Transnational Social Movements

Making Global Publics? Communication and Knowledge Production in the World Social Forum Process

by Hilde C. Stephansen

PhD Thesis, 2011

This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in... more This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in the World Social Forum (WSF), focusing on their relationship to processes of knowledge production. Using the concept of publics as a theoretical tool, it explores how, through mediated communication, forum organisers and communication activists seek to extend the WSF in time and space and thereby make it public. Engaging critically with the idea of the WSF as a global process, the thesis considers how mediated communication might contribute to making the WSF global, not so much in absolute terms as by creating a sense of globality, and how the idea of the global relates to other scales. It develops an understanding of the WSF as an epistemic project that seeks both to affirm the existence and validity of multiple knowledges and to facilitate convergence between them, and considers how different communication practices might further this project.

Based on ethnographic research carried out in connection with the WSF 2009 in Belém, complemented by fieldwork at other social forums, the thesis is structured as a series of case studies of different communication practices, ranging from efforts to engage with conventional mass media to various initiatives that seek to strengthen movement-based communication infrastructures and enable WSF participants to communicate on their own terms. These demonstrate that there are many different approaches to making the WSF 'public' and 'global', which beyond facilitating the circulation of media content also involve mobilising new actors to participate in media production and generating a sense of identification with a global WSF process. They also show that mediated communication can contribute to knowledge production not only by facilitating information sharing, but also through the more subtle processes of empowerment, network-building, and translation across difference it can stimulate when embedded in movement dynamics.

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

THE ROLE OF DISSIDENT-INTELLECTUALS IN THE FORMATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN (POST)COMMUNIST EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE

by Mariya Ivancheva

Attori sociali e diritti umani: dinamiche locali e transnazionali

by Raffaele Marchetti

2009. in M. Calloni (ed.), Umanizzare l’umanitarismo? Limiti e potenzialità della comunità internazionale, Torino: UTET, 127-34

Democracy By Proxy: Environmental Policy Change in Mexico

by Raul Pacheco-Vega

Citizen participation in policy-making has been touted as the cornerstone of every democratic regime. Encouraging... more Citizen participation in policy-making has been touted as the cornerstone of every democratic regime. Encouraging society members to participate in political life allows for a more meaningful, inclusive approach to policy agenda setting, design and implementation. As a result, innovative processes that encourage citizen input in policy-making also have the potential to provide solid foundations to a vigorous, strong democracy. Despite this need for citizen participation, it should also be acknowledged that, for society at large, it is almost impossible to participate in every forum of the environmental policymaking
arena. As a result, the number and variety of environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) has increased almost exponentially in the last few years. ENGOs take upon themselves the role of representing the interests of the people (thus encouraging 'democracy by proxy'). This paper traces ENGO involvement in effecting policy change in Mexico by
documenting instances where their influence proved to be effective. I also outline the different strategies used by these ENGOs, with a strong focus on NGO coalition-building and network formation. Building on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, I analyse empirical evidence of environmental policy change and then I trace the extent to which this change
can be attributed to ENGO influence. Theoretical and empirical implications of my research are also discussed.

Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 43 (2), 525-562.

In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article... more In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.

The Legal Adaptation of British Settlers in Turkey

by Derya Bayir

This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The... more This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The region is the locale for a significant level of settlement by British people, within the wider context of settlement by groups of other EU nationals in western Turkey. Based on a series of interviews with British settlers and Turkish locals, it examines the factors which affect the process of legal adaptation of the former group. It identifies and discusses the place of British settlers within the larger Turkish legal order, their integration into Turkish life, and the extent to which different socio-legal disabilities and advantages affect this process. The article also casts some light on the extent to which, given the level of British immigration into the area, Turkish officialdom is prepared for their presence.

Ultras call for retaliation as parliament blames fans and security for Port Said deaths

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

An Egyptian parliamentary inquiry into this month’s death of 74 soccer fans in the Suez... more By James M. Dorsey

An Egyptian parliamentary inquiry into this month’s death of 74 soccer fans in the Suez Canal city of Port Said has blamed fans and lax security for the worst incident in the country’s sports history. The inquiry’s preliminary report also suggests without going into detail that unidentified thugs were involved in the violence that erupted at the end of a match between Port Said’s Al Masri SC and crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC.

The report is scheduled to be debated in parliament on Monday. It was drafted by a committee headed by Ashraf Thabet, the assembly’s first deputy speaker and a member of the Salafist Al-Nur Party, which is believed to enjoy backing from Saudi Arabia and advocates adherence to Islam in line with 7th century practices at the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

A controversial member of Al Nur, Salafist preacher Sheikh Abdel Moneim El-Shaha, was last week attempting to talk his way out of reports that he had condemned soccer as a sin and said that the 74 fans were killed because they had been watching a forbidden form of entertainment. Mr. El-Shaha charged that he had been misquoted.

The parliamentary report is unlikely to reduce tension between the fans or ultras – militant, well-organized, highly politicized, street battle-hardened soccer support groups modelled on similar organizations in Serbia and Italy – and Egypt’s ruling military and security forces. At least 16 people were killed in the wake of the Port Said incident in six days of fighting between security forces and youths seeking to storm the interior ministry in central Cairo.

The military last week said troops and tanks would ensure security in advance of a general strike last weekend called by activists and youth groups to demand the immediate return of the military to their barracks and the formation of a civilian government. The failure of the strike on the first anniversary of the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak after religious leaders called on Egyptians to ignore it signalled the increasing isolation of the ultras – the military’s most militant opposition – and other activists who led the protests that forced the Egyptian leader to resign after 30 years in office.

Ultras Ahlawy, the Al Ahli support group that lost scores in the Port Said incident, called in a statement on Facebook on the eve of the release of the parliamentary report for retaliation against those responsible for the death of their comrades. The statement also called for the cleansing of the interior ministry, under which the security forces, the focus of their animosity whom they accuse of engineering the fatal brawl, resort.

The interior ministry or dakhliya symbolizes for many ultras their battle for karama or dignity. Their dignity is vested in their ability to stand up to the dakhliya, particularly in the wake of Port Said; a sense that they no longer can be abused by security forces without recourse; and the fact that they no longer have to pay off policemen to stay out of trouble.

“This Wednesday will mark two weeks since the passing of some of Egypt’s finest youth. They died because they refused to live without dignity and screamed loud calling for freedom,” the Ultras Ahlawy statement said.

It demanded an investigation of what it alleged was the failure of the interior ministry and the security forces to ensure safety and security during the match in which Port Said defeated Al Ahli 3:1 as well as “the cleansing of the ministry of interior and a full reconstruction of its system.”

The ultras further demanded that authorities drop references to involvement of a “third” party in the incident, a reference to the military’s attempt to position the Port Said incident as part of a foreign conspiracy to destabilize post-revolt Egypt. The ultras said they would not “accept the outcome of an investigation that blamed an anonymous (group for an incident) that wasted the lives of the martyrs.” They demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits whom they said were known to authorities “so as not to put us in the position of taking the right (into our own hands).”

While the Ultras Ahlawy charge that security forces failed to intervene in the lethal attack on their members and accuse thugs hired by the government of instigating the incident they also appeared to agree with the parliamentary inquiry’s conclusion that television footage documents the involvement of Al Masri fans in the attack on them. Ultras Ahlawy believes it was targeted because of its key role alongside other ultras groups in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak and its opposition since then to military rule.

Leaders of the ultras suggested that the incident was intended to exploit waning public support for the ultras, which were revered for their fearlessness, years of confrontation with security forces in the stadiums, role in manning defending Tahrir Square during the anti-Mubarak protests last year and militant support of their clubs. Their militancy and contentious street politics is however increasingly out of step with the mood in a country that is protest weary, retains confidence in the military despite its brutality, is frustrated that its revolt has not produced immediate tangible economic fruits and yearns for a return to normalcy so that Egypt can recover economically.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Thabet said in parliament Sunday that the Port Said incident had been sparked in part by incitement on sports TV channels. Disclosing details of the inquiry, he charged that thugs and hard core soccer fans had taken "advantage of the tension surrounding the game to achieve some political gains," but gave no details. Mr. Thabet promised to release the names of the instigators a later stage. He said 12,000 tickets had been sold for the match but 18,000 spectators had been admitted to the stadium.

Mr. Thabet said fans were not inspected while entering the stands and there was a lack of order inside and outside the stadium. "Security facilitated, allowed and enabled this massacre," he said, adding that security forces ignored mounting tension in advance of the Al Masri-Al Ahli match. "Both ultras and thugs attacked Ahly fans and this is part of Ultras' culture," he said.

Mr. Thabet acknowledged that similar pitch invasions had occurred in Port Said in the past year. Like in stadiums elsewhere in Egypt, security was often lax and security forces where more interested in avoiding clashes with fans in a bid to shore up their tarnished image as the Mubarak regime’s henchmen than in ensuring security. The Port Said incident has sparked suspicion that more than just laxness was involved because stadium exits that were normally open had been locked and because security forces refused to intervene despite the fact that the brawl had turned lethal.

The parliamentary inquiry also took the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to task for violating world governing body FIFA’s security standards that call for monitoring by a security official of the security and political situation before, during and after a match.

The charge cast a further shadow over FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s demand for the reinstitution of the EFA board that was last week dismissed by the government in the wake of the Port Said incident. Mr. Blatter’s charge that the dismissal constituted political interference rings hallow given that the board consists of Mubarak appointees who furthered the ousted president’s efforts to control and manipulate the game to his political benefit. It also rings hallow given the fact that despite a nominal 2013 FIFA deadline for a restructuring of Egyptian soccer FIFA essentially tolerated the fact that the vast majority of Egyptian premier league clubs fail to meet the soccer body’s criteria for league membership.

FIFA sources said the Mr. Blatter’s demand was part of a flawed communications strategy designed to position the FIFA president as a leader and defender of soccer in a bid to repair the reputational damage he suffered as a result of a series of scandals in the last year that have rocked the soccer body and tarnished its image and that of its president. One source described the strategy as dating from the 1930s.

The sources said FIFA’s announcement that it was donating $250,000 to the families of those who died in Port Said was part of Mr. Blatter’s strategy. They noted that it was being handled personally by the FIFA president rather than the soccer body’s emergency committee and doubted that there was a mechanism to distribute the funds. In a separate move, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which is headed by a controversial Blatter ally, Issa Hatou, said it was donating $150,000.

In the first regional fallout of the Port Said incident, Tunisia’s interior ministry ordered that all league matches be played behind closed doors because of concern about deteriorating security. Le Presse sports editor Sami Akrimi said the decision stemmed from the failure of the Tunisian soccer body to work with fan groups to ensure security.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Social Movement Transnationalization: A Multi-Level ATTAC

by Andrew Tompkins

M.A. Thesis in Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2005)

Particularly Universal? The Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, and the West German Left

by Andrew Tompkins

M.A. Thesis in History, University of Chicago (2008)

From Czarnobyl to Żarnobyl: The impact of Chernobyl on the Polish green opposition until 1989 (and beyond)

by Kacper Szulecki

in: Arndt, Melanie (ed.) "After Chernobyl", ZZF/Böhlau Verlag, forthcoming in German in February 2012.

