Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global PDF

McCann, C., & Kim, S. (Eds.). (2016). Feminist Theory Reader (4 edition). Routledge. 5. GLOBALIZATION OF THE LOCAL/ LOCALIZATION OF THE GLOBAL: MAPPING TRANSNATIONAL WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS Amrita Basu (2000) It may be time to replace the bumper sticker that exhorts, "Think Globally, Act Locally;' with...

McCann, C., & Kim, S. (Eds.). (2016). Feminist Theory Reader (4 edition). Routledge. 5. GLOBALIZATION OF THE LOCAL/ LOCALIZATION OF THE GLOBAL: MAPPING TRANSNATIONAL WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS Amrita Basu (2000) It may be time to replace the bumper sticker that exhorts, "Think Globally, Act Locally;' with one that reads, "Think Locally, Act Globally:' Or perhaps it's time simply to retire the bumper sticker, for with the growth of transnational social movements, we need to rethink entirely relations between the local and the global. I am interested in exploring the implications for women's movements in the South of the growth of the transnational networks, organizations, and ideas. In the essay that follows I want to ask how North-South tensions around the meaning of feminism and the nature of women's movements have changed. What new opportunities have emerged and what new tensions have surfaced? What is the relationship between the transnationalism of the 1990s and the feminism of the 1960s and 1970s, when Robin Morgan aptly and controversially claimed, "Sisterhood Is Global?" My point of departure is an anthology of writings I edited in preparation for the 1995 Beijing women's conference entitled The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Womens Movements in Global Perspective. I found myself attempting to navigate twin dangers: resisting, on the one hand, the tendency narrowly to equate women's movements with autonomous urban, middle-class feminist groups, and, on the other hand, of defining women's movements so broadly that the term includes virtually all forms of women's activism. I highlighted the local origins and character of women's movements cross­ nationally and argued that women's movements must be situated within the particular political economics, state policies, and cultural politics of the regions in which they are active. The question I now propose to ask is whether we need to rethink once again the relationship between local and global feminisms. Is it possible that the 1995 Beijing conference, which my book was designed to commemorate, in fact marked the coming of age of transnational feminism and the eclipse of locally based women's movements? This question is prompted by the appearance of more transnational women's move­ ment activity than we ever have seen. Before proceeding, a word about my terms: I am aware that local can connote the supposed particularism, provincialism and primordialism, of the Third World while 64 Amrita Basu global may connote the breadth and universality that is often associated with Western feminism. By contrast, I use the term local to refer to indigenous and regional, and global to refer to the transnational. I employ these terms because they correspond to the levels at which a great deal of women's activism is organized, namely at the grass roots and transnational levels. As I will discuss, it is also important to inject into that dynamic attention to the national level. There is considerable controversy about the significance of transnational move­ ments, NGOs, networks, and advocacy groups. While some scholars spealz of the emergence of a global civil society, others are more skeptical. 1 How to evaluate the trans­ nationalization of women's movements is no less complicated. From one perspective it represents a signal achievement-particularly for women in the South. For exam­ ple, Valentine Moghadam (1996) argues that transnational networks are organizing women around the most pressing questions of the day: reproductive rights, the growth of religious fundamentalism, and the adverse effects of structural adjustment policies. Moghadam also comments favorably in the recent emergence of networks, which she believes have a broader and more far reaching impact than local movements.2 From another perspective as women's movements have become more transnational, their commitment to grass roots mobilization and cultural change has diminished. Sonia Alvarez (1997, 1998, 2000) argues that women's movements are becoming increasingly bureaucratized as they have come to work more closely with NGOs, political parties, state institutions, and multilateral agencies.3 What explains the differences in these two perspectives? Which is correct? I emphasize the indeterminate character of transnational activism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is inaccurate to depict local women's movements as simply being subsumed by global ones or as engaging in sustained overt resistance to global influ­ ences.Rather what prevails is a more complex and varied situation in which local and transnational movements often exist independently of one another and experience similar challenges and dilemmas. Furthermore, while transnational ideas, resources, and organizations have been extremely successful around certain issues in some regions, their success with these issues is more circumscribed elsewhere.... Women's Movements in Global Perspective The international women's conferences that occurred in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995) provide a fruitful opportunity to explore changing relationships among women's organizations transnationally.The two-tier system of conferences, namely the United Nations-convened official confer­ ences of heads of states, and the non-governmental conferences convened by women's groups and movements, provide insights into the workings of the international state system and of what some describe as a burgeoning global civil society. International