Key underlying themes include:

- the differences between traditional and alternative `sites of power' and what we mean by `political'

- the relationships between politics, society and how individuals become and remain engaged with politics

- the rapid transformations in contemporary social structures and their impact on social and political life

- the role of human agency and its significance to social and political action and movements

- contemporary cultural and social dislocations and their impact on some of the major contested areas of political life today.

Key features include:

- key concepts and issues

- key theorists and writers

- discussion questions

Comprehensive and accessible, An Introduction to Politics, State & Society is an essential text for all undergraduate students of politics, the contemporary state, power and political sociology.

James W McAuley is Professor of Political Sociology and Irish Studies in the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield