Alter-Globalization Movements: Becoming Actors in the Global Condition Global and European Studies Institute Modul 1010 "Word Orders under the Global Condition" Lecturer: Micha Fiedlschuster (MA) E-mail: fiedlschuster@uni-leipzig.de Summer term 2015 Time and location: tba Course requirements: 1 Final Paper (50%); 1 Presentation or 1 Reaction Paper (30%); Active participation in the sessions (20%) Reaction papers are due two days in advance of the session. Course Format Students will be expected to take an active role in the seminar through presenting assigned readings and case studies, researching and writing analytical papers, and contributing actively and regularly to seminar discussions. Futhermore, students are expected to prepare a proposal for their final paper. Course description In 1999 a coalition ranging from unions to anarchist groups succeeded in shutting down the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. According to the media, the battle of Seattle was fought by the anti-globalization movement on the one side and the policy makers of globalization on the other side. Many social movements rejected the prefix anti- and preferred to be called Global Justice movement or Alter-globalization movement. They oppose globalization in its neoliberal form, but they do not oppose an increasing interconnectedness of people around the globe. In fact, their main message is that there are many alternatives to a neoliberal conception of globalization. The events of 1999 showed to the public that social movements, under certain circumstances and to a certain extent, have the capacity to become a powerful actor on the global political stage. Although Seattle 1999 is often referred to as the birth of the alter-globalization movement, protests against transnational and international institutions reach as far back as to the 1970s. Moreover, there are many historical examples that show how protest events and social movements had an impact beyond their political unit: the French Revolution, the Abolitionist Movement, the Labor Movement, the Women s Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and many more. Research in this field was for a long time focused on the development of social movements or contentious politics in the context of the emergence of the modern nation state. Many influential approaches set their empirical focus on the societies of Western Europe and North America. Developments in civil society in Eastern Europe and South America in the 1980s and 1990s led to a diversification of research. In addition, the growing consciousness of an economic and ecological entan- 1/6
glement of the world, as well as the growing importance of international and supranational actors like the United Nations and the European Union, social movement activists increasingly felt the need to form alliances beyond the borders of the nation state, in order to succeed at the national or local level. Counter-summits and world social fora have emerged as spaces that provide participants with a condensed experience of global interconnectedness. These spaces do not only provide the possibility to stage protests, but also serve as a meeting place where strategies and ideas are exchanged. This development asked for a revision of some concepts and the introduction of new analytical tools in social movement research. Global civil society, advocacy networks, global activism, alter-globalization movements and scale-shifting are only some of the terms that have been suggested to capture the global context of social movements. The purpose of this course is twofold. First, our aim will be to study alter-globalization movements as counter-hegemonic forces in the current and emerging world order. On the one hand, these actors develop their own strategies of acting globally. On the other hand, they can be analyzed as indicators of synchronization processes of political and social crisis. We will focus on questions of this kind: How do actors in this field perceive of globalization and the relationships of different world regions? In which ways do they frame their experiences and struggles? How do they attempt to become (powerful) actors under the global condition? What is the relationship between the different actors in a coalition of movements, for example, between actors of the North and the South? How do they attempt to overcome cultural, ideological, social and economic barriers? Second, this course is designed to provide an entrance route for students into the analytical and theoretical approaches for studying social movements and contentious politics in the context of globalization processes. What are the predominant theoretical approaches in this field? Which difficulties and limitations do we face when analyzing protests, particular in a global context? Has there been a spatial turn in the study of contentious politics? We will also critically discuss the analytical tools applied: for example, which role does the category of the nation state or the concept of civil society play in the existing analytical frameworks? Students taking this course will have the opportunity to choose and discuss the approach that matches their own research project or case study best. Syllabus Session 1: Introductory session and course organization Topic: What is this course about? What are the requirements? What are my (the lecturer s and your) expectations? Where can we locate the course topic in the discourse on globalization? (optional): Bisley, Nick. Rethinking Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Session 2: Challenging or civilizing globalization? Topic: Locating the course topic within the discourses on globalization. Two examples: the World Systems analysis and cosmopolitanism. : Chase-Dunn, Christopher, Anne-Sophie Stäbler, Ian Breckenridge-Jackson, and Joel Herrera. Articulating the Web of Transnational Social Movements. Yokohoma, 2014. http://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows84/irows84.htm. Kaldor, Mary. `Civilising Globalisation? The Implications of the `Battle in Seattle. Millennium - Journal of International Studies 29, no. 1 (January 1, 2000): 105 114. 2/6
