“If we come to understand the human value and dignity of people from different backgrounds, we can do a bit to deflect inequality in our everyday interactions,” says Harvard Professor and winner of the 2017 Erasmus Prize Michèle Lamont. Here, she recommends five books that illuminate the sociology of inequality.

It’s important to understand social aspects of economic behaviour, particularly when times of crisis reveal the shortcomings of traditional economic theory, says sociologist Neil Fligstein.

Popular culture shapes our fantasies, our expectations and our beliefs about what is real, argues Susan Bordo. She picks five books that shed light on popular culture.

Current UK higher education policies, which treat students as consumers, are not only killing thinking but also likely to lead to a financial crisis. And yet, academia is a beautiful vocation, with the power to transform lives year in, year out. University of London professor, Les Back, picks the best books on academia.

Religion has an ability to create groups and communities that has yet to be surpassed, argues Selina O’Grady, author of And Man Created God: A History of the World at the Time of Jesus.

The feminist author chooses liberating literature for women, from Virginia Woolf to Erica Jong. She says that men still don’t share equal responsibility in the home, and that life after divorce can be easier.

American statistician Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University and author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State explains the (often surprising) realities of how Americans vote.

Rather than an exciting concept that opens up societies to new ideas and cultures, the idea of ‘multiculturalism’ is currently out of favour, at least in popular political discourse. Yet, according to sociologist Tariq Modood, founding Director of the Bristol University Research Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, many of the problems we face today are crying out for multicultural solutions. He recommends the best books on multiculturalism, beginning with its development as a political theory in 1980s Canada.

The Professor of Communication and Culture enlightens us about musical enthnography — what people do with music, and how they interact with music (and with one another)

The sociology professor and blogger at spiked-online.com says when society is faced with problems like homophobia, healthy eating or integration, for example, then we try to

Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review from 2004 to 2013, explains how the American right reinvented itself as a cultural counter-revolution and selects five books as backgrounders to conservatism.

Metal music, developed in the sixties and seventies, is notorious for its dark and disturbing imagery and its aggressive sound. But there’s nothing to be afraid of, says sociologist and fan Keith Kahn-Harris: it’s all part of the mythmaking of metal.

KCL Professor Alison Wolf is an authority on education and the labour market. She recommends books on education and society, highlighting Icelandic pastoral neo-myth Independent People