As a founding member of the Via Campesina (1993) and active participant in the Global Justice Movement (the altermondialiste movement in France), the Confederation paysanne (CP) - which literally stands for 'peasant confederation' - has been presented in academic and activist circles as a key player in the struggle against neoliberal globalisation, and as a contributor to the emergence of new transnational activist networks and a 'global civil society'. As a trade union representing the interests of 'peasants', the CP has been praised as an innovative form of professional organisation whose originality lies in its ability to defend farmers' interests while at the same time responding to a broader set of challenges for the planet and those who populate it (environmental degradation, cultural homogeneity, social injustice). As a result, the CP - and in particular its emblematic leader Jose Bove - was rapidly propelled to the forefront of a new progressive avant-garde whose discourse on the cultural and economic threats of neoliberalism found a positive echo in farming and non-farming circles alike. -- Yet, as I shall argue throughout the following pages, the CP's success was not only related to its successful response to the new challenges for the 'peasantry' and society but also to its re-appropriation of popular and essentialist representations of 'peasantness' as a timeless and intrinsically egalitarian condition. From the moment that we recognise this, our understanding of the union's evolving popularity changes. Many observers and activists, for example, explained the CP's disappointing result in the 2007 professional elections by arguing that the CP was ahead of its time.

This dissertation considers the case of the Mesoamerican People’s Forum (MPF), a Central American ‘cousin’ of the World Social Forum, and manifestation of the Global Justice Movement. It argues that the MPF cannot be adequately understood as a transnational social movement or as an ‘open space.’ Rather, it is best understood as a political playing field on which the leaders of locally rooted social movements contested the future of the Central American left within an uncertain and changing political context. Based on extensive ethnographic field work and grounded analysis, it argues that well-placed actors within forum spaces can best be thought of as ‘mediators’ between state and society. The emergence of de facto federated governance structures in Central America, plus weak democratic institutions, have placed new pressures on mediators. Leaders within the Central American left find that they need to build up and/or maintain power bases to shield their positions within an uncertain political environment. They mobilize people to participate in transnational forum spaces because of the legitimating benefits, but shape networked flows within these spaces to limit the potential for networking to erode established positions. Thus I conclude that openness is neither the condition nor the objective of social forums, but rather a pawn strategically deployed or retracted in the course of networked interactions. The work advances thinking about the nature of collective political subjectivity in an era of transformationalist globalization. It also argues in favor of critical realist perspectives on collectivization in a post-development, globalizing world. Specifically, scholars can best advance an ‘epistemology of the south’ by promoting and protecting cognitive justice, which in turn can be achieved through the use of realist approaches that serve to uncover the practices of power at work within networked spaces.

This dissertation considers the case of the Mesoamerican People’s Forum (MPF), a Central American ‘cousin’ of the World Social Forum, and manifestation of the Global Justice Movement. It argues that the MPF cannot be adequately understood as a transnational social movement or as an ‘open space.’ Rather, it is best understood as a political playing field on which the leaders of locally rooted social movements contested the future of the Central American left within an uncertain and changing political context. Based on extensive ethnographic field work and grounded analysis, it argues that well-placed actors within forum spaces can best be thought of as ‘mediators’ between state and society. The emergence of de facto federated governance structures in Central America, plus weak democratic institutions, have placed new pressures on mediators. Leaders within the Central American left find that they need to build up and/or maintain power bases to shield their positions within an uncertain political environment. They mobilize people to participate in transnational forum spaces because of the legitimating benefits, but shape networked flows within these spaces to limit the potential for networking to erode established positions. Thus I conclude that openness is neither the condition nor the objective of social forums, but rather a pawn strategically deployed or retracted in the course of networked interactions. The work advances thinking about the nature of collective political subjectivity in an era of transformationalist globalization. It also argues in favor of critical realist perspectives on collectivization in a post-development, globalizing world. Specifically, scholars can best advance an ‘epistemology of the south’ by promoting and protecting cognitive justice, which in turn can be achieved through the use of realist approaches that serve to uncover the practices of power at work within networked spaces.

