The blooming era of ‘precision astrometry’ for Galactic studies opened
by Gaia and the revolutionary beginnings of ‘gravitational wave
astronomy’ enabled by LIGO truly bring the rich internal dynamics of
collisional stellar systems to the centre stage. But the current
interpretative picture of the role of ‘small scales’ in the assembly of
cosmic structures cannot cope with such new-generation data and
theoretical ambitions, therefore a modern view of low-mass stellar
systems within the rapidly evolving landscape of ‘near-field’ cosmology
is needed. In this thriving context, I will present the highlights of a
more realistic dynamical paradigm for globular clusters and other
collisional systems. Their emerging richness will allow us to address
three questions at the forefront of current astrophysical research: How
did the first stellar aggregates form in the early universe? Is there a
'missing link' between stellar and super-massive black holes? Where is
the limit for the presence of the invisible ‘dark’ matter on small
astrophysical scales?