“Are you crazy? You wanna protest for the damn white mice, is that what you want?” – the prominent opposition leader... more “Are you crazy? You wanna protest for the damn white mice, is that what you want?” – the prominent opposition leader Jacek Kuroń supposedly exclaimed in 1981, when ap-proached by some young activists with the idea of the “Solidarity” trade union actions for environmental protection. One of the youngsters, since then and until this day an activist in Warsaw, Jarosław “Jarema” Dubiel, explains that “it was not yet the time for environmental concerns”. That time had come only after the Chernobyl catastrophe, and in Poland too, it was largely, although not exclusively, about nuclear energy and its dangers. The attitudes soon changed so that several thousand protesters were gathered at a march condemning the state’s notorious information policy on Chernobyl’s fallout risks in June of 1986. With time methods too changed and green activism became an example of the best and most spectacular non-violent actions that Polish dissent had to offer in the second half of the 1980s. To give a hint of the direction the protests took – in October 1987, in a manner as unbelievable as the spelling of the place where it took place – Gdańsk district of Wrzeszcz – four followers of the “Freedom and Peace” (Wolność i Pokój – WiP) Movement, climbed the rooftop of a local pharmacy dressed up as animals (a fox, a hare, a hedgehog and a fish). Following one of the key principles of the Movement’s non-violent strategy: “it takes only a single cop to arrest a standing protester, but up to four to arrest a sitting one” (and a whole platoon if you climb a rooftop and pull the ladder up), they remained atop the pharmacy for some time, displaying their banners and scattering fliers. Their colleagues on the same day in different points of the city distributed some ten thousand leaflets altogether. The human-animals were arrested eventually, but only once they stumbled down from the roof after peaceful negotiations and a long “performance” for quite a large audience of sympathetic bystanders.

‘Freedom and peace are indivisible’: On the Czechoslovak and Polish dissident input to the European peace movement 1985-89

by Kacper Szulecki

in: Brier, Robert and Agnes Arndt (eds.) Transnational Perspectives on Dissent and Opposition in Central and Eastern Europe, DHI: Warsaw, forthcoming 2012.

The chapter looks at the interactions across the Iron Curtain and across internal bloc borders, which in the 1980s... more The chapter looks at the interactions across the Iron Curtain and across internal bloc borders, which in the 1980s lead to the emergence of a pan-European peace movement. In looking at the contacts between the Western peace movement and the Central European dissidents in the 1980s, my aim is not merely a recapitulation of the various open letters and encounters. I show the circulation of ideas across the divided Europe, and argue that the dissident movements played an important role in this dialogue. In fact, they influenced the peace movement so that it changed its course from disarmament to the idea of ‘indivisible peace’ – that freedom and peace are indivisible and cannot be played off against each other.

Needing to select only the most important elements of the transnational network of peace groups, I focus on the Czechoslovak Charter 77 and the Polish WiP as well as the Societal Resistance Committee (KOS). On the western side I look at those parts of the peace movements that were, first of all, willing to discuss the fundamentals, and secondly, were interested in maintaining contacts with the independent groups in the East. That means especially the European Nuclear Disarmament (END), as well as other Western European organizations, independent but linked to END (i.e. the Dutch IKV – Inter-church Peace Council, the French CODENE - The Committee for the Denuclearization of Europe), as well as the German ‘Greens’.

I begin with a review of theoretical and empirical literature constituting the ‘transnational approach’ to position my work within it. I then move on to the story of the dialogue between the Czechoslovak and Polish dissidents and the Western peace activists, showing the way in which the definition of peace and the priorities of the peace movement were altered because of the transnational exchange.

The Emergence of a Standards Market: Multiplicity of Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry

by Stephan Manning

Full Source: Reinecke, J.; Manning, S.; Von Hagen, O. 2012. "The Emergence of a Standards Market: Multiplicity of Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry", Organization Studies, Forthcoming.

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations... more The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time, they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets,’ this paper examines this tension and studies how different social movement and industry-driven standards organizations compete as well as collaborate over governance in transnational arenas. Based on an in-depth case study of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry, we find that the ongoing co-existence of multiple standards is being promoted by the interplay between two countervailing mechanisms: convergence and differentiation. In conjunction, these mechanisms are enabling the emergence and persistence of a market for standards through what we describe as meta-standardization of sustainable practices. Meta-standardization leads to convergence at the ‘rules of the game’ level, but allows also differentiation at the attributes level, which is enabling parties to create and maintain their own standards. Our study helps to advance the understanding of transnational governance by explaining the dynamics of competing and collaborating non-state actors in constituting a standards market.

