Researching Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization: Engaged Ethnography as Solidarity and Praxis

In this paper we investigate the process of carrying out ethnographic studies of organized resistance to neoliberal globalization. We do so by drawing upon the critical and public social science of Bourdieu and Santos, two highly influential opponents of neoliberalism, and by utilizing Burawoy's ‘extended case method’ for the investigation of two instances of resistance. The first is of a trade union, Sintraemcali, that has been engaged in a longstanding struggle over the introduction of neoliberal policies in the city of Cali in south-west Colombia. The second is of ‘The European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion’. We then reflect upon our approach to researching this resistance and conclude by identifying two key elements of engaged ethnography, solidarity and praxis, that together help provide new insights into the strategies and practices of social movement resistance to neoliberal globalization.

En este documento investigamos el proceso de llevar a cabo estudios etnogràficos sobre la resistencia organizada a la globalización neoliberal. Lo hacemos utilizando la ciencia social crítica y pública de Bourdieu y Santos, dos oponentes altamente influyetes del neoliberalismo, y utilizando el ‘método del caso ampliado’ de Burawoy, (ECM, por sus siglas en inglés) para la investigación de dos ejemplos de resistencia. El primero es sobre un sindicato, Sintraemcali, que se ha involucrado en una lucha de larga duracíon contra la introducción de politicas neoliberales en la ciudad de Cali en el sudeste de Colombia. El segundo es sobre ‘Las Marchas Europeas contra el paro, la precariedad y la exclusión. (Red EM, por sus siglas en inglés). Luego reflexionamos sobre nuestro enfoque en la investigación de esta resistencia y concluimos en la identificación de dos elementos claves de etnografía comprometida, solidaridad y praxis, que juntas ayudan a proporcionas nuevos puntos de vista sobre las estrategias y prácticas de la resistencia de los movimientos sociales a la globalización neoliberal.     

阿拉伯文学：全球化语境中的机遇与挑战

全球化对阿拉伯丈学的影响是多方面的。无论是从全球文化一体化还是全球文化多元化的角度来看，全球化都对阿拉伯丈学产生了积极的影响，使阿拉伯文学得到了极大的发展，文学的体裁、创作的手法都变得丰富多彩。但是，全球化对阿拉伯文学的负面影响也是显而易见的，它在一定程度上妨碍了阿拉伯文学对民族传统文化的发掘与表达。面对全球化的浪潮，阿拉伯文坛正在思考应对的策略。     

Beyond Global Summitry: Food Sovereignty as Localized Resistance to Globalization

Recently there has been a marked shift reflecting increased theoretical interest and political practices embracing strategies of localism or relocalization against neoliberal globalization. Specifically, individuals, farmers, and communities embracing the framework of food sovereignty have increasingly adopted localism tactics in response to the globalization of food systems, the corporate agribusiness model, and attendant food crises. The spread of the food sovereignty concept from the global peasants' movement Vía Campesina to locales as diverse as industrial France and the rural state of Vermont in the United States demonstrates the way in which food sovereignty has been appropriated in different international settings. Additionally, the turn toward localism merits further scrutiny as a reflection of an unsettling of forms of collective resistance at a moment of structural crisis in global capitalism. Localism as an alter-globalization tactic is still overshadowed by protest summitry and large-scale mobilizations, when small-scale micro-encounters arguably are part of a growing, broader, and more nuanced process of transnational diffusion of resistances, struggles, and reformulations over sovereignty at multiple political and social scales.

Recientemente ha habido un cambio que se refleja en el incremento de un interés teórico y prácticas políticas, que incluyen estrategias de localismo o relocalización contra la globalización neoliberal. Como táctica de respuesta a los sistemas de globalización alimentaria, a los modelos agroindustriales corporativos, y a las crisis alimentarias, los individuos, agricultores y comunidades responden abogando por la soberanía alimentaria, adoptando mecanismos locales. La propagación del concepto de soberanía alimentaria que parte de movimientos globales de campesinos ‘Vía Campesina’, en lugares tan diferentes como la Francia industrial y el estado rural de Vermont en los Estados Unidos, demuestra la manera como la soberanía alimentaria se ha apropiado de diferentes ámbitos internacionales. Además, el giro hacia el localismo merece un estudio más detallado, como reflejo de formas inquietantes de resistencia colectiva, en un momento de crisis estructural del capitalismo global. El localismo como una táctica alterna a la globalización, está todavía opacado por las protestas de las cumbres y las movilizaciones a gran escala, sin embargo los micro-encuentros son sin duda, parte de un proceso creciente, más amplio y con más matices, de la difusión trasnacional de las resistencias, los conflictos y la reformulación de la soberanía, a múltiples escalas políticas y sociales.

