With M. Burawoy, Ruy Braga, Gay Seidman, Klaus Doerre, Ursula Huws, Ricardo Antunes, Paula Varela, Madalena Duarte, Hartmut Rosa, Casimiro Ferreira, Ana Paula Marques, Esser Silva, Maria Markantonatou, Daniel Francisco, Guya Accornero and Lívia Aguiar.

Synopsis

Over the last fifty years, neoliberal globalisation has led to the increasing deregulation of economies and the stagnation or even retreat of social policies, widening inequalities worldwide. Recently, major world conflicts and the Covid-19 pandemic have alerted us to the excesses of globalisation, the environmental emergency, the erosion of democracies and the rise of far-right populism while also presenting numerous challenges, with the digital transition and the dismantling of previous traditional working models demanding new responses. These are the challenges that this book seeks to discuss, helping to shed light on the lines of change that are being drawn, the new international division of labour and the structure of the current class barriers.

The book's multidisciplinary (and interdisciplinary) nature allows it to examine various facets of poignant contemporary issues. The texts converge, however, in their focus on social inequalities. Different forms of inequality are examined in various areas - social class, racial issues, gender identities, among many others - while highlighting the effects of economic, social, cultural and political transformations on the reorganisation of class structures and the very modalities of collective Action.

If the controversies over social classes and productive organisation were decisive for the institutionalisation of the social sciences and sociology, today, nearly two hundred years later, it is more than necessary to reflect on the trends of change in our world.

About the editors

Elísio Estanque is a sociologist, retired professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra - Portugal, and a member of the Centre for Social Studies of the same institution. He has been a visiting professor at several Brazilian universities, such as USP-SP, Unicamp, and Unesp-Franca and is currently at UFBA, Salvador da Bahia. He specialises in labour relations, classes and social struggles.

Agnaldo de Sousa Barbosa is Associate Professor III at the Department of Education, Social Sciences and Public Policy at Unesp - Franca Campus.

Fabrício Maciel is an adjunct professor in the Social Sciences Department at UFF-Campos. He was a visiting professor at the University of Jena, Germany (2022).