ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the key arguments of Agnew's territorial trap, which challenges the geographical basis of conventional international relations theory, to make a case for a critical globalization theory framework for the study of the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra AmricaTratado de Comercio de los PueblosALBATCP. It argues that the associated mobilization and empowerment gains are an important element in the constitution of what Bolivarian law and discourse terms the organized society, that is, popular, mass-based organization and the collective exercise of power through councils and movements. As a politics of place, space and scale, the ALBA-TCP governance regime is outlined, in which an emergent transnational organized society integrates via the ALBA-TCP Council of Social Movements in the quest for progressive regional and global transformation. The relevance of the outlined considerations for understanding the ALBATCP as a counter-globalization project is that, unlike hegemonic globalization.
