SOLD Asian identities in Australia

 

SOLD

PB. 323pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The presence of Asians within Australia continues to be represented in the media as a problem for social cohesion, and a source of panic. This book explores this controversial topic in contemporary Australian society and culture. For the first time in the post-Hanson era, it looks at how Australia and Asia are already intertwined.

Don Aitkin on the making of modern Australia

 

Mint condition. PB. 288pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Surveys the dramatic changes in Australian society over the last half century - from the blinkered and conservative British colony' of 1953 to the progressive, confident society we are today.

'This is a remarkable book. Don Aitkin brings fresh insight to the question What does it mean to be Australian?'' Hugh Mackay

'To understand contemporary Australia this will be a mandatory read and one to be enjoyed.' Wendy McCarthy AO Chancellor, University of Canberra

'This book touches the heart and the head. It is both a celebration of the Australian people and a warning about Australia's future.' Paul Kelly

Australia has emerged, sixty years after the end of the Second World War, as one of the world's most successful societies.

How did we go from being a blinkered and conservative former British colony, to the progressive and confident society we are today? And how can we keep it this way? These are the questions at the core of What Was It All For?

In this compelling new book, Aitkin reflects on the key factors education, immigration and wealth that have produced this change. We've seen important advances in areas as diverse as sport and music, work and leisure, and religion. We've celebrated the changing status of women and observed shifting attitudes to the importance of Sunday and of churchgoing, the houses we buy and renovate, the books we read and the food we eat. But at what cost? Strong community bonds have given way to an individualist, materialist ethic, while the very notion of community' has changed fundamentally.

Australians know who we aren't, as was the case in 1950, but are we any surer now of who we are or what we stand for?

Enlivened by the life-experiences of his own high school Class of '53, Aitkin's new book is a must for anyone who wants to know how Australia got to be the way it is and what needs to be done in the future.

Feeling optimistic about Australia

 

Mint condition. PB. 304pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

At a time when politics seems increasingly negative and our society increasingly divided, Still Lucky shows that we are more fortunate than we think, and have more in common than we know.

Rebecca Huntley, one of Australia’s most experienced and knowledgeable social researchers, wants to break through all the noise and make you feel better about this country and the people around you. Our politicians are becoming more conservative, both in their policies and their ambitions for the country, but the Australian people – almost all of us – want to see real social change. We are more generous and more progressive, and more alike, than we think we are – and we are better than our day-today political discourse would suggest.

Huntley has spent years travelling the country, getting to know what’s in our hearts and minds. Here she tackles the biggest social questions facing Australia now: Why do we fear asylum seekers? Why are women still underpaid and overworked? Why do we over-parent? Why do we worry even though we are lucky?

Still Lucky is a broad-ranging, wise and compelling look at who we are now and where we are heading in the future, from someone who knows what Australians are really thinking.

About the author

Dr Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia's foremost researchers on social trends. She holds degrees in law and film studies and a PhD in gender studies. For nearly nine years, Rebecca was at the global research firm Ipsos. From 2006 until 2015, she was the Director of the Mind & Mood Report, Australia's longest-running social trends report. She is the author of numerous books, and was a feature writer for Australian Vogue, a columnist for BRW and the presenter of Drive on a Friday on Radio National. She is on the Artistic Advisory Board of the Bell Shakespeare Company and is an adjunct senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at The University of New South Wales. Rebecca currently provides research counsel to Essential, an integrated research and communications agency in Australia and New Zealand.

SOLD Examining our lives online

 

SOLD

Very good condition. PB. 319pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A New York Times Bestseller

An audacious, irreverent investigation of human behavior—and a first look at a revolution in the making

Our personal data has been used to spy on us, hire and fire us, and sell us stuff we don’t need. In Dataclysm, Christian Rudder uses it to show us who we truly are.

For centuries, we’ve relied on polling or small-scale lab experiments to study human behavior. Today, a new approach is possible. As we live more of our lives online, researchers can finally observe us directly, in vast numbers, and without filters. Data scientists have become the new demographers.

In this daring and original book, Rudder explains how Facebook “likes” can predict, with surprising accuracy, a person’s sexual orientation and even intelligence; how attractive women receive exponentially more interview requests; and why you must have haters to be hot.

He charts the rise and fall of America’s most reviled word through Google Search and examines the new dynamics of collaborative rage on Twitter.

He shows how people express themselves, both privately and publicly. What is the least Asian thing you can say? Do people bathe more in Vermont or New Jersey? What do black women think about Simon & Garfunkel? (Hint: they don’t think about Simon & Garfunkel.)

Rudder also traces human migration over time, showing how groups of people move from certain small towns to the same big cities across the globe. And he grapples with the challenge of maintaining privacy in a world where these explorations are possible.

Visually arresting and full of wit and insight, Dataclysm is a new way of seeing ourselves—a brilliant alchemy, in which math is made human and numbers become the narrative of our time.

Why Australia is all class ...

 

Excellent condition. PB. 339pp. New & Revised Edition. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

AUSTRALIA IS A CLASSLESS SOCIETY . . . OR IS IT?

In this timely revision of an important and groundbreaking book Class in Australia well known writer and social commentator Craig McGregor re-examines contemporary Australian society and discovers that an upper, middle and working class, and a growing underclass, are still firmly in place.

Class in Australia considers the history and membership of each class, and the determinants of class, including occupation, wealth and family background.

Politics is bound up with class in Australia. Craig McGregor puts under the microscope the increasing defection of the working class from its traditional ally the ALP, and the growing dissatisfaction of the middle classes with both major parties.

Classic studies of class are reinforced with profiles of individuals in this thought-provoking and provocative text.

Class in Australia is a must have for all those with an interest in Australian society and where it is heading. It is a book that should be read by every Australian.