This outstanding reappraisal of emancipation reviews the meaning of the concept and the use to which it is put in social and political theory. The appeal of emancipation is portrayed here as a concept which can embrace old and new social movements, and the ideas of liberation, participation and empowerment. The areas on which the book focuses are marxism and post-marxism, democracy and social movements, feminism, and development theory.

The term emancipation is being increasingly used in recent years, possibly reflecting, suggests Nederveen Pieterse, the limitations of class analysis in the face of collective actions which are not reducible to class, and the limitations of postmodern discourse which impairs differentiation among types of collective action. This book is also published as volume 23, issue 3 of Development and Change.