Series editor preface : semiotic freedom for the social sciences: inquiry in a new key / Jaan Valsiner -- Introduction : changing times, changing science / Brady Wagoner, Eric Jensen, and Julian Oldmeadow -- Collective action in context -- The psychology of collective action: crowds and change / John Drury, Steve Reicher, and Clifford Scott -- Commentary : collectives may protest, but how do authorities respond? / Flora Cornish -- Change we can believe in : the role of social identity, cognitive -- Alternatives, and leadership in group mobilization and transformation / Stephen D. Reicher and S. Alexander Haslam -- Commentary : change non-westerners can believe in / Fathali Moghaddam, Zach Warren, and Rhea Vance-Cheng -- Communicating change -- Metaphor and stories in discourse about personal and social change / David Ritchie -- Commentary : the earth, olympus, and the commuter bus / Carlos Cornejo -- Balancing stability and change : a neo-diffusionist perspective on cultural dynamics of socially transformative ideas / Yoshihisa Kashima, Boyka Bratanova, and Kim Peters -- Commentary : the meeting of ideas: diffusion, dialogical interaction, and social change / Brady Wagoner -- Scientific controversies and the struggle for symbolic power / Eric Jensen -- Commentary : the struggle for scientific consensus: communicating climate science around cop-15 / Rick Holliman -- Societies in transition -- Mediating social change in authoritarian and democratic states : irony, hybridity, and corporate censorship / Eric Jensen -- Commentary: subversively funny : critical humor in art / Lisa Sayles -- Assessing social change through social capital : local leadership and social-political change in bolivia / Martin Mendoza -- Commentary: social influence and social change : states and strategies of social capital / Gordon Sammut and Mohammad Sartawi -- Changing fields, changing habitusus : the field of public service in post-soviet ukraine / Anastasia Ryabchuk -- Commentary: dependent independence : a mechanism for conciliating determinism and freedom / Maaris Raudsepp -- Conclusion : a cyclical model of social change / Brady Wagoner, Eric Jensen, and Julian Oldmeadow -- About the authors.