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.