The papers in this volume push the study of the multifaceted nature-society relationship and the socioeconomic consequences of human dependence on nature forward in a variety of areas. In the first section, "Theoretical Foundations," the five chapters lay out theoretical models for examining the nature-society relationship. The chapters examine the roles of material process, space, and time in shaping social processes of economic ascent and long term hegemonic change, as well as the role of the analysis of raw materials in environmental sociology.

In the second section, "Commodities, Extraction and Frontiers," a series of case studies covering a range of industries, locations and historical periods present a variety of applications of the political economy of natural resources to critical issues regarding commodities, extraction and frontiers. The case study industries include oil, steel, transport, furs, sugar and Brazil nuts, and the chapters examine regions in Latin America, North America, and Asia.

In the third section, "Connecting Political and Economic Change," four chapters focus on the relationship between raw materials, economic change, and socioeconomic change. These chapters examine long term economic and political change and the relationship between political and economic change in Latin America and Africa.

Challenging prevailing theories of development and labor, Gay Seidman's controversial study explores how highly politicized labor movements could arise simultaneously in Brazil and South Africa, two starkly different societies. Beginning with the 1960s, Seidman shows how both authoritarian states promoted specific rapid-industrialization strategies, in the process reshaping the working class and altering relationships between business and the state. When economic growth slowed in the 1970s, workers in these countries challenged social and political repression; by the mid-1980s, they had become major voices in the transition from authoritarian rule.
Based in factories and working-class communities, these movements enjoyed broad support as they fought for improved social services, land reform, expanding electoral participation, and racial integration.
In Brazil, Seidman takes us from the shopfloor, where disenfranchized workers organized for better wages and working conditions, to the strikes and protests that spread to local communities. Similar demands for radical change emerged in South Africa, where community groups in black townships joined organized labor in a challenge to minority rule that linked class consciousness to racial oppression. Seidman details the complex dynamics of these militant movements and develops a broad analysis of how newly industrializing countries shape the opportunities for labor to express demands. Her work will be welcomed by those interested in labor studies, social theory, and the politics of newly industrializing regions.

Coalitions across Borders shows how social movements have cooperated and conflicted as they work to develop a transnational civil society in response to perceived threats of neoliberalism--free trade, privatization, structural adjustment, and unbridled corporate power. The authors explore the processes of transnational mobilization, discussing the motivations and methods of cross-border cooperation as well as the conflicts that have affected movement abilities to promote social change. The original case studies included in this volume represent a diverse cross section of transnational movement coalitions--from various regions and nations, representing different movement interests, and addressing a range of economic injustices. Coalitions across Borders reveals the many social conditions that enable and constrain the formation of transnational civil societies and the ways in which movement actors manage conflicts as they work toward common goals.