Globalisation from below?

Understanding the “anti-globalisation” movement
Laurence Cox

What is this course?

This course explores the “anti-globalisation” movement, also known as the anti-capitalist or anti-corporate movements, the global justice movement etc.: the coming together of social movement activists around the world in opposition to the neo-liberal policies of the G8 and World Trade Organisation, NATO and the EU, the US’s “war on terrorism” and the IMF’s impoverishment of the majority world.

This movement, known in some languages as the “movement of movements”, brings together activists and groups from peasant and landless movements in the Third World, the ecology and environmental movements, the trade union movement, the women’s movement, the community development movement, the peace and anti-nuclear movements, gay, lesbian and bisexual movements, majority world solidarity movements, anarchists, socialists, and more.

The course is a thematic counterpart to the “Global sociology” course. Instead of looking at the structures created from above that define most people’s existence, it looks at ordinary people’s struggles to change those structures from below; instead of focussing on the “issues” raised by capitalist globalisation, it looks at what social movements are doing in response to those issues. It draws in particular on the sociology of agency - ordinary people’s action - and specifically on the sociology of social movements. As such it links to the second year elective on the sociology of revolution as well as to the course on new social movements on our taught MA programme.

The first section of the course (lectures 1 - 3) introduces you to critical sociology, explores what a “movement” is and how people come to believe they can change the world they live in. The central section (lectures 4 - 8) looks at some of the different strategies adopted by movements for change and how they relate to the anti-globalisation movement; and the final section (lectures 9 - 12) examines possible outcomes of the conflict between the movement and the multinational organisations, states and corporations who oppose it.

Key learning points for this course include:

In assessment (essays and / or exams), what is most important is to use these elements to develop a convincing argument for your own point of view. You can perhaps think of the process as follows:

Information --> Understanding --> Argument

Information is a basic starting-point, but it is not enough on its own. You are not particularly being tested on how much you can remember, or on “getting the facts right”. Of course, without some facts about the movement you won’t have a lot of understanding or very much to say :-)

Understanding is the result of your own response to what you read, see and hear, and of your reflections on that response. It can involve empathy, logic, emotion, mental diagrams, imagination, and more. But understanding then needs to be expressed to other people, who may see things in a very different way. There is no single “right” understanding, other than your own.

Argument is the process of trying to bring other people around to your understanding. It draws on information as a source of evidence only, and on your understanding as a way of organising that evidence. But it also goes beyond both of these and imagines that other people may not share your point of view. (You are not required to agree with your teachers; and in fact I’d prefer you didn’t!)

Books for this course

There is no such thing as a “neutral” point of view on the anti-globalisation movement. All the useful writing on the subject is written by people who are intensely interested in what is going on - and hence involved, in one way or another. As adults and as university students, it is up to you to recognise this and draw on these different points of view in order to formulate your own.

The main text for this course is

Two alternative texts are:

Other texts which are particularly relevant (and should be in the library) include:

The World Wide Web is a fundamental source of information and ideas on the movement. Some important and useful sites include:

Lastly, an invaluable source of information on ongoing events is the humble lamppost (and building site hoarding, ESB box, etc.) - keep an eye out for posters, stickers, graffiti, stencils etc. carrying details of upcoming protests, parties, public meetings, benefit gigs, etc. as well as ideas, humour and contacts…

Course outline

This outline should give you a sense of the territory that the course is intended to cover, identify some basic reading which should help you understand the lectures and indicate some resources you can use to deepen your understanding. As well as a summary of the contents of each lecture, the info for each week lists chapters in the main course books which you could look at, as well as a selection of short pieces for further reading which can be found either as photocopies in the library or on the World Wide Web. You should try to read at least one chapter or text before the next lecture, if at all possible.

As with all academic reading lists, you need to make up your own mind about what you read. You will not gain marks for learning off sections from approved books and reciting them; you gain marks for understanding what you have read and commenting on it intelligently and critically. The pieces listed here are by no means the only possible starting-points, and exploring the library, surfing the Net and going to demonstrations are all useful ways of gathering relevant material.

Part I: what is a movement?

Week 1: Doing sociology critically: how to tackle this course

This lecture looks at the relationship between sociology and freedom. After leaving (in some cases for many years) a secondary education system geared to producing “the right answer”, how can anyone let go of the endless attempt to “keep teachers happy” and start to read, think and write intelligently about the world they live in? Starting from the relationship between who we are and what we think, the lecture explores how the key issue in sociology is not the pretence of being “objective”, but rather becoming more open about who we are, how that colours our thinking and what we are trying to convince others of. This raises the whole question of how to do sociology critically (asking questions about what we are doing rather than doing what other people want us to): how we choose what we read, how we make sense of it, how we argue with it - and then also how we draw on the information and theories we come across to develop arguments of our own expressing our own point of view, our own needs and our own agendas. Lastly, the lecture discusses the relationship between this critical way of doing sociology and the movement against capitalist globalisation: both the movement and its critics are involved in generating “everyday sociology” of their own - how does what I say in lectures, what you read in books, and what you write in your essays relate to this?