feminism might be periodized as comprising two broad phases. The first phase, between 1975 and 1985, was marked by bitter contestation over the meaning of feminism and over the relationship between the local and the global. The second decade-long phase, which began with the Nairobi conference in 1985 and -- Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global 65 culminatedin the Beijing conference in 1995, was marked bya growth of networks linking women's activism at the local and global levels. Fierce struggles over the meaning and significance of feminism took place at inter­ national women's conferences of activists and policy makers from 1975 to 1985. Some of these debates identified the South with the local and the North with the global. A typical scenario would be one in which women from the South would argue that wom­ en's major priorities were both local and material, for instance, the needs for potable drinking water, firewood for fuel, and more employment opportunities. Meanwhile, women from the North typically would focus on women's broad transnational identi­ ties and interests. It would be inaccurate to imply that tensions along North-South lines had disap­ peared entirely by the 1995 Beijing women's conference. Even today the organizations that sponsor campaigns to extend women's civil and political rights are Northern­ based, while Southern-based groups are more apt to address poverty, inequality, and basic needs. Esther Ngan-ling Chow (1996) notes, Even when they agree on the importance of all issue such as human rights, women from various world regions frame it differently. While Western women traditionally have based their human rights struggles on issues of equality, non-discrimination and civil and political rights, African, Asian and Latin American women have focused their struggles on economic, social and cultural rights.4 These differences, however, were less striking at the Beijing conference than sig­ nificant areas of agreement that were established across North-South lines. Charlotte Bunch and Susan Fried (1996) argue that the entire Platform of Action was an affirma­ tion of the human rights of women: The incorporation of women's human rights language and concepts by governments and organizations from all parts of the world and in all manner of ways indicates more than a rhetorical gesture. It represents a shift in analysis that moves beyond single-issue politics or identity-based organizing and enhances women's capacity to build global alliances based on collective political goals and a common agenda.5 One important explanation for the diminution of tension between women's move­ ments in the North and South is the increasingly important influence of women of color in shaping debates about feminism in the United States. Recall that some of the earliest and most important critiques of feminist universalism came from African American and Latina women in the United States. Years later, in preparation for the 1995 Beijing women's conference, American women of color formed a coalition with women from the South and drafted language for the platform document about women who face multiple forms of discrimination. 6 At the same time, women from the South increasingly have worked to correct nationalism's exclusions by proposing non-discriminatory policies in newly formed states. Thanks to the influence of its women's movement, Namibia's constitution forbids 66 Amrita Basu sex discrimination, authorizes affirmative action for women, and recognizes only those forms of customary law which do not violate the constitution. The South African constitution similarly provides equal rights for women and prohibits discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. Palestinian women have drafted a bill of rights and sought legislation protecting women from family violence. Furthermore, with the end of the Cold War, the character of international gath­ erings changed quite significantly. Early meetings, like the Mexico City conference in 1975, were dominated by national political leaders who sought to use these forums to pursue their own agendas. Whereas many of the delegates attending the 1975 Mexico City conference were the wives, daughters, and widows of male politicians, by the 1985 Nairobi conference, the representatives included many women who were power­ ful in their own right. Even more important was the growth of women's movements globally and their increasingly important roles relative to those of states. As nongovernmental organizations and movements have grown, they have become more diverse, and divisions that crosscut the North-South and East-West divide have become more salient. Both transnational networks of feminists and of conservative activists have grown. For example, a coalition of conservative Islamic groups and Christian anti-abortion activists sought to shape the agenda of the Cairo conference on population and development in 1994 and to influence the World Plan of Action at the Beijing conference in 1995.7 The coalition included some powerful nongovern­ mental organizations, such as the International Right to Life Committee and Human Life international; religious bodies, like the Vatican; and some states, preeminently the Islamic Republic of Iran. Like women's organizations, this coalition functions at local, national, and transnational levels. The growth of transnational networks of the religious Right has reduced North-South polarization. Some of the staunchest opponents of feminism are North American or European, and among its staunchest supporters are Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans. The ability of Muslim, Protestant, and Catholic groups to transcend national differences and arrive at common positions on motherhood, pornography, abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sexuality has encouraged feminist groups similarly to seek out areas of agreement. Charting the Terrain It is tempting