Page 245 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Globalization and Democracy 231

5.4 Democracy and Cultural Politics

Beyond the study of face - to - face interactions, sociology requires what is
sometimes referred to, unfl atteringly, as “ slab thinking ” : naming, and
thus carving out distinctions between sections of social life in order to
theorize and study how they are related. Although “ slab thinking ” is an
important sociological tool, it is important not to mistake the slabs or
slices of social reality we name for social reality itself. These are analytic
distinctions, sometimes close to those used by members of society, at other
times developed to summarize sets of social relationships that members
of society would not refer to in such a way. Though in this book, and
especially in this chapter, we have been dealing with a number of such
slices, naming them as “ states, ” “ civil society, ” “ social movements ” and
so on, it is important to remember that these are not the stuff of social
reality as such. To remind the reader of the discussion in chapter 1 , social
reality is created and sustained in ongoing face - to - face or mediated inter-
actions of social actors, using and modifying social meanings to structure,
modify, and on occasion transform the routines of their lives. It is in order
to distinguish some of these interactions as having features in common
that make them different from others that sociologists, and indeed, other
members of society, including social movement activists, carve out the
kinds of distinctions we have been discussing in these pages. They provide
a map, more or less accurate and always in need of revision, to guide
understanding and action.
In other words, it is important here to recall the role of cultural politics.
Throughout this book, we have been looking at the cultural politics of
social movements, and especially their importance to opposing and remak-
ing the ideas that structure existing forms of citizenship and globalization.
Social movements are effective only by persuasion; they create far - reach-

ing and deep - rooted changes in perspective, the redefining of interests,

and, hence, the reconfiguration of hierarchical social relations. It is these
radically new perspectives that eventually alter how we identify ourselves
and others, how we build or break social relations, and how we organize
our common life – even if changes take a long time, and have unexpected
consequences such that they escape any intention or attempt to secure
them defi nitively.
The cultural politics of social movements do not respect the boundaries
between state and civil society, voluntary associations and the market, or
national and international. Indeed, global social movement networks