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Since the beginning of the modern age, studies of ongoing transformations of social life, human sociality, and social relations and institutions have been at the forefront of social theory, alongside changes in politics, culture, and economy and links between all of the above. In the twenty-first century, the speed at which these transformations have been occurring has accelerated precipitously, and it is impossible to predict what human civilization will look and exist like in a few decades. The essays included in this volume illuminate mediations of the individual-society relationship from a variety of angles, both explicitly and implicitly. They highlight the need to consider the consequences of choices made by collective decision-makers, politicians and leaders of organizations; as well as from processes that sustain the functioning and stability of individual nation-states and global society, for better or worse, and to varying degrees. They represent diverse traditions of social theorizing, including sociological and critical theory, analytically as well as normatively oriented theory, and examine the impact of transformations on several dimensions of societal life today.

Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Tables -- 1: Introduction: Confronting the Crisis of Democracy -- The Crisis of Democracy and the Rise of Neoliberalism -- Chapter Content -- Note -- Part I: Situating Contestation -- 2: The Arc of Contention -- From the French Revolution to the First International -- The Paris Commune -- From the Second International to the Exhaustion of the Old Left -- New Social Movements and the New Left -- Contesting Neoliberalism -- Summary -- Note -- 3: Rethinking Social Movements -- North American Social Movement Studies -- European New Social Movement Studies -- The Activist Perspective -- Marxism and the Study of Social Movements -- Summary -- Notes -- 4: The Dynamics of Capital -- Capital's Key Dynamics -- From Keynesianism to the Financial Crisis of 2008 -- Summary -- Note -- 5: Reconceptualising Political Strategy -- Destabilising Marxism -- Multiplicity and Effective Political Action -- Populism and Antagonism -- On the Subjective Dimension of Revolt -- Exodus -- Summary -- Notes -- Part II: Contesting the Twenty-First Century: An Analysis of Occupy -- 6: Occupy, Democracy, and Enduring Change -- Methods -- Occupy's Economic Critique-The Economic Crisis Is also a Crisis of Democracy -- The Quest for Democracy -- General Assemblies -- Horizontalism -- To Make Demands? -- The Problem of Endurance -- Summary -- Notes -- 7: The Subject of Change -- Conceptualising Class -- Occupy and Class -- Tensions in the 99 Percent -- Summary -- Notes -- 8: Locating Effective Resistance -- Cyber-Optimism -- Cyber-Scepticism -- Occupy-Analogue or Digital? -- Occupy's Spatial Dimension -- Summary -- Notes -- Part III: Claiming the Twenty-First Century -- 9: Reconceptualising Effective Action -- Recovering the State -- Movements and Parties -- Moving Beyond Our "1848 Moment"-Communism and the Communist Party -- Summary -- Notes

Introduction to social work and science for students and practitioners / Leon Ginsberg, Christopher R. Larrison -- Social work and the science of chemistry / John R. Barner -- Social work and the "far out sciences" of physics, astronomy, and geometry / Leon Ginsberg -- Social work and the science of numbers / Leon Ginsberg -- Social work and the science of big data / Christopher R. Larrison -- Social work and the science of climate change / Larry Nackerud -- Social work and the science of water / Larry Nackerud -- Social work and the science of human geography / Larry Nackerud -- Social work and the science of the life cycle / Leon Ginsberg, John R. Barner -- Social work and the science of execution / Lauren A. Ricciardelli -- Social work and the science of medical prevention and treatment / Leon Ginsberg -- Social work and the science of substance use / Christopher R. Larrison -- Social work and the science of mental health / John R. Barner -- Social work and the science of intellectual : developmental disabilities / Lauren A. Ricciardelli -- Conclusions / Leon Ginsberg -- Glossary -- Index