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Book Details
Abstract
Neoliberal capitalism positions us all as consumers in a hypermarket where money talks. For the majority of people around the globe, this translates as precarity and immiseration. But how can we break from this dominant ideological framework?
Expose, Oppose, Propose details how, since the mid 1970s, transnational alternative policy groups (TAPGs) have functioned as think tanks of a different sort, generating resources for a globalization from below in dialogue with the critical social movements that are protagonists for global justice.
Based on two years of intensive research, William Carroll not only provides a detailed examination of a variety of TAPGs – showing how each group is distinctive and autonomous in its vision, practical priorities, and ways of producing and mobilizing alternative knowledge – but also reveals how TAPGs form a master frame that advocates and envisages global justice and ecological wellbeing.
'With this penetrating study of transnational alternative policy groups, Carroll and his colleagues demonstrate that while they are embedded within a network of hegemonic institutions they can also mediate between movements and media, between counterpublics and general publics, and go beyond resistance into the realm of counter-hegemonic politics and the struggle for global justice.'
Leslie Sklair, London School of Economics
‘In analysing the dual crisis of contemporary capitalism, Carroll skillfully weighs up the strategic dilemmas faced by transnational resistance movements seeking global alternatives - and his sociological scholarship is second to none in its blend of political passion and exemplary empiricism.’
Ariel Salleh, activist and author of Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice
‘Brilliant and original … He fully recognizes that the global dimensions of the crises will require solutions that are at least partially global and that many of these solutions will be practical utopias in the sense that they will challenge us to face the difficulties of bringing about a post-capitalist world and at the same time present practical strategies that may make this possible.’
Robert Albritton, York University, Toronto
‘Chock-full of insights, William K. Carroll’s latest book is an immensely useful account of how major alternative think-tanks engage in their struggles for global justice. A must-read for anyone interested in developing strategies for a more equitable world.’
Markus S. Schulz, President of the 2016 ISA Forum of Sociology
‘Refusing to be mesmerized by neoliberalism, Carroll has spent years probing the structures and practices of justice globalism. Careful, concrete investigation of a globally dispersed set of transnational alternative policy groups enables him to offer a sophisticated, synthetic characterization of their shared vision. Expose, Oppose, Propose is an indispensable guide for anyone trying to create the basis for a just and viable future.’
Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
'Carroll successfully shows that TAPGs (transnational alternative policy groups) and their responses to the ongoing crises, move us beyond the defensive politics of resistance and localism to a politics of antipassive revolution and counterhegemony at a global level.'
Mobilization
William K. Carroll teaches at the Sociology Department at the University of Victoria, Canada. His research interests are in the areas of social movements and social change, the political economy of corporate capitalism, and critical social theory and method. His books include The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class (Zed Books, 2010), Remaking Media (2006), and Organizing Dissent (1997).
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Cover page | Cover | ||
About the Author | ii | ||
Title Page | iii | ||
Copyright | iv | ||
Contents | v | ||
Abbreviations | vi | ||
Acknowledgements | ix | ||
Preface | 1 | ||
1. Hegemony, Counter-hegemony and Organic Crisis | 6 | ||
Transnational Policy Groups: Hegemonic and Counter-hegemonic | 10 | ||
Comparing TAPGs and Neoliberal Think Tanks (NTTs) | 15 | ||
The Context: Global Organic Crisis | 17 | ||
Passive Revolution and Anti-passive Revolution | 22 | ||
TAPGs and the Urgent Need for Justice Globalism | 24 | ||
Sixteen Key Transnational Alternative Policy Groups | 31 | ||
2. Alternative Knowledge Projects and Cognitive Praxis | 40 | ||
KPM Projects, Practices and Constituencies | 41 | ||
Parting Reflections | 60 | ||
3. Networks of Cognitive Praxis: Embedding Postcapitalist Alternatives? | 65 | ||
Counter-hegemony and Global Civil Society: Embedding Postcapitalist Alternatives | 66 | ||
Collecting the Network Data | 67 | ||
TAPGS within Global Civil Society: Basic Patterns and Parameters | 68 | ||
Inter-regional and North-South Integration | 74 | ||
Embeddedness and Mediation among Movement Domains | 78 | ||
TAPGs as Embedded Collective Intellectuals | 81 | ||
4. Challenges and Responses | 86 | ||
More with Less: TAPGs vs. Mainstream Think Tanks | 88 | ||
Mainstreaming and Marginalization | 98 | ||
The Post-2008 Conjuncture | 105 | ||
5. The Challenge of NGOization | 118 | ||
NGOs, Foundations and NGOization | 121 | ||
Parting Reflections | 138 | ||
6. The Repertoire of alt KPM: Modes of Cognitive Praxis | 140 | ||
Challenging Hegemonic Knowledge | 143 | ||
Mobilizing Alternative Knowledge through Engaging with Dominant Institutions | 144 | ||
Empowering the Grassroots through Participation and Capacity-building | 148 | ||
Building Solidarities through Dialogical KPM | 150 | ||
Integrating Theory and Practice | 154 | ||
Creating Spaces for Reflection and Invention | 156 | ||
Systematizing and Disseminating Alternative Knowledge | 157 | ||
Prefiguring Alternative Futures from Present Practices | 159 | ||
Parting Reflections | 161 | ||
7. The Repertoire of alt KPM: Key Practices | 166 | ||
Research and Analysis | 167 | ||
Pedagogy | 168 | ||
Networking | 170 | ||
Action | 173 | ||
Internal Governance and Organizational Forms | 174 | ||
Outreach | 176 | ||
TAPGs, Media and Movements: A Summary Statement | 188 | ||
Parting Reflections | 189 | ||
8. Convergent Visions: The Ends of Alternative Knowledge | 192 | ||
Substantive Fulfillment of the Human Rights Agenda | 194 | ||
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Plural Social Forms | 194 | ||
Diverse Voices in Dialogue | 195 | ||
Changing the Subject: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and the Spirit of Ubuntu | 196 | ||
Participatory Democracy | 198 | ||
Open, Democratic Socialism | 199 | ||
Reclaiming the Commons | 199 | ||
Buen Vivir: A Sustainable Society | 201 | ||
Process Issues | 203 | ||
Green Transformation | 204 | ||
Back to Justice Globalism: Concluding Reflections | 206 | ||
References | 215 | ||
Index | 230 |