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Shaping Globalisation: Civil Society, cultural power and threefolding |
How many of us, as we read reports in the paper or saw the “Battle of Seattle” being played out on TV news, did not feel as I did that something hugely significant was happening. This was not just a case of a few protestors getting out of hand and behaving badly. This was something more, something to cheer along and be part of. Who were all those people? Where did they came from? Why were they so worked up? This was starting to look like a global movement! But what was really happening? I’m not sure if author Nicanor Perlas himself was at the "Battle of Seattle", but for him it was the beginning of the emergence of threefolding, a concept that forms the basis of the book. Very broadly, the book identifies “elite” globalisation, or globalisation driven by the interests of global business with the collaboration on governments, as the greatest threat to sustainability. He argues that this trend needs to be countered by the “globalisation” of civil society and goes on to discuss convincingly how this new role must be played. Central to the threefolding concept is the realization that a healthy, vibrant, sustainable society is built on the balance of 3 distinct spheres of influence – political, economic and cultural. Countering “elite” globalisation requires a more active, more powerful and more globally aware. But for this to happen, civil society organisations (CSOs), he argues, need to understand their true nature as actors operating in the cultural sphere of life –broadly defined to encompass the realm of values, ideas, tradition and culture. NGOs are often criticised for being unrepresentative, for having no mandate and no real constituency. This is not a problem for Perlas. He argues that precisely because CSOs are (or should be) operating in the cultural sphere, the sphere of ideas and values, a constituency or mandate is irrelevant. Seeking mandates and satisfying constituencies are demands that exist in the political sphere. Of course many CSOs do have a formal constituency or a membership base, but ultimately the institution exists to propagate ideas, not to achieve political power. This does not mean that CSOs should not engage in the political arena, just that they should do so in order to promote their values, not to win political power. Similarly political parties exist with the main objective to win and exercise political power and act in the political sphere; and business operates in the economic sphere, with the main aim to make money. Any other professed aim, or operation in other spheres, should be viewed with suspicion! Finally, threefolding refers to a process where actors operating in the three spheres, economic, political and cultural, understand their respective roles clearly enough to begin to resolve sustainability questions in a truly co-operative, multi-stakeholder process. Stephen Law |
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