Session 3: Global Civil Society Topic: The increasing scholarly attention to non-state action at the transnational level in the early 2000s. Main questions: What is the meaning of civil society and what s global about it? How do we define research objects at the global level? What is problematic with the concept of global civil society from an analytical perspective? What are the benefits? Is it possible to distinguish normative perspectives from analytical ones? : Anheier, Helmut K., Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor. Introducing Global Civil Society. In Global Civil Society 2001, edited by Helmut K Anheier, Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor, 3 22. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Munck, Ronaldo. Global Civil Society: Royal Road or Slippery Path? Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations 17, no. 4 (December 2006): 324 31. Session 4: Social movement research Topic: Discussion of key terms and definitions in social movement theories and the contentious politics approach: social movements; contentious politics; opportunity structures; resource mobilization structures; (cultural) framing processes; collective identity; political process model. What are the paradigms in social movement theory? What are the advantages of structural explanation vs. actor-centered explanations? What are the opportunities and difficulties in combining both approaches? Which approach is useful for analyzing social movements in the global context? : Della Porta, Donatella, and Mario Diani. 2006. Social Movements. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell. pp 1-28. Snow, David A., Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. 2006. Mapping the Terrain. In The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, ed. David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi, 3 16. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Session 5: Global activism and transnational protest Topic: The protest cycles against the current and emerging world order. The need of new concepts in social movement research. Main questions: Why is the concept social movement problematic in the global context? How do social movement researchers justify to use the term transnational, instead of global or international? Which definition of globalization do they put forward? Why do social movements form coalitions with actors outside their political or social unit? Why, how and in which cases do they frame their local struggles globally? Della Porta, Donatella, and Sidney G Tarrow. 2005. Transnational Processes and Social Activism. In Transnational Protest and Global Activism, ed. Donatella Della Porta and Sidney G. Tarrow, 1 3/6
17. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Flesher Fominaya, Cristina. Social Movements and Globalization. How Protests, Occupations and Uprisings Are Changing the World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. (Chap 3, pp27-49). Session 6: Civil society actors in international institutions Topic: The relationship between civil society actors (human rights organizations, environmental organizations, social movement actors etc.) and the United Nations. Main questions: Why did the UN encourage NGOs to participate in international conferences? What were the expectations of NGOs? How did the expectations change over time? NGOs as representatives of a global civil society in a yet-to-come cosmopolitan world order or powerless actors in a complex multilateralism? What is the difference between different civil society actors (NGOs and social movement organizations)? Why do some social movement actors criticize NGOs? Smith, Jackie. 2008. Social Movements for Global Democracy. pp 89-107 and 121-130. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Willetts, Peter. From Stockholm to Rio and beyond: the impact of the environmental movement on the United Nations consultative arrangements for NGOs. Review of International Studies 22, Nr. 01 (1996): 57 80. Session 7: The birth of the alter-globalization movement Topic: The Global Justice Movement and the opposition to the WTO, World Bank, IWF, G8. Main questions: Why was Seattle interpreted as a successful mobilization of alter-globalization actors around the world? What were the consequences for social movement actors? Did it challenge the hegemonic world order? Why wasn t it repeated? Which roles are spatial categories playing in the analytical explanations? Della Porta, D. 2008. Eventful Protest, Global Conflicts. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 9 (2): 27 56. Gill, Stephen. 2000. Toward a Postmodern Prince? The Battle in Seattle as a Moment in the New Politics of Globalisation. Millenium 29 (1): 131 140. Wainwright, J. 2007. Spaces of Resistance in Seattle and Cancun. In Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers, ed. Helga Leitner, J Peck, and Eric Sheppard, 179 203. New York: Guilford Press. Session 8: The World Social Forum as a portal of globalization Topic: The World Social Forum (WSF) as a market place for strategies against and alternatives to the hegemonic world order. The WSF as a global actor. Main questions: What is the open space concept in the Charter of the Forum? Is the WSF a political actor, maybe even the place of the global opposition? Is the WSF a counter-hegemonic place? How do social movements do networking? What was the political impact of the WSF? Is the WSF a place free of power asymmetries? What are the successes and what are the failures according to the participants or the literature? Who participates in the WSF? How to study something like a social forum? 4/6
