Global Social Movements

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Global Social Movements
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Week 10. Dimensions of Globalisation. Markets,
International Governance and Civil Society
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I. Introduction Social Movements in Context

• 1. Relationship between social movements and
  historical context
• (i) liberalism and the emergence of capitalism
• (ii) industrial capitalism and working-class
  social movements
• (iii) welfare state capitalism and new social
  movements

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2. This week on globalisation or global
capitalism

• (i) context for contemporary and future SMs
• (ii) SMs operating globally Global Social
  Movements (GSMs)
• (iii) SMs addressing globalisation
  Alter-Globalisation Movements (ASMs)

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II. What is Globalisation?
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1. Globalisation of capitalism vs. globalisation
in general

• Neoliberal globalization
• What anti- or alter-globalization movements are
  opposing
• Globalization as an historical phenomenon
• What may be inevitable as a result of
  technological progess etc.

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2. Held and McGrews definition of
globalisation

• a process (or set of processes) which embodies
  a transformation in the spatial organization of
  social relations and transactions

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3. Scholtes definition of globalisation/
transnationality/ supraterritoriality

• globalisation entails a reconfiguration of
  geography, so that social space is no longer
  wholly mapped in terms of territorial places,
  territorial distances and territorial borders.
• globalisation involves deterritorialisation
  and the growth of supraterritorial relations
  between people

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4. Multiple dimensions of globalisation (briefly
now and in more detail later)

• (i) Technology and Infrastructure
• (ii) Consciousness and culture
• (iii) Politics and Governance
• (iv) Civil Society and Social Movements
• (v) Neo-Liberal Capitalism Production, Trade
  and Finance

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III. How New is Globalisation?
Silk Road ca 110 BCE
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1. History of globalisation as a contemporary
controversy.

• 2. Trade and economic relations
• Ancient Trade Routes
• Ancient Empires
• Age of European Exploration and Colonisation from
  15th Century
• Earlier Chinese Exploration
• Rise of Capitalism and international trade

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3. Cosmopolitan consciousness, culture and
religion.

• World Religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism
• Encounters between peoples New World
• Sciences of astronomy, geology and geography
  the Globe
• European Enlightenment and other cultures
  Rousseau on savages of the
• Enlightenment ideas of universal history and
  world citizenship

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4. Transport and communications.

• Technologies of sea voyages compass and sextant
  (1730)
• Postal services from 16th century, esp. 19th
  century
• Railways first inter-city railway in 1830
• Telegraphy and Morse Code - from 1837
• Telephone - from 1875

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5. Scholtes three stages of globalisation

• (i) 18th century Enlightenment ideas,
  exploration, trade
• (ii) incipient globalisation from 1850s-1950s
• Industrialisation
• Empires and trade
• First World War as interruption of globalisation
• (iii) accelerating globalisation from 1960s to
  present

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IV. Technological Globalisation Creating the
Global Village in the Twentieth Century
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1. Material and technological infrastructure of
communication, trade, travel, war.

• 2. Contrast between North vs. South telephones,
  internet, mobile phones.

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3. Electronic communications

• Radio from beginning of 20th century
• Television since 1930s
• Satellites from 1960s

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4. Computers, internet and the worldwide web

• First mechanical computers 1940-45
• Mass market personal computers 1980s
• Internet developed from 1958/ widely available
  from 1988
• World Wide Web from 1991
• The rest is (your) memory

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5. Air travel - the shrinking globe

• First flight by Wright brothers 1903
• First flight from France to England Louis
  Blériot in 1909
• Jumbo Jet (Boeing 747) first commercial flight
  in 1970

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V. Global Capitalism The Global Market

• Neo-liberal capitalism and globalisation as
  the main target of AGMs.

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2. Bretton Woods institutions of global
capitalism.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank
  from 1944
• World Trade Organisation (WTO) replaced GATT in
  1995

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3. The Cold War and rival paths of economic
development

• First/ Second/ Third Worlds (Alfred Sauvy, 1952)
• First World/ Western model of free markets and
  liberal democracy
• Second World/ Eastern model of state-centred
  development
• Third World of unaligned developing countries

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4. Neoliberal ideology after Oil Shock and 1989
fall of communism

• (i) Thatcherism and Reaganism - theres no such
  thing as social justice/ society
• (ii) Against welfare, equality and redistribution
  of wealth (F. Hayek)
• (iii) Free Markets and Chicago Economics against
  (previous) Keynesian orthodoxy (Milton Friedman)

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5. The global agenda of neoliberalism

• (i) Deregulation/ against state regulation of
  economic activities
• (ii) International Trade
• (iii) International Finance free movement of
  capital, freedom of ownership
• (iv) Globalisation of Production international
  division of labour
• (v) Global Brands and Marketing (Naomi Klein, No
  Logo)

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6. Limits of neo-liberal globalization

• (i) No mobility of labour Tampa and the
  Pacific Solution
• (ii) Skilled migration the neo-colonial brain
  drain
• (iii) Global externalities labour laws and
  rights, pollution

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VI. Global Communities and Culture
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1. Globalisation of Community

• (i) Transnational allegiances and identities
• (ii) Sub-National or Local Identities
• (iii) Hybrid Identities

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2. Globalisation of Cultures

• (i) Western Culture of Individualism and
  Consumerism Coca-colonisation
• (ii) Local Cultures, Particular Identities and
  New Fundamentalisms
• (iii) Media, Entertainment and the Culture
  Industry Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood

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3. New Conflicts of McWorld vs. Jihad (Benjamin
Barber)

• 9/11
• Iraq
• Afghanistan

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VII. Politics in a Globalising World
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1. Institutions of Transnational/ Global
Governance

• European Union (EU) 1993/ EEC from 1958
• Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) - 1993
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
  1994
• United Nations (1945)

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2. The Post-National Constellation (Habermas)?

• (i) Global Limits on Nation-State Sovereignty
• (ii) Strong States, Weak States and Failed States
• (iii) The End of Social Democracy in One
  Country?
• (iv) BUT South American developments Hugo Chavez

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3. The Politics of Empire (Hardt and Negri,
Empire)

• (i) Neo-Liberal Ideology the End of History
  (Fukuyama) and the New World Order (George Bush
  snr)
• (ii) United Nations and the Humanitarian Order
  international law, human rights
• (iii) Wars of Humanitarian Intervention
  Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Sudan etc.
• (iv) Global War on Terror and the Alliance of
  the Willing