Understanding Political Sociology, a major new textbook introduces the central theories and issues in contemporary political sociology and will equip students with a complete understanding of politics, state and society in the United Kingdom today. A number of key underlying themes include: - the relationships between politics, the social structure 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. Understanding Political Sociology demonstrates that politics cannot be properly understood in terms of institutions alone and that issues are never simply derived from those setting the political agenda. Students will instead learn the importance of broader social relationships, and see the essential links between society, social structure and power to defining and understanding contemporary politics.