to treat international conferences as synonymous with transnational women's movements, since they have grown simultaneously. However to conflate the two is to underestimate the extent to which new forms of transnationalism emerge from civil society and include a diverse array of organizations, including NGOs social movements, issue and identity networks, project coalitions, and issue-based campaigns. The growth of transnational women's movements entails the spread and growing density of groups and linkages among groups within transnational civil society. It also refers to a flow of resources, generally from the North to the South, to support women's organizations. Southern-based NGOs have come to rely heavily on financial support from Northern affiliates, foundations, and academic institutions. But it is not just Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global 67 individuals, groups, and currencies that cross borders with greater ease and frequency than in the past. Certain discourses-and this is a second dimension-have acquired greater importance among women in both the North and the South. One of the most important is that the violation of women's rights is a human rights abuse. Thus women's movements can be said to have become increasingly transnational when they appeal to universal principles of human rights and seek redress in global arenas. The past few years have witnessed the growth of all these dimensions of transna­ tional activism. There also has been a vast expansion in the number of NGOs which engage in international networking, from the 114 that attended the NGO forum in Mexico City in 1975 to the 3,000 that participated in the Beijing NGO forum in 1995. Today, tens of thousands of NGOs participate in international conferences and gath­ erings. Many of these are organized at the regional level by women activists from the South, independent of both the United Nations and national governments. In keeping with the multifaceted character of globalization, transnational women's movements are themselves extremely diverse. A minority among them seek to chal­ lenge the feminization of poverty and class inequality that globalization entails. One important example is Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), which researchers and activists formed in 1984 to promote alternative approaches to state sponsored macroeconomic policies. DAWN includes membership from the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, South and South-East Asia, and the Middle East. It earlier was based in Bangalore and now is based in Rio. A much larger group of womens' organizations has sought to extend women's civic and political rights, particularly to address violence against women and the denial of women's rights by religious nationalists. An important example is the coalition of one hundred thirty women's and human rights groups-including the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority, Human Rights Watch, the National Political Congress of Black Women, and the Women's Alliance for Peace and Human Rights-which organized a campaign protesting the repressive measures that the Taleban has exercised against Afghan women since assuming power in September 1996 and urging the international community to deny investments and recognition to the Taleban. It has organized a website documenting the Talebans' abuses, a petition cam­ paign and demonstrations protesting them, and various fundraising activities. Among its victories has been to dissuade Unocal, an American oil company, from building a pipeline through Afghanistan. The amount of international funding available for women's organizations, women's studies programs, and women's movements has grown dramatically over the past decade. Grants by major U.S. foundations to groups working on women's rights and violence against women increased from $241,000 in 1988 to $3,247,000 in 1993 (Keck and Sikkink 1998). The Ford Foundation underwrote almost half of this amount. In India alone, for example, the large majority of women's NGOs receive foreign funding. As far as transnational discourses are concerned, neither conventions on inter­ national human rights nor the campaign for women's human rights is new. What is relatively new is the extent to which coalitions of transnational women's organizations have lobbied to demand recognition for women's rights as human rights. The year 1993 68 Amrita Basu marked a turning point for the women's human rights movement, for during that year the Vienna Human Rights Declaration and Program of Action and the UN declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women recognized violence against women as a human rights abuse and defined gender violence to include violence against women in the public and the private sphere. Women's human rights activists consolidated their gains at the Beijing conference and since have increasingly employed human rights appeals. With the collapse of communism and the decline of the organized Left, dem­ ocratic movements have taken the place formerly occupied by socialism, and liberal principles of human rights have become hegemonic. What are the implications of the transnationalization of women's movements for women in the South? Does the diminution of overt North-South tensions at the Beijing conference and other international forums reflect the increasingly impor­ tant leadership and agenda-setting roles of women from the South? Or, conversely, are Southern-based organizations less able to oppose Northern domination because of their greater dependence on Northern funding sources? There is no one simple response to this question. It would be inaccurate to see transnational networks and movements simply as vehicles for Northern domination. Networks like DAWN and WLUML (Women Living under Muslim Law) were organized by and for women from the South. Although these networks accept external funding, they formulate their objectives