Understanding the Alternative Globalisation Movement

Abstract

Resistance to neo-liberalism had been gathering pace for sometime before it crystallised into the alternative globalisation movement (AGM) in 1999 at the Third Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, WA, USA. Since then, many more protests have ensued in cities around the globe against the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the G8. The emergence of this phenomenon has precipitated new research and debates for social movement studies and social sciences generally. This paper critically reviews some of the new academic perspectives on the AGM including, post-structuralist anarchist, autonomist, complexity theorisations, as well as new applications of older social movement theories such as the political process approach and new social movement theory. The paper explains the emergence and establishment of the World Social Forum (WSF) and the theoretical and practical difficulties of a charter which suggests such an inclusive an open ended rubric. Finally, the paper concludes by arguing that further research on the tensions within the WSF and the AGM is required if an answer is to be provided to the question: Is another World Possible?