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Transcript of Neoliberal Resistance
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Researching Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization:Engaged Ethnography as Solidarity and Praxis
ANDREW MATHERS & MARIO NOVELLI
University of the West of England, UK, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
In this paper we investigate the process of carrying out ethnographic studies of organized resistance
to neoliberal globalization. We do so by drawing upon the critical and public social science of
Bourdieu and Santos, two highly influential opponents of neoliberalism, and by utilizing
Burawoys extended case method for the investigation of two instances of resistance. The first
is of a trade union, Sintraemcali, that has been engaged in a longstanding struggle over the
introduction of neoliberal policies in the city of Cali in south-west Colombia. The second is of
The European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion. We then
reflect upon our approach to researching this resistance and conclude by identifying two key
elements of engaged ethnography, solidarity and praxis, that together help provide new insights
into the strategies and practices of social movement resistance to neoliberal globalization.
En este documento investigamos el proceso de llevar a cabo estudios etnogra ficos sobre la
resistencia organizada a la globalizacion neoliberal. Lo hacemos utilizando la ciencia social
crtica y publica de Bourdieu y Santos, dos oponentes altamente influyetes del neoliberalismo, y
utilizando el metodo del caso ampliado de Burawoy, (ECM, por sus siglas en ingles) para la
investigacion de dos ejemplos de resistencia. El primero es sobre un sindicato, Sintraemcali, que
se ha involucrado en una lucha de larga duracon contra la introduccion de politicas
neoliberales en la ciudad de Cali en el sudeste de Colombia. El segundo es sobre Las Marchas
Europeas contra el paro, la precariedad y la exclusion. (Red EM, por sus siglas en ingles).
Luego reflexionamos sobre nuestro enfoque en la investigacion de esta resistencia y concluimos
en la identificacion de dos elementos claves de etnografa comprometida, solidaridad y praxis,
que juntas ayudan a proporcionas nuevos puntos de vista sobre las estrategias y practicas de laresistencia de los movimientos sociales a la globalizacion neoliberal.
Correspondence Address: Dr Andrew Mathers, School of Sociology, University of the West of England, Coldharbour
Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. Email: [email protected]; Dr Mario Novelli, Department of Human Geogra-
phy, Planning & International Development, Universteit van Amsterdam, RoeterseilandBuilding G, Nieuwe Prinsen-
gracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]
1474-7731 Print/1474-774X Online/07/02022921 # 2007 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/14747730701345259
Globalizations
June 2007, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 229249
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Introduction
Following the failure of the social struggles in the period following 1968, and disillusionment with
the socialist project, the dominant trend amongst radical academics was to retreat into the academy
to develop what Bourdieu (2003) termed campus radicalism which eschewed engagement with
social struggles. Meanwhile a new generation of right-wing academics provided the intellectualammunition for the neoliberal counter-revolution and a wholesale assault on acquired social
rights. This onslaught has had dire social consequences to which social scientists can bear
witness, but it has also been met with new waves of protest across the globe with which radical aca-
demics can now re-engage. Indeed, academics are but one of a range of intellectuals whom Bourdieu
(2003) asserts are indispensable to the successful development of contemporary social struggles.
Michael Burawoy (2005) cites the vote of the American Sociological Association against the
US invasion of Iraq as evidence of how sociologists have moved leftwards whilst the world has
moved to the right resulting in increasing demands for a re-engaged public sociology. This, we
believe, is an expression of a broader process of re-engagement amongst academics who share
the aim of bringing innovation and indeed radical changes to bear in response to the multiple
crises of our era (Gills, 2004, p. 5).
Realizing this aim raises general issues relating to the various ways in which academics express
their commitment. More specifically, and our concern in this paper, is how academics can engage
most appropriately and effectively with those movements that are the primary agents of global
transformation. These matters have already begun to be addressed by contributors to Globaliza-
tions who have sought primarily to establish a real bridge between the academic world and the
world of practice, the world of action (Gills, 2004, p. 2) by relating theory to practice so as to
consider important strategic questions for alter-globalisation movements (Gills, 2004, p. 2).
These contributions include: an analysis of how ATTAC can continue the balancing act of
counter-hegemony so as to remain a core organization of the alter-globalization movement
(Birchfield and Freyburg-Inan, 2004, p. 299); an evaluation of the possibilities for cooperation
between labour and social movements in forming joint strategies against neoliberalism (Bieler
and Morton, 2004a, p. 305); and a critical analysis of theories of transnational capitalism and
new imperialism so as to inform the development of progressive politics within the alter-glo-
balization movement (Kiely, 2005). These contributions are timely and welcome to both the aca-
demic and activist worlds. It is possible, however, to view them as interventions into the second
from the standpoint of the first. Our endeavour is to traverse both worlds through the development
of roles such as activist-researcher. While we have a strong affinity with the principles for a dia-
logue between activism and critical globalization research outlined in a recent contribution to Glo-
balizations, we do not regard political engagement and analytic objectivity as competing pulls
(Johnston and Goodman, 2006, p. 1). We rather adopt Burawoys Extended Case Method (ECM),
which rejects detachment, to construct a bridge between academia and activism akin to the third
space (Routledge, 1996), whose content is a critically engaged approach to researching resistance
to neoliberal globalization.Our research approach is concerned with investigating internal movement processes (Byrd,
2005) through an ethnographic approach able to focus on the micro-processes through which
macroresistance (Mittelman, 2004) is actually constructed while embedding these processes
in the macro-structural environment of neoliberal globalization. By practising this approach,
we have produced insider accounts of how specific episodes of resistance are actually achieving
inclusion, mass participation and internationalism as well as overcoming fragmentation
while linking . . . the local level with the regional and the global (Gills, 2005, pp. 1011).
230 A. Mathers and M. Novelli
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Our approach to researching resistance to neoliberalism is an engaged ethnography, the
starting points for which are Burawoys work on public sociology, his ECM and its relationship
more broadly to critical theory which we outline in section two. We also draw upon the work of
Pierre Bourdieu and Boaventura de Sousa Santostwo critical public intellectuals who, along-
side Burawoy, provide us with inspiration and theoretical and practical guidance for our actual
ethnographic case studies of resistance to neoliberalism, an outline of which we present insection three. The first study is of a public services trade union, Sintraemcali, which has been
engaged in a longstanding struggle over the introduction of neoliberal policies in the south-
west of Colombia. The key questions which this case study sought to address was how a
small trade union with only 3,000 members was able to mobilize local, national and transna-
tional support, and how it managed to overturn a process of privatization that had the full
backing of local elites, the national government, the World Bank, the IMF (International
Monetary Fund), and several key multinational corporations with all the economic, political
and military power that this entailed. The second study is of The European Marches against
Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion (EM Network). The central question
posed was how and why did those organizations representing the most marginalized sections
of society succeed in producing effective episodes of transnational resistance to the neoliberalEU where organized labour had largely failed. In section four, we extend out from these case
studies to examine critically our own practices of engaged ethnography in the field structured
around Burawoys four categories of intervention, process, structuration and reconstruction.
