The study of social and popular movements continues to attract great interest, but little is known of political activity which takes place outside of traditional political structures. Tnis volume looks at informal political action which arises when conventional frameworks, such as those provided by welfare states, are in crisis or decline. At such times the usual expectations about politcal action may not apply, so what actually goes on?
Greatly expanding the scope for research into collective action, this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of politics and...

The capacity for reasonable argument about practical and political matters is important to our daily lives. Yet what does arguing really involve? Often, our very concept of what it is to argue seems systematically distorted. Practical, political arguing is too often stylized as hyper-cognitive, ending by treating people as objects rather than other selves -- in ways that are fundamentally unreasonable. This book examines what follows from seeing people as deliberating and acting in ways that intertwine a variety of emotional and evaluative processes and effects of virtue or character. From...

Taking a novel approach to aging, this book focuses on older people as makers of meaning and insight, highlighting the evolving values, priorities, and ways of communicating that make later life fascinating and rich. Ricca Edmondson explores what creating meaning in later life really implies, for older people themselves, for how older people are conceptualized, and for relationships between generations. Offering a language for discussing types and issues of lifecourse meaning, including those concerning the ethical and temporal ways older people interpret their experiences, form part of...