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About the author; Title page; Copyright; Table of contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Problem of Energy; Energy; Oil; Summarizing the argument; The problem of oil is 42; PART I Oil Dregs; Chapter 1: Oil and the Crash of 2007-08; Oil and money; Neoliberalism; Sprawltown; Conclusion; Chapter 2: The Century of Oil; Humans and nature; The origins of oil civilization; Figure 2.1 Sources of global carbon emissions, 1800-2010; Conclusion; Chapter 3: Consuming Miles; Consuming from afar; Dubai; From neighbourhood lives; Places for consuming; More consumers; Conclusion.

The concealment of income, wealth and profits in tax havens has brought the topic of offshoring into public debate, but as John Urry shows in this important new book offshoring is a much more pervasive feature of contemporary societies. These often secretive activities offshore also involve relations of work, finance, pleasure, waste, energy and security. Powerful and pervasive offshore worlds have been generated, posing huge challenges both for governments and for citizens. This book documents the various patterns of offshoring Ð of the economy, sociability, politics and the environment. In

"The concealment of income, wealth and profits in tax havens has brought the topic of offshoring into public debate, but as John Urry shows in this important new book offshoring is a much more pervasive feature of contemporary societies. These often secretive activities offshore also involve relations of work, finance, pleasure, waste, energy and security. Powerful and pervasive offshore worlds have been generated, posing huge challenges both for governments and for citizens. This book documents the various patterns of offshoring, of the economy, sociability, politics and the environment. In each case, offshoring generates new patterns of power, reduces the responsibilities of the powerful 'offshore class', and limits the conditions for democratic governance. Offshore, out of sight, over the horizon are some of the troubling processes and metaphors by which much life has been rendered opaque and dependent upon secrets and lies. By analysing these patterns and processes, Urry sheds fresh light on the hidden worlds of offshoring and exposes the dark side of globalization. The book concludes by considering whether offshoring can be reversed, whether it is possible to bring about the systematic 'reshoring' of relations that would be good for democracy and for developing low-carbon futures. Urry portrays the coming century as being poised between even more extreme offshoring and various endeavours to bring back 'home' that which has currently escaped 'over the horizon'."--Publisher's website.

First published in 1973, this is a reissue of John Urry's important and influential study of the theory of revolution. Part 1 offers a detailed discussion of the concept of the reference group, tracing its development from the symbolic interactionist tradition and then showing how it came to be used in ways which emasculated some of the suppositions of that tradition. Part 2 sets out a theory of revolutionary dissent, in which Dr Urry emphasizes the interconnection between analyses on the level of the social structure and the social actor. The final section dem

AbstractThis paper shows how oil has been central to the mobile civilisation that developed around the world during the twentieth century. Various aspects of this oil civilisation are examined, including the development of centres of high carbon living such asDubai. This paper explores the probable peaking of oil and its problematic consequences. It is shown how this has already had major economic and social consequences. New forms of indebtedness were directed to new kinds of property purchaser and the parcelling up of these debts into new financial packages. From the 1980s onwards many newAmerican suburbs were built distant from city centres but rising oil prices led to the collapse of the mortgages of those living in oil‐dependent suburbs and finance during 2007‐8 onwards. Some writers consider whether a more generalised 'peaking' is now occurring at least in the global north, of oil, gas, food and water.

This paper is based on a talk given at the BSA Presidential Event, held on 8 February 2010 at the British Library London, on 'How to put "Society" into Climate Change', chaired by John URRY.