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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Ecologies of action 93 Reform Trust indicates that participation levels in the 2001 general election were the lowest ever. The qualitative data from this study also indicates that the public ‘do not believe they possess the power they want through conventional politics’ and are therefore becoming ‘increasingly sympathetic to direct action’ (Dunleavy et al. 2001). Such observations add weight to proposals emphasising the need to reassess fundamental questions about the nature of the state and governance in a globalising world and to those calling for a rethinking of democratic structures and processes (Stiglitz 2002, Wainwright 2003, Monbiot 2004). These developments have combined to provoke a certain anxiety amongst political elites about the degree of legitimacy conferred by electoral processes and have led to a number of initiatives to increase political participation in local and national government, as well as attempts to seek out alternative means of engaging with and addressing the ‘democratic deficit’. In the UK these include mandatory classes in citizenship for younger people, experiments with information technology to provide ease of access to polling and a proliferation of inclusionary fora based around deliberative processes. In policy practice, this attempt to revive participation has been expressed through ‘new’ deliberative processes, which are introduced alongside ‘older’ democratic institutions. These experiments in deliberative democracy (Dryzek 1990, Benhabib 1996, Elster 1998) include citizens juries, citizens’ panels, in-depth discussion and focus groups, consensus conferences, and round tables. Unfortunately, these proposals are subject to, and often frustrated by, the constraints of the framework within which they take place and the lack of institutional means for carrying them forward (O’Neill 2001, 2002). Disaffection with the political class and non-participation in the political process are compounded by changes to the composition and form of civil society, which have been well documented (Shaw 1996, 1999, Scholte 1999, 2000, Foster 2001). In the UK nationally based civic associations representing particular class affinities have declined with the fragmentation of their bases of support and the advent of post-Fordist restructuring, whilst organised religion in all but its more fundamental guises has declined as an effect of its marginality to consumer capitalism. Two outcomes flow directly from this. First, the capacity of civil society organisations to assimilate conflictual currents within pseudo-state forms is diminished, giving rise to a decline in the legitimation of social norms by civil society (Wolfe 1989, Etzioni 1993, Putnam 1995). Second, there is a rise in new opportunities for disaggregated forms of political expression that challenge the state as a locus of power and which seek other means and opportunities of redress. This includes direct action, self-organised alternatives, and campaigning and networking at an extra-national level. This has contributed to institutions such as the WB, IMF, and WTO becoming the target of protest. These institutions have been used for critical engagement with civil society institutions closely linked to nation states and
94 Ecologies of action embedded in national political cultures, but they are now increasingly besieged by organisations and networks apparently seeking to construct and deepen a counter-hegemonic account of globalisation to which they respond in confused and often contradictory ways. This is primarily because of the multivariate and conflicting demands articulated by this emergent global civil society and serves to demonstrate one of the dilemmas at the core of theorising GCS as a normative-ideal. That is, to describe and account for the potentially transformative and counter-hegemonic challenges posed by GCS whilst considering the underlying question of whether a domain committed to radical pluralism can ever attempt to be hegemonic. However, the confused response of international organisations such as the WTO, IMF, and WB, which as we have seen in Chapters 2 and 4, frequently results in a default mode of non-engagement and repression is in part due to their previously effective model of instrumentalising civil society participation to legitimise neo-liberal reform and restructuring. This has been combined with ambivalence to the destabilising effects those reforms might subsequently have for nationally based civil society organisations. Thus, the growth of civil society networks that extend beyond the regulation of individual states and that engage in conflictual action (re)presents a new set of problems that were previously mediated at the national level. This is one of many unexpected outcomes of globalisation, which include changes to the role of the state in international relations and the rise of GCS (Eschle and Stammers 2004). Globalization, civil society and the state Anti-globalization activists understand that sympathetic and mutually beneficial global ties are good. But we want social and global ties to advance universal equity, solidarity, diversity, and self-management, not to subjugate ever-wider populations to an elite minority. We want to globalize equity not poverty, solidarity not anti-sociality, diversity not conformity, democracy not subordination, and ecological balance not suicidal rapaciousness. (Albert 2001, www.globalpolicy.org) The idea of the nation state as the principal organising unit of political and economic life is called into question by the growth of extra-national administrative bodies, transnational corporations, and the liberalisation of capital and investment flows (Strange 1996, Hardt and Negri 2000, Held 2000). This has led some commentators to the conclusion that ‘global networks’ (Castells 1996), ‘scapes’ (Appadurai 1990), and ‘flows’ (Urry 2000) should be the primary focus of investigation in the social sciences. These are the ‘true architectures of the new global economy’ (Castells 2000: 61), an economy that has catalysed a marked acceleration in the disparity between
Page 2 and 3:
Complexity and Social Movements Che
Page 4 and 5:
Complexity and Social Movements Mul
Page 6 and 7:
Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
Page 8 and 9:
Acknowledgements With thanks to all
Page 10:
Preface ix activists and engaged ci
Page 13 and 14:
2 Introducing global movements poli
Page 15 and 16:
4 Introducing global movements arou
Page 17 and 18:
6 Introducing global movements esta
Page 19 and 20:
8 Introducing global movements Thes
Page 21 and 22:
10 Introducing global movements exp
Page 23 and 24:
12 Introducing global movements che
Page 25 and 26:
14 Introducing global movements Fra
Page 27 and 28:
16 Introducing global movements ‘
Page 29 and 30:
18 Introducing global movements for
Page 31 and 32:
20 Introducing global movements and
Page 33 and 34:
2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
Page 35 and 36:
24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
Page 37 and 38:
26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
Page 39 and 40:
28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
Page 41 and 42:
30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
Page 43 and 44:
32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
Page 45 and 46:
34 Prefiguration and emergence The
Page 47 and 48:
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 and 100: 88 States fight back crisis is in e
Page 101 and 102: 5 Ecologies of action within global
Page 103: 92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
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
Page 155 and 156:
144 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 157 and 158:
146 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 159 and 160:
148 The map is not the territory th
Page 161 and 162:
150 The map is not the territory of
Page 163 and 164:
152 The map is not the territory Ne
Page 165 and 166:
154 The map is not the territory mi
Page 167 and 168:
156 The map is not the territory or
Page 169 and 170:
158 The map is not the territory mo
Page 171 and 172:
160 The map is not the territory of
Page 173 and 174:
162 The map is not the territory ne
Page 175 and 176:
Notes 1 Introducing global movement
Page 177 and 178:
166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
Page 179 and 180:
168 Notes 19 This practice has been
Page 181 and 182:
170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
Page 183 and 184:
172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
Page 185 and 186:
174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
Page 187 and 188:
176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
Page 189 and 190:
178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
Page 191 and 192:
180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
Page 193 and 194:
182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
Page 195 and 196:
Index Note: Page numbers in italics
Page 197 and 198:
186 Index class: affinities 93; and
Page 199 and 200:
188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
Page 201 and 202:
190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
Page 203 and 204:
192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
Page 205 and 206:
194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?