Redes ciudadanas, interacción transnacional y calidad de la democracia en México

by Ana Fernandez Zubieta

European Industrial Relations after the Crisis. A Postscript

by Roland Erne

European Industrial Relations after the Crisis. A Postscript

Roland Erne (more European Industrial Relations after the Crisis. A Postscript

Roland Erne (Roland.Erne@ucd.ie)

Draft of chapter 13 to be published in:

S. Smismans (ed.) (forthcoming)
The European Union and Industrial Relations
New Procedures, New Context
Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Labour History symposium: European unions: Labor’s Quest for a Transnational Democracy, by Roland Erne, Ithaca, NY and London, ILR Press, 2008

by Roland Erne

by C. Phelan, A. Martin, B. Hancké, L. Baccaro, and R. Erne.  Published in Labor History Vol. 50, No. 2, May 2009, 187–216

See: more See: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a912048604~db=all~jumptype=rss


Editorial note

In this erudite and cautiously optimistic book, Roland Erne, a leading authority on contemporary trade union developments in Europe, challenges the widely held view that there is no realistic prospect for overcoming the European Union’s democratic deficit. Based on a series of important case studies of corporate mergers and wage bargaining, European Unions is both highly original and compelling. Erne’s intent is to assess the conditions under which trade unions combine to adopt and implement
strategies that have a democratizing effect on EU governance. A must-read for all interested in the fate of European trade unionism, European Unions is here discussed by some of the foremost scholars of that subject.

Craig Phelan
Editor

Sailing with the Sea Shepherds

by Teale Phelps Bondaroff

Non-Peer Reviewed Publication

My PhD research in general looks at the strategies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international affairs,... more My PhD research in general looks at the strategies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international affairs, and specifically examines the strategy of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (Sea Shepherd). As part of my research into the strategy of Sea Shepherd, I undertook fieldwork where I engaged in participant observation on board the Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker as it took part in ‘Operation No Compromise,’ from December 2, 2010 to March 6, 2011. The Bob Barker spent 95 days at sea, and was at the heart of an action-packed campaign, Sea Shepherd’s seventh campaign against Japanese Antarctic whaling and its most successful campaign to date. What follows is a collection of the e-mail updates which I sent home to friends and family throughout the duration of the campaign, via my partner who acted as intermediary.

"Determinants of Latin American Activism: Domestic and Transnational Political Opportunities and Threats"

by K. Russell Shekha

For decades Latin America has been and continues to be a vibrant source of activism as democracies emerge, civil... more For decades Latin America has been and continues to be a vibrant source of activism as democracies emerge, civil societies strengthen, and movements turn an outward eye towards international forces. Social movements, organizations, and activists in Latin America mobilize around a diverse set of issues from neoliberalism to women’s rights and more. Yet, all groups must successfully navigate ever-shifting domestic and transnational political opportunities and threats. This review first defines the political opportunity approach and discusses debates surrounding its utility and applicability at different phases of social movement activity, as well as growing debates about the importance of domestic versus transnational opportunities and threats for predicting movement mobilization, protests, and outcomes. Next the article discusses changing domestic and transnational political opportunities and threats throughout Latin America. It then turns to empirical application of the political opportunity model to various social movements, organizations, and activist groups working in Central and South America. This paper concludes with a brief revisit of the debate and points to future lines of inquiry. Additionally, it provides an interactive Google Map, which locates the prominent actors involved in Latin American activism, the international institutions that influence them, and Internet links for more information.

Transnationalizing Desire: Sexualizing Culture and Commodifying Sexualities

by Cymene Howe

Cooperation and Co-optation in Transnational Activism

by Cymene Howe