National Constraints and Scale Shift in Current Transnational Activism (original) (raw)
Related papers
Globalisation and Social Movement: Critique of a Critique
Mainstream Weekly, 2016
In an attempt to analyse the relationship between globalisation and social movement this brief communiqué attempts to comment critically on the cliché—that itself emerged as a critique— anti-globalisation movement. As is well known, globalisation as a stupendous process has transformed everyday social reality by opening up newer avenues secured through the rapid flow of capital, technology, information, trade, ideas and other resources across the national borders. Social scientists largely viewed globalisation as a phenomenon that has compressed both time and space in its sway. Anthony Giddens, one of the most celebrated sociologists, defines globalisation as the intensification of worldwide social relations linking distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many thousands of miles away and vice-versa. In his depiction, globalisation emerges as a dialectical process happening in a two-way fashion. (Giddens 1996: 64) Globalisation and social movements indeed have a special relationship to share. While on the one hand globalisation fostered the possibilities of articulating a successful movement through its offerings in the form of free flow of ideas, culture, technology and the resources largely required for the length, breadth and propagation of a movement, on the other hand there have been resistances registered all over the world against global institutions, policies, programmes and agreements which are instrumental to the process of globalisation. Globalisation has propelled many social movements and has also affected their structure and functioning especially in the case of New Social Movements which dwell upon the forces of globalisation for augmenting their agenda, strategy and spread. 'Workers of the world unite!' is in fact a claim that harps on globalisation in a certain sense. Gay Seidman cites the example of how trade union movements have long tried to build an international alliance of the working-class organisations to support his view that the international appeals in social movements are not new. The activists have sought help from abroad and many of them have worked across the border since the middle of the 20th century and appealed to international communities thereby encouraging universal norms to address social practices. (Seidman 2000: 344) Movements have often utilised tactics and strategies—that may not necessarily be local—to express grievances and build coalitions across borders. However, besides facilitating social movements globalisation has faced serious challenges also in the forms of resistances launched by communities all over the globe. Porta and Diani hold the view that the transformation caused by globalisation in the social actions, culture of particular societies may lead to resistances from the local to defend cultural traditions against foreign ideas and their intrusions. Reactions of such variety are addressed by forms of nationalistic and ethnic movements, religious mobilisations and also by fundamenta-lisms. (Porta & Diani 2006: 51-52) Known through several epithets—like 'global justice movement', 'global justice and solidarity movement', 'global democracy movement', or simply as anti-globa-lisation movement—
Transnational Social Movements in an Age of Globalisation
This course surveys a range of theories seeking to make sense of the dynamics of social movement mobilization in both the developed and developing world, focusing on dissidents (variously defined) pressing demands on sovereign states and international organizations through a variety of methods, both violent and non - violent, generally subsumed under the heading of “contentious politics.” After covering the general literature on the relationship between globalization and dissent, the course focuses on a series of transnational trends/movements related to the global fight for (and against) democracy
This paper is an attempt to contribute to the conversation towards democratic alternatives in a post-development scenario, and it is based on the following question: Given that development has partially failed in effectively addressing poverty, as it was not sufficiently political to challenge neo-liberal power structures, what possibilities lie ahead? Drawing on a concrete, yet small-scale experience by campaigning organisation Global Justice Now (GJN), I argue that the crisis in the field of international development creates an opportunity to challenge the North/South paradigm and consolidate a transnational global movement based on shared values of justice and solidarity, whose “legitimatory power” represents an important approach to overcome the dominant neo-liberal discourse
Globalization and Politics, Vol. 2: Global Social Movements and Global Civil Society (2014)
2014
The contestation over existing and projected forms of globalization across the turn of the millennium was crucial to bringing together a loosely aligned set of globalizing social movements both as a global movement-of-movements, and a movement-for-itself. Although it was once reductively named as ‘the anti-globalization movement’, the movement included individuals with many different standpoints ranging from those who were singularly anti-globalization to others who argued for ‘another kind’ of globalization. This book explores those movements.
