Eva-Maria Hardtmann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199466276
- eISBN:
- 9780199087518
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199466276.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This work is a well-researched study of the last few decades of the networks in the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and World Social Forums. It offers a more novel perspective on the traditions of ...
More
This work is a well-researched study of the last few decades of the networks in the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and World Social Forums. It offers a more novel perspective on the traditions of protest, ethics, organizational forms, and visions among activists than is usually presented in the literature on GJM, which largely focuses on Latin America, the United States of America, and Europe. It is an ethnographically rooted account of the two conflicting discourses—one among activists in GJM and the other emanating from the World Bank—that have become intertwined locally within the same circle of activists. The author argues that local and transnational activist networks, no longer spatially and territorially limited, have become entangled with forces understood under the paradigms of ‘neoliberalism’, and relations among activists have changed in unexpected ways. Through a vivid description of transnational movements, this book aims to make evident the not-so-obvious yet intricate links between the World Bank, the United Nations, popular rock stars, and historical knowledge production among activists in South Asia and Japan in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.Less
This work is a well-researched study of the last few decades of the networks in the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and World Social Forums. It offers a more novel perspective on the traditions of protest, ethics, organizational forms, and visions among activists than is usually presented in the literature on GJM, which largely focuses on Latin America, the United States of America, and Europe. It is an ethnographically rooted account of the two conflicting discourses—one among activists in GJM and the other emanating from the World Bank—that have become intertwined locally within the same circle of activists. The author argues that local and transnational activist networks, no longer spatially and territorially limited, have become entangled with forces understood under the paradigms of ‘neoliberalism’, and relations among activists have changed in unexpected ways. Through a vivid description of transnational movements, this book aims to make evident the not-so-obvious yet intricate links between the World Bank, the United Nations, popular rock stars, and historical knowledge production among activists in South Asia and Japan in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Caroline Heldman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501709203
- eISBN:
- 9781501709470
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501709203.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter describes seven distinct peaks of consumer activism in the U.S. that coincide with key moments of political action: The American Revolution, the Free Produce Movement, the era of Chinese ...
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This chapter describes seven distinct peaks of consumer activism in the U.S. that coincide with key moments of political action: The American Revolution, the Free Produce Movement, the era of Chinese exclusion, the Progressive Movement, the New Deal period, the Civil Rights and Consumer Movements, and the Global Justice Movement. Consumer activism is an American tradition that has strengthened democracy at key points in U.S. history, with the exception of its infrequent use to suppress the rights of ethnic and racial minorities.Less
This chapter describes seven distinct peaks of consumer activism in the U.S. that coincide with key moments of political action: The American Revolution, the Free Produce Movement, the era of Chinese exclusion, the Progressive Movement, the New Deal period, the Civil Rights and Consumer Movements, and the Global Justice Movement. Consumer activism is an American tradition that has strengthened democracy at key points in U.S. history, with the exception of its infrequent use to suppress the rights of ethnic and racial minorities.
Todd Wolfson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038846
- eISBN:
- 9780252096808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038846.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This concluding chapter reexamines the Cyber Left against the backdrop of informational capitalism and history. Through this lens, it discusses indymedia as a precursor to Occupy Wall Street and many ...
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This concluding chapter reexamines the Cyber Left against the backdrop of informational capitalism and history. Through this lens, it discusses indymedia as a precursor to Occupy Wall Street and many of the emergent social movements that have developed since the economic crisis of 2008. It also explains how the core logic and strategy of the Cyber Left played a significant role in the inability of the Global Social Justice Movement to build long-term power. It identifies four interrelated, core problems: (1) a retreat from class and capitalism as analytic and political categories; (2) a tendency toward technological determinism; (3) an anti-institutional bias; and (4) no emphasis on political education and leadership development.Less
This concluding chapter reexamines the Cyber Left against the backdrop of informational capitalism and history. Through this lens, it discusses indymedia as a precursor to Occupy Wall Street and many of the emergent social movements that have developed since the economic crisis of 2008. It also explains how the core logic and strategy of the Cyber Left played a significant role in the inability of the Global Social Justice Movement to build long-term power. It identifies four interrelated, core problems: (1) a retreat from class and capitalism as analytic and political categories; (2) a tendency toward technological determinism; (3) an anti-institutional bias; and (4) no emphasis on political education and leadership development.
Eva-Maria Hardtmann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199466276
- eISBN:
- 9780199087518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199466276.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Chapter 2 describes the background of the GJM and the World Social Forum process. A brief overview is given of the organizational aspects and how the concept of network has been used in social ...
More
Chapter 2 describes the background of the GJM and the World Social Forum process. A brief overview is given of the organizational aspects and how the concept of network has been used in social movement studies to situate this study in relation to scholars writing on the GJM and the Occupy Movement. Criticism from the outside against the GJM is explored, but also coming from inside the movement. Ethical similarities and organizational differences between the GJM and the Occupy Movement are outlined and explore how activists in these two movements belong within the same broader discourse, focussing on a global economic élite. The chapter ends by relating activists in South Asia and Japan to the GJM and the Occupy Movement and demonstrates how activists in these regions have been marginalized in the movements and largely ignored in the scholarly writings.Less
Chapter 2 describes the background of the GJM and the World Social Forum process. A brief overview is given of the organizational aspects and how the concept of network has been used in social movement studies to situate this study in relation to scholars writing on the GJM and the Occupy Movement. Criticism from the outside against the GJM is explored, but also coming from inside the movement. Ethical similarities and organizational differences between the GJM and the Occupy Movement are outlined and explore how activists in these two movements belong within the same broader discourse, focussing on a global economic élite. The chapter ends by relating activists in South Asia and Japan to the GJM and the Occupy Movement and demonstrates how activists in these regions have been marginalized in the movements and largely ignored in the scholarly writings.
