Introduction - Breno Bringel & José Mauricio Domingues
PART I: RETHINKING MODERNITY THROUGH SOCIAL CONTESTATION
Chapter 1: Modernity and Critique - Elements of a World-Sociology - Peter Wagner
Chapter 2: The Global Transition and the Challenge to Social Sciences - Sujata Patel
Chapter 3: Modernity and the Violence of Global Accumulation - The Ethnic Question in China - Chun Lin
Chapter 4: Demystifying Modernity - In Defence of a Singular and Normative Ideal - G. Aloysius
Chapter 5: Vicissitudes and Potentialities of Critical Theory - José Mauricio Domingues
PART II: RETHINKING SOCIAL CONTESTATION THROUGH MODERNITY
Chapter 6: The Global Age - A Social Movement Perspective - Geoffrey Pleyers
Chapter 7: Social Movements and Contemporary Modernity - Internationalism and Patterns of Global Contestation - Breno Bringel
Chapter 8: Global Modernity, Social Criticism and the Local Intelligibility of Contestation in Mozambique - Elisio Macamo
Chapter 9: Globalised Modernity, Contestations and Revolutions - The Cases of Egypt and Tunisia - Sarah ben Néfissa
Chapter 10: Modernity, Cultural Diversity and Social Contestation - Luis Tapia
PART III: BORDERS OF MODERNITY AND FRONTIERS OF EXCLUSION - RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP AND CONTESTATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 11: Half-Positions and Social Contestation - On the Dynamics of Exclusionary Integration - Craig Browne
Chapter 12: Abyssal Lines and Contestation in the Construction of Modern Europe - A De-colonial Perspective of the Spanish Case - Heriberto Cairo & Keina Espiñeira
Chapter 13: From International Legality to Local Struggle - How and Why Human Rights Matters to Social Movements in Argentine Democracy - Gabriela Delamata
Chapter 14: Social Contestation and Substantive Citizenship - Popular Mobilization in South Africa's Modern State - Marcelle Dawson

"A new generation of truly global sociology, grappling with the contemporary world through the lenses of critique, contestation, and social movements. A significant contribution."
- Göran 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.