We conclude by highlighting two central tenets of this engaged ethnography: solidarity with
research subjects and research praxis that produces insights into how the micro-processes of
resistance are linked to a macro-analysis of neoliberal globalization thereby making a contri-
bution to advancing such resistance.
Developing an Engaged Ethnography of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization
In this section we outline a social scientific basis for engaged ethnography that is both intellec-tually critical and has a moral and political commitment to contributing to social change. We
also start to show how this critical and committed approach could be operationalized through
an outline of the ECM.
For a Public and Critical Social Science
In his recent work arguing for a return to public sociology, Burawoy (2004) develops a
disciplinary matrix in which he locates four ideal types of sociology distinguished in terms of
knowledge type and audience (Figure 1). This typology of sociology is a useful starting point
for our engaged ethnography of resistance to neoliberal globalization in that it enables us to
identify its basis in a social science that is both intellectually critical and oriented to intervention
Figure 1. Typology of sociology. Adapted from Burawoy (2004, p. 1607)
Researching Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization 231
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in the public sphere. For Burawoy, public sociology can be sub-divided into the categories of
elite and organic/grassroots. Our approach clearly has an affinity with the latter in that itseeks to develop a dialogue with active and counter-hegemonic publics (Burawoy, 2004,
p. 1607). Our work is also closely aligned with critical sociology in that the latter is characterized
by a commitment to social and political change as a driving force of research.
This leads us more broadly to the question of critical theory itself and the role of intellectualstherein.1 Our approach falls within the tradition of a humanistic Marxism. It builds on the
Frankfurt Schools (see Horkheimer, 1982) critique of traditional theory and draws on the more
recent work of the neo-Gramscian school in grappling with issues of neoliberal globalization and cri-
tique (see Bieler and Morton, 2004b, for an overview). Robert Cox, a foundational figure within neo-
Gramscian thinking argues that, at a meta-level, there are two major ways of categorizing theory. The
first, problem-solving theory, takes the prevailing order as given and seeks to delineate and mark off
the problem from its broader social relations. Because it takes the present as given, it does not seek to
challenge the existing social order; rather its aim is to make this order run more smoothly and effi-
ciently. For that reason problem-solving theory has a built-in system bias in that it tries to generate
solutions that make the system work better rather than challenging the system itself.
The second approach, critical theory, begins by problematizing the problem itself, seeking tounderstand and locate it as a component within a far bigger and intimately connected picture.
Cox (1996, p. 85) criticized academic conventions for dividing the totality of the social
world into separate spheres in order to understand particular phenomena or events. For Cox,
the danger is that knowledge of particular events is only a fragment of the social totality, and
that it is necessary to seek to reintegrate that knowledge into the bigger picture so that it
becomes the basis for constructing a structured and dynamic view of larger wholes (Cox,
1996, p. 85). A critical theory approach allows us to transcend the parameters of the proble-
matic itself and provides the possibility of imagining alternatives to the status quo. While this
does not mean that critical theory ignores problems and their possible solutions, what it
does imply is that there is space for a normative approach that can seek out other possibilities.
In that sense critical theory contains within it a utopian element, but this is grounded in ananalysis of the possible. Cox argues that critical theory must reject improbable alternatives
just as it rejects the permanency of the existing order, and in that manner it can act as a
guide to strategic action for bringing about an alternative order (Cox, 1996, p. 87).
Whilst placing our approach within both critical theory and public sociology, it is also cen-
trally concerned with exploring the strategies and practices of resistance. For this reason we have
sought intellectual guidance from critical theorists whose work has actively engaged with opposi-
tional and subaltern movements. In this pursuit we have found the work of two prominent critical
theorists, Pierre Bourdieu and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, to be of infinite inspiration and utility.
Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu had a long and distinguished career as a critical theorist making outstanding
contributions to a number of fields. However, becoming increasingly aware of the social conse-
quences of neoliberal restructuring, Bourdieus status as a renowned critical sociologist became,
in the last decade of his life, increasingly linked to a role as a public sociologist. For Bourdieu,
this role took the form of declaring his support for those engaged in resistance to neoliberal
restructuring. This was epitomized by his address to striking rail workers at the height of the
public service workers strikes in 1995 whose struggle he declared was one Against the
Destruction of a Civilisation (Bourdieu, 1998, pp. 2428).
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Bourdieus outlook on intellectual engagement finds its most developed expression in his final
published work in which he argues for a scholarship with commitment (Bourdieu, 2003,
pp. 1725). In this text he provides examples of both negative and positive functions for
engaged intellectuals. Negative functions include providing a critique of the dominant dis-
courses that underpin state restructuring. Bourdieu performed this function admirably by expos-
ing such myths as the need to roll back the state in the face of the apparently inevitable processesof globalization (Bourdieu, 1998).
For Bourdieu, one of the ways that intellectuals can fulfil their positive function of
contributing to the collective work of political intervention (Bourdieu, 2003, p. 21) is by under-
taking investigations into the adverse social effects of neoliberal restructuring on peoples every-
day lives. In this vein, Bourdieus call is reminiscent of C. Wright Mills (1963) invocation for
sociologists to link private troubles to public ills. Bourdieu (1999) achieved such a link by
providing accounts of the social suffering of a diversity of individuals produced by the retreat
of the left hand of the state. Amongst the positive outcomes of this work were the voice in
public life that it provided for the socially marginalized and its effect of demonstrating the
common cause of diverse social suffering thereby countering the divisive effects of neoliberal
policies. Bourdieus methodology was also exemplary in that he drew upon his sociologicalknowledge of the social conditions faced by each person interviewed while attempting to
reduce the power relationship and generate solidarity between interviewer and interviewee.
The result was an extraordinary discourse which affirmed the point of view of the most dis-
advantaged (Bourdieu, 1999, pp. 607626).
Another positive function for engaged intellectuals proposed and practised by Bourdieu
(2003, p. 21) was to work closely with social movements to advance the collective production
of realistic utopias. Bourdieu added his social weight not only to the movement of strikers in
France in 1995, but also to the unemployed in France in 1997 and to the European Marches
which he regarded as an exemplary case of social movement internationalism. Bourdieu
(2003, p. 47) rejected a hierarchical model of the relationship between intellectual and social
movements and proposed instead a more pragmatic approach that embraced mutual learningamongst intellectuals and activists while being based on common aspirations and convictions.
This was the approach he adopted for the formation of the Estates General of the Social
Movement that assembled researchers and activists and in Raisons dAgir, an international
network of engaged intellectuals.
