Politics and Society in a Globalizing World:  Issues, Actors, and Explanations.Scholarly research and reflection can help to explain or, at least, provide insights into issues and actors that drive, resist or seek to obstruct change in politics, society and international relations in a changing global environment.  PSSIR 2018 provides a forum in which scholars from different countries, with diverse scholarly interests and orientations, can engage in exploring and exchanging experiences, observations, comparisons and theories of importance to understanding the perceptions, policies and actions of particular actors and communities, as well as issues and developments of wider, actual or potential significance in a globalising world.  Participation in PSSIR 2018 provides the opportunity to enrich the knowledge and understanding of the person(s) presenting a paper, the audience attending the conference, readers of the conference proceedings, and the wider audience of scholars, students and communities with which they, in turn, engage.