Introduction Jeffrey C. Alexander and Trevor Stack; 1. Wedging open established civil spheres: a comparative approach to their emancipatory potential Trevor Stack; 2. Radical protest in a university campus: performances of civil transition in Colombia Carlo Tognato; 3. Antiracism movements and the US civil sphere: the case of Black Lives Matter Stephen F. Ostertag; 4. The civil sphere and its variants in light of the Arab revolutions and jihadism in Europe Farhad Khosrokhavar; 5. Restaging a vital center within radicalized civil societies: the media, performativity, and the Charlie Hebdo attack María Luengo and Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk; 6. Anti-immigrant movements and the self-poisoning of the civil sphere: the case of Germany Volker M. Heins and Christine Unrau; 7. The civil sphere and the Irish Republican movement, 1970-1998 Anne Kane; 8. 'We all came together that day': the 2011 English riots as an enactment of solidarity Yasushi Tanaka-Gutiez; 9. Disobedience in civil regeneration: radical transformations in the civil sphere Maeve Cooke; Commentary Liv Egholm; Conclusion Peter Kivisto and Giuseppe Sciortino.