Why use books?
You can use books to find background and contextual information about your topic. Scholarly books can be hundreds of pages long, therefore can cover a large amount of information. Books generally take longer to be published and edited than journal articles, so they're able to cover a longer-term look at a topic and cover both general and deep information.
Book Chapters are also an excellent option for finding detailed information about your topic. You can use book chapters in a similar way as you might utilize an article or journal. *Hint* use the index (or ctrl + F) to identify important pages and chapters!
How to find books
- BU Libraries Search This link opens in a new window
BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of research material provided by the library. Resources covered by the search includes books and eBooks, journals, scores and sheet music, video and audio recordings, and other physical and electronic items held by the library. Coverage encompasses materials relating to the prehistoric and antique world through to the present.
To find books and eBooks in the BU Libraries collections, use BU Libraries Search. Enter some keywords describing your research topic in the search bar and select the Books option to narrow your results to only books and eBooks.
Possible Research Topics
Browse BU Libraries Search to discover potential research topics. Books are an excellent place to get inspired to start your research project! They'll provide a broad overview of a topic including useful background information for narrowing your area of interest.
Check out the links below to see some sample searches that may inspire your research:
Books About Precarity
The Precariat by Publication Date: 2011This book presents the Precariat - an emerging class, comprising the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives.Guy Standing argues that this class is producing instabilities in society.
Precarious Japan by Publication Date: 2013In an era of irregular labor, nagging recession, nuclear contamination, and a shrinking population, Japan is facing precarious times. How the Japanese experience insecurity in their daily and social lives is the subject of Precarious Japan. Tacking between the structural conditions of socioeconomic life and the ways people are making do, or not, Anne Allison chronicles the loss of home affecting many Japanese, not only in the literal sense but also in the figurative sense of not belonging.
A Precarious Game by Publication Date: 2020A Precarious Game is an ethnographic examination of video game production. The developers that Ergin Bulut researched for almost three years in a medium-sized studio in the U.S. loved making video games that millions play. Only some, however, can enjoy this dream job, which can be precarious and alienating for many others. That is, the passion of a predominantly white-male labor force relies on material inequalities involving the sacrificial labor of their families, unacknowledged work of precarious testers, and thousands of racialized and gendered workers in the Global South.
Futureproof by Publication Date: 2019A compelling and definitive account of why we need to radically rethink our approach to dealing with catastrophic events Catastrophic events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tohoku "Triple Disaster" of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that hit the eastern seaboard of Japan in 2012 are seen as surprises that have a low probability of occurring but have a debilitating impact when they do. In this eye-opening journey through modern and ancient risk management practices, Jon Coaffee explains why we need to find a new way to navigate the deeply uncertain world that we live in.
