ABSTRACT
While notions of ‘civil society’ go back to the sixteenth century, specific reference to ‘global civil society’ has emerged only in the 1990s. Commentators have spoken in a related vein of ‘international non-governmental organizations’, ‘transnational advocacy networks’, ‘global social movements’, a ‘new multilateralism’, and so on. Such discussions are part of a wider concern with globality (the condition of being global) and globalization (the trend of increasing globality). Our conception of global civil society is thus inseparable from our notion of ‘global-ness’ more generally. […]
Five broad kinds of ideas about globalization can be distinguished. First, many people equate the term ‘globalization’ with ‘internationalization’. From this perspective, a ‘global’ situation is one marked by intense interaction and interdependence between country units. Second, many commentators take the word ‘globalization’ to mean ‘liberalization’. In this usage, globality refers to an ‘open’ world where resources can move anywhere, unencumbered by state-imposed restrictions like trade barriers, capital controls and travel visas. Third, many analysts understand ‘globalization’ to entail ‘universalization’. In this case, a ‘global’ phenomenon is one that is found at all corners of the earth. Fourth, some observers invoke the term ‘globalization’ as a synonym for ‘Westernization’ or ‘Americanization’. In this context, globality involves the imposition of modern structures, especially in an ‘American’ consumerist variant. Fifth, some
researchers identify ‘globalization’ as ‘deterritorialization’. Here ‘global’ relations are seen to occupy a social space that transcends territorial geography.
