Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

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States fight back 89 the conscious creation of an ‘outside’ – imperfect as this may be – to the ‘the system’ – alterity becomes established within the network of networks lying in the interstices of Empire(s). Whilst the anarchist contribution to the conflictual activities of the AGM has been widely commented upon (Graeber 2002) little attention has been paid to the proactive ‘other order’ present within and pursued through the AGM (Bowden and Purkis 2004). Anarchism in this sense is a particular habit of mind capable of multiple and infinite expressive forms but premised upon factors immanent within the principles of PGA. The embodiment of these principles in the day-to-day lives of activists ranging from internationals to activists to citizen support groups to casual sympathisers sediment them within countless global locals. Such attempts to ‘live in truth’ are easily ridiculed and criticised for inconsistency but as puissance (Maffesoli 1996) is withdrawn from formal politics, such lives assume increasing significance and potential. Under such conditions citizens typically turn to individuals who have ‘lived in truth’ and ‘declared the stakes’ despite the ‘fear’ exercised by the system. This was a process clearly evident in the ‘revolutions’ in East and Central Europe (ECE see Chapter 3). Free acts by free actors assume positions of increasing significance but rather than replacing one system with another, as was the case in ECE, the demands are for the reconfiguration of the entire system through the application of organising themes compatible with planetary survival and co-operation. The representation of the AGM as anarchic disorder in effect conceals the extent to which the AGM embodies organisational forms and aims that are the future. The political stakes are immense as adoption of the organisational form alone and its application through established habits of mind will merely accelerate the descent into reinforcing cycles of chaos. If there is to be order on the edge of chaos then the social and environmental agenda of the AGM is a necessary initial condition. These are themes we address in Chapter 5.
5 Ecologies of action within global civil society Introduction So far, this work has addressed the changing context of movement mobilisation in a post-cold war neo-liberal climate, the impact of movements on key institutional fora such as the WTO, IMF and WB, the responses of national states and the globalisation of policing actions. In this chapter, we elaborate the ecology of action that arises from the system of relations between the various actors – NGOs, social movements and other civil society actors, and the militant re-framing of the concept of global civil society (GCS). Here the changed and accumulated capacities of the AGM initiate a transition to a ‘new’ mode of networked engagement in plateaux – the topographical term utilised by both Bateson (1973) and then Deleuze and Guattari (2002: 22) to describe the temporary stabilisation and heightening of collective intensities. These plateaux: protests, gatherings and social fora lead to the intensification of conflict around the key targeted signs elaborated in Chapter 2. They also provide opportunity for the multiplication of dynamic movement trajectories and processes, ‘lines of flight’, ‘vectors’, ‘destratifications’ and ‘deterritorializations’ that in turn constitute a virtual ‘plane of consistency’ such as that elaborated by Deleuze and Guattari (2002: 266), an immanent field of relations constituted through the overcoming of habitual patterns or hierarchising processes. Theoretically this marks the translation of Bateson’s postulated Ecology of Mind into an Ecology of Action capable of adapting to and colonising key niches within complex systems and networks resulting in systemic challenges and changes which are inevitably both intended and unintended. Plateaux also enable certain actors and actions to become symbolic multipliers – strange attractors – that indicate processes of movement capacity building that have been underway in the West since the 1970s (Welsh 2000, 2001). This emphasis signals our departure from approaches which concentrate on specific protest events and their impacts on formalised national power structures. The chapter proceeds by outlining the renewed importance of civil society within political discourse and examines how this concept has been applied to the global level. It continues through analysis of how actors within the
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Complexity and Social Movements Mul
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Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
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Acknowledgements With thanks to all
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Preface ix activists and engaged ci
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2 Introducing global movements poli
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4 Introducing global movements arou
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6 Introducing global movements esta
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8 Introducing global movements Thes
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16 Introducing global movements ‘
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18 Introducing global movements for
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20 Introducing global movements and
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2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
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24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
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26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
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28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
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30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
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32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
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34 Prefiguration and emergence The
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36 Prefiguration and emergence Glob
Page 49 and 50: 38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
Page 51 and 52: 40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
Page 53 and 54: 42 Prefiguration and emergence from
Page 55 and 56: 44 Identities, protest dynamics and
Page 79 and 80: 68 States fight back when trust in
Page 81 and 82: 70 States fight back academically,
Page 83 and 84: 72 States fight back streets from d
Page 85 and 86: 74 States fight back ‘green Parli
Page 87 and 88: 76 States fight back to trivialise
Page 89 and 90: 78 States fight back beneath Big Be
Page 91 and 92: 80 States fight back ran out. The p
Page 93 and 94: 82 States fight back The attempt to
Page 95 and 96: 84 States fight back Accounts of th
Page 97 and 98: 86 States fight back hair, infringe
Page 99: 88 States fight back crisis is in e
Page 103 and 104: 92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
Page 105 and 106: 94 Ecologies of action embedded in
Page 107 and 108: 96 Ecologies of action The assimila
Page 109 and 110: 98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
Page 111 and 112: 100 Ecologies of action linking up
Page 113 and 114: 102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
Page 115 and 116: 104 Ecologies of action leading to
Page 117 and 118: 106 Ecologies of action siege of in
Page 119 and 120: 108 Beyond resistance to global nex
Page 139 and 140: 7 The death of collective identity?
Page 141 and 142: 130 Global movement as a parallelog
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140 Global movement as a parallelog
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148 The map is not the territory th
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150 The map is not the territory of
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152 The map is not the territory Ne
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154 The map is not the territory mi
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156 The map is not the territory or
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158 The map is not the territory mo
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160 The map is not the territory of
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162 The map is not the territory ne
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Notes 1 Introducing global movement
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166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
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168 Notes 19 This practice has been
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170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
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172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
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174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
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176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
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178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
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180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
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182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
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Index Note: Page numbers in italics
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186 Index class: affinities 93; and
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188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
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190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
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192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
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194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
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