Submitted by Leandro Nieves Ribeiro (leandro.nieves@gmail.com) on 2016-04-08T17:43:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Por uma rebeldia mundial_Leandro Nieves__abril de 2016_versão final.pdf: 5647779 bytes, checksum: 8dd02c35490632f10e0a171ec8bb23b4 (MD5) / Rejected by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize uma nova submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: A data informada na capa do documento está diferente da data de defesa que consta na folha de aprovação. Corrija esta informação no arquivo PDF e realize uma nova submissão contendo o arquivo correto. 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No. of bitstreams: 1 ribeiro_ln_me_prud.pdf: 5642388 bytes, checksum: 356d5a6d92a77d7a71c04c45afa66d37 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / La Vía Campesina foi oficialmente criada em 1993, em Mons na Bélgica, e surgiu como resposta às políticas econômicas na agricultura que marginalizavam os camponeses. Sem uma representação oficial dos camponeses as decisões na agricultura desrespeitavam o interesse dos trabalhadores rurais. A partir disso, milhares de camponeses se reuniram e objetivaram criar um movimento mundial de camponeses. O objetivo do movimento é estabelecer uma articulação, comunicação e uma coordenação de atividades em comum na escala mundial e regional. Dessa forma, esse movimento internacional, articulador de outros movimentos camponeses, é sem dúvida, considerado como um processo novo e surpreendente nos levando a questionar as condições históricas que culminaram na organização e a forma de organização. Atualmente, La Vía Campesina é o principal movimento camponês no cenário internacional totalizando a articulação de 164 movimentos de 73 países, com um total de 200 milhões de camponeses, pequenos e médios produtores, povos sem-terras, indígenas, migrantes e trabalhadores agrícolas. Suas ações e propostas confrontam os centros de decisão política na agricultura, como a OMC (Organização Mundial do Comércio), a Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura (FAO), o Banco Mundial, as empresas transnacionais do agronegócio (como Monsanto, Syngenta, etc.) e ONGs e movimentos não camponeses, como a Federação Internacional dos Produtores Agrícolas (IFAP). Seu tema principal envolve a política hegemônica da agricultura, tornando-se interlocutor de temas e reivindicações como reforma agrária, soberania alimentar, soberania energética, gênero, biodiversidade, direitos humanos e agricultura camponesa sustentável. Em escala nacional o movimento articulador é composto pelo Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (MMC), Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores (MPA), Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), Federação dos Estudantes de Agronomia do Brasil (FEAB), Pastoral da Juventude Rural (PJR), Coordenação Nacional das Comunidades Quilombolas (CONAQ) e Movimento de Pescadores e Pescadoras Artesanais (MPP). O objetivo desta pesquisa é compreender a formação da Via Campesina e articulação do movimento e de suas Ações Territoriais no Brasil / La Vía Campesina was officially established in 1993 in Mons in Belgium, and came as a response to economic policies in agriculture that marginalized peasants. Without an official representation of peasants the decisions in agriculture disregarded the interests of rural workers. From this, thousands of peasants gathered and aimed to create a global movement of peasants. The aim of the movement is to establish a joint communication and joint activities of coordination in global and regional scale. Thus, this international movement, articulator of other peasant movements, is undoubtedly considered as an amazing new process leading us to question the historical conditions that led to the organization and form of organization. Currently, La Vía Campesina is the main peasant movement in the international arena totaling articulation of 164 movements from 73 countries, with a total of 200 million peasants, small and medium-sized producers, landless people, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers. His actions and proposals confront the political decision-making centers in agriculture, such as the WTO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, transnational agribusiness companies (such as Monsanto, Syngenta, etc.) and NGOs and not peasants movements, such as the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP). His outstanding issues involving the hegemonic policy of agriculture, becoming party themes and claims as agrarian reform, food sovereignty, energy sovereignty, gender, biodiversity, human rights, sustainable peasant agriculture. On a national scale the members consists of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST), Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (MMC), Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores (MPA), Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), Federação dos Estudantes de Agronomia do Brasil (FEAB), Pastoral da Juventude Rural (PJR), Coordenação Nacional das Comunidades Quilombolas (CONAQ) and the Movimento de Pescadores e Pescadoras Artesanais (MPP). The objective of this research is to understand the formation of Via Campesina in Brazil and joint movement and its territorial Shares in Brazil.

