The global financial and economic crisis started in 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Four years later, despite massive national and international countermeasures, it is still not over. This book examines the considerable economic, social, and political consequences of the present global crisis for world society. In particular, the book's contributions focus on three central issues: 1) the crisis impacts on world society structures and evolutionary dynamics, 2) the crisis perceptions and public discourses with their social and political consequences, and 3) the experience of the global crisis at local and regional levels, as well as the responses to it. (Series: World Society Studies - Vol. 4)