Gautney, Heather. 2010. Protest and Organization in the Alternative Globalization Era : NGOs, Social Movements, and Political Parties. Palgrave Macmillan. pp 46-83. Teivainen, Teivo. 2011. The Political and Its Absence in the World Social Forum: Implications for Democracy in the Forum and in the World. In Handbook on World Social Forum Activism, ed. Ellen Reese, Jackie Smith, Scott Byrd, and Elizabeth Smythe, 50 63. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers. Smith, Jackie, Marina Karides, Marc Becker, Dorval Brunelle, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Donatella della Porta, Rosalba Garza, et al. Global Democracy and the World Social Forums. Boulder CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008. (chapter 3: Who Participates in the World Social Forums?) Session 9: The spatial turn in contentious politics Topic: Contentious politics mostly happens in public space. Street protests, strikes, sit downs, sit ins, occupations of places with high symbolic values are some of the major research objects. As a result, space is an important aspect in the study of contentious politics. Main questions: How do movement researchers conceptualize space? Was there a (successful) spatial turn in the contentious politics approach? Which role does the concept of free spaces play in collective action? Martin, D. G, and B. Miller. 2003. Space and Contentious Politics. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 8 (2): 143 156. Tilly, C. 2000. Spaces of Contention. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 5 (2): 135 159. Polletta, Francesca, and Kelsy Kretschmer. 2013. Free Spaces. Ed. David A. Snow, Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. John Wiley & Sons. Session 10: Occupying Space Topic: The Occupy Wall Street movement as a local form of the alter-globalization movement. Transition to spatial aspects of social movement research. Transnational diffusion processes of protest. Main questions: Why were Occupiers able to mobilize so many people, even in the US context (political apathy)? Which role did play the Arab Spring and the Spanish movement? What is the difference between Occupy and the Global Justice Movement? How did Occupiers perceive of the occupied space? How did they relate to their sister movements around the globe? Halvorsen, Sam. 2012. Beyond the Network? Occupy London and the Global Movement. Social Movement Studies (August 1): 1 7. Smith, Jackie. 2012. Connecting Social Movements and Political Moments: Bringing Movement Building Tools from Global Justice to Occupy Wall Street Activism. Interface 4 (2): 369 382. Flesher Fominaya, Cristina. Social Movements and Globalization. How Protests, Occupations and Uprisings Are Changing the World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. (chapter 7: Arab Spring, Indignados, Occupy: A global wave of protest?, pp148-193) 5/6
=== Paper proposals are due === Session 11: Networking and Scale Shifting Topic: Networking and scale shifting as spatial categories and key term in contemporary research on transnational activism. Main questions: How do social movements interact? Does mobilization through networks work? Is networking via the Internet enough or does it need physical places to network successfully? How is the term network conceptualized in the literature? How can we analyze a network? What is the purpose of scale shifting? What do movements hope to achieve by shifting their local struggle to a national or global scale? Which different forms of scale shifting do exist? Is scale something real or constructed? Is scale shifting something new in the history of collective behavior? Juris, Jeffrey S. 2008. Networking Futures : the Movements Against Corporate Globalization. Experimental Futures. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 123-145 and 155-160. Tarrow, Sidney G, and Doug McAdam. 2005. Scale Shift in Transnational Contention. In Transnational Protest and Global Activism, ed. Donatella Della Porta and Sidney G. Tarrow, 121 147. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Session 12: Discussion of paper topics Session 13: Right-wing extremism in times of globalization Topic: The critique of neoliberal-driven globalization processes is not an exclusive field of left social movements. Right-wing parties and social movements have pitted their ideological framework of national identity against what they criticize as globalism. With a look to recent developments in Europe and also Leipzig (see LEGIDA) we will try to locate these social movements in our discussions on globalization and social movements. Main questions: How do right-wing groups or parties frame their critique of globalization or globalism? Is the international cooperation of right-wing groups also a form of globalization? Which alternatives and world views do they propose to their audience? Is the increasing electoral support for right-wing parties an expression of discontent against an elite-driven project of regional and global integration? Grumke, Thomas. Globalized Anti-Globalists - The Ideological Basis of the Internationalization of Right-Wing Extremism. In The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives, edited by Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, 323 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012. Minkenberg, Michael. The European Radical Right and Xenophobia in West and East: Trends, Patterns and Challenges. In Right-Wing Extremism in Europe, edited by Ralf Melzer and Sebastian Serafin, 9 34. Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2013. Session 14: Final Session Topic: Reflection on the course and the course topic. Opportunity to discuss paper topics. 6/6