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

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Beyond resistance to global nexus 119 orientation along the continuum between expressive escapism or violent and obsessive rejection that otherwise tends to characterise antagonistic movements. Movement actors, be they individuals, groups or movement organisations enter into relation with each other in a space defined by the ‘pure’ antagonism (Melucci 1996a: 36) indicated in the PGA hallmarks and this field of relations constitutes a space of co-ordination for the inter-scalar politics of the AGM, without enforcing or limiting the capacity of movements to act autonomously in pursuit of claims-making in a less antagonistic manner. The ‘co-ordination’ of this distributed and inter-scalar politics is an emergent outcome of the voluntary participation in the network and the affinities such participation generates. There are few sanctions within the PGA process for groups or movements participating in more traditional or orthodox political activity. Indeed this is frequently taken for granted, especially where the divergence from the hallmarks is a condition of the individuals’ external connection or involvement within social movement organisations that share similar aims but have differing organisational models. This has been particularly true of southern movements where financial means have determined the connection between the movement and the network is conducted through the actions of individuals who are specifically delegated to the PGA and/or leaders of their respective social movement organisations. However, in the context of specific actions the activities of individuals participating within PGA-initiated processes have on occasion been subject to censure. Here the deliberately low-profile PGA presence makes it difficult to determine those spaces/processes, that Routledge (2004) calls ‘process geographies’ within which deliberate or marked divergence from the hallmarks could prompt censure within the broader PGA network. However, as we have described in Chapter 3 this process of recursive structuration within the PGA network also precipitates individuals engaged in ‘free-acts’ into unanticipated positions which can lead to frustration where such individuals become accountable to a network which is otherwise opaque. These considerations resulted in close attention being paid to issues of representation, communication and accountability within PGA at a global level and attempts to formalise self-regulation of Europeans’ participation at the global level to avoid ‘internationals’ mobility and wealth establishing dominance by default. Examples include the criticism and reformulation of the informal support group and the decision taken at the convenors meeting in Prague before the IMF WB protests, where it was agreed that the PGA global conference should have a quota system with a maximum of 30% European participants. However, because of the character of the network and the lack of sanctions available, the application of this quota system comes down to voluntary observance. The combination of ‘biographic availability’ (Wall 1999) of Western activists with the ‘pull’ of the symbolic spaces chosen for PGA conferences frequently means
120 Beyond resistance to global nexus greater than 30% participation by Europeans and North Americans. A further factor here relates to the availability of cultural capital central to the performativity of key roles within plateaux. The Zapatista model of relating the defence of symbolic spaces and localised life-worlds to a project of global resistance has been strongly influential within PGA. PGA has helped multiply the symbolic stakes of action through its use of ‘transnational collective rituals’ (Routledge 2004) that effectively and affectively link movements through activities where places become symbolic articulations of both militant particularism and global aspirations. These tactics have included speech-making tours and protest caravans that interpolate ‘global’ actors into ‘local spaces’, and have included a tour of Europe by five hundred Asian farmers that coincided with the G8 meetings in Cologne during 1999. PGA’s International conferences have also been held in symbolically resonant locations including Geneva, Bangalore and Cochabamba, either for their proximity to power (WTO meetings are held in Geneva) or as an expression of antagonist resistance, such as the KRRS (Karnataka State Farmers Association) campaign against genetically modified crops in Bangalore, or the Coordinadora del Agua of Cochabamba’s campaign against the World Bank-sponsored privatisation of Bolivia’s water. These processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation enable pedagogic opportunities, face-work, trust building and the challenging of sedimented ‘habits of mind’ whilst facilitating the circulation of people, resources and ideas necessary for iterative refinement of network priorities and systemic feedback. PGA has thus instituted an autocatalytic process scaling up protests based on the defence of place-based cultural and economic practices to globally co-ordinated activity aimed at transnational actors, from individuals to groups to movements and between virtual and real environments. Whilst we agree with Routledge that PGA is essentially a ‘contested coalition of place-specific social movements, which prosecute conflict on a variety of multi-scalar terrains’ (2004: 2), we would emphasise the capacity of PGA-catalysed actions or spaces to lead to emergent outcomes at a global level via the AGM. Specifically, the networked form of PGA enables the retention of an antagonistic kernel within the AGM that acts as an attractor within GCS. The World Social Forum – constructing, maintaining and developing ‘open space’ The World Social Forum is the most recent, vibrant and potentially productive articulation of an emergent global civil society. (Fisher and Ponniah 2003: 1) In this section, we argue that as the PGA instantiates the antagonist attractor of the AGM, so also the World Social Forum (WSF) defines a phase
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Complexity and Social Movements Che
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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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12 Introducing global movements che
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14 Introducing global movements Fra
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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
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38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
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40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
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42 Prefiguration and emergence from
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44 Identities, protest dynamics and
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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 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 129: 118 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 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
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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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