"A new generation of truly global sociology, grappling with the contemporary world through the lenses of critique, contestation, and social movements. A significant contribution."
- Goeran Therborn, University of Cambridge
"This is a truly global and politically challenging book, bringing together top level researchers and sharply tackling its themes. People from every corner of the planet and from all walks in the social sciences will surely profit from reading it."
- Carolina Mera, University of Buenos Aires
How can we link contemporary social processes - which have typically been theorized in terms of the concept of modernity - with contemporary social movements, conflicts, and mobilizations which aim at social change? This text:
- links the social theory of modernity to critical theory and to recent class and citizenship politics as well as to identity politics
- uses concrete social processes to illustrate theoretical discussion with relevant empirical studies and applies theoretical analysis to different interactions, tensions and possibilities to provide an integrated understanding of global modernity and social contestation
- includes contributions from distinguished international scholars working in sociological theory and modernity, as well as social movement studies and political contestation, with a strong emphasis on global issues
This is a key resource for research in both social theory and the sociology of modernity, as well as social movements and social contestation, and readers interested in globalization and global studies.
Industry Reviews
This is a truly global and politically challenging book, bringing together top level researchers and sharply tackling its themes. People from every corner of the planet and from all walks in the social sciences will surely profit from reading it. -- Carolina Mera A timely and central collection of essays, entangling the complexity of modernity?s eurocentrism and its unresolved ambiguity. Theoretically, this is a compelling book. Yet, it is illustrative of how the global South has become a crucial catalyst in rethinking the very premises of the paradox of modernity. Bringel and Domingues speak of a flexible alternative global modernity. Here, the Frankfurt School and critical theory are evoked as essential pillars to decipher the turning point of the planetary transformation instigated by the Arab revolutions, reflecting the "global conceptions of justice". From Tunis, to Cairo's Tahrir, from Bahrain to Libya, Syria and Yemen, from Athens to Spain, then to the Occupy movement in the US, from Kiev's Midan to Rio de Janeiro, then Hong Kong, since 2011 more than 1000 cities witnessed irreversible insurrections and protests. The chain of successive occupying specific Square movements, much inspired by the moving images of the Arab Spring, replicated similar tactics of squatting in public spaces. Who are the new social actors in specific countries of the South? How are social movements reshaped under the new bendable global age? How is contestation in specific spaces of the global South articulated? How important is the discourse of human rights for demoratisation? These themes are consistently interwoven throughout the book. -- Mona Abaza A new generation of truly global sociology, grappling with the contemporary world through the lenses of critique, contestation, and social movements. A significant contribution. -- Goeran Therborn
