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Books

Understanding Social Structures: Relationships, Representations, and Rules

About the book Social Structure: Relationships, Representations, and Rules, by Jonathan Eastwood (Polity, 2025).

By
Jonathan Eastwood
16 Min Read
Hope in Hate Crime Laws? Lessons from India
Hate crime: Dalit students and activists gather under the statue of B. R. Ambedkar during a protest demanding justice for Rohith Vemula and caste-based violence victims. Their banners call for the enactment of a “Rohith Act” to address systemic discrimination. Photo by Joe Athialy (CC BY-NC-SA).
BooksHuman Rights
17 Min Read
What are conditions of violence ?
Children waiting behind barbed wire — an image of vulnerability shaped by broader social and political conditions of violence.
BooksPolitical History
15 Min Read
Understanding the Causes of War: Human Nature and History
A stark glimpse into the trenches of World War I, epitomizing the brutal realities of conflict. This image underscores the enduring 'causes of war'—territorial disputes, political rivalries, and the human propensity for domination.
BooksPolitical History
14 Min Read
Can Robots Love? Ethics at the Boundaries of the Human
An intimate moment between human and machine, questioning the boundaries of love and morality in a world increasingly defined by technology and artificial intelligence.
BooksTechnology
13 Min Read
The Religious Turn in Great Power Politics
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stand side by side during a public ceremony, exemplifying the strategic use of religious authority to reinforce national identity and geopolitical legitimacy.
BooksPolitics & Religion
10 Min Read
How Democracy, Media and Gender Equality Shape Abortion Views
A coat hanger, symbol of unsafe abortion, held during a reproductive rights protest in Washington, D.C.
Books
16 Min Read
Black Women and the Making of Human Rights
A Black woman holds a banner listing victims of police violence during a protest in the United States. Her mask features the faces of Black individuals killed by police, including George Floyd.
BooksHuman Rights
17 Min Read
Why Illiberalism Explains Changes in Today’s Social Order
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a leading figure of the “illiberal democracy” model, shakes hands with Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s Vox party, known for its nationalist, anti-immigration, and illiberalism (CC0).
Books
14 Min Read
Human Rights Discourse: Language, Translation and Genre
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Books
14 Min Read
Making Americans Bankrupt Again?
The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, home to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York—where some of the nation’s most consequential decisions on who gets to go bankrupt are made.
Books
14 Min Read
A Comprehensive Search for a Fair Immigration Policy
A solitary figure faces the border fence at the U.S.–Mexico divide. The image evokes questions of exclusion, visibility, and the human cost of national boundaries — all central themes in contemporary immigration policy debates.
Books
15 Min Read
Dual Justice: Crime, Class, and Corporate Accountability
Facade of the New York Stock Exchange—an enduring symbol of corporate power and economic influence, central to the legal double standards explored in Dual Justice.
Books
18 Min Read
Land Remains the World’s Engine of Social Change
Aerial view of a village and its surrounding fields land organization continues to shape power and inequality in modern societies.
Books
13 Min Read
The Multiple Political Orders in New York City
Political order: Skyscrapers converge against a stark black sky in Manhattan, capturing the scale and symmetry of New York City’s urban order.
Books
11 Min Read
Politics of Love
Love: Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan wave from behind a long wooden table at an official event, standing against a plain blue background.
Books
97 Min Read
We Were Never Meant to Obey: Weaving Abolitionist Constellations
Abolition : Artwork by Shepard Fairey. A powerful visual of Black resistance and radical truth-telling, challenging the structures of obedience through unapologetic presence and voice.
Books
14 Min Read
Suicide by False Belief
Books
15 Min Read
Voice and Protest in Times of Democratic Decline
Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with Gaza, using visual and performative acts to claim political visibility and challenge dominant narratives. Such collective action exemplifies the use of voice beyond formal democratic institutions. Photo by Alisdare Hickson (CC BY-SA).
Books
15 Min Read
Why Are Governments Short-Sighted?
Franklin D. Roosevelt giving a Fireside Chat, illustrating the contrast between long-form political communication and today’s short attention span politics.
Books
16 Min Read
How State Sovereignty Fuels Language Loss: Lessons from Tibet
The Potala Palace served as the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, following the 1959 uprising in defense of Tibetan sovereignty.
Books
15 Min Read
Persecution and Genocide: A Long History
Illustration of the persecution and murder of Hypatia of Alexandria by Lee Woodward Zeigler, from Charles Kingsley’s Hypatia (early 20th-century edition). The image dramatizes the philosopher's brutal death in 415 CE at the hands of a Christian mob, amidst religious and political upheaval in late antique Alexandria.
Books
17 Min Read
What Gets Absorbed? Jews, Race, and Identity Across the Americas
A street view of Harlem, New York—an urban space that, like many across the Americas, has borne witness to shifting racial and communal boundaries shaped by patterns of absorption, mobility, and exclusion.
Books
13 Min Read
Commercial Art and the Urban Spectacle of Modern Japan
Contemporary view of Ginza, Tokyo. The illuminated spectacle of branded signage reflects the long-term influence of Commercial Art on Japan’s urban consumer spaces.
Books
7 Min Read
When Too Much Freedom Leads to Tyranny
Freedom_statue-of-liberty-storm-clouds-new-york
Books
15 Min Read
Who Are the War Criminals, Genocidaires, and Terrorists?
Criminal Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust, stands trial in Jerusalem in 1961. Seated in a bulletproof glass booth, he became the embodiment of Hannah Arendt’s controversial concept of the “banality of evil.”
Books
17 Min Read
Truth and Authoritarianism in America
The erosion of truth as a democratic norm is starkly illustrated by the political strategies of President Donald Trump, in which factual accuracy is systematically subordinated to ideological loyalty.
BooksAnalysis & Theories
17 Min Read
The History of Tech-As-Religion
Holding faith and code: a visual metaphor of technology's rise as a modern belief system.
Books
12 Min Read
Moral Judgement and the Normativity of Practical Identities
This marble sculpture depicts a young Aristotle in deep contemplation, symbolizing the early development of moral judgment and philosophical inquiry.
Books
22 Min Read
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