Todd Wolfson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038846
- eISBN:
- 9780252096808
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038846.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This book examines the impact of new media and communication technologies on the spatial, strategic, and organizational fabric of social movements. It begins with the rise of the Zapatistas in the ...
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This book examines the impact of new media and communication technologies on the spatial, strategic, and organizational fabric of social movements. It begins with the rise of the Zapatistas in the mid-1990s, and how aspects of the movement—network organizational structure, participatory democratic governance, and the use of communication tools as a binding agent—became essential parts of Indymedia and all Cyber Left organizations. From there the book charts the media-based think tanks and experiments that continued the Cyber Left's evolution through the Independent Media Center's birth around the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. After examining the historical antecedents and rise of the global Indymedia network, the book melds virtual and traditional ethnographic practice to explore the Cyber Left's cultural logic, mapping the social, spatial and communicative structure of the Indymedia network and detailing its operations on the local, national and global level. It also looks at the participatory democracy that governs global social movements and the ways the movement's twin ideologies, democracy and decentralization, have come into tension, and how what the book calls the switchboard of struggle conducts stories of shared struggle from the hyper-local and dispersed worldwide. As the book shows, understanding the intersection of Indymedia and the Global Social Justice Movement illuminates their foundational role in the Occupy struggle, Arab Spring uprising, and the other emergent movements that have in recent years re-energized radical politics.Less
This book examines the impact of new media and communication technologies on the spatial, strategic, and organizational fabric of social movements. It begins with the rise of the Zapatistas in the mid-1990s, and how aspects of the movement—network organizational structure, participatory democratic governance, and the use of communication tools as a binding agent—became essential parts of Indymedia and all Cyber Left organizations. From there the book charts the media-based think tanks and experiments that continued the Cyber Left's evolution through the Independent Media Center's birth around the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. After examining the historical antecedents and rise of the global Indymedia network, the book melds virtual and traditional ethnographic practice to explore the Cyber Left's cultural logic, mapping the social, spatial and communicative structure of the Indymedia network and detailing its operations on the local, national and global level. It also looks at the participatory democracy that governs global social movements and the ways the movement's twin ideologies, democracy and decentralization, have come into tension, and how what the book calls the switchboard of struggle conducts stories of shared struggle from the hyper-local and dispersed worldwide. As the book shows, understanding the intersection of Indymedia and the Global Social Justice Movement illuminates their foundational role in the Occupy struggle, Arab Spring uprising, and the other emergent movements that have in recent years re-energized radical politics.
Todd Wolfson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038846
- eISBN:
- 9780252096808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038846.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to describe and analyze the logic that drives left-based social movements. The book maps the underlying logic of a new figure of ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to describe and analyze the logic that drives left-based social movements. The book maps the underlying logic of a new figure of resistance—a new sociopolitical formation—as it has materialized across the world. It undertakes this mapping exercise through a historical and ethnographic analysis of the Global Social Justice Movement from 1994 to 2006, with a particular focus on the indymedia movement. It argues that historical and sociocultural patterns connect different periods of political protest. Specifically, it argues that the patterns of struggle in a particular period are best understood as developing, in an ideal sense, through a multilateral dialogue between social-movement actors and both the past and present. The chapter then introduces the term Cyber Left, suggesting that that we are on the cusp of a new stage in left-based social movements. This is followed by an overview of the two parts of the book.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to describe and analyze the logic that drives left-based social movements. The book maps the underlying logic of a new figure of resistance—a new sociopolitical formation—as it has materialized across the world. It undertakes this mapping exercise through a historical and ethnographic analysis of the Global Social Justice Movement from 1994 to 2006, with a particular focus on the indymedia movement. It argues that historical and sociocultural patterns connect different periods of political protest. Specifically, it argues that the patterns of struggle in a particular period are best understood as developing, in an ideal sense, through a multilateral dialogue between social-movement actors and both the past and present. The chapter then introduces the term Cyber Left, suggesting that that we are on the cusp of a new stage in left-based social movements. This is followed by an overview of the two parts of the book.
Eva-Maria Hardtmann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199466276
- eISBN:
- 9780199087518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199466276.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Chapter 6 discusses theories about transnational feminism in South Asia generally, but more specifically it gives an overview of the history of Dalit feminism in India. The central importance of the ...
More
Chapter 6 discusses theories about transnational feminism in South Asia generally, but more specifically it gives an overview of the history of Dalit feminism in India. The central importance of the Mumbai World Social Forum in 2004 is dealt with at length to highlight how Dalit feminists put feminism more generally at the core of the World Social Forum process. This is the chapter where the main ethnography about the local day-to-day work in between World Social Forums among activists and (I)NGO workers is to be found. It takes as its focal point the broader transnational network International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and presents three local ethnographies from within this network: first, ethnography from the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) in Kathmandu, Nepal; second, from the office of IMADR–Asia Committee, in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and third, from among Burakumin networks in Osaka, Japan.Less
Chapter 6 discusses theories about transnational feminism in South Asia generally, but more specifically it gives an overview of the history of Dalit feminism in India. The central importance of the Mumbai World Social Forum in 2004 is dealt with at length to highlight how Dalit feminists put feminism more generally at the core of the World Social Forum process. This is the chapter where the main ethnography about the local day-to-day work in between World Social Forums among activists and (I)NGO workers is to be found. It takes as its focal point the broader transnational network International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and presents three local ethnographies from within this network: first, ethnography from the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) in Kathmandu, Nepal; second, from the office of IMADR–Asia Committee, in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and third, from among Burakumin networks in Osaka, Japan.