Readings:

There are no preset readings for this lecture. However, if you find the issues raised in this lecture interesting, you may want to look for one of the following books in the library:

Week 2: Structure, issues, movements: “pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will”

This lecture looks at the relationship between structure (the way the world is organised), issues (problems caused by this) and agency (what people do to keep things the way they are or to change them). It discusses how our experience of structure can give rise to different kinds of discontent, some of which (but not all) can give rise to agency in the form of social movements actively trying to change the situation. Using the examples of some of the “big demos” at Seattle and Genoa, the lecture finishes by asking how we can judge the rationality of people’s action when they attempt to change the world they live in.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 3: Social movements: from “nothing much happening” to active resistance and beyond

This lecture explores social movements as the key link between structure and agency: the ways in which people come to respond actively and creatively to the social situations they find themselves in. Starting from the point of view of ordinary participants, it looks at the processes and issues involved in social movement mobilisation, and explores the learning curves involved in taking public action. Using the example of this year’s general strike in Italy, in which 13 million people came out against liberalisation of legislation protecting workers from unfair dismissal, the lecture explores the difference between social movements, social movement organisations, and events.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Part II: strategies for change

Week 4: “Within the system”: reformist strategies

This lecture looks at the ways in which movements attempt to engage with existing power structures and convince those who already hold power that it is in their interest to change the way they do things. It explores the role of NGOs and “partnership” within contemporary political processes, and looks at how “routine protest” operates. It also explores the views of “state-centred” theorists who argue that the “political opportunity structures” created by the shifting alliances between elites are decisive in whether or not movements can make headway. The lecture finishes by asking whether it is plausible to believe that power structures never change except from within, and discusses the debates within the “anti-globalisation” movement around engagement with states, corporations and multinational organisations.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 5: Confronting injustice: direct action strategies

This lecture looks at the ways in which movements attempt to assert their own power on a small scale through tactics such as strikes, non-violent direct action, ecotage and so on. It explores the concept of “repertoires of action”, the range of tools available to ordinary people in particular societies to build movements, and discusses the use of direct action within the “anti-globalisation movement”. The lecture finishes by asking what the limits of direct action on this scale might be.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 6: Power from below: community organising strategies

This lecture explores the ways in which working-class communities and poor rural communities attempt to restructure power relations on a local level. It explores strategies such as community education and community media, and looks at some of the history of community organising in Ireland and Latin America. The concept of “poor people’s movements”, of the specific constraints placed on social movements made up of those who must struggle to survive, will be explored. The lecture finishes by asking how community organising in different countries connects to the “anti-globalisation movement”.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 7: Withdrawing consent: lifestyle strategies

This lecture explores the ways in which people - often as individuals or small groups - seek to evade the large-scale power structures of the societies they find themselves in by withdrawing their own consent and participation. It looks at the literature on identity-building within social movements, and explores very different examples of “lifestyle politics” such as the creation of gay and lesbian subcultures, class-based strategies of “informed resignation”, and counter-cultural theories of “temporary autonomous zones”. The lecture finishes by asking how far lifestyle strategies can change the power structures they start by escaping.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 8: Changing systems: revolutionary strategies

This lecture explores attempts at transforming large-scale power structures by asserting macro-power: the “dual-power” situation of revolutions. Connecting the literature on social movements with the literature on revolutions, it explores the examples of the Zapatista movement in Southern Mexico, the anti-IMF revolution in Argentina, and the “world-revolutionary moment” of 1968. The lecture finishes by asking how far the “anti-globalisation movement” can be considered to represent a revolutionary situation.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Part III: the movement and its opponents

Week 9: Where are we going? Moments of decision

Large-scale movements such as the “anti-globalisation movement” mobilise people from many different walks of life, around a huge range of issues. These issues can be combined in various ways, to add up to very different “versions” of the movement. This lecture explores some of the conflicting visions represented within the “anti-globalisation movement”, and asks how “moments of decision” arise within movements, and how they are resolved.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 10: Networking processes: movement infrastructures

What makes a movement capable of “taking decisions”, and of affecting the structure of society, is its existence as a movement which is more than the sum of its parts. Participants have a sense of committing to specific activities, but also to each other, in shorter- and longer-term ways, and develop appropriate forms of organisation to express this and enable communication, discussion and movement forward. This lecture examines three such processes related to the “anti-globalisation movement”: the intercontinental “Encuentros” sponsored by the Zapatistas, the “People’s Global Action” network, and the “World Social Forum” at Porto Alegre, and relates them to the literature on movement infrastructure and organisation.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 11: Tests of strength: the movement against the state

Large-scale movements develop in part because the issues that they are tackling are systematically embedded and represent important vested interests; otherwise the issues would be easier to change. One implication of this is that sooner or later the movement, if it develops far enough, will threaten those interests and the structure of the system that represents them, and the latter can be expected to mobilise and take action against it. The “war against terror”, and the associated criminalisation of large sections of the “anti-globalisation movement”, arguably represents such a situation. This lecture explores the politics of such situations and how movements respond to opposition, looking at such issues as criminalisation, the use of nationalism against internal opposition, and the “power vacuum” created at moments of intense conflict.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

Week 12: “A new world is under construction”? Social movements creating structure

This lecture returns to the theme of “globalisation from below” to explore the possibility of change. Movements do not simply oppose, they also construct: all social structure is the product of human agency, and social movements are among the most significant forms through which this happens. This lecture discusses examples of alternative globalisations, such as solidarity networks, movement communication and “counter-summits”, and asks how far these show the possibility for a different form of social structure, and the construction of the “new world” perceived as already in progress by so many participants.

Chapters from course books:

Resources for further reading (library reserve and / or Internet):

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