Geographies of mobilization Flashcards
SMs are
essential to any well-functioning democracy. SMs give voice to people and causes outside the established power structure, and through ongoing discussion, education, and mobilisation, create the conditions and pressures necessary for broader debate.
Massey, 1994
globalization implies a change in spatial organization and order, and in the associated ‘geometries of power’.
Traditional geographies of mobilization
Are rooted in localized places and the nation, state, and appear to be in relative decline.
Castells, 1996
Argues that ‘spaces of places’ is being replaced as the ‘spaces of flows’, with the logic and meaning of places being ‘absorbed in the network’.
Boli and Thomas, 1999
The rise of global civil society and the activities of tens of thousands of transnational NGOs and anti-globalization SM organizations suggest a fundamental shift away from place-based forms of political organizing and towards transnational mobilization networks.
SMs are learning to…
identify, negotiate with, and build alliances among people located in diverse places that are bound up in complex socio-spatial processes.
All SMs face the same fundamental problem
how to mobilize widespread support and participation.
Olson (1965)
the root of the SMs problems identified as the free-rider dilemma: why would a person participate in collective action when s/he could reap the benefits of others participation without actually becoming involved.
Numerous SM theorists have argued what about collective identities
That collective identities are just a fundamental to a sense of selfhood as individual identities. The fact we identify with others allows us to redefine our selfish interest so that it includes our subjective understanding of the larger collectivity.
McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly
Explain that in the course of mobilising local networks of black churches, activists ‘had to engage in creative cultural/organisational work, by which the aism of the church and its animating collective identity were redefined to accord with the goals of the emerging struggle.
Harvey (96)
Argues that ‘militant particularism’ plays a crucial role in mobilising beyond place-specific social realms. It begins with place-specific experience, but goes beyond the bounds of place as ‘ideas forged out of the affirmative experience of solidarities in one place get generalised and universalised.
Barber (1995)
Argues that one real scenario facing the world involves ‘onrushing economic, technological, and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerise peoples everywhere with fact music, fast computers and fast food, pressing nations into one homogenous global theme park.
Habermas, 1987
Reactiosn to the commodification and rationalization process of modernity include not only reactionary, defensive movements, but also progressive, emancipatory ones.
A central problem for SMs in a globalising world
becomes how to grasp the flux of meanings and identities (Hannerz, 92) Meanings and identities have never been fixed and static.
Cultural globalization produces
an increasing connectedness of varied local cultures. without a clear anchorage in any one territory.
Mayer and Geschiere, 1995
Global flows actually appear to entice the construction of new boundaries as much as the reaffirmation of old ones.
In a neo-liberl world
Place-based communities increasingly find themselves in competition with each other.
Hobsbawn (1996) argued
that class is the common master narrative that can unite the diverse interests of oppressed collectives. While every individual does occupy a class position it does not follow that oppressed collectivites will view their oppression in class terms.
Anderson, 1991 - imagined community
Virtually everyone in modern societies are connected to others beyond the realm of everyday social interaction. This large scale, low interaction collective identity is a form of imagined community.
Jackie Smith (1997) federation
TNSMOs - a scaler hierarchy including national, regional and/or local branches in addition to transnational HQs
Jackie smith, 97 - coalition
Horizontal networks of organisations.
Jackie smith, 97 - inidivdual membership
no mediating organisational layers between the individual and transnational organization
Jackie smith, 97 - profession
usually individual membership, but with the implied mediating influence of professional organisations.
Smith - decrease in
Argues there has been a large drop in federated organisations and the parallel increase in coalitions is due to greater availability of ;email. faxes, and other communication technologies.
