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Transnational Society Take Home Mid-term Test (2011)

Name : Andhyta Firselly Utami

Department /NPM : International Relations / 0906550373

Resource : Rupert Taylor, Interpreting Global Civil Society in Voluntas:

International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Vol.13,

No.4 (December 2002), pp. 339-346Question : What are the strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and opportunities of global civil society?

Global Civil Society: The Undefined Heroes and Their Contributions

Despite the existence of global civil society term for decades, Rupert Taylor still believes that

there is a quite long to-do-list faced by international relations academia in this area. In Interpreting Global

Civil Society, he mentions the importance of clear description as well as adequate theorization towards this

concept. This idea is also upheld by Martin Shaw and Mary Kaldor who state that a division of factual and

normative senses is impossible1

since the core concern lies on aspects of the same relationships.2

The global

civil society, hence, requires to be perceived as a progressive multiorganization field with innovative

network forms and transformative purpose in the future. This review is going to further elaborate how suchcondition constitutes certain strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and opportunities for the discussed topic,

concluded with the challenges that need to be encountered.

Between scholars, mass media, and amongst a broader public, the phrase global civil society has

been very commonly used. However, as quoted from Waterman, the provenance of the term is apparently

not well grounded and has not yet passed through the forge of theoretical clarification or the sieve of public

debate. Martin Shaw also argues that the conceptualization of global civil society is not the novelty it

might appear at first glance but rather the known national sociology frameworks that are brought to the

international level.3

One of several available dubious meanings, proposed by Anheieris as the sphere of

ideas, values, institutions, organizations, networks, and individuals located between the family, the state, and

the market and operating beyond the confines of national societies, polities, and economies is considered

too wide and is going to include almost a universe of players that are not necessarily tied to progress a better

world. The yet-to-be-agreed most accepted definition, on the contrary, belongs to non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) or social movements, of all shapes and sizes, operating in the international realm.4

This is actually a rather too shallow designation for all intricate actors behind the term and therefore, is very

debatable and may lead to several circumstances.

First, such loose explanation benefits the global civil societyalthough we have not really

reached an agreement on who they arein boundlessly involving crucial stakeholders. This is one of the

foremost strengths of global civil society, both in the form of organizations and movements, since they have

no tight borders in creating wide, global networks. Such privilege is not possessed by the states because they

have to bump into the gate of sovereignty and bureaucracy before establishing any form of cooperation.

1 Mary Kaldor, The Idea of Global Civil Society in International Affairs, 79, Vol.3 (2003), page 5902 Martin Shaw, The Theoretical Challenge of Global Societ y in Global Society andInternational Relations Sociological Concepts and Political

Perspectives (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994), page 113 Ibid., page 144 Robert Taylor, Interpreting Global Civil Society in Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Vol.13, No.4

(December 2002), pp. 339

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The huge and increasing scope of global civil societys involvement, participation, and networking in almost

all issues including human rights, environment, international trade, as well as core labor standards give them

the maximum prospects to create positive changes for the planet and the society. Their empirical

contributions can be measured from the quantitative and comprehensive approach, seeing its increasing

number of activities as well as by assessing its success in creating social changes.5 Thenceforth, the most

distinctive property of the global civil society is its innovative network forms and transformative purpose.However, this situation leads to the second characteristic of global civil society: the perceived

degree of conceptual conflation about the relation between state and non-state actors within the concept.

This weakness, according to main stream political sociologists, comes from the lack of sociological

preconditions, i.e. a global state, and limits resources to infrastructure in supporting global civil society

organization as well as required networks for transnational identity formation and collective action. On such

basis, several scholars maintain that the likelihood for global civil society developments is weak. It is found

that the dynamics of global civil society is very much influenced by many aspects, including environment,

technology, economy, social, as well as internal and external politics applied in certain countries. This can

be seen from the volatile quantity of NGOs and movements during the past century. During World War II,

for instance, the number of social movements and NGOs dropped until a very small number of hundreds,

while today we have more than 25.000 registered non-governmental bodies and institutions.6

Third, the limitation for global civil society derives from the main approach utilized in studying

the concept through descriptive nature and paradigmatic predilection, hence cannot be significantly

developed. The method, as Paul Nelson argues, is too restrictive in that it only covers specific issue areas

and forms of INGO political action but does not holistically applicable to financial policy and trade issues; it

is biased towards middle-class activism (Waterman) with labor issues very much in the background

(Evans).

7

Little attempt has been done to articulate a systematic understanding of the multiple overlappingorganizations and movements that progressively promote global civil society through an emphasis of

developments in mix of descriptive empiricism and pregiven theory that actually hinder insights.

Limitation to the global civil society actors also comes from the nature of inherited structures of

power that they work in.8 Although one of their objectives is to actually transform this condition, they stop

on the level of modifying or altering. This can be understandable if we locate global civil society in its

constitutive context: a state-centric system of international relations that is dominated by a narrow section of

humanity and within the structures of international capital that may permit dissent but do not permit any

transformation of their own agendas.9 On the theoretical level, it is the belief of realists that such structure

can never be changed and thus become an inevitable limitation for the global civil society.

Additional to the aforementioned problems, there are still a lot of principal inquiries that need to be

answered by the global civil society: (1) Who are they fighting for? (2) Realizing that their existence does

not link to a certain geographical region, where did the legitimacy and justification to struggle for issues

5 Dwi Ardhanariswari, Transnational Society Lecture at E203 on Wednesday, 23 February 2011, at Faculty of Social and Political Science

Universitas Indonesia 6 Robert Taylor, Op Cit., page 3397 Ibid.8 Neera Chandoke, The Limits of Global Civil Society, page 359Ibid.

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attached to certain regions come from? (3) Who is responsible to decide and create internal policies for their

own organizations or control over the implementation of their policies?10

These questions often become the

hindrances for the global civil society in performing their activities.

Lastly, the fourth point on the list, there are several opportunities for global civil society which

are mostly a result of their innovative network forms. Simultaneous with formal assemblies or conferences,

the global civil society acknowledges the importance of virtual interaction through the internet in promotingeffective mobilization than direct face-to-face interaction.11 New technological advances have altered the

nature of social ties in regards to the meaning ofcopresence. This implies that an INGO can work even

without a bank account or a street address. Thousands swarms of NGOs are decentralized and fluid, as the

multidriven clusters of NGOs are linked and mobilized through the internet. Therefore, convergence is easier

to be made especially because of their similar goals and objectives.

Furthermore, the emerging progressive global consciousness also supports and makes it easier for

the global civil society to take proactive measures. The wider public sphere is now more aware of how social

issues are interpenetrated and interdependent. As Robert Taylor mentions, the global civil society is gaining

their momentum since each and every action is building on the next with increasing interconnectednessas

well as strengthening synergy.

The first taskor challenge, I might preferoffered by Robert Taylor is to offer a global approach

for studying a global phenomenon that embraces interpretative and contextual research methods to probe

peoples subjective experiences, perceptions, and feelings. It should encompass both organizations that tend

to work within the INGO (lobbying with WTO, IMF, World Bank) and those movements committed to

street protest and other forms of direct action. Researches on how these different measures are interrelated

have barely begun. All told, this is a major task, best pursued through collaborative researchincluding

both academics and practicionersat a global level. After such duty has been accomplished and thelimitation of global civil society has been answered, the next job is indeed to interpret global civil society as

a progressive multiorganization field with innovative network forms and transformative purpose. However,

such tasks shall not stop the real actors from creating actions and movements to create more progresses to

the betterment of the world.

10 Kenneth Anderson and David Rieff, Global Civil Society: A Skeptical View11 Robert Taylor, Op Cit.