Transnational Resistance: Global Justice Networks and Spaces of Convergence

Abstract

This study will consider how the reconfiguration of political life in relation to globalising economic and social processes has seen renewed efforts by social movements to extend their reach beyond local or national boundaries. To achieve this, social movements are constructing multiscalar networks of support and solidarity for their particular struggles, and participating with other movements in broad networks to resist neoliberal globalisation. Much of the recent literature on transnational activism has neglected the spatial practices of transnational political activity, and presents a singular notion of what constitutes transnational resistance networks. This study will discuss how, within such networks, diverse interests and identities are constituted within geographically complex set of relations, reconfiguring politics at all scales.

Mobilizing drug policy activism: conferences, convergence spaces and ephemeral fixtures in social movement mobilization

“…As discussed above, there are numerous examinations of the role of conferences, mass demonstrations and mega events as occurrences that work to catalyse social movements (Davies, 2012;Della Porta and Andretta, 2002;Diani, 2000;Routledge, 2003Routledge, , 2009Wainwright, Prudham, & Glassman, 2000). While much of this work interestingly engages the ways that these events function temporally within the history of a social movement, it is only recently that they have begun to be spatially conceptualized.…”

Bourdieu and Social Movements

“…Furthermore, although there is a long history of anarchist movements working with organized labour to achieve political aims (Anderson, 2004), contemporary British anarchists during this most recent cycle of contention have neglected these essential links (Carter and Morland, 2004). Routledge (2009) has claimed that a hybridization between socialist actors and labour movement organizations has taken place within convergence spaces. This was particularly evident during the London May Day marches at the start of the 21st century.…”

Political Distinction in the British Anti-capitalist Movement

“…Furthermore, Routledge (2009) has claimed that a hybridization within convergence spaces between socialist actors and labour movement organizations has taken place. This was particularly evident during the London May Day marches.…”

“…The Social Forum process and movement encompasses a much wider range of activist political positions than British anti-capitalism; it includes hundreds, possibly thousands, of other networks and organizations from all over the globe (Fisher and Ponniah, 2003;Smith et al, 2007). Social forums are examples of 'convergence spaces for some in the wider global justice network', of which the British anti-capitalist movement is a small section (Routledge, 2009). British socialists, along with a range of other groups, contributed to the organizing of the ESF in 2004; not all, but significant numbers of British anarchists did not want to be associated with the British socialist organizations and therefore their reaction was to be involved in an alternative counter forum: Autonomous Spaces: Beyond the ESF.…”