POWER AND TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM CE CD Edited by Thomas Olesen
First published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X 14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 2011 Thomas Olesen for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors for their contribution The right o f the editor to be identified as the author o f the editorial material, and o f the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 o f the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Typeset in Times N ew Roman by Book Now Ltd, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire All rights reserved. No part o f this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library o f Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Power and transnational activism/edited by Thomas Olesen. p. cm. (Rethinking globalizations; 28) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Globalization. 2. Transnationalism. 3. Civil society. 4. Social action International cooperation. 5. Social movements International cooperation. I. Olesen, Thomas, 1969 JZ1318.P675 2011 322.4 dc22 2010022534 ISBN13: 978-0-415-55369-8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-83665-1 (ebk)
Contents List o f illustrations Notes on contributors List o f abbreviations VÜ ix xiii Introduction: power and transnational activist framing THOMAS OLESEN 1 PART I Critiques and appraisals 1 Counter-power in the global age: strategies of civil society movements ULRICH BECK 2 Evading the challenge: the limits of global activism DAVID CHANDLER 3 Coordinated power in contemporary leftist activism RUTH REITAN 21 23 34 51 PART II The state and the national 4 The limits of power and protest: civil society mobilization against North American integration JEFFREY AYRES 5 State power and the control of transnational protests DONATELLA DELLA PORTA AND HERBERT REITER 73 75 91
vi Contents 6 China and the limits of transnational human rights activism: from Tiananmen Square to the Beijing Olympics CAROLINE FLEAY 111 7 State-led social boundary change: transnational environmental activism, ecoterrorism and September 11 SHANNON GIBSON 8 National origin and transnational activism SARAH STROUP PART III Representation and discourse 9 The representational power of civil society organizations in global AIDS governance: advocating for children in global health politics ANNA HOLZSCHEITER 10 Global justice movements and the mass media: conceptual reflections and empirical findings DIETER RUCHT 11 Taming of the shrew? International women s NGOs, institutional power and the United Nations JUTTA JOACHIM 12 AID(S) politics and power: a critique of global governance HÂKAN THÔRN Conclusion: transnational counter-publics and democracy THOMAS OLESEN 130 151 171 173 190 214 232 252 Index 262
Illustrations F ig u res 5.1 Explanations of transnational protest policing 103 7.1 Sequence of mechanisms causing and constituting social boundary change in the case of environmental activism and ecoterrorism 145 10.1 Distribution of press releases of Attac and media coverage, 2000-2008 198 10.2 Globalization and related topics in the newspaper die tageszeitung 201 10.3 Evaluation of the protesters in German newspapers 205 T ab les 8.1 The international charitable sector in three countries 159 8.2 Variation in INGO structure and strategy 163 10.1 Distribution of Indymedias 196 10.2 Investigated conflicts 200 10.3 Quantitative coverage of five conflicts in German newspapers 202 10.4 The foci of reports in German newspapers by conflict 203 10.5 Mentioning of aspects of globalization by conflict in German newspapers 204 10.6 The foci of German and Czech newspaper articles on the Prague event 206
RETHINKING Globalizations Series Editor: Barry K. Gills, University o f Newcastle, UK POWER AND TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM Edited by Thomas Olesen 'One o f the most a p p re ciate d virtues o f civil society is its ability to frame old or neglected issues in innovative ways. Olesen's e dite d volume provides an Im portant contribution to this d e b a te on transnational activism. Contrasting civil society c a p a city to frame new discursive opportunity structures a t the international level to the resilient ability o f the state to exert restraining p ow er a t the national level, the book opens up new avenues to understand the pow er o f civil society actors together with its limits. Raffaele Marchetti, Lecturer of International Relations, Departm ent of Political Science, LUISS and University of Naples L'Oreintale. 'Here is a valuable collection in which top-rate thinkers offer diverse assessments o f the p la ce o f transnational counter-publics in contem porary politics. It is an im portant question, a n d the book offers novel a n d interesting answers. Jan Aart Schölte, University of Warwick. This book focuses on global activism and uses a power perspective to provide an in-depth and coherent analysis of both the possibilities and limitations of global activism. Bringing together scholars from IR, sociology, and political science, Power a nd Transnational Activism offers new and critical insights on global activism and power. It features case studies on the following social and political issues: China and Tibet, HIV/AIDS, clim ate change, child labour, the WTO, wom en and the United Nations, the global public sphere, regional integration, national power, world social forums, policing, m edia power and global civil society. This volume provides a balanced and critical discussion of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and limits, in transnational activism. Addressing power from a plurality of theoretical perspectives within IR and political sociology, the analysis provides vital reflections on the understanding of activism and the understanding of the current globalization process and its challenges. Exploring the scope and limits of transnational activist power in the era of globalization, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalization, global sociology and international politics. Thomas Olesen is Associate Professor in the D epartm ent of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark. ISBN 978-0-415-55369-8 9 780415 55369 an informa business POLITICS / INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS / SOCIOLOGY / GLOBALIZATION STUDIES Ö Routledge Taylor & Francis G roup www.routledge.com Cover image: Shutterstock Images «.._ I A