Faculty Bookshelf

Please enjoy this list of some of the latest publications from our prolific faculty.

Vital topics include the uprisings following the death of George Floyd, the real-world impact of social science research, the future of digital media and the political economy, and more. 

New in 2024

Title & AuthorsDescription

Good Company: Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy

Lenore Palladino

(The University of Chicago Press, 2024)

Lenore Palladino shows that corporations draw power from public charters—agreements that allow corporations to enjoy all manner of operational benefits. In return, companies are meant to innovate for the betterment of the societies that support them. However, that debt—increasingly wielded for stock buybacks and shareholder bonuses—is not being repaid. Palladino theorizes a modern corporation that plays its intended role while delivering social and economic good in the process and offers tangible policy solutions to make this a reality. Good Company is both an expert introduction to the political economy of the firm—as it was, as it is, as it can be—and a calibrating examination of how public policy can shape companies, and societies, for the better.

Surveillance Education: Navigating the Conspicuous Absence of Privacy in Schools

Allison Butler,  Nolan Higdon

(Routledge, 2024)

In our era of surveillance capitalism, digital media technologies are ever more intertwined into the educational process. Schools are presented with digital technologies as tools of convenience for gathering and grading student work, as tools of support to foster a more equitable learning environment, and as tools of safety for predicting or preventing violence or monitoring mental, emotional, and physical health. Despite a dearth of evidence to confirm their effectiveness, digital data collection and tracking is often presented as a way to improve educational outcomes and safety. This book challenges these fallacious assumptions and argues that the use of digital media technologies has caused great harm to students by subjecting them to oppressive levels of surveillance, impinging upon their right to privacy, and harvesting their personal data on behalf of Big-Tech. In doing so, the authors draw upon interviews from K–12 and higher education students, teachers, and staff, civil rights and technology lawyers, and educational technological programmers. The authors also provide practical guidance for teachers, administrators, students, and their families seeking to identify and combat surveillance in education.

A Pluralistic Introduction to Macroeconomics: Methodology, Theory, and Policy

Hendrik Van den Berg

(Edward Elgar, 2024)

This textbook provides a broad introduction to the field of macroeconomics and the alternative approaches to modeling an economic system. It ultimately demonstrates that economic modeling is always a matter of choice and compromise, and no one school of thought can accurately capture the full essence of a real evolving economic system under all circumstances, in all places, and at all times in history.

Politicians at Night: Interaction and Discourse on the Entertainment-Political Interview

Gonen Dori-Hacohen, Eean Grimshaw, and Menno H. Reijven

(Rowman & Littlefield, 2024)

The book studies the exchanges between presidential candidates and talk show hosts on broadcast late-night shows in the United States. The authors use various language and social interaction frameworks, including membership categorization analysis, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, and semiotics. They develop a broad understanding of the Entertainment-Political Interview (EPI) and cultural role. They discuss how politicians use pronouns to achieve inclusion and exclusion. Similarly, the authors demonstrate how and why the hosts ask softball questions. Unlike these two elements that create politics, the authors demonstrate how politicians use stories to present themselves like celebrities. The linking of the politician to entertainment is part of the final argument of the book, where the authors critically examine the EPI as part of a myth since it vacates the politics of its original form while maintaining a façade of politics.

The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century

Alasdair Roberts

(McGill-Queen's University Press, 2024)

Shifting geopolitics, regional conflicts, climate change, and technology shocks: these are just some of the factors that will make the twenty-first century dangerous for Canada. Adaptability, the capacity to anticipate and manage dangers, is essential for the country to survive and thrive. But Canada is not as adaptable as it once was. In The Adaptable Country Alasdair Roberts explains what this vital ability means and why we are currently falling short. The Adaptable Country outlines straightforward reforms to improve adaptability and reminds us about the bigger picture: in a turbulent world, authoritarian rule is a tempting path to security. Canada’s challenge is to show how political systems built to respect diversity and human rights can also respond nimbly to existential threats.

The Stigma Trap: College-educated, Experienced, and Long-term Unemployment

Ofer Sharone

(Oxford University Press, 2024)

In The Stigma Trap, Ofer Sharone explains how the stigma of unemployment can render past educational and professional achievements irrelevant and how it leaves all American workers vulnerable to becoming trapped in unemployment. Drawing on interviews with unemployed workers, job recruiters, and career coaches, Sharone brings to light the subtle ways that stigmatization prevents even the most educated and experienced workers from gaining middle-class jobs. Stigma also means that an American worker risks more than financial calamity from a protracted period of unemployment. One's closest relationships and sense of self are also on the line.

Busting the Bankers' Club: Finance for the Rest of Us

Gerald Epstein

(University of California Press, 2024)

Drawing from decades of research on the history, economics, and politics of banking, economist Gerald Epstein shows that any meaningful reform will require breaking up this club of politicians, economists, lawyers, and CEOs who sustain the status quo. Thankfully, there are thousands of activists, experts, and public officials who are working to do just that. Clear-eyed and hopeful, Busting the Bankers' Club centers the individuals and groups fighting for a financial system that will better serve the needs of the marginalized and support important transitions to a greener, fairer economy.

Have a new addition to this list? Email mworoner [at] umass [dot] edu (Morgan Woroner) with the details!