Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

N30 + 10: global civil society, a decade after the battle of Seattle

  • Published:
Dialectical Anthropology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Now that a decade has passed, it is possible to discuss whether the events of “N30,” as it was called by activists, inspired increased participation in social justice movements or whether N30 marked the high tide of opposition to neoliberalism and militarism. Have global justice movements that defend the weak and oppressed been undermined by co-optation and violent repression, or have they broadened support for new standards of environmentalism, human rights, and dignity? Looking forward, what new challenges or opportunities have arisen from the great recession that began in 2008? This article begins to answer these questions by reviewing the events of N30 in Seattle, the theorization of this event as an expression of a “global civil society,” the co-optation of global civil society by international elites, its violent repression by militarized forces, and strategies from “below and to the left” for the current crisis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arquilla, John., and David. Rondfeldt. 1999. The advent of netwar: Analytic background. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 22: 193–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batliwala, Srilatha. 2002. Grassroots movements as transnational actors: Implications for global civil society. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 13 (4): 393–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batliwala, Srilatha. 2007. Taking the power out of empowerment–an experiential account. Development in Practice 17 (4–5): 557–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borosage, Robert. 1999. The battle of Seattle. The Nation 6: 20–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, Craig. 1993. Civil society and the public sphere. Public Culture 5: 267–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • City of Miami Independent Review Panel. 2004. The free trade area of the Americas (FTAA) inquiry report. Electronic document. http://www.miamidade.gov/irp/Library/FTAA_Report_09_20_04.pdf. Accessed on October 10, 2008.

  • Corry, T. Olaf. 2006. Global society and its discontents. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 17: 3003–3324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, Hilary. 1999. The ethnography of transnational social activism: Understanding the global as local practice. American Ethnologist 26 (3): 583–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, Christopher, Arthur Eisenburg, Donna Lieberman, Alan Silver and Alex Vitale 2003 Arresting Protest. New York: New York civil liberties union. Electronic document. http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/nyclu_arresting_protest1.pdf. Accessed on October 10, 2008.

  • Durrenberger, Paul. 2009. If you have a strong union, you don’t need a necktie: U.S. labor and global solidarity. Dialectical Anthropology (this issue). doi:10.1007/s10624-009-9107-8.

  • Edelman, Marc. 2008. Bringing the moral economy back in … to the study of 21st-Century transnational peasant movements. American Anthropologist 107(3): 331–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erem, Suzan, and Paul Durrenberger. 2008. On the global waterfront: The fight to free the Charleston 5. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, Richard. 1998. Global civil society: Perspectives, initiatives, movements. Oxford Development Studies 26 (1): 99–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National interests in international society. Ithica: Cornell Univeristy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, Antoni. 1988. Selected writings. In ed. Forgacs, David New York: Schocken Books.

  • Habermas, Jurgen. 1992. Further reflections on the public sphere. In Habermas and the public sphere, ed. Craig. Calhoun. Boston: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Linda, and Craig McCoy. 2000. “Troopers fail to ID convention protesters officers could not link 31 “Puppet warehouse” Defendants to any crimes. Charges will be dropped.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 7, P. A01.

  • Herbert, Steve. 2007. The “Battle of Seattle” revisited: Or, seven views of a protest-zoning state. Political Geography 26: 601–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, Josée, and Gordon Laxer. 2003. Solidarity in the age of globalization: Lessons from the anti-MAI and Zapatista struggles. Theory and Society 32: 39–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaldor, Mary. 2003. The idea of global civil society. International Affairs 79 (3): 583–593.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keane, John. 2003. Global Civil Society? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Keck, Margaret, and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists beyond borders. Ithica: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Naomi 2003 “America’s enemy within: Armed checkpoints, embedded reporters in flak jackets, brutal suppression of peaceful demonstrators. Baghdad? No, Miami.” The Guardian November 26, P. 25.

  • Klotz, Audie Jeanne. 1996. Norms in international relations: The struggle against apartheid. Ithica: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenin, Vladamir. 1996. Imperialism: The highest stage of capitalism. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipschutz, R. 1992. Reconstructing world politics: The emergence of global civil society. Millennium 21 (3): 389–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marx, Karl. 1964. On the Jewish question. In early writings. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pandolfi, Mariella. 2008. In Postcolonial disorders. ed. Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Sandra Teresa Hyde, Sarah Pinto, and Byron Good, University of California Press.

  • Perlas, N. (2000). Civil society—The third global power—The collapse of the WTO agenda in Seattle. Available online: www.southerncrossreview.org/4/wto.html.

  • Ron, James. 2003. Frontiers and Ghettos. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rondfeldt, David, John Arquilla, Graham Fuller, and Melissa Fuller. 1998. The Zapatista social netwar in Mexico. Santa Monica: Rand Arroyo Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Jackie. 2002. Globalizing resistance: The battle of Seattle and the future of social movements. In Globalization and resistance: Transnational dimensions of social movements, ed. Smith. Jackie, and Johnston. Hank. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Jackie, and Hank Johnston. 2002. Globalization and resistance: An introduction. In Globalization and resistance: Transnational dimensions of social movements, ed. Jackie. Smith, and Hank. Johnston. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subcomandante, Marcos. (2008). Zapatista call for festival of dignified rage. Electronic document accessed at: http://www.all4all.org/2008/12/3452.shtml.

  • Turner, Victor. 1967. The forest of symbols: Aspects of ndembu Ritual. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warkentin, C., and K. Mingst. 2000. International institutions, the state, and global civil society in the age of the world wide web. Global Governance 6: 237–257.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avram Bornstein.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bornstein, A. N30 + 10: global civil society, a decade after the battle of Seattle. Dialect Anthropol 33, 97–108 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-009-9114-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-009-9114-9

Keywords

Navigation