Bourdieus outlook on intellectual commitment provides important insights and exemplary
practices that can inform the development of an engaged ethnography of resistance to neoliberal
globalization. In terms of the relationship between researcher and social movement, at the most
general level solidarity can be developed around common values based in shared opposition to
the social consequences of neoliberalism. This would result in a solidarity of citizens. More con-
cretely, the researcher can also seek new ways of relating to, and working with, social movement
activists so as to overcome existing divisions. In Bourdieus (2003, p. 47) words, the researcheris required to establish modes of communication and discussion of a new type with the
researched. The researcher is also encouraged to assist social movements to enter the public
sphere. This is a question of making the movements visible. This also raises, however, the
vexed question of the possibilities and limits of social movements to achieve social and political
change. Bourdieus work (1998, 1999) suggests a rejection of the doxosophy of much current
professional and policy social science that seeks to recuperate resistance within the parameters
of the neoliberal polity and discourse. By embracing critical and public social science the
researcher opens up the research agenda to the alternatives emerging from the resistance itself.
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Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is a transdisciplinary theorist and a public intellectual who has been
at the centre of the process of constructing the World Social Forum (WSF). His extensive and
wide-ranging corpus of work engages with pressing social and political questions of legality,
social structures, institutions, utopias, social movements and social change which defies thedisciplinary parochialism of our era (see Santos 1995, 1999a, 1999b, 2004a, 2004b).
Santos (1999, p. 33) laments the fact that particularly in the North the social sciences have
ceased to be a source of creative new thinking about society. Instead he argues that the most
innovative ideas and practices are coming from both outside the North and outside of the
academy, and suggests that it is in these sites that critical academics should be looking for
new ideas and insights to reinvigorate social theory. One of these sites has been the emerging
counter-hegemonic process of the WSF, and particularly its geographical home in Porto
Alegre, Brazil (Santos, 2004a) and he has focused much of his recent academic and political
work on thinking and acting within this sphere.
In the academic domain Santos (1999a) talks of the need to move from knowledge as regu-
lation to knowledge as emancipation and raises the question as to why, in a world so full of
things to criticize, has it become so difficult to produce a critical theory within the social
sciences. According to Santos, what we are faced with is a decline in both the paradigm of
social regulation that has failed to bring progress to the majority of the worlds population,
and a decline in the paradigm of social emancipation that now fails to offer a viable emanci-
patory alternative. For this reason, Santos argues, we are in a transition period where we are
facing modern problems to which there are no modern solutions (Santos, 1999a, p. 36).
In order to overcome this and begin the process of constructing knowledge as emancipation
Santos (1999a, pp. 3943) argues that there is a need to move away from the unitary focus on
order in the hegemonic paradigm of knowledge as regulation which is focused upon control-
ling rebellious subjects. As the social sciences have become institutionalized, so order has
become prioritized and solidarity downgraded, hence the reification of capital and the focus
on power from above. Santos argues that knowledge as emancipation needs to redress this situ-
ation and return once again to a focus on rebellion and solidarity.
In order to develop this sociology of rebellion and solidarity, Santos argues that we need to
start by listening to the South (Santos, 1995, p. 506). The South is used metaphorically,
regardless of geographical location, for the site inhabited by those suffering under global capit-
alism, and resisting it. He advocates a learning process whereby academics try to understand
contemporary struggles through a process of critical engagement with those left out of the
benefits of neoliberal globalization. This necessitates a normative affiliation with the South,
though one that neither implies the simple dissolution of the social scientist into the activist
nor keeps a distance between social science and activism (Santos, 1999a, p. 38). Secondly,
Santos (ibid.) calls for a sociology of absences that uncovers the hidden histories and struggles
of the resisting other and a sociology of emergences that charts possible alternative ten-dencies and counter-hegemonic futures. In this process Santos calls for a multicultural dialogue
that forges a pathway towards communicating different knowledges, and creates spaces to hear
different voices. Thirdly, in moving from mono-culturalism to multi-culturalism, a further major
obstacle is that of difference, which requires a politics of translation. In the context of the
emerging process of the WSF and its local and regional offshoots, Santos has posed the
problem of how different groups coming from varied geographical locations, with different his-
tories, objectives, trajectories and protest repertoires can come together, explore their
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differences and conflicts through dialogue, and in doing so forge unity on certain common issues
(Santos, 1999b).
He sees the contemporary situation as differing in two important respects from the post-
Second World War era. Firstly, the intellectual focus was far more concentrated on the
small geographical area of the North, and secondly the intellectuals saw themselves as the
possessors of a privileged knowledge rooted in orthodox Marxism that purveyed the statusof avante garde. Neither the geographical parochialism, nor the messianic role of the intel-
lectuals are tenable today. The committed intellectual thus becomes in Santos terms a facil-
itator that eases contact among different experiences, different ideologies, different
knowledges, different aspirations for social justice and democracy by bringing into the
social movements cross-national comparisons and intercultural translation (Santos, 2004b,
p. 160). In this process the committed intellectual is not searching for some abstract univers-
alism but the possibility of a process of translation whereby aspirations for human dignity
and social justice can be heard from different languages and different cultural and social
vantage points. Santos suggests that new critical theories that promote social change can
emerge out of this process (Santos, 2004b, pp. 14760). The three processes of listening to
the South, a sociology of absences and emergences and a politics of translation provide,simultaneously, both an ethical framework and a research agenda that guide our work on
developing an engaged ethnography.
Burawoys Extended Case Method: Linking the Macro and
Micro in Engaged Ethnography
Having drawn upon the work of leading critical public social scientists to develop an ethically
committed and intellectually critical research approach to investigating resistance to neoliberal
globalization, we now move on to developing an appropriate methodology. Our ethnographic
approach2 stems from our aim of answering the how questions of our cases of organized resist-
ance which we highlighted in the introduction. Our focus is on examining the processes throughwhich resistance is produced, thereby identifying particular strategies and tactics and relating
these to the framework of the current conjuncture of neoliberal globalization through which
they are developed. Burawoys (1998, p. 4) ECM is therefore extremely appropriate in that it
deploys participant observation to locate everyday life in its extralocal and historical context.
For us, Burawoys ECM also provides a valuable framework for addressing the main criti-
cisms of conventional ethnography3 from the perspective of critical theory, which are its
value neutrality and its failure to consider the power effects of unequal social structures on
peoples actions (Hammersley, 1992). Burawoys (2002) ECM is an engaged approach to
ethnographic inquiry which locates each particular case within the unequally structured
global political economy of capitalist society.
Burawoy applies the reflexive model of science to the research technique through whichempirical data is generated (participant observation) to produce the research method of the
extended case study. This reflexive approach to research is not based in a positivist procedural
notion of objectivity and rejects any attempt to detach the researcher from the research subjects
and process. Instead it premises itself on intersubjectivity and embraces an engagement with
the context effects that the positive approach eschews while acknowledging the power effects
that such engagement may generate. Dialogue not detachment is the central principle of the
reflexive approach and the ECM seeks to link up the micro-practices under observation with
the wider world through a process of dialogue at a range of levels.
