Global Civil Society: Contested Futures

by Baker,Gideon; Baker,Gideon

• ISBN13: 9780415354806
• ISBN10: 0415354803
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-07
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For many commentators, global civil society is revolutionizing our approach to global politics, as new non-state-based and border-free expressions of political community challenge territorial sovereignty as the exclusive basis for political community and identity. This challenge 'from below' to the nation-state system is increasingly seen as promising nothing less than a reconstruction, or a re-imagination, of world politics itself. Whether in terms of the democratization of the institutions of global governance, the spread of human rights across the world, or the emergence of a global citizenry in a world-wide public sphere, global civil society is understood by many to provide the agency necessary to these hoped-for transformations. Global Civil Societyasks whether this idea is such a qualitatively new phenomenon after all; whether the transformation of the states' system is actually within its reach; and what some of its drawbacks might be. This collection brings together and clarifiesemerging positions on global civil society and the key points of overlap and disagreement between them. The authors explore and critically evaluate a variety of perspectives: the cosmopolitan vision; the view of global civil society as transnational movements advocating a growing moralization of world politics; the neo-Gramscian approach and the more skeptical views, advancing new possibilities for understanding the role of non-state actors in global politics. This book brings together for the first time the whole range of established and alternative voices on global civil society, both congratulatory and critical, to set a marker for the state of the debate about global civil society today. Many of the authors provide new perspectives on what global civil society means today. This book will prove invaluable for students and researchers in the fields of International Politics, Democratization and Civil Society.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	ix
Introduction: global civil society and the future of world politics	1	(14)
Gideon Baker
David Chandler
PART 1 Global civil society -- contesting current trends	15	(86)
Global civil society: analytical category or normative concept?	17	(17)
Alejandro Colas
Cosmocracy and global civil society	34	(18)
John Keane
The demoralised subject of global civil society	52	(17)
Vanessa Pupavac
The changing role of global civil society	69	(16)
Richard Falk
Contextualising the `anti-capitalism' movement in global civil society	85	(16)
James Heartfield
PART 2 Global civil society -- contesting future possibilities	101	(101)
The idea of global civil society	103	(11)
Mary Kaldor
Saying global civil society with rights	114	(16)
Gideon Baker
Global civil society: thinking politics and progress	130	(19)
Kimberly Hutchings
Constructing global civil society	149	(22)
David Chandler
Global civil society and global governmentality: resistance, reform or resignation?	171	(15)
Ronnie D. Lipschutz
Global civil society as politics of faith	186	(16)
Volker Heins
Index	202