Publications

Discover the breadth of the Zed Books list and browse our award-winning social science books and series.

Zed Books is an academic press publishing critical social science books with an international and interdisciplinary focus, for a global audience of students, academics and practitioners.

Our current catalogue features almost 2000 works across the humanities and social sciences. While we’re known for publishing different kinds of books for a variety of audiences, including books for general readers, the vast majority of our books and 100% of the works featured here on Zed Scholar undergo an academic editorial workflow, including in-depth peer review. Academic peer review is a cornerstone of our editorial policy and the foundation of our academic output, you can find out more about why it’s important and how we use it here.

Combining exceptional research and publishing standards with an explicit commitment to increasing diversity in the academy, many of our subject lists have become globally renowned. This is especially the case within the fields of Development Studies, Area Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, International Politics, Decolonisation and Postcolonial Studies, Human Rights, Migration and Labour, as well as Heterodox and Development Economics.

Our series

Africa Now
Africa Now, published in association with the internationally respected Nordic Africa Institute, examines the big issues confronting Africa today.
African Arguments
African Arguments is published in association with the International Africa Institute, the Royal African Society and the World Peace Foundation.
African Popular Culture
A new series of books that seeks to provide accessible but in-depth analysis of key contemporary issues on topics related to African popular culture.
Blackness in Britain
From the creators of Britain's first Black Studies degree, Blackness in Britain is the first series of cutting edge academic research on Black experiences in Britain.
Critique Influence Change
Carefully curated series of landmark Zed Books titles from our forty-year history.
Development Essentials
The foundational titles in the field of critical development studies.
Development Matters
Thematic examinations challenging traditional disciplinary, ideological and theory–practice boundaries within the field of Development Studies.
Economic Controversies
Concise and accessible, Economic Controversies brings a fresh, unorthodox approach to a variety of controversial subjects.
Exquisite Corpse
Considers all aspects of the human body from a variety of perspectives and disciplines.
Feminisms and Development
Repositions feminism within development studies, bringing into view commonalities across the countries of the global south.
In Common
The only academic series explicitly focussed on Commons theory.
International Studies in Poverty Research
Promotes a fuller understanding of the nature, extent, depth, distribution, trends, causes and effects of global poverty.
Just Sustainabilities
Contributes to understanding, theorising and ultimately developing strategies toward the development of more just and sustainable communities in both the global North and South.
Politics and Development in Contemporary Africa
In-depth analysis of key contemporary issues affecting countries across the continent.
Politics and Society in Urban Africa
In-depth analysis of key contemporary issues affecting urban environments across the African continent.
World Political Theories
This series asks how universal political theory actually is, and to what extent place makes a difference.

All subjects

Africa
Zed Books is home to one of the most prestigious, identifiable and well-respected Africa Studies lists within scholarly publishing.
Americas
The Americas list interweaves themes of decoloniality, post-colonialism, the relationships between grassroots activism and national politics, the roles of key political leaders as well as economic development.
Asia
The Asia list at Zed Books spans the entire continent as well as providing focus on regional, country specific and international politics.
Europe
The Europe list here at Zed Books is a politics and cultural studies list focussing on Europe's political, economic and cultural relationship with the rest of the world.
Middle East
The Middle East list at Zed Books is a highly reputable list specialising in Postcolonial and Palestine Studies.
Cities and Architecture
The Cities and Architecture list provides alternative interpretations of urban space and in-depth analysis of the politics of urban planning in the global South.
Development Studies
Zed Books is home to arguably the world's most reputable critical Development Studies list.
Economics
The Zed Books Economics list balances international thinking, with radical critique and is home to some of the world's most influential heterodox economists.
Education
The Education list is a trailblazing, world-leading list that challenges global education systems embedded in imperialist regimes of knowledge production.
Environment
The Zed Books Environment list focuses on the links between global development, capitalism and the changing climate.
Gender and Sexualities
Zed Books is home to one of the first and most internationally focussed academic Gender Studies lists in the UK.
History
The Zed Books History list offers much needed feminist, queer and postcolonial lenses to international histories.
Health and Medicine
The Zed Books Health and Medicine list focuses on the links between global development, capitalism and the health of populations across the globe.
Human Rights
The Human Rights list spans many subject areas and addresses the construction, function and critique of human rights as well as examining their violation.
Philosophy and Cultural Studies
Politics and International Relations
The Zed Books Politics list covers international politics as well as political theory with an international rather than a Western focus.
Postcolonial Studies
The Zed Books Postcolonial Studies list spans international politics, society and culture.
Race and Indigeneity
Zed Books is the go-to academic publisher for marginalised and indigenous voices, our Race and Indigeneity list is home to many of them.
Sociology
The Sociology list at Zed Books focusses on the socio-political and socio-economic aspects of inequality.
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Why is peer review so important?

Learn more about the various types of peer review, why it’s so important, what the social and political considerations of peer review are and how we use it at Zed Books.