Looking beyond categories including civil society, international institutions, international organizations and new social movements this book brings together an interdisciplinary dialogue on what constitutes political agency today. This book explores and critically reflects on the theory and practice of political agency in contemporary global politics, in light of the changing relationship between the state, the market and the society. The contributors authors focus on empirically mapping as well as comparing a range of forms of political agency; exploring their significance for the theory and practice of global politics; and reflect on the tensions and synergies generated by recent efforts to conceptualise them. Demonstrating an innovative approach this book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, sociology, political economy and political theory.

Introduction Raffaele Marchetti 1. Political Agency and Subjectivity in the Crisis of Modernity Debora Spini 2. Political Agency between Urban and Transnational Spaces Clive Barnett 3. Judicial Agency in the Building of the European Union: A Comparison of the European Court of Justice and the US Supreme Court Derek Beach 4. Political Agency in the Economy: Cooperatives, Solidarity and Territory in Euskadi and Aquitaine Xavier Itçaina 5. Political Agency and the Responsibility Paradox: Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility Gerald F. Davis, Marina von Neumann Whitman and Mayer N. Zald 6. Exploring the Conditions of Possibility for Political Agency: Rethinking Politicization from a Feminist Perspective Bice Maiguashca 7. Radical Political Agency: Affective Politics in the Case of the Zapatistas of Chiapas Susan McManus 8. Social Infrastructures of Political Agency: The Political Mobilization of the Women of the Market in Lomé Charles Heller and Branwen Gruffydd Jones