Glocalizing protest: urban conflicts and the global social movements

Bettina Köhler and Markus Wissen

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2003, vol. 27, issue 4, 942-951

Abstract: The emergence of global social movements is essentially symbolized by the names of cities like Seattle, Genoa or Porto Alegre. This is not accidental, because groups stemming from various parts of the world need places to constitute themselves as movements. But the role of cities in representing great parts of the movements' consciousness also hints at the importance urban struggles have for global protests. The article examines the relationship between urban conflicts and global social movements. By looking for continuities and ruptures between former and current urban conflicts it points out the specificity of the latter: to politicize the contradictions of neoliberal restructuring; to challenge the discursive and institutional terrains of urban politics which were shaped in the 1990s, often with active participation of former movement actors; and, finally, to act simultaneously on various spatial scales. In the last part of the article some examples of ‘glocalized’ urban protests are presented and analysed, pointing out their ambiguities as well as the specific contribution they can make to the strategic orientation of the global social movements: to fight the destructive influences neoliberal globalization exerts on everyday life and, thereby, to develop alternative forms of societalization. L'apparition des mouvements sociaux mondiaux est essentiellement symbolisée par les noms de ville comme Seattle, Gênes ou Pôrto Alegre. Cela n'a rien de fortuit puisque des groupes issus de plusieurs parties du monde ont besoin de lieux pour se constituer en mouvements. Toutefois, le rôle des villes dans la représentation de vastes pans de la conscience de mouvements suggére l'importance des luttes urbaines pour la contestation planétaire. L'article examine le rapport entre les conflits urbains et les mouvements sociaux mondiaux. En recherchant continuités et ruptures entre l'agitation urbaine antérieure et actuelle, il souligne la spécificité de cette dernière: politiser les contradictions de la restructuration néo‐libérale; remettre en cause les terrains discursifs et institutionnels de la politique urbaine dessinés dans les années 1990, souvent avec la participation active d'anciens acteurs des mouvements; et finalement intervenir simultanément sur plusieurs échelles spatiales. La dernière partie de l'article présente et analyse quelques cas de contestations urbaines ‘glocalisées’, relevant leurs ambiguïtés, ainsi que la contribution qu'elles peuvent apporter à l'orientation stratégique des mouvements sociaux mondiaux: combattre les influences destructrices de la ‘globalisation’ néo‐libérale sur la vie quotidienne et, ce faisant, créer de nouvelles formes sociétales.

Date: 2003
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