The Social Science Encyclopedia

The Social Science Encyclopedia, first published in 1985 to acclaim from social scientists, librarians and students, was thoroughly revised in 1996, when reviewers began to describe it as a classic. This third edition has been radically recast. Over half the entries are new or have been entirely rewritten, and most of the balance have been substantially revised.

Written by an international team of contributors, the Encyclopedia offers a global perspective on the key issues within the social sciences. Some 500 entries cover a variety of enduring and newly vital areas of study and research methods. Experts review theoretical debates from neo-evolutionism and rational choice theory to poststructuralism, and address the great questions that cut across the social sciences. What is the influence of genes on behaviour? What is the nature of consciousness and cognition? What are the causes of poverty and wealth? What are the roots of conflict, wars, revolutions and genocidal violence?

This authoritative reference work is aimed at anyone with a serious interest in contemporary academic thinking about the individual in society.

Adam Kuper is Professor of Human Sciences at Brunel University. He founded the European Association of Social Anthropologists in 1989 and has authored or edited a number of other works, including Conceptualizing Society (1992), and The Chosen Primate (1994), both published by Routledge. Jessica Kuper was co-editor of A Lexicon of Economics (1988) and the first edition of The Social Science Encyclopedia (1985), both published by Routledge. She currently works as a senior editor at a major academic publishing house in the UK.