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It is dialogical in each of its four dimensions. It calls for intervention of the observer in the life of theparticipant; it demands an analysis of interaction within social situations; it uncovers local processesin a relation of mutual determination with external social forces; and it regards theory as emergingnot only in dialogue between participant and observer, but also emerging among observers nowviewed as participants in a scientific community. (Burawoy, 2002, p. 16)
The ECM therefore begins as a dialogue between researcher and participants (intervention) andthen embeds this within a second dialogue between local and extra-local forces (process) while
exploring these relationships (structuration). This process can then be understood through a dia-
logue with theory itself (reconstruction). It is this process that we seek to operationalize in
relation to our investigation of specific instances of resistance to neoliberalism.
Engaged Ethnography in Action
Case Study 1: Sintraemcali and the Movement against Privatization in Colombia
Neoliberal structural reforms began in Colombia in the early 1990s and included the full
gamut of liberalization, decentralization and privatization. Neoliberalism takes placewithin the context of a highly charged internal civil war which has meant that its implementation
takes on a particularly notable militarized and violent form (Higginbottom, 2005). Since
1986 over 3,800 trade union activists have been assassinated and over 2 million people internally
displaced. Far right paramilitaries, closely linked to the Colombian state are responsible for the
vast majority of these assassinations and forced displacements (Human Rights Watch, 2000,
2001).
Despite the repression, resistance to neoliberal globalization has been robust, particularly in
relation to the privatization of public services. The focus of the research was on Sintraemcali, a
trade union based in the south-west of Colombia that had successfully resisted a series of
attempts by the national government to privatize water, electricity and telecommunications in
Colombias second city of Cali. The research centred on one particular, and successful,protest episode: the 36-day occupation of the Centro Administrativo Municipal (CAM)
Tower, their companys 17-floor central administration, that began on 25 December 2001.4
The occupation was triggered by the national governments decision to renew its attempts to
privatize Empresas Municipales de Cali (EMCALI), the local utility provider. During the course
of the 36-day occupation, tens of thousands of people went to meetings, joined marches, blocked
off roads, and engaged in political protest in defence of EMCALI as a state-owned public uti-
lities provider, with the vast majority drawn from the poorest neighbourhoods in the city.
This local activity was complemented by solidarity actions both in Bogota , the capital, and in
London. In Bogota, Sintraemcali workers and supporters occupied the headquarters of the
Superintendent of Public Services5 for 14 hours while local public service trade unionists
formed a protective cordon around the building. In London, pickets outside the Colombianembassy were organized on several occasions and two live video link-ups were made
between leaders of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) and workers inside the occupation.
During key moments of the dispute, interventions were made either via letters to the Colombian
government and/or face-to-face meetings with Colombian diplomats by a range of internationaltrade union and social organizations. Furthermore, messages of solidarity for the occupation
were received by email from as far away as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Novellis research set out to uncover the processes that had led to the emergence of this dynamic
resistance movement.
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What the research found was that during the previous five years the trade union had trans-
formed itself from a corporate trade union fighting for the particular interests of its
members to a social movement union that linked up poor community-based consumers and
trade unions and operated on a range of scales from the local to the global. Through reconcep-
tualizing trade union education, Novelli argued that this strategic transformation was a peda-
gogical process that had fundamentally altered the ethos of the organization. This strategicpedagogy had facilitated the development of a multi-scalar agenda that included: (1) an alterna-
tive economic strategy and blueprint for the efficient management of EMCALI, which led in
2001 to a situation of dual control within the company between workers and the state; (2) a
trade union/community alliance that linked local marginalized communities with organizedlabour; (3) a mobilization strategy that focused on occupations of strategic buildings and
mass mobilizations; and (4) a human rights strategy that accessed local, national and inter-
national legal and advocacy mechanisms facilitating Sintraemcalis ability to globalize opposi-
tion to privatization. This multi-scalar and multi-dimensional strategy provided a formidable and
comprehensive response to the material, discursive and military strategies of those social forces
attempting to push through the privatization of EMCALI.
Novelli saw the research as enabling him to act as both witness to the hidden story ofColombia, as part of a sociology of absences (Santos, 1999a) and to contribute towards trans-
forming the current state of affairseven if in only a small way. He had a very clear idea that the
research was a process rather than just a product, and that he wanted to contribute in some way to
the struggles of those people he was researching. From the outset he engaged in practical soli-
darity work (translating documents, organizing meetings, advocacy work) with sections of the
Colombian exile community based in London, UK and with trade union and political activists
in Colombia, alongside more theoretical work. He also became a founding member of the
Colombia Solidarity Campaign (CSC). These activities and contacts later led to involvement
with Sintraemcali and to one year of ethnographic fieldwork based in Cali, where he worked
and lived with union activists and actively participated in the 36-day occupation.
Upon arriving in Cali he set about carrying out whatever duties the trade union thought mightbe useful, while simultaneously seeking to develop greater background knowledge of the nature
of the relationship between neoliberal reforms, social movements and the state in Colombia.
During this early period, his role in Sintraemcali was to translate and transmit information
about the situation in Sintraemcali and their long struggle against privatization and he worked
his way through documents from 7am until late at night.
In the first few months many leading activists were sceptical of his presence there, particularly
those working in the human rights office of the union. His solution was just to keep working and
over the months they began to warm to him and to take him out with them whenever they went to
different parts of the city to gather data, interview the victims of human rights abuses and train
local activists. Very quickly he became immersed in the human rights situation in the city and
experienced a steep learning curve under the mentoring of the human rights team.As trust developed, Novelli became responsible for maintaining and expanding contacts with
a whole range of international trade union and human rights organizations. He gained experience
in working with a range of different community organizations and acted as a translator for
several delegations that came from the UK, Canada and the USA. He also had privileged
access to a range of meetings: the weekly meeting of the unions leadership, the regular meetings
of the Sintraemcali delegates from the different work sites, and the general workers assemblies.
This access proved crucial to the development of a comprehensive first-hand understanding of
the unions development and provided a solid basis upon which to build theory.
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In addition, Novelli was gathering crucial knowledge and information relating to the broader
context of the conflict between social movements and the state in Colombia, whilst learning this
from the perspective of those who were directly opposing the neo-liberal economic reforms as
they manifested themselves in Colombia. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, his own per-
sonal involvement and presence within the union resulted in a process of bonding between
himself and his colleagues, breaking down the barriers that existed between them. This trustwas solidified when he joined the occupation and this was the moment at which he felt fully
accepted as part of the movement. This was crucial in a situation of violent conflict such as
exists in Colombia, where state and para-state organizations attempt to undermine solidarity
between people through a politics of fear and suspicion. Sintraemcali itself has lost 17
members to assassination since the process of union transformation began in the mid-1990s.
From inside the occupation, Novelli set about documenting the event through writing a daily
eyewitness account that tried to inform the international community of what was going on.
