ROBIN COHEN is Professorial Fellow at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, UK.PAUL KENNEDY is Reader in Sociology and Global Studies at the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. MAUD PERRIER is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK.

• IntroductionPART ONE: INTERPRETATIONSThe Making of Global SociologyThinking GloballyModernity and the Evolution of World SocietyWork, Production and FinancePolitical Sociology: Changing Nation-StatesPART TWO: DIVISIONSGlobal Inequalities: The VictimsClass, Income and WealthGender and SexualitiesRace, Ethnicity and IntersectionalityCorporate Power and Social ResponsibilityCrime, Terrorism and ViolencePART THREE: EXPERIENCESPopulation and MigrationGlobalization, Families and Social ChangeConsuming CultureLifestyle and LeisureMedia and the Digital AgeGlobal ReligionsUrban LifePART FOUR: DYNAMICS AND CHALLENGESGlobal Civil Society and Political ActivismTowards an Environmentally Safe WorldIdentities and BelongingConclusion: Global Uncertainties and Ways Forward.

Just think for a moment of the ‘global events’ that are changing the world: 9/11, the financial crisis, climate change, Fukushima, the Arab Spring. They all came by total surprise, which means they are beyond our normal sociological categories and global in their scope and implications. That’s the reason why students and professors of sociology more than ever need the information in and inspiration from Global Sociology.