"Culture and Politics" provides a comprehensive introduction to the enduring phenomenon of culture and its impact on contemporary society and politics. Combining a substantial theoretical overview with intricate comparative empirical research, it assesses the complex interplay of ethnicity, religion, history and values on macro- and micro-level outcomes. Striking a judicious balance between the use of global data on the topic and their selection of six key in-depth country studies, the book draws extensively on statistical material and 'hard data' rather than the literary evidence usual in studies of this kind.

The theme of this book is how ethnomethodology provides for an 'alternate' sociology by respecifying sociological phenomena as locally accomplished members' activities. This theme is explained in the first two chapters, which comprise an introduction by the editors and a seminal statement of ethnomethodology's analytic stance by its founder, Harold Garfinkel. In his chapter, Garfinkel sets out his conception of the 'corpus status' of ethnomethodological studies as an alternative mode of inquiry into the organization of social life. The remainder of the book comprises original research studies by leading scholars in the field.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “keyword” is “a word that is of great importance or significance.” On the web, "keywords" organize vast quantities of complex information. Keywords for American Cultural Studies offers these features and more to its readers, providing indispensable meditations on terms and concepts used in cultural studies, American studies, and beyond.

The tween is the "new girl on the block" in girlhood studies. Although the study of tween life may have derived from a particular marketing orientation at the end of the twentieth century, it is not limited by it. On the contrary, this collection of essays shows that "tween" is not a simple or unified concept, nor is it limited to a certain class of girls in a few countries. This collection by an international group of authors highlights specific methodologies for working with (and studying) tween-age girls, provides challenges to the presumed innocence of girlhood, and engages in an analysis of marketing in relation to girlhood. In so doing, this book offers a reading on these three or four years in a girl's life that suggests that this period is as fascinating as the teen years, and as generative in its implications for girlhood studies as studies of both younger and adolescent girls.