This was distributed through the CSCs email list and also through a range of labour, human
rights and anti-globalization networks.6 At the same time he worked on translating key docu-
ments and urgent actions to be sent via the same networks at different times during the occu-
pation, liaising with various international labour representatives via email and phone. He alsotranslated directly from the CAM Tower the words of leaders and activists during several live
videoconferences between UK trade union leaders and Sintraemcali. When the occupation
ended, Novelli returned to England to talk at a range of meetings about the story of the occu-
pation which had garnered a great deal of interest amongst the British trade union movement
and the political left. Moving from Colombia to the UK allowed him to witness both sides of
the relationship of solidarity that had been built up.
Returning to Colombia in March 2003 he continued to work in the human rights department,
engage in a range of human rights training courses, and carry out interviews. It was also during
this period that he was involved in the production of a 30-minute video of the occupation which
was a crucial dialogical tool through which to engage with local leaders and activists and also a
mechanism through which international solidarity was built up. While the research project isnow completed, Novelli continues to work in solidarity with Sintraemcali and other social move-
ments in Colombia.
Case Study 2: The European Marches Network against Unemployment,
Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion
The origins of the EM Network were in the seismic movement against the social consequences
of European integration along neoliberal lines that found its epicentre in France. The strikes of
1995 mobilized millions of organized workers alongside organizations of marginalized groups
(les sans)7 and found international support with rallies in Rome, Athens and Berlin. These rallies
demonstrated the international character of the resistance to neoliberalism and the will tomobilize across borders. The proposal for a European March came from representatives of
the French unemployed association Agir Ensemble Contre le Chomage! (Act Together
Against Unemployment) and was eagerly taken up by grassroots unions and associations
across Europe. Although it was generally accepted that the strict convergence criteria for Euro-
pean Monetary Union were a major cause of economic and social problems, it was agreed to
focus the marches on the massive levels of unemployment (20 million) and poverty (60
million) in the European Union. The marches snaked their way across the Continent for two
months before converging in Amsterdam to head a 50,000 strong demonstration on the occasion
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of the EU summit meeting in June 1997. The EM Network has subsequently organized two
further marches to EU summit meetings in Cologne in 1999 and in Seville in 2002. It has
also convened several international gatherings under the title of European Assembly of the
Unemployed and Insecure Workers in Struggle. This event began in Cologne (1999) was
repeated in Paris (2000) and Brussels (2001), but more recently has taken place as part of the
European Social Forums (ESF) in Florence (2002), Paris (2003) and London (2004). Thebreadth and depth of support of the ESFs is an indication of the significance of the EM
Network as a campaigning organization that was paving the way for the formation of a
broader social movement out of the specific instances of resistance to neoliberalism. Its relative
success in mobilizing transnationally was, in part, due to its loose structure as a grassroots
network. This form of organization facilitated an in-depth dialogue between the grassroots acti-
vists and organizations that were at the forefront of mobilizing against the social consequences
of neoliberalism within nation states, thereby enabling the translation of demands and forms of
action across borders. Furthermore, the Network accommodated political differences so as to
begin to form a broader social movement critical of the current direction of European integration
and in favour of an alternative social Europe. This contrasts with organized labour, in the form of
the ETUC, that was tied organizationally and ideologically to the institutions of the EU therebyforming part of the elite consensus which limited its capacity to mobilize effectively around an
alternative to neoliberal Europe. This understanding of the EM Network was developed through
Mathers adopting a dual role as both activist and researcher and this was noted by participants in
the EM Network in that he was introduced to a meeting in Paris in September 1999 as an
activist-researcher (militant-chercheur).
Mathers first made contact with the EM Network when he participated in the demonstration in
Cardiff on the occasion of the EU summit meeting in May 1998. As well as attending demon-
strations and meetings across Europe in the following 18 months, he also began to organize in his
locality around the social questions raised by the EM Network. He helped to reactivate a clai-
mants group (Bristol Benefits Action Group), which mobilized around welfare reforms such
as the New Deal, and this led on to the formation of a group (Bristol Against CasualisationCampaign), which mobilizes around issues of job insecurity. Mathers therefore developed his
insights into the EM Network not only through observing and participating in events outside
the UK, but also by attempting to comprehend how the European dimension impacted on,
and could advance, the specific struggles in his locality.
Mathers found that his fieldwork interviews and participation in the European Assemblies actu-
ally reflected the process of exchange across borders occurring between militants. This entailed
sharing information about the specific content and consequences of neoliberal employment and
welfare policies as well as the specific forms of resistance that restructuring was producing.
During a workshop on welfare reforms he was asked to describe policies like the New Deal
that had been identified by the European Commission as an example of best practice for other
governments to emulate. His contribution sparked discussion with German activists especially,who invited him to visit and interview them at an unemployed centre in Oldenburg. Interviews
alerted him to a key issue concerning activists: to what extent were militant forms of action
prevalent in France and Italy actually translatable across borders? Like other militants, he
found that detailed discussion about actions such as acquiring goods from supermarkets or travel-
ling en masse on public transport without paying revealed that they were not amenable to simple
emulation due to differing political cultures. Nevertheless, such discussions served to demystify
the organization and deployment of direct action and led to an identification of common elements,
such as the humorous and theatrical dimensions, that assisted translation across borders.
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This was evident in Bristol, where the innovative decentralized European days of action
against Workfare called by the EM Network were translated first into a picket of a job centre
and later into an occupation of the office of the local Labour Party. This occupation was in
protest against the introduction of Employment Zones and involved the temporary transform-
ation of the office into an Enjoyment Zone. Party workers and officials were encouraged to join
activists in wearing party hats and playing party games as representations of agreement with theslogan of Less labour, More party. This event provided a concrete experience of how the Euro-
pean dimension was affecting mobilization in the locality. This was not only in terms of the
encouragement of forms of direct action, but also in that meetings and publicity material
included explicitly the role of the European Commission in advancing neoliberal policies. Acti-
vists and the wider public were also made aware of the existence of common European forms of
mobilization in support of Europeanized demands such as an end to Workfare and for a guaran-
teed income and other social rights.
It became evident to Mathers that such events facilitated through the EM Network were
playing an important role in producing a growing awareness of international networking by
the proponents of neoliberal policies and how this necessitated an internationalization of
opposition by those who experienced their social consequences. As one Belgian activist put itin an interview:
[T]his is something that goes on worldwide.[That] the EU is one of the key actors in what goes on inour lives everyday and it influences a great deal of what our future will be like if we let it. So I thinkwe would feel more isolated as we feel much stronger when we have a lot of other people telling usthat we are living the same shit and we are fighting the same shit. And we know we are right becauseeverybody else in the other countries are doing the same and thinking the same. Also it can help tocreate the resistance by having new ideas of how to fight.
Such statements assisted Mathers in developing a view that the EM Network was a
mechanism for communicating and thereby accelerating diverse practices of opposition to
neoliberalism across sectors of resistance and across national borders. However, he alsobecame aware, from both his activist and researcher perspective, that this was a willed
process. Leading activists were articulating explicitly a strategy seeking to mobilize a move-
ment from below that brought together at the European level activists engaged in organiz-
ations whose main concern were the issues of not only unemployment, job insecurity and
social exclusion, but also racism, environmental destruction and war.8 Moreover, this was
a self-consciously internationalist movement which was rooted in a diversity of specific
instances of resistance within nation states, but also targeted the transnational centres of
power.