independently of donor organizations. Furthermore, certain problems may be more effectively addressed at the transnational than at the local level. A good example concerns some of the prob­ lems women face as a result of the growth of religious fundamentalism. Afghan women's groups are subject to such extreme repression that they could not organize effectively without outside support. Furthermore transnational networks of women have been a vital counterweight to transnational networks of the religious right. The campaign against the Taleban also illuminates the possibilities of combining global and local appeals. While the campaign has made extensive use of the website and of e-mail petition campaigns, it also has organized demonstrations locally, including one in Amherst, MA, where women marched through the town commons with ban­ ners in their hands and pieces of mesh fabric pinned to their lapels to evoke the burqua (veil). Terming the campaign an attempt to stop "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan, the coalition identified the crimes against Afghan women with the evils of apartheid in South Africa. This simple, indeed simplistic characterization, provided an effective means of generating support for the campaign. Another tool that the campaign against the Taleban and other campaigns against religious fundamentalism have employed is to record the stories of women who are stoned, beaten, or publically humiliated for having worked, married, divorced, or done nothing at all. These individual narratives not only permit a personal identification with the victims but also invite activism against those who perpetrate abuse. The coa­ lition against sexual apartheid in Afghanistan distributes a video entitled ''.A Shroud of Silence;' which recounts these stories in a particularly graphic form. The very conditions for the success of global campaigns like the one against the Taleban in Afghanistan suggest some of the limitations of the strategy. Global  Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global 69 Campaig ns are much more likely to succeed when women's civil and political rights rather than their economic rights (food, shelter, housing) have been violated. They are more effective in challenging physical violence than structural violence against women.Although this organizing problem exists locally, it is much more significant at the transnational level. Struggles opposing violence against women are nested within the context of women's class and sometimes ethnic struggles more often at the local than at the transnational level. In India struggles against marital abuse often have emerged amidst social movements of the urban and rural poor.Women who protest the complicity of the state with illicit liquor producers in Andhra Pradesh, for example, readily appreciate the connections between violence against women and unemployment, state corruption, and a range of other issues. By contrast, when women come together in global forums as victims of gender violence, their identities as Bosnian, African American, or poor women may be muted. Women's groups most enthusiastically have supported transnational campaigns against sexual violence in countries where the state is repressive or indifferent and women's movements are weak. Conversely, transnationalism has provoked more distrust in places where women's movements have emerged, grown, and defined them­ selves independently of Western feminism. Indeed, one explanation for the differences between the positions of Valentine Moghadam (1996[a]) and Sonia Alvarez (1998) is that they examine such different contexts. Moghadam's optimism about the role of transnational networks may be born of the pessimism she feels about the potential for women's movements in face of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. By contrast, Alvarez expresses concern about cooptation because historically women's movements in Latin America have been strong and closely tied to left-wing parties and human rights movements. It is precisely in situations where women's movements are grappling with how to organize more inclusively to overcome social hierarchies that transnational linkages may pose the greatest challenge.In such situations, transnationalism may deepen divi­ sions between globalized elites, who belong to transnational networks, and the large majority of women, who do not. The result may be a deradicalization of women's move­ ments.Or there may be growing rifts between those who have access to international funding and those who do not. In this event, some activists become more mobile, while others remain stuck at the local level. The dependence of transnational activists on the internet, which requires specialized skills and technology, further accentuates class divisions among activists.... How should we evaluate the growing exchanges among women's movements transnationally? To what extent are transnational forms of activism overcoming the tensions that until recently bedeviled women's movements across North-South lines? Are new networks, coalitions, and alliances addressing the key issues that women face transnationally? These questions are of more than academic relevance. The major funding organizations are committed to strengthening civil society both locally and cross-nationally and have identified women's movements as key to this endeavor.For women's movement activists in the South, the question of what kind of transnational alliances to forge and resources to accept is a key concern. 