最近有一个明显的转向,反映出以地方主义或再地方化抵制新自由主义全球化的理论兴趣和政治实践在增长。具体来说,拥护粮食主权的个人、农民和社群越来越多地采用地方化策略来应对粮食体系全球化、公司化农业经营模式化和随之而来的粮食危机等。从全球性农民运动“农民之路”到地方如工业化的法国和美国农业州佛蒙特,粮食主权这一概念广泛传播,表明其已在不同国际场合被认可。此外,在全球资本主义发生结构性危机之时,这一本土化转向作为未成形的集体抵制的一种反映,值得进一步研究。地方化作为改造全球化运动的一种策略,其作用仍然被抗议峰会和大规模群众运动所掩盖,而小规模微观层面的抵抗是正在进行中的更广泛和细微的、在诸多政治和社会层面对主权进行抵制、斗争和重建的跨国扩散过程的一部分。     

Health-care Work in Globalization: News Reports on Care Worker Migration to Japan

Health-care worker migration has emerged as a social issue in Japan, contrary to it has in Indonesia. This article shows how national contexts affected by globalization have shaped social understandings and policies towards health-care worker migration in the two societies over time. Analyses of news coverage in the Japanese and Indonesian national media reveal a gap of social responses toward this change. The Japanese are more likely to respond negatively to health-care worker migration; yet they intend to face cross-cultural challenges, although slowly, making revisions to related policies. In contrast, in Indonesia, from where health-care workers migrate to Japan and many other countries, this tends to be understood positively, overall, as providing economic benefits and permitting Indonesian professionals to contribute to the worker shortage in Japan. I interpret these results based on the literature on health-care worker migration, emerging global norms and local changes, and comparative research on employment and care work. This study contributes to the sociological understanding of worker migration and health-care issues.     

To Sell or Not to Sell: Landscapes of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization in Transylvania

What can resistance to corporate globalization mean for post-socialist citizens? This article examines the case of Rosia Montana in Transylvania to answer this question. One of the mining places in Transylvania that sits on gold and other metals, Rosia is a semi-urban village and the oldest documented community in Romania. After 1989, its resources made it appealing to a mining corporation interested in developing the largest open-cast cyanide leach gold mine in Europe. This article makes an analysis of personal stories of resistance to the corporate mining project addressing global developmentalism from a critical perspective. Stories testify that both national feelings of rootedness (cultural struggle) and the support for corporate mining are not forms of ideological engagement manipulated towards some programmatic ends. It may be the in-between space occupied by former communist countries where the Western liberal discourse is not yet naturalized, the space where a test of capitalism is taken. The ambiguity and vacillation of locals with regard to the market space is a micro-political formulation of a macro-political tension between ‘culture’ and ‘politics’ that allows for criticism to emerge through aesthetic avoidance of ideological closure and indeterminacy.

¿Qué puede significar la resistencia a la globalización corporativa para los ciudadanos postsocialistas? Para contestar a esta pregunta, este artículo examina el caso de Rosia Montana en Transilvania. Rosia, uno de los lugares mineros en Transilvania que se sitúa por encima del oro y otros metales, es una aldea semiurbana y la más antigua de las comunidades documentadas en Romania. Después de 1989, sus recursos se hicieron muy atractivos a una corporación minera interesada en desarrollar la mayor mina de oro de cielo abierto con técnica de lixiviación en pila con cianuro de Europa. Este artículo hace un análisis sobre las historias personales de resistencia al proyecto de minería corporativa tratando al desarrollismo global desde una perspectiva crítica. Historias testifican que tanto los sentimientos nacionales de arraigo (lucha cultural) y el soporte para la minería corporativa no son formas de compromiso ideológico manipulado hacia ciertos fines pragmáticos. Puede ser el espacio intermedio ocupado por previos países comunistas en donde no se han naturalizado todavía el tema liberal de occidente, el espacio a donde se toma un examen capitalista. La ambigüedad y la incertidumbre de los locales con respecto al espacio del mercado es un planteamiento de una tensión macropolítica entre ‘culturas’ y ‘políticas’ que da lugar a la crítica para surgir a través de la evasión estética de cierre e indeterminación ideológica.

