Alter-Globalization: Becoming Actors in a Global Age

Foreword by Alain Touraine xi

Acknowledgements xvii

Part 1 Alter-Globalization – Becoming Actors in the Global Age 1

Introduction 3

From the first uprisings to the global crisis 7

A global movement 10

1 The Will to Become an Actor 16

An actor against neoliberal ideology 16

Social agency in the global age 23

Part 2 The Way of Subjectivity 33

2 The Experience of Another World 35

Resisting through subjectivity 35

Spaces of experience 37

Diversions of experience 54

3 From the Mountains of Chiapas to Urban Neighbourhoods 58

The Zapatistas 58

Barricade social and cultural centre 68

Alter-activist youth 73

From the Zapatistas to alter-activists 88

4 Expressive Movements and Anti-Power 90

A concept of social change 90

A social and subjective engagement 95

Illusions of anti-power and diversions of spaces of experience 96

Facing the political 100

Conclusion 104

Part 3 The Way of Reason 107

5 Expertise for Another World 109

Resisting through reason 109

Spaces of expertise 112

The ambivalence of expertise 123

Conclusion 128

6 Citizens, Experts and Intellectuals 130

Introduction 130

A citizen movement 131

Committed intellectuals 135

Theories of another world and practices of expertise 142

Conclusion 152

7 Reason, Democracy and Counter-Power 154

A movement against neoliberal ideology 154

Rationality at stake 157

Democracy at stake 163

A concept of social change 169

Conclusion 177

Part 4 Confl uence of the Two Paths 179

8 Tensions and Collaborations 181

Common problematics 181

Dichotomization: from tension to opposition 185

Absorption: tension erased by hegemony 191

Combination: tensions and complementarities 193

Conclusion 200

9 The Main Debates 201

Think local and global, act local and global 202

The movement-internal organization 210

Rethinking social change 216

Conclusion 226

10 Towards a Post-Washington Consensus Alter-Globalization 228

Reconfi gurations 228

Towards concrete outcomes 237

Climate justice 251

Conclusion 256

Conclusion 258

Notes 264

Bibliography 280

Index 302