The second edition of this popular book is a fully revised and updated introduction to developments in contemporary political sociology, and especially to the burgeoning literature on globalization.#xA0; The discussion throughout concerns how, in order to understand contemporary politics, we need to be sensitive to the contestation of cultural meanings, and to their effects on social structuring and democratizing social action.#xA0; The book focuses throughout on substantive areas of sociological research.#xA0; There are updated chapters on: definitions of power and politics; macro-theories of globalization, including new discussions of global governance and state transformation, and of media and political community; social movements, including recent work on global social movements; and citizenship and the politics of equality and #x1C;difference#x1D;, including an extended discussion of welfare and poverty. In addition there is a new chapter on democracy, democratization, and environmentalism in a global context. Above all the book lays out the terms of the fundamental debate that is currently being enacted in contemporary politics, giving students in sociology and politics the tools to understand and to assess for themselves how globalization is linked to imperialism, at the same as it involves new possibilities for democracy, peace and respect for human rights.