<p>Det här är en uppsats som behandlar demokratisynen hos deltagare vid European Social Forum 2008 i Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns samband mellan erfarenheter av politiska handlingar, identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen och synen på hur demokratiska beslut i allmänhet bör fattas. Individer inom den globala rättviserörelsen kan ses som handlande subjekt inom utvecklingen av demokratiska system, då rörelsen formulerar en kritik mot globalisering och odemokratiska beslutsformer och strävar efter att möjliggöra en annan form av globalisering och en annan form av demokrati. Teoretiskt tar undersökningen avstamp i tre idealtypiska demokratiformer: deltagardemokrati, deliberativ demokrati och representativ demokrati, som har tre skilda utgångspunkter när det gäller former för beslutsprocesser. Även politiskt handlande går att skilja åt teoretiskt, i form av kollektivt och individuellt politiskt handlande. Genom en statistisk analys i form av faktoranalys och regression i verktyget SPSS har jag visat att erfarenheter påverkar synen på demokrati. En deltagardemokratisk syn främjas bland annat av en stark identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen, erfarenhet av konfrontativa politiska handlingar och erfarenhet av deltagardemokratiska mötesformer. En deliberativ demokratisyn främjas bland annat av en stark identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen, erfarenhet av konfrontativa politiska handlingar och erfarenhet av deliberativt demokratiska mötesformer. En representativ demokratisyn främjas av erfarenhet av rörelse- och föreningsaktivitet på europeisk nivå och erfarenhet av representativt och informativt politiskt handlande. Resultaten visar också att individers demokratisyn är komplex och ofta innehåller element från flera olika idealtypiska demokratimodeller.</p> / <p>This is a thesis about views on democracy among participants at the European Social Forum in Malmö 2008. The aim is to study if there are any statistical connections between experience of political actions, identification with the global justice movement and the view on democracy. The theoretical frames of the thesis are twofold: theories on democracy and theories on political actions. Democracy is divided into three different systems: participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and representative democracy. Political actions are divided into collective and individual political actions. By carrying out a statistical analysis through regression and factor analysis am I able to confirm that an experience of political actions have a statistical influence on an individual view on democracy. A participatory view is influenced by a strong identification with the global justice movement, experiences of confrontation as political method and experiences of participatory ways of making political decisions. A deliberative view is influenced by a strong identification with the global justice movement, experiences of confrontation as political method and experiences of deliberative ways of making decisions. A representative view on democracy is influenced by experiences of European movement- or association activity and experiences of representative and informative political actions. The results show that individual’s view on democracy is a question of great complexity and is often containing elements from different democratic ideals.</p>

Det här är en uppsats som behandlar demokratisynen hos deltagare vid European Social Forum 2008 i Malmö. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns samband mellan erfarenheter av politiska handlingar, identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen och synen på hur demokratiska beslut i allmänhet bör fattas. Individer inom den globala rättviserörelsen kan ses som handlande subjekt inom utvecklingen av demokratiska system, då rörelsen formulerar en kritik mot globalisering och odemokratiska beslutsformer och strävar efter att möjliggöra en annan form av globalisering och en annan form av demokrati. Teoretiskt tar undersökningen avstamp i tre idealtypiska demokratiformer: deltagardemokrati, deliberativ demokrati och representativ demokrati, som har tre skilda utgångspunkter när det gäller former för beslutsprocesser. Även politiskt handlande går att skilja åt teoretiskt, i form av kollektivt och individuellt politiskt handlande. Genom en statistisk analys i form av faktoranalys och regression i verktyget SPSS har jag visat att erfarenheter påverkar synen på demokrati. En deltagardemokratisk syn främjas bland annat av en stark identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen, erfarenhet av konfrontativa politiska handlingar och erfarenhet av deltagardemokratiska mötesformer. En deliberativ demokratisyn främjas bland annat av en stark identifiering med den globala rättviserörelsen, erfarenhet av konfrontativa politiska handlingar och erfarenhet av deliberativt demokratiska mötesformer. En representativ demokratisyn främjas av erfarenhet av rörelse- och föreningsaktivitet på europeisk nivå och erfarenhet av representativt och informativt politiskt handlande. Resultaten visar också att individers demokratisyn är komplex och ofta innehåller element från flera olika idealtypiska demokratimodeller. / This is a thesis about views on democracy among participants at the European Social Forum in Malmö 2008. The aim is to study if there are any statistical connections between experience of political actions, identification with the global justice movement and the view on democracy. The theoretical frames of the thesis are twofold: theories on democracy and theories on political actions. Democracy is divided into three different systems: participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and representative democracy. Political actions are divided into collective and individual political actions. By carrying out a statistical analysis through regression and factor analysis am I able to confirm that an experience of political actions have a statistical influence on an individual view on democracy. A participatory view is influenced by a strong identification with the global justice movement, experiences of confrontation as political method and experiences of participatory ways of making political decisions. A deliberative view is influenced by a strong identification with the global justice movement, experiences of confrontation as political method and experiences of deliberative ways of making decisions. A representative view on democracy is influenced by experiences of European movement- or association activity and experiences of representative and informative political actions. The results show that individual’s view on democracy is a question of great complexity and is often containing elements from different democratic ideals.

