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1. Global Countermovements
Chapter 7
PhD Fatma Altınbas Sarıgül

2. Countermovements
□ countermovements that resist the globalization
project:
□ “Global justice movements”
□ Environmentalism
□ Feminism
□ Cosmopolitan activism
□ Food sovereignty
□ Conservative responses
□ Religious fundamentalism
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

3. Northern Environmentalism
□ Inspired by Rachel Carson’s (1962) Silent
Spring
□ Human dependency on ecological systems
□ Emphasized West’s rationalized perception of
nature as “external” to society
□ Need to challenge unbridled economic
growth
□ Need to regulate markets
□ Call to:
□ Reverse chemical- and capital-intensive
agriculture
□ Preserve human health and enhance leisure
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

4. Southern Movements:
Environmentalism of the Poor
□ Protect existing cultural practices; question
market forces
□ In contrast to Northern environmentalism that
seek to regulate environmental implications of
market
□ Many examples:
□ 20th
century: Tropical forest dwellers protected
rainforests as 1980s export boom intensified
logging and beef pasturing
□ Challenge environmental stresses from mining,
damming, resource overuse, green revolution
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

5. Common Denominators of
Environmental Movements
□ Nature is finite
□ Epidemics threaten dynamic living ecosystems and
human health
□ Monocultures do not have regenerative properties
of natural systems
□ Economic notions of value are insufficient
□ Measuring income does not account for loss of
wealth; renders environmental impact invisible
□ Call for ecological accounting
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

6. Pressures Toward New
Environmental Thinking
□ Emerge of New Social Movements that:
□ Create new forms of social and political action
□ Critique economism, centralism and hierarchies
of the development project
□ Rights for abstract citizens are secondary
□ Focus on practices that question dominant
values and power relations
□ Examples: greens, feminism, shackdwellers, food
sovereignty, worker-owned cooperatives,
participatory budgeting, food policy councils,
neighborhood associations, landless workers
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

7. Pressures toward New
Environmental Thinking
□ Growing awareness of limits of “spaceship earth”
□ Growing conflict on margins between local
cultures and global market
□ Pressure of rural poor on natural resources has
intensified; environmental movements pursue
self-organized “sustainable development”
□ Resistance to the Narmada Dam forced the
World Bank to withdraw support as marginal
populations asserted control over their lives
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

8. Sustainable Development
□ 1987 Brundtland Report Our Common Future:
□ “meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs”
□ Did not resolve debate over cause of environmental
degradation: poverty vs. affluence
□ Poor people as cause of environmental stress on
resources
□ Suggested solutions: Population control,
economic growth
□ Environmental stress due to global inequality,
affluent lifestyles
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

9. The Earth Summit
□ 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) Rio de Janieiro
□ Agenda 21 document detailed global program
□ Global South agreed to participate in global
program to reduce CO2 emissions, preserve
biodiversity, and rainforests in exchange for financial
aid, investment
□ UNCED called for environmental protection without
distorting international trade and investment
□ Privileged global management of environment over
local/national concerns
□ Favored global economy vs. economic conditions in
Global South
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

10. Global Environmental
Management
□ Aims to preserve planetary resources
□ Southern grassroots movements say global
environmental managers are concerned ensuring
continued profit
□ New global ecology is not about social justice or
distribution but about:
□ Reducing greenhouse gas emissions (automobiles
and burning forests)
□ Protecting biodiversity (in tropical forests)
□ Reducing pollution in international waters
□ Curbing ozone-layer depletion
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

11. Global Environmental
Management
□ World Bank established Global Environmental Facility
(GEF) fund
□ Problem is surplus populations, scarce resources
□ Ignores larger framework of inequality in resource
resources
□ Examples:
□ Brazil – 1% of population owns 44% of fertile
agricultural land; 32 million destitute
□ SAPs, grain imports, soy exports displace peasants.
□ Landless people who do not join Sem Terra/migrate
incorporated into “poverty management
programs”
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

12. Global Environmental
Management
□ Priorities of global vs. local managers differ
□ World Bank: indigenous people have “limited
capacity” to participate in development due to
“cultural barriers or low social and political status”
□ Perpetuates idea that cultural minorities need
guidance
□ Subordinates minorities to national
development initiatives
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

13. Feminism
□ 1880s: First movement for women’s rights in France
□ 1970s: “Second-wave feminism”
□ Transformed meanings of development
□ Institutionalized policies to improve gender equality
□ Three threads of an alternative development agenda:
□ Valuing equality in productive work
□ Valuing social reproduction,
□ Reorienting social values from economism to humanism
□ Three phases of feminist influence on development:
□ Economic justice in the workplace
□ Policy supporting unpaid labor
□ Identifying the threat to sustainability in patriarchy and the
market system
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

14. Feminist Influence on
Development
□ Women in Development (WID)
□ 1975 Mexico City UN World Conference on Women
□ Extended development programs to include women
□ Framed UN Decade for Women 1976-85
□ Gender and Development (GAD)
□ From integrationism to women as decision-makers
□ Refocused on different development priorities and
needs of women and men
□ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) adopted
by UN in 1979
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

15. Women in Development (WID)
Perspective
□ Women have unequal access to participate in
production and in defining economic structures
and policies
□ Women have always been producers, but
development has focused on male cash-earning
activity
□ Development should address education, health
care, family planning, and nutrition
□ Women perform unpaid labor as well as paid
labor with net benefit to communities
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

16. Gender in Development
(GAD) Perspective
□ Gender discrimination is socially constructed
□ Focus on intra-household relations of productive
and reproductive work to understand impact of
development on households
□ Shift focus to gender relations and making social
reproduction visible allows policymakers to see
where it “pays” to deliver resources to women
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

17. Women’s Rights
□ Feminism has impacted the development agenda but
economic progress for women has stopped
□ Social well-being deteriorated in many cases
□ 1989 UN World Survey on the Role of Women in
Development: economic progress for women has
stopped; social well-being has deteriorated in many
cases
□ 2011 UN Women Report claimed more than half of
working women in the world (600 million) have
insecure jobs without legal protection
© SAGE Publications, 2011.

18. Food Sovereignty Movement
□ 1 billion people remain food insecure
□ 6 corporations handle 85% of world grain trade
□ Food sovereignty movements resist the global
conception of food security
□ Aim to protect local farming and revitalize democratic,
cultural, and ecological processes
□ Example: Via Campesina – 200 million farmers’
transnational movement advances farmers’ collective
rights and biodiversity
□ Food self-reliance is prioritized over trade
□ Most significant chapter of Via Campesina: The Brazilian
landless workers’ movement (MST)
© SAGE Publications, 2011.