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

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The map is not the territory 157 hood for several days whilst pulling an African American Marine around on a leash ‘treating him as a slave’ (Wright 2005: 24). The same artefacts and relations of subservience were subsequently used in the field as part of the increasingly normalised control and constraint repertoires of democratic states. Insulating national politics from the cultural impacts of such acts is ultimately a futile task. It is worth recalling the comparison of social movements and tectonic plates within the complexity literature. Political ruptures occur when tensions accumulate as an old order seeks to replicate itself bureaucratically in the context of consumer individualism and social activism within knowledge economies. To many the ruptured institutional trust that became a prominent feature of the 2005 UK General Election campaign was sedimented in February 2003 with the massive street presence demonstrating against military action in Iraq, between one and two million people having participated in becoming links in complex webs of communication and meaning throughout the United Kingdom. The subsequent exercise of autonomous executive power by Tony Blair in aligning the United Kingdom with a US action headed by key members of the Project for a New American Century could only be taken in the full knowledge that such moves have become culturally contested and Politically dangerous. Cultural politics defines the tides within which politicians must swim: treading water whilst chanting mantras of ‘traditional values’ is not a viable option when a global rip tide is running. A further example is the referendum defeats on the European Constitution suffered by the French and Dutch political elites in 2005. The desire for ‘another Europe’ articulated by ATTAC and la Confédération paysanne striking a deeper cord than a bureaucratic exercise in harmonisation of structures and processes within the context of a neo-liberal axiomatic. For us the desire for permanence underlying the third of Melucci’s ‘accommodations’ stems from the need for standing forms of cultural politics not the institutionalisation of particular movement actors. We are arguing that the AGM has the potential to become one of the first global expressions of such a standing form with implications for the constituent empires aligned with the prevailing neo-liberal axiomatic. Whilst the institutional networks constituting the current Imperium remain dominated by habits of mind consolidated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the threat to life will intensify. Capital can continue to realise profit even during its own demise and so long as interest representation continues to be expressed in terms of a price, this will remain the case. The environmental and the human individual represents the impact points of these multiple acts of profit maximisation rendering us all singularities and underpinning the relationship between personal and planetary ‘health’ introduced by Melucci (1996a,b). We regard Melucci’s notion of a ‘planetary action system’ as an initial attempt to incorporate the complexity inherent in the person planet relationship within both social theory and new social
158 The map is not the territory movement studies. As such it can be thought of as a discursively constructed outer layer of meaning (and value) against which the operation of the neo-liberal axiomatic can be assessed (see Figure 8.3). The ecology of action advanced here is our contribution to making the constitution of such a planetary action system a tangible in terms of social process. E n v i r o n m e n t Security UN, IAEA ASEAN NATO etc. Security state Chiefs of staff Intelligence Armed forces Elites National elites/class factions Capital Business orgs. National banks Elites P l a n e t a r y a c t i o n s y s t e m s Neo-liberal capitalist axiomatic empire Supra state institutional nexus Global elites/class fractions Finance/ Development WB UN IMF WTO Finance state States Regional Finance Merchant Banks Stock markets Elites Regional and local government Professional associations Trades unions NGO’s SMOs Citizens Citizen–Individual as singularity Governance MNC TNC Political state PM/President Cabinet Parliaments Civil service Elites Figure 8.3 Planetary action systems and the ecology of action. P o l l u t i o n I n t e n s i t y o f e x p l o i t a t i o n E x t e r n a l i t y Enhancers Civilisation risks Another world civilisation is possible Space Asteroid impact Extreme weather events Tectonic instability Mundane synergie Super nova
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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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10 Introducing global movements exp
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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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68 States fight back when trust in
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70 States fight back academically,
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72 States fight back streets from d
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74 States fight back ‘green Parli
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76 States fight back to trivialise
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78 States fight back beneath Big Be
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80 States fight back ran out. The p
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82 States fight back The attempt to
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84 States fight back Accounts of th
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86 States fight back hair, infringe
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88 States fight back crisis is in e
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5 Ecologies of action within global
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92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
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94 Ecologies of action embedded in
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96 Ecologies of action The assimila
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98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
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100 Ecologies of action linking up
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102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
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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 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: 156 The map is not the territory or
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
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