El activismo altermundialista en Europa. Problemas de análisis y resultados recientes

Abstract

The opening of a cycle of transnational protest against globalization has been a major political phenomenon since the 1990s and it is indeed a very complex subject to analyse. Being a multi-organizational field –horizontal, decentralized and ideologically multiple–, transnational activism first raises questions of method. As it is shown in this paper by a genealogical approach focusing upon national contexts, anti-globalization movements offer a global frame as well as new resources and possibilities to longstanding political organizations. Then, the question of what builds the unity of such multileveled dynamics of contest is here examined through two collective inquiries based on the method of the Individual Survey in Rallies. During the counter-G8 summit which took place in June 2003 in France near the Swiss border, and the second European Social Forum held in Paris and the suburbs six months later, more than 2.000 European militants answered the questionnaires that were submitted to them each time. It appears that no-global militants have in common a large “cultural capital”, a stable job, relatively high social origins, and an international socialization. Beyond this unity, the statistical approach reveals how they are characterized by subtle sociographical, organizational and ideological differences. It also brings to the fore that the type of protest event –from the confrontative form of the counter-summit to the more intellectual form of the Social Forum- partly defines the categories of militants who mobilize.