Cette thèse porte sur le mouvement altermondialiste dans sa déclinaison européenne, en s'intéressant en particulier au processus du Forum Social Européen tel qu'il a été initié à Florence en novembre 2002. Plus spécifiquement, nous nous intéressons à des réseaux thématiques qui se sont constitués au fil des éditions du Forum Social Européen avec l'objectif de renforcer la coordination entre les différents participants au Forum, sur des thèmes économiques et sociaux liés à l'intégration européenne. Ces réseaux ont été constitués dans le sillage des grandes manifestations altermondialistes de portée européenne qui se sont développées dans les années 90-2000. Rapidement après leur création, ces réseaux ont cependant réuni de moins en moins de participants et ont finalement disparu en tant qu'espaces d'organisation collective. Cette thèse vise principalement à expliquer l'échec de ces réseaux. La mise en relation de la création de nos réseaux thématiques avec les mobilisations de l'altermondialisme européen, qui semblent s'essouffler au milieu des années 2000, nous incite à les analyser dans le cadre d'un processus de démobilisation au niveau européen. Celui-ci se traduit par des conflits entre les participants restant sur les modes de fonctionnement collectif au sein des réseaux ou sur les stratégies collectives à mettre en œuvre, et finalement à de nouveaux retraits de participants. La distinction de plusieurs phases entre 2005 et 2010 nous permet par ailleurs d'envisager cette combinaison entre démobilisation et conflits à plusieurs niveaux. Tandis que la fin de campagnes altermondialistes en Europe nous permet d'observer des conflits entre les acteurs sur le rôle de réseaux thématiques comme structures potentielles d'action collective, la baisse de la participation dans le cadre spécifique du Forum Social Européen fait naitre des conflits sur le rôle que devraient endosser ces réseaux dans ce processus. Finalement, le fort déclin de la participation dans le FSE d'Istanbul en 2010 aboutit à la disparition des réseaux thématiques étudiés. Au-delà de leur échec, ce travail se termine néanmoins par la mise en évidence des apports de ces expériences sur la constitution d'un groupe d'acteurs à l'échelle européenne entretenant des objectifs proches. / This thesis is about the Global Justice Movement (GJM) in its European dimension, focusing on the European Social Forum process which was launched in Florence in November 2002. More precisely, specific thematic networks have been created in the course of this process with the aim of strengthening coordination between different participants on economic and social issues linked with the European integration. These networks were created in the wake of some campaigns of the Global Justice Movement in Europe which developed in the years 1997-2005. However, fewer and fewer participants took part in the meetings of the networks, and they finally disappeared as spaces of collective organisation. This thesis is aimed at explaining the failure of these networks. We first analyze their creation as a sign of a larger process of demobilisation after 2005, concerning the whole GJM in Europe. This process leads to conflicts between remaining participants, about the internal functioning of the networks (modes of decisions, etc.) and the external collective strategies that should be defined. We distinguish several phases between 2005 and 2010 where we can find this combination between demobisation and internal conflicts in the networks. Although we observe conflicts between actors of the networks while some global justice campaigns are coming to an end in Europe (2005-2006), the decline of participation in the European Social Forum leads to conflicts about the role these networks should have in this process (2007-2010). Finally, the huge loss of participants in the ESF in Istanbul in 2010 led to the end of the thematic networks which are studied here. Beyond their failure, we point at the end of this thesis the positive contribution of these experiences that favoured the constitution of a coherent group of actors with similar objectives at the European level.

Aux Etats-Unis, les années 1990 ont été marquées par l’émergence de nouveaux débats politiques sur le libre-échange. Une large coalition de syndicats et d’organisations pour la protection de l’environnement et des consommateurs s’est pour la première fois mobilisée dans le but de redéfinir les règles de la politique commerciale américaine. Quel est le bilan de leurs activités politiques, près de quinze après leur première bataille législative contre l’Accord de libre-échange nord-américain (ALENA) ? Ce travail de recherche s’appuie sur une série d’entretiens avec des acteurs politiques, des documents internes de groupes d’intérêts (syndicats, écologistes, patronat, etc.) et les registres du Congrès pour analyser les conflits entre les défenseurs du libre-échange et les partisans d’une « équité des échanges » à travers cinq études de cas entre 1991 et 2005. L’analyse conclut que la « relation spéciale » entre le patronat et l’exécutif a été l’un des principaux obstacles aux progrès de l’alliance entre syndicalistes et écologistes depuis l’origine du processus de décision jusqu’à la ratification au Congrès. Non seulement les institutions américaines ont limité l’influence des groupes de la société civile à l’origine des négociations commerciales, mais le président a également fortement assisté les organisations patronales dans leurs efforts de lobbying, leur permettant de remporter la plupart des batailles législatives entre 1991 et 2005. / The 1990s marked the emergence of the “new politics of American trade.” A large coalition of labor, environmental and consumer organizations fought to broaden the narrow economic scope of American trade policy and change the rules of globalization. More than fifteen years after their first legislative battle against the North American Free Trade Agreement, what is the legacy of their political mobilization? What factors constrained their progress? Drawing from interviews with political actors, lobbying materials from labor, environmental and business organizations, and congressional records, this dissertation analyzes the clash between “fair” and “free” traders in five major legislative battles from 1991 to 2005. It reveals that the “special relationship” between the business community and the executive branch was the key obstacle to the achievements of the “blue (collar)-green” alliance from the beginning to the end of the policy process. Not only did the private sector enjoy privileged access to the negotiations phase, but the president also assisted free trade coalitions in their lobbying efforts, allowing them to win most legislative battles.