Global Civil Society and Its Limits (International Political Economy Series)

Annotation This volume critically examines the promise of a global civil society. Exploring issues in cases of diverse social justice movements, the contributors show that a global civil society is still far from emerging and its promotion may even harm the realization of grassroots democracy. The Internet is an exciting new means for activists to communicate internationally, and citizens' movements increasingly co-ordinate campaigns through transnational advocacy networks, but most effective civic action still takes place at national and local levels Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Tables and Figures......Page 8 Acknowledgement......Page 9 Notes on the Contributors......Page 10 List of Abbreviations......Page 13 1 Effective Resistance to Corporate Globalization......Page 16 Part I Global Civil Society: Critiques......Page 38 2 Global Civil Society and International Protest: No Swan Song Yet for the State......Page 40 3 The Dis-Embedding and Re-Embedding of Capital: Lessons from History......Page 58 4 'Civil Society': Critique and Alternative......Page 78 Part II Transnational Advocacy Networks: Harbingers of a Global Civil Society?......Page 98 5 'We Are All Marcos'? Zapatismo, Solidarity and the Politics of Scale......Page 100 6 'Local' Organizing and 'Global' Struggles: Coalition-Building for Social Justice in the Americas......Page 120 7 Lessons from Mexico–US Civil Society Coalitions......Page 141 8 Limits to Global Civil Society: Gaps Between Western Donors and Russian NGOs......Page 161 Part III The National as a Site of Anti-Globalism Resistance......Page 182 9 The Defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment: National Movements Confront Globalism......Page 184 10 Civic Literacy in Global Civil Society: Excluding the Majority from Democratic Participation......Page 204 11 'Globalization' and Labour Strategy: Towards Social Movement Unionism......Page 225 Bibliography......Page 244 B......Page 275 C......Page 276 E......Page 278 G......Page 279 H......Page 281 I......Page 282 L......Page 283 M......Page 284 N......Page 285 P......Page 287 S......Page 288 T......Page 290 W......Page 292 Z......Page 293 Global Civil Society and its Limits looks critically at whether a global civil society is in the making. The contributors examine the issues around the subject and a range of interesting case studies on current social justice movements, including those involving human rights, trade unions, and anti-corporate globalization. They show that while the Internet has emerged as an exciting new way for activists to communicate across borders, and citizens' movements increasingly co-ordinate through transnational advocacy networks, there is little evidence that a genuine global civil society is emerging. Furthermore, many argue that rather than promoting grass-roots or bottom-up democracy, the dream of global civil society may in fact weaken the most powerful resistance to globalization from above. The most effective civic actions still largely take place where they have long been - at national and local levels