Alter-Globalization

Contrary to the common view that globalization undermines social agency, 'alter-globalization activists', that is, those who contest globalization in its neo-liberal form, have developed new ways to become actors in the global age. They propose alternatives to Washington Consensus policies, implement horizontal and participatory organization models and promote a nascent global public space. Rather than being anti-globalization, these activists have built a truly global movement that has gathered citizens, committed intellectuals, indigenous, farmers, dalits and NGOs against neoliberal policies in street demonstrations and Social Forums all over the world, from Bangalore to Seattle and from Porto Alegre to Nairobi. This book analyses this worldwide movement on the bases of extensive field research conducted since 1999.

Alter-Globalization provides a comprehensive account of these critical global forces and their attempts to answer one of the major challenges of our time: How can citizens and civil society contribute to the building of a fairer, sustainable and more democratic co-existence of human beings in a global world?

Auteur

Geoffrey Pleyers is Research Fellow at the University of Louvain.

Contenu

Foreword by Alain Touraine xi

Acknowledgements xvii

Part 1 Alter-Globalization - Becoming Actors in the Global Age 1

Introduction 3

From the first uprisings to the global crisis 7

A global movement 10

1 The Will to Become an Actor 16

An actor against neoliberal ideology 16

Social agency in the global age 23

Part 2 The Way of Subjectivity 33

2 The Experience of Another World 35

Resisting through subjectivity 35

Spaces of experience 37

Diversions of experience 54

3 From the Mountains of Chiapas to Urban Neighbourhoods 58

The Zapatistas 58

Barricade social and cultural centre 68

Alter-activist youth 73

From the Zapatistas to alter-activists 88

4 Expressive Movements and Anti-Power 90

A concept of social change 90

A social and subjective engagement 95

Illusions of anti-power and diversions of spaces of experience 96

Facing the political 100

Conclusion 104

Part 3 The Way of Reason 107

5 Expertise for Another World 109

Resisting through reason 109

Spaces of expertise 112

The ambivalence of expertise 123

Conclusion 128

6 Citizens, Experts and Intellectuals 130

Introduction 130

A citizen movement 131

Committed intellectuals 135

Theories of another world and practices of expertise 142

Conclusion 152

7 Reason, Democracy and Counter-Power 154

A movement against neoliberal ideology 154

Rationality at stake 157

Democracy at stake 163

A concept of social change 169

Conclusion 177

Part 4 Confl uence of the Two Paths 179

8 Tensions and Collaborations 181

Common problematics 181

Dichotomization: from tension to opposition 185

Absorption: tension erased by hegemony 191

Combination: tensions and complementarities 193

Conclusion 200

9 The Main Debates 201

Think local and global, act local and global 202

The movement-internal organization 210

Rethinking social change 216

Conclusion 226

10 Towards a Post-Washington Consensus Alter-Globalization 228

Reconfi gurations 228

Towards concrete outcomes 237

Climate justice 251

Conclusion 256

Conclusion 258

Notes 264

Bibliography 280

Index 302