[P2P-F] Fwd: How Do We Get There? The Problem of Action (GTN Discussion)

Sun Nov 12 13:53:00 CET 2017

The November GTN discussion will take up the overarching challenge of
shaping a systemic global movement. To structure the exchange, I have
drafted a short note that summarizes GTI’s approach to date, and poses
broad discussion questions. Please read it at www.greattransition.org/
publication/How-do-we-get-there.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Great Transition Network <gtnetwork at greattransition.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 9:41 PM
Subject: How Do We Get There? The Problem of Action (GTN Discussion)
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

>From Ronaldo Munck <ronnie.munck at dcu.ie>

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Colleagues,

This is a very important call, and I thank you for it. I would like to pose
a friendly critique from someone who comes with a Southern view and one
that is closely engaged with the trade union movement, not exactly a ‘new’
social movement.

I am slightly uncomfortable with the notion posed of a ‘global citizens
movement’ insofar as it seems to lean on the global civil society project
which I see as very ‘Northern’. Global civil society is often seen as the
royal road to democratization, market regulation, and “the good life”. The
main international NGOs are almost exclusively Northern in terms of their
social base, their cosmology, and their politics. Can these NGOs
“represent” global civil society in any meaningful way?

Even that most ostensibly universal of concepts that of “universal human
rights” is cut across by the history of colonialism, imperialism, and
cultural dominance.

For me, globalization and its contestation will take more complex forms
than a simple unfolding of global civil society as privileged terrain for
progressive social change based on shared moral values. The future of this
dialectic will be resolved through political struggle and cannot be
short-circuited by definitional fiat that declares GSC or a putative global
citizens movement as a ready-made royal road to global democracy.

One possible alternative to build the systemic movement you seek might be
Karl Polanyi's problematic which poses the possibility that history
advances through a series of ‘double movements’. So market expansion, on
the one hand, leads to the ‘one big market’ we call globalization today.
Yet, as Polanyi argued in his day and we could argue today, ‘simultaneously
a counter-movement was afoot’ that reacted against the dislocation of
society and the attack on the very fabric of society that the
self-regulating market led to. The ‘double movement’ consisted of economic
liberalism driving the extension of the self-regulating market on the one
hand and the principle of ‘social protection’ on the other hand defending
social interests from the deleterious action of the market.

Today, we can relate the metaphor of the ‘double movement’ to those
socio-political forces which wish to assert more democratic control over
political life. Movements struggling for national or regional sovereignty
(Catalonia?), those seeking to protect the environment, and the plethora of
movements advancing claims for social justice or recognition are all part
of this broad counter-movement. In different, but inter-related ways they
are bids to re-embed the economy in social relations. Challenging the
movement towards commodification, they seek to ‘decommodify’ society and
reassert moral and cultural values. Against materialism and
market-determined values, the social counter-movement generated by
neo-liberal globalization brings to the fore the democracy of civil society
and the social value of all we do.

I have always valued the Foresight perspective and have used it
productively both as a university ‘manager’ and in a development context.
But I think we need a bit more texture to our concepts and more engagement
with theories and practice coming out of the Global South.

Ronaldo

******************************************************

Thursday, November 2, 2017

>From Paul Raskin <praskin at tellus.org>

-----
Dear GTN,

Forthcoming essays and discussions will spotlight questions of social
agency and collective action: Who will change the world? What does the
change look like? How must we act to make it happen? Specifically, we will
consider the potential role of key social movements—indigenous, rights,
labor, climate, ecofeminist, peace, and others—in driving a Great
Transition. But before launching this new series, let’s first set the
larger context.

The November GTN discussion will take up the overarching challenge of
shaping a systemic global movement. To structure the exchange, I have
drafted a short note that summarizes GTI’s approach to date, and poses
broad discussion questions. Please read it at www.greattransition.org/
publication/How-do-we-get-there. A revised version and selected commentary
will be published as a GTI Roundtable in December.

GTN veterans will be excused a sense of déjà vu. From the get-go, GTI has
posited a “global citizens movement” (GCM) as a critical social actor in
the GT scenario, and periodically discussed actions for mobilizing it,
prompting a real-world experiment, The Widening Circle campaign of 2010-12 (
www.wideningcircle.org/).

But that was then. The world changes, urgency grows, and many new voices
are among us. It’s timely to search afresh for answers to the pressing
question of transformative action.

Because we’re getting a late start, the discussion will go through Tuesday,
December 5. Especially welcome are comments on the shape of the global
movement we need and possible initiatives to catalyze it. Comments that
dwell on reasons for pessimism or inaction, or on existing projects
(hundreds of important ones are represented in this network), not so much.

Over to you,
Paul

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Or see thread and reply online at
http://www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/201-
how-do-we-get-there-the-problem-of-action/2499

Need help? Email jcohn at tellus.org

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