抵制公司全球化对于后社会主义时代的公民来说意味着什么？本文考察位于特兰西瓦尼亚的罗西亚蒙塔纳之例来回答这一问题。作为特兰西瓦尼亚拥有金矿和其他金属的矿区之一,罗西亚是个半城市化的村落且是罗马尼亚最早造册的社区。1989年后,矿产资源让罗西亚引起了志在发展欧洲最大露天氰化物浸金开采业的采矿集团的兴趣。本文以批判性观点对体现全球发展主义的公司采矿项目中的个人经历进行了一项分析。这些故事证明,民族情感的根深蒂固（文化抗争）和对公司采矿的支持都不是受控确立一些纲领性目标的意识形态参与的形式。它也许是被西方自由主义话语还未本土化的前共产党国家占据的中间地带,是资本主义实验正在进行的地带。当地人对市场空间的暧昧和踌躇态度,是一种通过对意识形态闭合性与不确定性的审美规避,而允许出现批评的“文化”与“政治”之间宏观政治张力的微观政治表述形式。

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Indexicality and experience: Exploring the meanings of /aw/‐monophthongization in Pittsburgh1

In this paper we test the hypothesis that monophthongal /aw/ is semiotically associated with local identity in Pittsburgh. We compare results of an experimental task that directly elicits participants' sense of the indexical value of /aw/‐monophthongization with the occurrence of this variant in the same people's speech. People who hear monophthongal /aw/ as an index of localness are unlikely to have this feature in their own speech, and many of the people who do monophthongize /aw/ do not associate this variant with localness. Exploring how four of these participants talk about this feature and its meanings, we show that the indexical meanings of speech features can vary widely within a community, and we illustrate the danger of confusing the meaning assigned by hearers to a linguistic form with the meaning users would assign to it. We suggest that a phenomenological approach, attending to the multiplicity and indeterminacy of indexical relations and to how such relations arise historically and in lived experience, can lead to a more nuanced account of the distribution of social meanings of variant forms than can studies of perception or production alone.     

The Globalization of Politics: From Egypt to India

The world witnessed a startling phenomenon in the spring of 2011. Citizens across a set of countries were acting in similar ways to initiate negotiations with their governments for political change. Rapidly they learnt from each other. They shared a new understanding on how power should be organized and how national wealth should be used for the good of the public, putting forth a new political arrangement that spread, quickly across international borders. Nowhere else was this phenomenon more distinct than in the cities, usually centre points of cross-border flows of people, money and ideas, and that nurtured a certain section of citizenry exposed to external influences. This Profile illustrates that globalization facilitates the establishment of conditions for citizens to be able to compare themselves to other groups and perceive themselves as being relatively deprived. Globalization also broadens the range of factors and events that may trigger a social movement in a society, and allows actors across social movements in different countries to exchange notes, watch out for successful strategies and adapt those of others' into their own towards effective results. In this way, this Profile examines the transferability of recent urban social movements across international borders, particularly focusing on the factors leading to the transfer of certain elements from the pro-democracy movement of the spring of 2011 in Egypt to an anti-corruption movement in India that also took place at the same time.     

Wal-Mart: An Analysis of the Glocalization of the Cathedral of Consumption in China

This paper examines the methods adopted by Wal-Mart to cater to local cultures in China. This analysis draws on glocalization, a concept that refers to the interaction of the global and the local, or the incorporation of local elements into global products and/or services. This paper is important for two reasons. First, glocalization, in and of itself, has the capacity to enhance scholarly understanding of globalization with reference to global agency and cultural differentiation. Second, not only is China a nation where Wal-Mart had to glocalize the most; China is also the fastest growing market in the world. So, this analysis can bring fresh insights into today's reality of globalization processes. One of the consequences of Wal-Mart's strategy of glocalization is that it contributes to its status of ‘cathedral of consumption’ even more. A cathedral of consumption refers to an incomparable magnitude of global success (achieved by a major corporation) that gives birth to a consumer religion and a display of abundance and excess.