Mathers academic evaluation of the EM Network was communicated through books,
articles and conference papers which were accompanied by more directly activist-oriented
writing.
9
These were by no means separate in that interviewees received copies of hiswork and, for example, activists from the EM Network participated in a session of an aca-
demic conference at which he was presenting his work. These liaisons were an expression of
a developing and ongoing relationship between Mathers and EM Network participants on the
dimensions of both researcher and activist. This led him to gain access to meetings and
attendance on actions of which he was either unaware or hitherto uninvited. However, his
presence at such events was not solely to collect data, but also to express his opposition
to a neoliberal Europe as well as support for a Different Europe. On occasions such as
at the EU summit in Nice, his solidarity was expressed by standing alongside his respondents
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as they faced up to rows of riot police making liberal use of tear gas. By so doing he gained
an appreciation of the unity amongst the diversity of participating organizations to add to his
experience of the joyful character of the lived internationalism of events such as the
Assemblies. He thereby enriched his experience of the EM Network as an activist as well
as as a researcher and learnt about it so as to produce knowledge for directly activist as
well as academic purposes.
Reflections on Researching Resistance to Neoliberalism
In this section we reflect upon our experiences of researching resistance to neoliberalism in
terms of the four dimensions of the ECM including a discussion of its possible power
effects: domination, silencing, objectification and normalization (Burawoy, 1998).
Intervention
Burawoy (1998, p. 14) asserts that researcher intervention is a virtue because it is through our
effects upon a social phenomenon that we can come to know it. The effects of our interventionsare not noise but music. Furthermore, he advises that the points of entry and exit can be par-
ticularly instructive moments of the research project. So it proved in our case studies, with a sig-
nificant contrast in terms of modes of intervention highlighting different forms of organization
operating in differing socio-political contexts. Novelli was faced with a climate of mistrust of
outsiders generated by the repressive nature of militarized neoliberalism in Colombia. Once
his credibility was established, he was able to experience the strong bonds of solidarity that
resistance in such an environment generated within organizations like Sintraemcali. Ending
his project raised the question of maintaining these bonds, an issue he addressed by continuing
his solidarity work. Mathers found little difficulty in gaining access as activists were keen to
engage him in discussion about the situation in the UK thereby suggesting to him the role of
the EM Network in facilitating an exchange of information and experiences of restructuringand resistance across borders. He also found much less interest in his political views than in
his campaigning work. This suggested to him that there existed a general strategic orientation
amongst activists and organizations to achieve the common task of constructing a campaigning
network to challenge neoliberalism at the European level, thereby overcoming at the inter-
national level a situation, so often evident at the national level, of organizations divided due
to political differences.
In terms of the power effect of domination, we were struck by the contrast between our
approaches and the model of intervention espoused by Alaine Touraine.10 We eschewed this
approach to intervention as a method of domination in which the sociologist takes the role of an
intellectual prophet (Papadakis, 1989) that seeks to raise the consciousness of activists through
analytical intervention from the outside. Our approach was to bridge the gap between academiaand activism by means of a democratic dialogue in the Third Space (Routledge, 1996) of critical
engagement. To this end we sought to develop relations of solidarity with participants that were not
only expressed as an abstract opposition to neoliberalism, but also developed through a series of
micro-practices such as contributing knowledge and skills, sharing personal and political experi-
ences and putting body and soul on the line. Therefore our approach to achieving a rapprochement
(Bourdieu, 2003) between researcher and activist was one which combined both ideological and
practical expressions of solidarity. These bonds of solidarity varied in character according to the
specific nature of each episode of resistance. In the context of militarized neoliberalism, the
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bonds developed by Novelli were akin to those amongst comrades whereas the ties developed by
Mathers, in the context of a looser networked organization, were similar to those established by a
companheiro (companion) (Scheper-Hughes, 1995).
This approach to intervention does not deny the elementary divergence in interests between
academics and activists (Burawoy, 1998, p. 23), but addresses this matter through practical engage-
ment in the Third Space which contributes to the movement while subverting and resisting thedemands made by academic institutions. This approach also maintains the possibility for intellec-
tuals to question the strategy and practices of the movements in which they are engaged. However,
this is approached more in terms of seeking answers to questions arising from the movement than in
supplying answers generated in the academy, thereby generating a process of mutual learning
commended by Bourdieu. In this sense, our intervention was an open-ended process of co-inves-
tigation which was based on a dialogical model of knowledge creation and popular intellectual-
ism that focused on critical problem solving not a banking model in which the researcher claims
to have the answers (Johnston and Goodman, 2006, pp. 2426).
Process
Burawoy (1998, pp. 1415) alerts us to how the ECM enables the researcher to discover thetacit knowledge that is embedded in social situations. Being movement participants enabled
us to generate situated knowledge (Johnston and Goodman, 2006) thereby demonstrating
the practical consciousness (Burawoy, 1998) of the activists that was developed and deployed
in the movement events. This can be seen most strikingly in the innovative occupations that used
activists knowledge and skills of how to enter and secure the occupied buildings. Occupations
were also designed creatively with cultural events (football, parties) to counter the fear engen-
dered by the presence of the police and the military and utilized new communication technol-
ogies to mobilize outside support. Such transfers of knowledge and skills through networks of
trust and solidarity have been identified by the World Bank (1998) as social capital, thereby
seeking to appropriate the vitality of grassroots networks for the private good of capital accumu-
lation (Fine, 2001; Navarro, 2002). This is particularly pertinent to networks of resistance associal movements have been identified as rich sources of cultural innovation, new elites and
institutional renewal (Melucci, 1989). However, our research projects suggest the potential
for subverting (Mayer and Rankin, 2002) the established research agenda of social capital
to identify in oppositional groups social processes that develop social capacity (Smith and
Kulynch, 2002) as the basis of an alternative form of development.
Burawoy (1998, p. 18) also encourages the extension of observations over time and place to
reveal the operation of how regimes of power structure situations into processes by making
use of resources (money, skill, education, prestige, etc) and schemas (norms, beliefs, the-
ories, etc). Our case studies of resistance demonstrated a tendency to reject routine processes
of political activity and the development of unconventional and empowering forms of politics.
However, it is important not to overstate this tendency as this would silence those elementsin Sintraemcali and in the EM Network that still operated according to established and more
formalized political procedures based on the pre-existing organizational structures. Neverthe-
less, aspects of the resistance, such as the utility reconnections and the subsequent community
mobilizations in Cali, deployed existing resources in new ways and also generated new
resources which in turn produced new alliances and organizational links which contributed
to the formation of a new regime of power within the union. The cross-border mobilization
through the EM Network generated new norms of internationalism which challenged
those prevailing in the existing transnational trade union structures.11 Our role as
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activist-researchers also meant that our participation involved the application of our
resources and schemas within the movements and that we became part of the new regimes
of power that started to emerge.
