ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews recent research on global civil society and the global public sphere in world historical context, with particular attention to transnational social movements and their relationship to the globalization of economic and political institutions. Following Kaldor we define civil society broadly as “the medium through which one or many social contracts between individuals, both women and men, and the political and economic centers of power are negotiated and reproduced” (2003: 44-45). The concept refers to the domestic realm of institutions, such as private schools and families, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), business firms, informal networks, social clubs, non-state religious organizations, unions, and social movement organizations (SMOs). This is true regardless of the content of the political orientation of such institutions and organizations. Civil society thus includes corporate-sponsored think tanks, conservative churches, fascist and racist organizations, as well as more politically moderate and progressive types of social and political groups. Because they are uncivil in their tactics, terrorist and other armed political groups and actors are excluded from the concept of “civil society,” however. For the purpose of this chapter, we use the term global (or transnational) civil society very
broadly to refer to civil society institutions and organizations that cross one or more national boundaries, even if they are not fully global in their reach. This concept includes such conservative and elite-dominated institutions as the World Economic Forum and the Catholic Church and purportedly neutral international organizations, such as international charities. For interests of space, our chapter here reviews only on the recent, and burgeoning, scholarship on the progressive and left wings of transnational civil society, and their relationship to theWorld Social Forum. Since its first meeting in 2001, theWorld Social Forum has quickly become the largest international gathering of social justice activists affiliated with a family of progressive and left-wing social movements, or a “movement of movements” associated with the global justice movement. We begin by reviewing the historical development and scholarly contentions regarding the
concepts of “civil society” and “global” or “transnational” civil society.We then review the empirical research on international social movement organizations (INGOs), transnational social movements, transnational advocacy networks, and the rise of theWorld Social Forum.We end this essay by considering the relevance of these various kinds of transnational actors,
movements, and institutions to the historical and possible future development of global governance and global democracy.
