Page 246 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

232 Globalization and Democracy

themselves cross these boundaries, as do the ideas and innovative ways
of seeing the world that they circulate, and put into circulation. Social
movements persuade by forming “ publics, ” problematizing taken - for -
granted ways in which social interactions have been routinized, and
developing new knowledges and alternatives through discussion and
debate. They are counter - publics in the sense that they formulate oppo-
sitional discourses and forms of organization, and they expand the space
for certain kinds of thinking and discussion in the mainstream media. The
counter - publics created by social movements never conform to the ideal
requirements of deliberative democracy. They are always fragmented,
they are often stimulated by unreasonable voices and immoderate emo-
tions, and they are not contained by the spaces of civil society. Insofar as
social movements almost invariably target states in at least some ways,
to make use of their special privileges to make law backed by force and/
or to redistribute wealth, counter - publics may be thought of, along the
lines suggested by Nancy Fraser, as “ strong ” where their networks extend

into state offices, in comparison with “ weak ” counter - publics that are
networked only in civil society (Fraser, 1997 ). In respect of their “ strong ”
networks, social movements always risk cooption by professional political
parties and NGOs, and indeed, this is regularly their trajectory: beginning
with grassroots mobilizations, they develop through a cycle of protest,
and leave behind them a legacy of organizations that have taken on some
of the movement tasks of agitating for reform through policy and legisla-
tion (Tarrow, 1998 ). Invariably, however, past the high point of a cycle
of protest, social movements also leave behind less visible social move-
ment networks that maintain a counter - public sphere outside mainstream
political institutions. Perhaps most importantly, they transform social life

and leave behind a significantly changed cultural context in which new
issues are raised, debated, and addressed.
This continuing legacy is nowhere more evident than in the effects of
the women ’ s movement. Feminism has had comparatively little direct
effect on state policies in Western liberal democracies (with the notable
exception of Scandinavia), though it has resulted in a plethora of NGOs
and made inroads into all the major political parties. The various waves
of the women ’ s movement have left legacies of organizations in main-
stream politics that try to keep reform of those institutions “ live. ” But it
is in terms of altering identities and routines of daily life that the move-
ment has been most effective. Although it is hard to pin down precisely
what effects the women ’ s movement has had, as distinct from the other
changes in society that have impacted on our lives, it is only necessary to
look at films, books, and TV programs from the 1960s – and to remember