Actors, Conflicts and the Globalization Movement

Salient features of the globalization movement include: the defence of the subjective specificity of individuals and groups by a plurality of actors; fluid organizational and communication structures; opposition to economic and social domination; resistance to cultural homogenization; construction of social alternative networks; links between local and transnational initiatives that seek alternative modes of development on a global scale; the search for a new democracy. These features imply a specific construction of the movement and, in addition, different significances of its impact on social life. The affirmation of individual and group subjectivities in the construction of the movement implies a new definition of action as no longer collective. The impact of this action on social life resides in: the need to build new institutional mechanisms adequate to regulate global economic fluxes; cultural alternatives expressed through the affirmation of subjective specificity; and the cleavage between the movement’s social networks and ruling actors.