Este artículo examina los métodos adoptados por Wal-Mart para satisfacer a las culturas locales en China. Este análisis se basa en la glocalización, un concepto que se refiere a la interacción entre lo global y lo local, o a la incorporación de elementos locales dentro de los productos o servicios globales. Este artículo es importante por dos razones. Primero, la glocalización en sí, tiene la capacidad de mejorar la noción académica de la globalización, con referencia a la agencia global y a la diferenciación cultural. Segundo, China no sólo es una nación donde Wal-Mart tuvo que glocalizarse en mayor grado; sino que además es el mercado de mayor crecimiento en el mundo. Así, este análisis puede traer un conocimiento fresco a la realidad actual de los procesos de globalización. Una de las consecuencias de la estrategia de glocalización de Wal-Mart es que contribuye más aún a su estado de “catedral de consumo”. Una catedral de consumo se refiere a una magnitud incomparable de éxito global (lograda por una corporación mayor) que da vida a una religión de consumidor y a un despliegue de abundancia y exceso.

     

Supplying lead firms,intangible assets and power in global value chains: Explaining governance in the fertilizer chain

Global suppliers of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agrochemicals exert increasing degrees of power in global value chains (GVCs). Although the GVC literature has explained how global buyers govern GVCs from the buying-end, the question of how global suppliers achieve governance from the supplying-end remains underexplored. We address this gap by combining a multidimensional typology of power with literature on intangible assets. We argue that intangible assets are crucial resources for global suppliers to morph otherwise ungovernable supply chains for undifferentiated input commodities into more sophisticated and governable GVCs. We illustrate our argument with the case of the global fertilizer supplier, YARA International. YARA's intangible asset investments were instrumental in governing the value chain integration of Tanzanian smallholder farmers. They allowed YARA to exert more than bargaining power (demonstrative, institutional and constitutive power) and to effectively position itself as supplying lead firm in Tanzania's agro-industrial GVC.     

Grudge spending: the interplay between markets and culture in the purchase of security

In the paper, we use data from an English study of security consumption, and recent work in the cultural sociology of markets, to illustrate the way in which moral and social commitments shape and often constrain decisions about how, or indeed whether, individuals and organizations enter markets for protection. Three main claims are proffered. We suggest, firstly, that the purchase of security commodities is a mundane, non‐conspicuous mode of consumption that typically exists outside of the paraphernalia of consumer culture – a form of grudge spending. Secondly, we demonstrate that security consumption is weighed against other commitments that individuals and organizations have and is often kept in check by these competing considerations. We find, thirdly, that the prospect of consuming security prompts people to consider the relations that obtain between security objects and other things that they morally or aesthetically value, and to reflect on what the buying and selling of security signals about the condition and likely futures of their society. These points are illustrated using the examples of organizational consumption and gated communities. In respect of each case, we tease out the evaluative judgements that condition and constrain the purchase of security among organizations and individuals and argue that they open up some important but neglected questions to do with the moral economy of security.     

Globalization and the Status of Current Research on the Indian Nonprofit Sector

An overview of recent trends in research on the Indian nonprofit sector is presented. The material is not exhaustive of all research that has been conducted, but instead discusses effects of globalization on the literature. As used here, globalization implies the worldwide rise of economic liberalism, universal trust in political democracy, the advent of cultural universalism, relative erosion of the power of nation-states, and global embracing of capitalism and commodity culture. The following distinct effects of globalization are discussed: diverse policy debates on nongovernmental organization (NGO) roles in development, challenges to the credibility of India's most popular and debated theory of nonprofits, the emergence of a large volume of literature on environmental and women's movements and organizations, and the shifting of attention to the study of NGOs. A deliberate effort is made to identify the backgrounds of some of the authors discussed in the article to direct attention to differences in content of the writings of NGO officials, activists, scholars, policy analysts, development consultants, Westerners, and Indians.     

Globalization and the policing of protest: the case of APEC 1997

The policing of protest at international events conflicts with the political and policing culture of the host nation. Previous research shows a trend toward softer, more tolerant styles of policing protest within various Western democracies. We present a case study of an exception: the repression of protest at an international event in which one Western democracy hosted rulers of less democratic regimes in a ritual celebration of economic globalization. We explore reasons why, in the face of protests about undemocratic regimes elsewhere, the Canadian government and police were willing to use blatantly undemocratic tactics popularly believed to be more characteristic of those other regimes. Implications are discussed concerning protest policing, economic globalization, the nation-state and social movements.     

Response to symposium on Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display

The author responds to the contributions to this symposium, highlighting her ideas about diversity management regimes, the urban cultural armature, global museum assemblages, the cosmopolitan-nationalism continuum, and new methods for studying the global and for engaging in constructive critique.     

Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance,Culture and the Need for Change

The economic, social and cultural contributions of the creative industries are essential elements of many societies and their governments' policies. However, there is growing evidence that precarity, competition and lack of regulation within these industries is exacerbating inequalities with respect to gender, race and class. With a focus on gender and sexual harassment among female workers, this study involved 32 in‐depth interviews with women working in the Netherlands' creative industries. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings suggest that sexual harassment is prevalent, and many women considered it to be part of their occupational culture and career advancement. Four factors influenced this phenomenon: competition for work; industry culture; gendered power relations; and the importance of informal networks. Implications include the need for a climate of non‐tolerance, sector‐specific research and guidelines, sensitivity training and further work with unions and professional associations to provide worker protection strategies traditionally undertaken by organizations. The article concludes that effective sexual harassment prevention requires action at the individual, educational, sectoral and governmental levels, beginning with public conversations to convey the message that sexual harassment is never acceptable.     

Migrants' regular army of labour: gender dimensions of the impact of the global economic crisis on migrant labor in Western Europe

The purpose of this article is to remedy the lack of explanatory endeavours concerning the positive performance of female migrant workers during the recent economic crisis in Western Europe. This phenomenon both interrogates the established association between economic downturns and their negative impact on migrant labour in low‐skilled jobs and enriches the theory of the reserve army of labour, which has been applied to understanding the fragile status of migrant workers in Western economies. Secondary analysis of Labor Force Survey (LFS) and OECD data concerning the impact of the crisis on migrant labour shows that women employed in the care‐domestic sector have been affected significantly less than men employed in manufacture and constructions. To explain this evidence, the article proposes a theoretical framework that draws on key concepts and debates in different strands of sociology: the increasing demand for paid care‐domestic work due to the ageing population and the growth of native‐born women's rates of activity; the commodification of care and the state management of migration; the affectivity and spatial fixity of care‐domestic labour. All these factors contribute to configure female migrant labour, mostly employed in the reproductive sector, as a ‘regular’ rather than a reserve army of labour.     

Flow of Online Content from Production to Consumption in the Context of Globalization Theory

Some studies have regarded globalization as a process of cultural homogenization, while others see it as one of cultural heterogenization. This conflict stems from their focus on either the production or consumption side of cultural products based on globalization theories bifurcated into political economy and cultural studies. This study covers the production, distribution, and consumption sides in online content flow and examines the effects of economic, geographic, and linguistic factors. This question is explored through the study of longitudinal changes in the number of Internet hosts from 1995 to 2010, online network connectivity among 174 countries, and geographic distribution of the top 300 web domains. The results suggest that the economic factor was most likely to have an impact on the flow of online content from production to consumption, but that its impact weakened over time. In addition, geographic proximity accounted for the bilateral relationship between countries. Limitations of world-system theory are also discussed.     

Revitalization of the traditional values lost due to the commodification of art/crafts: a case study of Bataknese traditional Ulos

ABSTRACT

The dynamics of modernization in Bataknese community, supported by various factors, led to the desacralization of traditions. This desacralization is due to the commodification of its cultural elements, among them the crafts of ulos. The existence of traditional ulos relates to religious life and is a manifestation of the Bataknese theology. The existence of Bataknese culture is strongly supported by the existence of ulos, which is the actualization of the ‘dalihan na tolu’ kinship system. Traditionally, the use of ulos in the community is governed by custom, according to the type, form, function and meaning. However, the commodification of ulos has caused inconsistencies in its development, so it is feared that this would obscure the values of tradition, which should be preserved. This paper discusses the revitalization efforts that can be conducted by the stakeholders of the craft of ulos: community, business, and government.     

Modernity and Globalization: The Local and Global Sources of Individualistic and Materialistic Values in Shanghai

Sociological research has arrived at an intellectual crossroad where it faces the challenge of understanding how the dynamics of globalization have joined the forces of modernization in inducing social change. In this paper, using a survey conducted in Pudong, Shanghai, in 2001, which had captured conditions of the area's rapid transformations in a globalizing city, first, we have uncovered two distinctive dimensions of individualistic vs. materialistic values via factor analysis. Second, we have shown strong bivariate relationships between these two dimensions of values and several demographic and socioeconomic variables, as well as personal global connections (PGCs). Third, we have found that PGCs have uneven significant effects on the emergence of individualistic and materialistic values net of the demographic and socioeconomic variables. Finally, we discuss how modernizing and globalizing conditions are conducive to the formation of individualistic and materialistic values in Shanghai, heralding this process in other rapidly modernizing and globalizing cities in China and elsewhere.