More Reading

For the 2^nd month running, more than 100,000 clicks this last month (actually 154k!). My recent “flicks” rather than proper reading include -

From Life Itself – Turkey, Istanbul and a neighbourhood of Erdogan Suzy Hansen (2026) 
reviewed here 
Outsourcing Repression – everyday state power in contemporary China 
Lynette Ong (2022) A useful correction to my admiration of the Chinese State
In Search of Berlin John Kampfner (2023) Kampfer lived in Berlin for more than 
a decade
Downfall – lessons for our final century Ilhan Niaz (2022) A voice from 
Pakistan exposes the western myths
Five Irish Women – the Irish Republic 1960-2018 E Nolan (2019) 
insights into the lives of Edna O’Brien, Sinnead O’Connor, Nuala MacFaolain etc
The Edinburgh Companion to Political Realism ed Mutt and Butterworth (2018) 
I count myself a realist – having never forgotten EH Carr’s “The Twenty years’ 
Crisis 1919-39” written in 1946 and read at University
Gaian Economics - Living Well Within Limits ed J Dawson et al (2010) 
useful for reminding us of the fate which awaits us 
The Anthropology of Ireland Thomas Wilson and Hastings Donnan (2007) 
I’ve only once driven around Ireland in the 1970s although I’ve visited both 
Belfast and Dublin
American Fascists – the American Right and the war on America 
Chris Hedges (2006) Hedges is one of my favourite writers
The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations ed Anthony Jay (1997) 
Jay was the writer behind “Yes Minister”
Isaiah Berlin – an interpretation of his thought John Gray (1996) 
an English philosopher dares to take on the old sage
Socialisms – old and new Tony Wright (1996) A useful guide from a 
Labour politician who was almost a social democrat!
Globalisation and Contestation – the new counter-movement 
Ronaldo Munck (2007) Another thoughtful book which uses Karl Polyani’s 
concept

Ch 1 introduces the globalisation debate. ….We examine the paradigms 

in contention, the ways in which it is changing the world around us and 

the critical problem of ‘governance’, that is, how free market expansion 

can be managed and made sustainable. This chapter also introduces the Polanyi problematic – the tension between free market expansion and societal reaction – that frames the analysis of the great counter-movement against globalization emerging in recent years. My basic argument is that the Polanyi problematic – duly ‘scaled up’ for the era of globalization – provides us with a powerful yet subtle optic for examining the intertwined processes of free market expansion and societal reactions to it.

In Chapter 2, I introduce the various approaches to social movements 
underlying the ‘contestation’ element of my title. That leads me into the 
distinction between the ‘old’ social movements, such as those of labour and 
nationalism, versus the ‘new’ social movements such as the environmental 
and women’s movements. The next section explores the distinctions and 
relationships between ‘progressive’ movements for social change and those 
that seemingly articulate a ‘reactionary’ response to globalization today. 
To simplify we need to understand the ‘bad’ as well as the ‘good’ social 
movements. To conclude I offer some Polanyian perspectives on 
globalization and social movements to complement and answer the Polanyi 
problematic raised in Chapter 1. 

In Chapter 3 we turn from social movement theory to a brief historical 
overview of transnational social movements that did not begin, of course, 
in 1999 in Seattle when the global media detected an anti-globalization 
movement. Modern capitalist society – and the expansion of the free 
market as its driver in particular – has always generated counter-movements.  
Was the colonial revolution simply about nationalism or did it contain 
elements of transnational solidarity? 
Finally, what is the significance and what are the prospects of global civil 
society today and the new cosmopolitanism its proponents advance?

Chapter 4 takes up the story of the contemporary counter-globalization 
movement, which many symbolically associate with the ‘Battle of Seattle’ in 
1999, when protests prevented the World Trade Organization (WTO) 
from reaching a conclusion. 
But Seattle did not spring out of a clear blue sky and we trace the much 
longer lasting and generalized revolt against neoliberalism, especially in 
the global South. This chapter explores the various theoretical perspectives 
developed since Seattle to account for the widest ranging set of 
transnational protests since the global revolution of 1968. 
Are these movements simply attempts to ‘civilize’ globalization and 
make it more socially accountable or are we at the start of another great 
anti-capitalist revolt comparable to that at the start of the twentieth century? 

Chapter 5 moves from the street demonstrations of Seattle (1999), 
Genoa (2001) and Edinburgh (2005) to the transnational political arena, 
such as the World Social Forum that first met in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001 
to proclaim that ‘another world is possible’. In spite of their distinctive 
dynamics the human rights movement, the women’s movement and 
the World Social Forum are all exemplars of the way transnational 
social movements have created a space for themselves on the global 
political scene. What does this mean for the future of movements 
seeking to foment positive social transformation? 
Has the transnational level of political activity transcended the national scen 
as some globalists believe? In brief, we need to cast a retrospective 
look on transnational political fora to consider what their achievements 
and limitations are. 

Chapter 6 turns towards what we might call ‘local transnationalism’ 
by which I mean social movements that have an international orientation 
but which seek to ‘embed’ themselves in local communities. 
The environmental movement was the first to coin the phrase ‘think globally, 
act locally’ quite early on in the development of globalization as we know it. 
This is also the movement that has probably been most successful in 
creating an impact on the ‘mainstream’ agenda. 
Workers’ organizations have often subscribed to internationalist ideologies – 
‘Workers of the World Unite!’ – but in practice most workers’ struggles 
have been local in character. And peasants, as workers on the land, 
have been most rooted of all in the locality and the community, yet today 
there is an active transnational peasants movement 

The Total State – how liberal democracies become tyrannies Auron Macintyre (2024) 
A repulsively right-wing view which excoriates the state