Essay #5 Claire de Lespinois WSF- Transnational movement

     The idea of Alter-globalization brings into focus the emphasis on transnational organizations and communities. Members of such organizations as the World Social Forum are encouraged to be individuals, while still maintaining a desire for the over all good of the world, which they inhabit. While the forum may be viewed as a means for localized change most see it as a broader spectrum, identifying with the issues of others. The WSF is viewed as a trans-national organization, moving towards a global solution.
Mitchell defines the term transnational in a broad sense, from ? examinations of the interactions and literal back-and-forth movement of goods, people and ideas across national boarders, to the theoretical suppleness of post-structural thought across containing and linear narratives and disciplinary confines? (2003, p.1). The WSF embodies the theory of a transnational organization by promoting the idea of a different world. It does not adhere to the common boundaries of a localized movement. It reaches past boundaries, forming something bigger than national networks by ways of alternative globalization.
 
     Political and social movements have long employed the media in the movement of globalization. According to Anabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, ?the media are key players in this development, bringing the world into our homes? (1996, p.9). Local billboards on the high way, weekly magazines, and television and radio programmed to fit, appeal and cater to a specific demographic in a specific region. To avoid such confines of localized media the forum moves through the World Wide Web where everyone, for the most part has access to the same material. The advertisements, which are based upon location of the user, are less intrusive and not as rampant with political and economic innuendo. While the Internet does have its flaws (limited access, language and economic barriers) the WSF has continued to use it as the primary means of communication being that it is the quickest way to reach the broadest amount of people. The Internet garners more of an objective less localized perspective.
  
     In the excerpt of James Clifford?s Traveling Cultures he discusses the parameters of localization, quoting C. L. R. James saying, ?Time would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place. The relations of classes had to change before I discovered that it?s not quality of goods and utility that matter, but movement, not where you are or what you have, but where you come from, where you are going and the rate at which you are getting there? (1992, p.96). The WSF encourages the individual to bring a personal identity to the global movement, thus creating a global community. Members have a new sense of belonging, redefining the boundaries of community on a trans-national level, furthering a cross-cultural menagerie in which the WSF prides itself on. ?Social movements are made of actors with a creative capacity and a desire to transform, thus they contribute to the debate and the outlining of the virtuousness of social justice as the foundation of societies and for transnational relationships and exchanges? (Milani, 2006, p.10). While the WSF protects the identity of the individual member, they further promote a more open-minded way of thinking, a more global perspective. The WSF ensures that not only is ?another world is possible?, but also probable.


References:


Clifford, James (1992). ?Traveling Cultures.? In Cultural Studies, edited by L. Grossberg, C. Nelson and P. . New York and London: Routledge. Pp. 96-112.

Milani, Carlos R. S. (2006). Transnational Social Movements In A
Globalizing World: A Methodological Approach Based on the analysis of the
World Social Forum. Retrieved June 21, 2007 from the world wide web: http://www.cccg.umontreal.ca/pdf/Laniado%20et%20Milani_en.pdf.


Mitchell, Katharyne (2003). Cultural Geographies of Transnationality. In K. Anderson, Kay. et al. (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Geography. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 74-87.

Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle (1996). Globalization, communication and transnational civil society: Introduction. In S. Braman and A. Sreberny-Mohammadi
(Eds.), Globalization, communication and transnational civil society, pp. 1-19.
Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Posted at 11:44AM Jun 22, 2007 by DELESPINOIS, CATHERINE in General  |  Comments[1]