Polity Press Company Profile

Polity is a leading international publisher in the social sciences and humanities and we publish some of the world’s best authors in these fields. Our aim is to combine the publication of original, cutting-edge work of the highest quality with a systematic programme of textbooks and coursebooks for students and scholars in further and higher education.

The Polity list is particularly strong in the areas of sociology, politics and social and political theory. We also have strong lists in a range of other subjects including philosophy, history,literary studies, media and cultural studies, gender studies, and anthropology.

We are committed to the diffusion of ideas across language barriers and we have a major translation programme. Among the many authors we translate are Pierre Bourdieu, Jürgen Habermas, T.W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Norbert Elias, Ulrich Beck, Niklas Luhmann, Norberto Bobbio, Gianni Vattimo, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricoeur, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Georges Duby and Roger Chartier.

While primarily an academic publisher, many of our books are also of interest to a general readership and we are committed to publishing outstanding books which stimulate public debate about key issues in social, political and cultural life.

Established in 1984, Polity has grown rapidly into one of the world’s most prestigious lists. We are an independent company with offices in Cambridge and Oxford in the UK and Boston in the US and our books are available throughout the world. Sales representation and the distribution of polity books is provided by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.