Les altermondialistes : des activistes transnationaux ?
Boris Gobille
Anti-Globalization Activists: Transnational Actors ?
Social forums are now some of the most salient instances of
anti-globalization activism on both the European and the world scale. As
such, and because they lend themselves to empirical investigation, studying
them advances our knowledge of this “new cause.” This article, based on a
collective multi-method study conducted during the European Social Forum
in the Paris area in November 2003, describes the sociographic features of
the participants and discusses two common beliefs about them. The first,
popularized at the end of the 1990s, describes anti-globalization militants as
“the losers of globalization.” Rather than bear this out, our survey findings
point out their high level of cultural resources and strong job stability. The
second, put forward mainly by North American studies, on the contrary analyses
them as the cosmopolitan elites of an emerging “transnational civil
society.” The article qualifies this thesis: their intense involvement in international
issues is indeed distinctive, but the reasons for their commitment to
fighting for “another form of globalization” and the resources they draw on
derive mainly from the national context.
• L’altermondialisme au miroir du Forum social européen :
intérêt théorique et parti pris empirique
• Des militants à fort capital social et culturel
• Des militants tournés vers l’international
• Sociabilités et ancrages des altermondialistes