70 Amrita Basu Transnational networks, campaigns, and discourses seem to be most effective where support for a particular demand exists locally, but its expression is constrained where the state is either indifferent or repressive towards women; and where the viola­ tion involves physical violence and redress can be found by asserting women's civil and political rights. Examples of such situations include the mass rape of Bosnian women, the Taleban's violence against Afghan women, and the recalled plight of East Asian comfort women during the Second World War. By contrast, transnational networks, campaigns, and discourses have been less effective in strengthening women's move­ ments where strong local movements already exist. Furthermore, activists derive less benefit from transnational connections when the state concedes, however partially, to their demands. Although transnational women's networks have grown considerably, there is a danger of both crediting and blaming them too much. In India, as in many other places, the principal location of the women's movements is the national rather than the trans­ national level. Its priority is to influence the state. Women's groups have formed vital roles in nation building in Namibia, South Africa and Nicaragua; in conflict resolution in war-torn Ireland, Israel, and Bosnia-Herzegovina; and in the democratization of authoritarian states in central Europe and Latin America. 8 In all contexts, transnational linkages are likely to be most effective when redress can be sought by asserting women's civil and political rights, rather than their eco­ nomic well-being, and when transnational linkages are not primarily designed to provide resources. The extent to which women's organizations in the South have come to depend on Northern funding has impeded the open-ended, two-way flow of ideas that has been so critical to the development of feminism. Economic reliance on Western foundations fosters the ever-present possibility of dependence and resentment. These problems are quite independent of the intentions of Northern-based funding organiza­ tions, many of which have become quite sensitive to the issues. Meanwhile, women's economic situation remains perilous. Women constitute 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty and two-thirds of the world's illiterate population. Accordingly, the Beijing platform for action called on non­ governmental women's organizations to strengthen antipoverty programs and improve women's health, education, and social services. It called on NGOs to take responsibility for ensuring women's full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance, ownership of land, and natural resources. Interestingly, the only rec­ ommendation that NGOs have seriously embraced is to provide women with greater access to savings and credit mechanisms and institutions. Important as microcredit schemes are in allowing women a larger share of the pie, they do not contribute to rethinking the implications of macroeconomic policies for women.9 Transnational networks and activists seem to be most effective when the basis for mobilization is sexual victimization. Moreover, the victims who generate the most sympathy generally are women from the South who experience genital mutilation, stoning, or public humiliation. Important as campaigns like the coalition against gender apartheid in Afghanistan may be, they draw sympathy partly because of per­ vasive anti-Arab sentiment in the US, which is gendered. Muslim women often are Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global 71 considered victims of the Islamic faith and of the misogyny of men of their commu­ nity. The dissemination of pieces of mesh fabric to signify the burqua by the coalition against the Taleban certainly implies that the purdah is inevitably associated with the degradation of women, thereby inadvertently exacerbating anti-Muslim sentiment. That there is an alternative to the choice between a religious politics which under­ mines women's rights and universalist, liberal feminism, which undermines women's religious and nationalist loyalties, is illustrated by the network Women Living under Muslim Law (WLUML). Established in 1985, it provides information, solidarity, and support both to women in Muslim countries and to Muslim women living elsewhere. The network was formed in response to the rise of religious "fundamentalist" move­ ments and the attempt by certain states to institute family codes that would deny women full citizenship rights. By making Muslim women both its objects of concern and its leaders, and by showing how Islam provides both sympathetic and adverse characterizations of women's rights, the WLUML avoids disparaging characterizations of Muslim women. What the WLUML Campaign suggests is that global visions need to be further infused with local realities, while appreciating that the local is not merely local, but infused with global influences. Notes 1. For a sampling of the debates on global civil society, see Lipschutz (1992), Wapner (1995), and Keck and Sikkink (1998). 2. Moghadam (1996a). 3. Alvarez (1998, 1997, and 2000). 4. Chow (1996). 5. Bunch and Fried (1996). 6. Chow (1996), 189. 7. Moghadam (1996b). 8. Cockburn (1998). 9. Cecelia Lynch points to the ineffectiveness of social movements in confronting globalization in (1998). Fourth edition published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXl 4 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now !mown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Routledge 2002 Second edition published by Routledge 2010 Third edition published by Routledge 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data I Names: McCann, Carole R. (Carole Ruth), 1955- editor, Kim, Seung-Kyung, 1954- editor. T itle: Feminist theory reader / [edited] by Carole McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim. I I Description: Fourth Edition. New York : Routledge, 2016. Revised edition of Feminist theory reader, 2013. j Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 20150502831 ISBN 9781138930209 (hardback : alk. paper) I I ISBN 9781138930216 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN 9781315680675 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Feminist theory. Classification: LCC HQ1190. 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