The global citizens movement is a constellation of organized and overlapping citizens' groups seeking to foster global solidarity in policy and consciousness. The term is often used synonymously with the
anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalis ...
or the
global justice movement
The global justice movement is a network of globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “ corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.
Movement of movements
...
.
Background
The concept of
global citizenship
Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives ...
first emerged in the 4th Century BCE among the
Greek Cynics, who coined the term “
cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
” – meaning ''citizen of the world''. The
Stoics
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...
later elaborated on the concept, and contemporary philosophers and political theorists have further developed it in the concept of
cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...
, which proposes that all individuals belong to a single moral community.
The twenty-first century has seen increasing calls for global citizenship in light of how transportation and technology—are binding disparate parts of the world more closely together than ever before. Authors as
Paul Raskin
Paul Raskin is the founding President of the Tellus Institute, which has conducted over 3,500 research and policy projects throughout the world on environmental issues, resource planning, scenario analysis, and sustainable development. His research ...
,
Paul H. Ray,
David Korten
David C. Korten (born 1937) is an American author, former professor of the Harvard Business School, political activist, prominent critic of corporate globalization, and "by training and inclination a student of psychology and behavioral systems". ...
, and
Gus Speth
James Gustave (Gus) Speth (born March 4, 1942) is an American environmental lawyer and advocate who co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Early life and education
He was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1942. He graduated su ...
have argued for the existence of a latent pool of tens of millions of people ready to identify with a global consciousness, such as that captured in the
Earth Charter
The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, ...
. Organizations such as
Oxfam International
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
believe that a global citizens movement rooted in social and economic justice is emerging and is necessary for ending global poverty. The
Global Scenario Group
The Global Scenario Group (GSG) was an international, interdisciplinary body convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to develop scenarios for world development in the twenty-first century. Further deve ...
likewise identified such a movement as the key change agent in a
Great Transition
Great Transition is used by the Great Transition Initiative and its predecessor, the Global Scenario Group (GSG), to describe a vision of a just and sustainable global future. The term was originally coined by Kenneth E. Boulding in ''The Meaning ...
to a socially and ecologically sustainable future. A more recently formed group vying for a sustainable global future through international unification via an international federation are the
Young World Federalists.
A global citizens movement would differ from the existing fragmented civil society organizations and social movements in that such campaigns and movements tend to be issue-specific rather than united in a shared struggle for a socially just and ecologically sustainable global society and the establishment of an institutional structure to support it.
Critiques
Skeptics of the notion of a global citizens movement question whether or not a high enough level of global solidarity can emerge in light of nationalism, racism, and the dominance of the
Westphalian state system. However, other scholars point out that the historical emergence of nationalism must have felt just as improbable in a time of warring city-states, and yet in retrospect appears inevitable.
In their book
Multitude
Multitude is a term for a group of people who cannot be classed under any other distinct category, except for their shared fact of existence. Though its use dates back to antiquity, the term first entered into the lexicon of political philosophy w ...
,
Michael Hardt
Michael Hardt (born 1960) is an American political philosopher and literary theorist. Hardt is best known for his book ''Empire'', which was co-written with Antonio Negri.
Hardt and Negri suggest that several forces which they see as domin ...
and
Antonio Negri
Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic- Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza.
Born in Padua, he became a political ...
offer a more radical critique that posits
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
's notion of a “plurality of resistance” as the only legitimate path forward.
[Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, ''Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire'' (London: Penguin Books, 2004); Michel Foucault, ''The History of Sexuality'' (New York: Vintage Books, 1980).] Instead of leadership and organizational structures, Hardt and Negri put faith in the emergence of spontaneous coherence due to self-organized networks among various autonomous resistance movements. However, it remains unclear how a network of autonomous movements would differ in practice from a global citizens movement.
See also
*
Global citizenship
Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives ...
*
Global justice
Global justice is an issue in political philosophy arising from the concern about unfairness. It is sometimes understood as a form of internationalism.
History
Henrik Syse claims that global ethics and international justice in western traditi ...
*
Global justice movement
The global justice movement is a network of globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “ corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.
Movement of movements
...
*
Great Transition
Great Transition is used by the Great Transition Initiative and its predecessor, the Global Scenario Group (GSG), to describe a vision of a just and sustainable global future. The term was originally coined by Kenneth E. Boulding in ''The Meaning ...
*
Social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
*
World community
The term world community is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or ...
*
World government
World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors.
A world gove ...
Notes
Further reading
* Florini, A. ''The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society''. New York: Carnegie Endowment, 20000.
* Gelder, Melinda. ''Meeting the Enemy, Becoming a Friend''. Boulder: Bauu Press, 2006.
* Kriegman, ''Dawn of the Cosmopolitan: The Hope of a Global Citizens Movement'' (Boston: Tellus Institute, 2006), http://www.tellus.org/pub/Dawn_of_the_Cosmopolitan.pdf.
* Mayo, Marjorie. ''Global Citizens: Social Movements and the Challenge of Globalization''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
* Smith, Jackie. ''Social Movements for Global Democracy''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
External links
Great Transition Initiativethe GTI Paper Series and framework offers further context for discussion of a Global Citizens Movement
Encyclopedia of the Earthhas an entry on the Global Citizens Movement under the category of Sustainable Development
{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Citizens Movement
Community building
Activism
Alter-globalization
Global civilization
Social movements
Cosmopolitanism
Global culture