Structuration
Burawoy (1998, p. 15, original emphases) draws attention to the field which is external to theimmediate research site and requires us to delineate the social forces that impress themselves
upon the ethnographic locale. We simultaneously explored the processes of structuration
created by neoliberalism both in our own universities and in the research sites.
As Bourdieus work highlights, neoliberalism has recruited academics into producing knowl-
edge for the ends of the powerful and with initiatives such as the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS) this will probably be accompanied increasingly by academic production for
profit. In this context, Santos call for knowledge as emancipation is a powerful antidote to
neoliberalism. It also suggests, as do our case studies, that the outputs of an engaged ethnogra-
phy cannot be merely for the alienated purposes of profit or (in the UK context) for the Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE).12
Therefore, we heeded Scheper-Hughes (1995) call for ethnogra-
phers to be shock troops and alarmists who produce texts that cut through the layers of accep-tance of injustice. As already mentioned, we produced materials in a variety of formats for both
academic and non-academic audiences that extended the process of research dissemination
beyond the academy, thereby following the example of Bourdieu in making the movement
more visible in the public sphere.
In our research sites, uncovering the structures through which the abstract processes of
neoliberal restructuring were advanced led both of us into an exploration of new forms of
domination and through this we were able to concretize how the practices of neoliberalism
were affecting the strategies of activist movements. This also led on to the identification of
the structures through which counter-hegemonic social forces were beginning to develop,
thereby making apparent new forms of Santos sociology of emergences. In the research
on Sintraemcali, Novelli highlighted two broad processes: transborderization and horizonta-lization as key elements of Sintraemcalis strategic development. Transborderization signified
the new geography of the trade unions activity, which transcended local and national bound-
aries. Horizontalization signified the new alliances forged between local poor communities,
campesinos, NGOs and international social actors that opposed privatization. These twin pro-
cesses were then linked back to two key macro-structural changes that have resulted from
neoliberal restructuring: the reorganization of capital on the global scale and the fragmenta-
tion of the working class.
Following Burawoys (1998, p. 19) advice to make each case work in its connection to other
cases, it is possible to identify similar processes operating through the EM Network which
played an important role in the development of common European actions in support of a Euro-
pean agenda of common demands. These were the expression of a strategy for moving beyondthe militant particularisms (Nilsen and Cox, 2005) of sectoral struggles within nation states in
an attempt to develop a social movement from below (ibid.) which would counterpoise its
emerging project for a Different Europe to the neoliberal project being advanced through
the EU. This analysis of the EM Network is influenced by the idea that the recomposition of pol-
itical relations in Europe has produced a new institutional set-up in the shape of the EU which
provides the structural environment for the development of new forms of agency (Bieler,
2005).13 However, as Burawoy (1998) notes, at this level of analysis the danger is of the objec-
tification of structures as all encompassing and all powerful. Therefore, central to our writing
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was not merely identifying the influence of the macro-level structures on the forms and strategies
of resistance, but also how they were actively contested and thereby reconstructed.14 This served
to highlight the open-ended nature of social structures and challenged the argument that There
Is No Alternative to neoliberalism in the contemporary era.
Reconstruction
Burawoy (1998) regards the researchers participation in the world as a tool to expand
knowledge and states that reflexive science builds on theory and utilizes the real world to test
out the usefulness of such theory. It is important to note, however, that theory is always for
someone and for some purpose (Cox, 1996, p. 87) and emerges out of a problematic
thrown up by particular historical conjunctures. In the present conjuncture, a central problematic
is the terrain upon which struggle is waged in an increasingly globalized world. Consequently,
both of us took as our starting point theorists that have sought to theorize this problematic. Cas-
tells (1997), for example, has been a highly influential proponent of the argument that globaliza-
tion fatally undermines the capacity of the labour movement to advance a progressive social
project. While accepting his central premise that economic globalization has increased capitalmobility whilst fragmenting labour, our case studies began to challenge both the inevitability
and the permanency of this process. In this sense, they follow Burawoys (1998, p. 24) advice
that challenging the normalization of theory can be achieved by embedding the analysis in
perspectives from below. This approach enabled us to go beyond sociological critiques of
the discourse of globalization as a myth (Bourdieu, 1998). Our research identified real instances
of Santos politics of translation by demonstrating how fragmented labour, grouped in different
collectivities (social movements, unions, community groups), has united under common
demands in the local and has linked up on a range of scales thereby forming transnational net-
works of solidarity that have mobilized to produce tangible material results.
Crucially, our case studies allowed us to avoid the simplistic notion of labour necessarily
going global because of capitals shift. Both studies highlighted that the nation state remainedan important terrain for labour mobilization, but that a range of other scales, both sub-national
and supranational, were also important terrains of struggle and contestation. This led Novelli to
engage with research in human and political geography which highlighted the way globalization
was de- and re-territorializing the terrain of struggle on which the capital/labour conflict wasplayed out (Herod, 2001). While different scales may well temporarily favour the interests of
capital (Harvey, 1989), there was nothing inevitable about this. Labour as a social movement
could change its practices and tacticsjust as capital hadand our case studies demonstrated
the emergence of new strategies and tactics for effective mobilization on these terrains.
Mathers research highlighted how the EM Networks circulation of best practices of resist-
ance across borders mirrored the functioning of the Open Method of Coordination (De la Porte
and Pochet, 2003) of national employment and social policies. In this sense, multi-level govern-ance (Hooghe and Marks, 2001) in the EU has provoked a response of multi-level mobilization
by certain labour organizations. However, although there is a degree of regionalization, the EU
retains a largely inter-governmental character that privileges the national terrain of struggle.
Therefore, while multi-level in form, the practices of the EM Network can be understood as a
nationally-based internationalism. This describes how successful national struggles depend
on others elsewhere also being in struggle: as inspirations, as experiments we need to critically
study and learn from, and to create enough international turmoil to limit the isolation of any par-
ticular struggle (Gindin, 2003). This analysis was communicated in papers and articles that
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were made available to activists and thereby met Burawoys (1998, p. 22) entreaty that in the
reflexive mode, social theory intervenes in the world it seeks to grasp.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we focus on two elements of engaged ethnography which give this article its title:solidarity and praxis. Firstly, ours is an ethically and politically committed approach to research
that is embedded within concrete instances of organized resistance to neoliberalism. At the
general level, our aim is to forge a relationship of mutual benefit between social science and
social movement based on solidarity and reciprocity. This is expressed concretely as a dialogical
process of academic engagement with those left out of the benefits of neoliberal globalization.
