Wennerhag - The politics of the global movement - The Diigo Meta page

• 05 May 08
  

  Arabica Robusta

  Large−scale social movements often behave provocatively but with the aim to make more space for democracy. The latest of these is the global justice movement born in Seattle in 1999. Magnus Wennerhag's new book is the first major Swedish study on the impact of this movement. In the extract Arena publishes here, he shows how it differs from the movements of 1968, being more political and more directedtowards international institutions and globalized democracy.

  wennerhag social movement globalization seattle justice democracy activism

Page Comments

• 
  Arabica Robusta on 2008-05-06
  Social movements are
  seen alternately as actors creating and extending democracy, and as actors
  obstructing and destabilizing it. The notion of politics as liberation is
  confronted by the notion of politics as order.
  But in order to understand the full impact of social movements on politics and
  social developments, we must take both of these aspects into account. Social
  movements may challenge, change or sustain the institutions and norms of the
  society of their time. It is on the borderline between ideals of autonomous
  freedom and the upholding of order that politics is created and social changes
  are initiated.
• 
  Arabica Robusta on 2008-05-06
  The common good as well as a will to democratize global power is used to stem the wave of privatization. There is more to globalization, however, than de−politicization, privatization, and the spread of market forces. Alongside these we have seen the emergence of what might be called new forms of citizenship. The global norms that have guided the supranational bodies have created new political opportunities. In parallel with these bodies, new transnational public bodies have been created
  with the aim of bringing pressure to bear on the denationalized order. The
  social forums, particularly the World Social Forum, are clear examples. The
  forums are helping to develop a global grass−roots identity, to formulate political demands for global rights, and to establish a transnational public body for political interaction.
• 
  Arabica Robusta on 2008-05-06
  The new social movements were critical of the idea of political representation
  and the division between public and private, as they considered that a state−centred nderstanding of politics merely concealed the inequalities that existed outside the state and put them beyond reach of change. The activists in
  the global justice movement have a different critical emphasis. They prefer to
  defend the public and the political institutions, and other forms of political
  autonomy that have been undermined by globalization. They express a will to
  restore a sense of the public in an age that is perceived as far too focused on the private. One

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