《塘镇:乡镇社会的利益博弈与协调》以塘镇为例，通过对围绕村级选举、涉煤利益、村组利益、征地利益、镇干部身份利益而展开的博弈事件的案例调查，研究分析了当前乡镇社会不同利益主体之间的博弈与协调。作者发展性地提出了“作为武器的弱者”这一概念，建构了依势博弈的理论解释框架，丰富了乡镇社会理论研究的内容，其研究结论对理解转型时期的乡镇社会和促进和谐社会的构建，也具有一定的参考价值。

The aim of this book is to highlight and begin to give 'voice' to some of the notable 'silences' evident in recent years in the study of contentious politics. The seven co-authors take up seven specific topics in the volume: the relationship between emotions and contention; temporality in the study of contention; the spatial dimensions of contention; leadership in contention; the role of threat in contention; religion and contention; and contention in the context of demographic and life-course processes. The seven spent three years involved in an ongoing project designed to take stock, and attempt a partial synthesis, of various literatures that have grown up around the study of non-routine or contentious politics. As such, it is likely to be viewed as a groundbreaking volume that not only undermines conventional disciplinary understanding of contentious politics, but also lays out a number of provocative new research agendas.

以气为研究视角，是为了克服在抗争政治研究中理性与情感、权利与道义之间的对立。如前所述，理性论与情感论、权利论与道义论各有所偏，每一种视角都可以解释复杂的抗争政治的某一面向，但又难以将对方的视角排斥在外。究其实，人本身就是理性与情感兼备、时而为利益所驱时而为道义所激的复杂动物，更何况，群体行动更增加了事情的复杂性。因此，我们需要一种综合的视角。而在理性论、利益论独据中国当代农村抗争政治研究舞台的情况下，更亟待纠偏。气介乎两者之间，又偏情感和道义一维，是推进该领域研究的一个恰切的概念。

How can the poor and weak “work”a political system to their advantage?
Drawing mainly on interviews and surveys in rural China, Kevin O’Brien and
Lianjiang Li show that popular action often hinges on locating and exploiting
divisions within the state. Otherwise powerless people use the rhetoric and
commitments of the central government to try to fight misconduct by local
officials, open up clogged channels of participation, and push back the frontiers of the permissible. This “rightful resistance” has far-reaching implications for our understanding of contentious politics. As O’Brien and Li explore the origins, dynamics, and consequences of rightful resistance, they highlight similarities between collective action in places as varied as China, the former East Germany, and the United States, while suggesting how Chinese experiences speak to issues such as opportunities to protest, claims radicalization, tactical innovation, and the outcomes of contention. Although the focus of their rich, ground-level analysis is contemporary China, the authors make a compelling argument that wherever a gap between rights promised and rights delivered exists, there is room for rightful resistance to emerge.

查尔斯·蒂利和西德尼·塔罗在本书中讨论了抗争政治的各种形式，包括革命、社会运动、宗教和伦理冲突、民族主义和公民权利以及跨国界运动等。它还为各种不同抗争的研究、比较和解释提供了一套分析工具和程序，阐释了抗争剧目和抗争表演的关系。作者还分析了历史上和当前的许多案例，包括二战后的波兰、巴以冲突、本·拉登问题和苏丹内战。他们向读者提供了一种社会和政治分析的清晰范式。