The studies gathered in this volume focus on Portuguese society, from the creative social and political experimentation by citizen and popular movements during the revolution of 1974/75 to more recent episodes of alternative economic organisation, popular mobilization over the claim of local populations to self-government, local environmental conflicts, transformations in trade-unionism, transnational solidarity movements and citizen participation on territorial planning. They explicitly explore the relationships and tensions between difference and equality, citizenship and difference, state/society relationships and local identities and European integration as part of broader processes of globalisation and of the emergence of new experiences of active citizenship.

This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal South European Society and Politics.