, to the community, to the global. The book investigates reformist and transformist visions of the future and the contrasting policies tabled for their achievements. Thomas argues that ultimately human security requires a different developmental strategy.

We live in an age of ecocide. Changes of enormous ecological significance are occurring on our planet - the ozone layer is beginning to disintegrate. Since 1970 the world's forests have almost halved. A quarter of the world's fish have been depleted.*BR**BR*70% of biologists believe the world is now in the midst of the fastest mass extinction of species in the planet's 4.5 billion-year history. Biodiversity loss is rated as a more serious environmental problem than the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, or pollution and contamination. How have we come to this, and what can be done to conserve our environment for the future? *BR**BR*Ecocide examines the facts behind the figures to offer a disturbing account of the ecological impact that the human species has on the planet. It shows how we are wilfully destroying our world. Highlighting important countermovements who are working for ecological democracy, this unique book is essential for anyone who cares about conserving our environment for the future.

A collection of Marxist writings that covers political economy, historical materialism, dialectics, state theory, class, and fetishism

How theories of human nature must be related to their intellectual, historical and social roots

A collection of Marxist writings covering political economy, historical materialism, dialectics, state theory, class, and fetishism

A collection of Marxist writings covering political economy, historical materialism, dialectics, state theory, class, and fetishism

A reader that gathers a diverse range of writers like Aristotle, Rousseau, Kant, Marx and Jefferson to examine the nature of 'citizenship'

Cynthia's classic study of the remaking of man through the impact of technological change.

Henryk Grossmann's influential work provides the key to a fuller understanding of Marx's theory of crisis.

A shocking expose of surveillance methods

Esther Leslie's path-breaking study of Walter Benjamin is unlike any other book presently available in English on Benjamin, in seeking to make a case for a more politicised reading of Benjamin's oeuvre. In looking at the entirety of Benjamin's work - rather than the four or five essays available in English which tend to form the Benjamin 'canon' - Leslie offers powerful new insights into a key twentieth-century political thinker, correcting the post-structuralist bias that has characterised so much Benjamin scholarship, and repositioning Benjamin's work in its historical and political context. *BR**BR*In her examination of Benjamin's commentary on the politics and aesthetics of technology - from Benjamin's work on nineteenth-century industrial culture to his analyses of the Nazi deployment of the bomber - Esther Leslie re-contextualises Benjamin's writings in a lucid and cogently argued new study.

In this radical and controversial overview of the post-communist world, Boris Kagarlitsky argues that the very success of neoliberal capitalism has made traditional socialism all the more necessary and feasible. *BR**BR*Kagarlitsky argues that leftists exaggerate the importance of the 'objective' aspects of the 'new reality' - globalisation - and the weakening of the state, while underestimating the importance of the hegemony of neoliberalism. As long as neoliberalism retains its ideological hegemony, despite its economic failure, the consequence is a 'new barbarism' - already a reality in Eastern Europe, and now also emerging in the West.*BR**BR*Kagarlitsky challenges the political neurosis of the left and prevailing assumptions of Marxism to argue that Marx's theories are now more timely than they were in the mid-twentieth century. He analyses theories of the 'end of the proletariat' and the 'end of work', and assesses the potential of the new technologies - such as the Internet - which create fresh challenges for capitalism and new arenas for struggle.