This can serve to enrich the strategic repertoire of social movements through intellectual
exchange and debate, strengthen progressive social theory by grounding it more firmly in the
everyday realities of resistance practices and, perhaps most importantly, construct bridges of
solidarity between social movements and the academy, as part of a politics of translation
(Santos, 1999) that can open up new possibilities and directions for social struggle as well as
for social research.Engaged ethnography challenges the conventional roles of relationships established by aca-
demics and generates new ones. The ethnographer does not stand outside the object of enquiry
thereby adopting the role of spectator, but stands alongside those engaged in struggle thereby
taking the role of witness and even active participant. In this sense, the ethnographer may find
many paths to ethical and political commitment, but each of them involves him/her in under-taking a variety of acts of solidarity (Scheper-Hughes, 1995). As a public intellectual this
may take the form of utilizing the privileged location of the academy to assist in making
visible the invisibility of marginalized social movements and by doing so strengthen their legiti-
macy in the public sphere. More straightforwardly, it may mean placing the practical and per-
sonal skills of the academic at the service of the social movement. As a critical intellectual,
the academic may express solidarity by nurturing a dynamic exchange of ideas with thesocial movement and by facilitating a link between different cases of resistance, enabling the
possibility of translation and the cross-fertilization of movement strategies.
While we believe that the ethical/solidarity dimension is an important part of our approach, wealso recognize that this alone is insufficient and that engaged ethnography, if it is to be taken
seriously, also needs to demonstrate its ability to provide powerful insights into processes of resist-
ance to neoliberalism. Our aim is to demonstrate how solidaristic forms of critical engagement can
generate and make visible new insights and new knowledges left hidden by more conventional eth-
nographic methods. Engaged ethnography, through processes of solidarity and trust building,
enabled privileged access to the experiences and perspectives of key actors and to the sites of
resistance in which they were embedded. This facilitated the construction of a rich and
complex picture of the local micro-processes of resistance and how the fabric of this resistancewas woven. This provided the foundation for extending outwards to the dimensions of process,
structuration and reconstruction. Reinserting our ethnographic observations within a framework of
political economy then facilitated our ability to begin to develop meso-level conceptual tools such
as horizontalization and transborderization which served as heuristic devices through which to
explore the way labour movements are constructing strategies that address the structural trans-
formations brought about by neoliberal globalization. In both of our studies we were able to docu-
ment and observe how two very different movements were addressing these fundamental aspects
of neoliberal globalization in very different ways so as to develop new forms of political activity
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(e.g. trade union/community alliances) and new forms of geographical practice (e.g. multi-scalarmobilizations). In doing so we were able to challenge the notion that capitals new-found mobility
inevitably left labour weakened and powerless to resist and thereby challenged a teleological
understanding of processes of neoliberal globalization. Our case studies highlighted how labour
too is operating and organizing on a range of geographical scales and is developing strategic alli-
ances with different social forces to strengthen its claims. Perhaps most importantly, we were ableto demystify these strategic and organizational developments through detailed cases highlighting
how these movements constructed and developed their strategic action.
While we do not want to suggest that engaged ethnography represents a template for
research on radical social movements we do feel that it goes some way towards addressing
the alienation felt by ourselves and other critical academics by facilitating the development
of bonds of solidarity and reciprocity between academia and social movements. Simultaneously,
and equally important, it also provides a rigorous and systematic approach to research that by
grounding itself in everyday struggles can reveal important insights into resistance processes
and develop new concepts and understandings that can inform better and more effective move-
ment strategies. Crucially, engaged ethnography provides one possible route for critical aca-
demics not only to interpret the world but also to try and change it: engaged ethnography aspraxis.
Notes
1 The debate over the role of theory goes right back to the founding fathers of sociology. Webers theory of action is
a theory of society which tends to naturalize the social relations which it seeks to explain (Clarke, 1991). Weberian
sociology therefore imposes society upon us as an ideal type, empirical instances of which it seeks to describe and
classify. It also generates dichotomies between facts and values and between intellectual and political activity,
thereby relegating the intellectual to an advisory role in solving social problems. Marx, in contrast, developed a
theory against society (Holloway, 1995, p. 156) which engaged in a logical and historical process of critique
of the categories of political economy. This approach resulted in the inseparability of critical theory and critical
revolutionary action (Korsch, 1970) that entailed a direct engagement of the intellectual in the process of socialand political change (Gramsci, 1972). For a Marxist critique of Webers value-free sociology see Lewis (1975).
2 For a discussion of what is ethnography see Hammersley and Atkinson (1995).
3 Harvey (1990: p. 11) argues that conventional ethnography is an inductive method that uses participant
observation to gather detailed information on human behaviour and meanings, which is data that can be used to
produce new generalizations about the social world. This is contrasted with critical ethnography, which
attempts to link the detailed analysis of ethnography to wider social structures and systems of power
relationships in order to get beneath the surface of oppressive structural relationships.
4 See Novelli (2004, 2006) for more in-depth analysis.
5 A Colombian government ministry that is responsible for the regulation and control of public services in Colombia.
6 An edited version of these accounts was later published by Public Services International (Novelli, 2002) in English
and Spanish.
7 Sanssans travail (without work), sans logement (without homes), sans papiers (without documents).
8 Information from interviews with prominent activists in the EM Network.
9 For more information about the EM Network and for writing for academic and activist audiences arising from theresearch project see Mathers (1999, 2001, 2005).
10 Touraine et al. (1983) formed intervention groups of anti-nuclear activists and researchers with the aim of the
conversion of supporters of anti-state protests to Touraines perspective of an anti-technocratic social
movement. Most militants rejected his analysis while some staged an elaborate hoax and others withdrew
amidst charges of manipulation. The researchers were left isolated and dejected, but still rejected outright the
activists proposal to use the intervention groups to discuss movement strategy.
11 For interesting explorations of the contrast between old and new internationalism see De Angelis (2000) and
Lambert and Webster (2005).
12 See Harvie (2000) for a critique of the RAE as a mechanism for marketizing research.
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13 Bieler (2005) argues that the EU is institutionally arranged so as to protect the neoliberal state form from popular
influence in the areas of economic and monetary policy. The European Marches are an attempt to reassert popular
influence on policy.
14 See Taylor and Mathers (2002) on the relationship between social movement mobilization and the construction of
the EU.
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Andrew Mathers is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England, UK. Hisresearch focuses mainly on labour and social movements and their responses to processes
such as European integration and neoliberal globalization. He is currently researching into
recent developments in the formation of community unionism in the USA and the UK as
well as the crisis of social democratic forms of trade unionism in Western Europe. He has
written on the EM Network and the wider social movement of which it was a part in
Mathers, A. (2007) Struggling for a Social Europe: Neoliberal Globalisation, the EU and the
Birth of a European Social Movement (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Mario Novelli is a Lecturer in International Development at the University of Amsterdam. His
work explores the relationship between globalization, education and development and he has
published on issues of the global governance of education, critical ethnography, knowledge pro-duction in trade union movements and popular resistance to processes of privatization in Colom-
bia. He is currently carrying out research on the causes and responses to violence against the
education community in Colombia and co-writing a book on Globalisation, Labour and Knowl-
edge for a Routledge Series on Rethinking Globalization.
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