Collective Action and Political Transformations

'What is the future of collective political action when democracies have been reduced to systems for aggregating individual opinions? Mota and Wagner answer this critical question of our age with a rich comparative analytics of globalisation. This is a timely and important book which makes a compelling argument for the retrieval of consent grounded in institutions which are sensitive to the specificity of conflict.' Michael Power, London School of Economics and Political Science
Taking lessons from the Global South to explore the possibilities for positive political action worldwide
Common perception of the current global situation is of a world shaped by dynamics of increasing economic and political interdependence, the diffusion of free-market capitalism and a merely procedural democracy. Collective action in this climate is often associated with growing intolerance, xenophobia and exclusion, or it is regarded as incapable of making a real and positive difference in the lives of individuals. This book acknowledges the severe problem with effective and significant collective action, but it arrives at a less gloomy diagnosis of our time by rethinking the political from the angle of the experiences with progressive and conservative collective action in different parts of the globe: Brazil, South Africa and Europe. By doing so, it contributes a critical perspective to the debate about the possible impact of parts of the Global South for positive social and political developments worldwide.
Aurea Mota is Associate Researcher at the University of Barcelona. Peter Wagner is Research Professor of Social Sciences at the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and at the University of Barcelona as well as currently Project Director at Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg.

Aurea Mota is Associate Researcher at the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics, and Society (CECUPS) at the University of Barcelona. Her first book was published by the Latin Americana Research Council of Social Science (CLACSO). Peter Wagner is Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies Research Professor at the University of Barcelona. His publications include The Trouble with Democracy (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), African, American and European Trajectories of Modernity (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), Modernity as Experience and Interpretation (Polity Press, 2008), A History and Theory of the Social Sciences (Sage, 2001), Theorising Modernity (Sage, 2001) and A Sociology of Modernity (Routledge, 1994).

Foreword Collective Action and Political Transformation: An Introduction 1. Politics and Modernity under Contemporary Conditions Part I: Trajectories of Modernity: How We Arrived At Where We Are 2. Historical Interpretations of Modernity and Their Trajectories 3. An Asymmetrically Consolidated Modernity 4. Transformations of Modernity through Critique and Contestation Part II: Freedom, Equality, Solidarity 5. Democracy and Capitalism 6. Inclusion and Exclusion 7. Political Equality and Social Inequality Part III: Enlarging the Scope of Political Action 8. The Amazon, the Rhino and the Blue Sky over the Ruhr 9. Violence, Autonomy and Everyday Life in Democracies Part IV: Rethinking the Possibilities of Political Agency 10. Democracy in Transformation 11. Entangled Histories, Possible Futures - South and North Notes References