Transnational Activism and the Global Justice Movement
2011. , in G.Delanty and S.Turner (eds.) Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory, London: Routledge, 428-38 (with D.della Porta).
Transnational activism can be defined as the mobilization around collective claims that are: a) related to transnational/global issues, b) formulated by actors located in more than one country, and c) addressing more than one national government and/or international governmental organization or another international actor. While forms of transnational activism have existed since a distant past, economic and political globalization have increased their frequency, as well as attention to them. Within the wider process of global transformations, the global justice movement (sometimes called anti-globalization movements), represent a key, though not unique, instance of transnational activism.
The making of a global movement: cycles of protest and scales of action
The Sociological Review, 2010
This article addresses some of the issues concerning the trans-nationalisation of collective action by focusing on the White Overalls and the Disobedients and their participation in three transnational cycles of protest that took place at different geographical levels – local, macro-regional, and global – between the second half of the 1990s and the early 2000s. The first part briefly discusses some historical, transnational precursors to global collective action and will argue that the Global Justice Movement was a global and original actor with reference to three dimensions of contentious action: the organisational dimension, framing processes and campaigns. The second part focuses on the origins and identity of the White Overalls, while the third describes their analysis of globalization and looks at how the scale of action has shifted. The analysis of these three cycles of protest shows that the global shift has not superseded other scales of action, but rather has been interwov...
Globalization and the New Modes of Activism (Review Essay)
THE SCHOLARLY LITERATURE pertaining to the issue we nowadays conveniently, and loosely, call " globalization " is well established and vast. In exposing, quite judiciously , the various aspects of, and injustices caused by, the existing pace of global capitalism, however, such literature remains in many cases also vague, inconsequential , overly descriptive, ideologically rigid, and unable to provide rigorous theoretical grounds for understanding the issue. Numerous pages are dedicated to documenting the effects of the expansion of capitalist systems around the world. Numerous pages record both local and international movements and resistances against this phenomenon. Volumes supply policy criticisms on various state, su-pra-state, interstate , or corporate levels. Yet, the foundational works that would potentially contribute to the modes of activism against the injustices manifested through various processes of transnational capitalism become harder to find despite the growing number of titles, which, ironically, tells us something about the mar-ketability of books on globalization.
From globalism to globalization: the politics of resistance (New Political Science, 2004)
New Political Science, 2004
The target of this reflection is the third circuit of politics. My main assumption is that the ‘second great transformation’ proposed by global actors parallels the one advanced by those who resisted laissez-faire capitalism in the nineteenth century. Both dispute the unilateral imposition of a new planetary order and endeavor to modify the rhythm and direction of economic processes presented as either fact or fate. In doing so, they effectively place the question of the political institution of this order in the agenda. I look briefly at the familiar underside of globalism and then move on to develop a tentative typology of initiatives that set the tone for a politics of globalization. These include radical and viral direct action, the improvement of the terms of exchange between industrialized and developing countries, the expansion of the public sphere outside national borders through global networks, the accountability of multilateral organizations, and the advancement of democracy at a supranational level. Participants in these initiatives take politics beyond the liberal-democratic format of elections and partisan competition within the nation state. They exercise an informal supranational citizenship that reclaims —and at the same time reformulates— the banners of social justice, solidarity, and internationalism as part of the public agenda.
This article explores the state of research on the "movement of movements" against neoliberal globalisation. Starting from a general consideration of the significance of the movement and the difficulties inherent in studying it, it discusses the literature on the movement from within social movement studies, and argues that the response from social movement researchers falls short of what could be expected in terms of adequacy to the movement and its own knowledge production. It explores some effects of this failure and locates the reasons for it in the unacknowledged relationship between social movements theorising and activist theorising. The article then discusses the possible contributions that can be made by Marxist and other engaged academic writers, as well as the significance of the extensive theoretical literature generated by activists within the movement. It concludes by stating the importance of dialogue between activist and academic theorising and research in attempting to understand the movement.