Becoming Global (Un)Civil Society: Counter-Hegemonic Struggle and the Indymedia Network: Globalizations: Vol 8 , No 5

Abstract

In this article we ask how ‘civil society’ actors and organizations can become constructed and treated as ‘uncivil society’. We contest the notion that ‘uncivil’ necessarily equates with the dark qualities of violence and organized criminality. Instead, we take a Gramscian perspective in suggesting that what becomes ‘uncivil’ is any practice and organization that substantially contests the structuring enclosures of hegemonic order, of which civil society is a necessary part. To trace this, we consider ways in which a global grass-roots media network called Indymedia has established and maintained itself as a counter-hegemonic media-producing organization. In this case, a conscious positioning and self-identification as counter-hegemonic has been accompanied by the framing and sometimes violent policing of nodes and practices of this network as ‘uncivil’ by cooperating state authorities. This is in the absence of association of this network with organized violence or crime. We intend our reflections to contribute to a deepening theorization of the terms ‘civil’ and ‘uncivil’ as they are becoming used in social movement and globalization studies.

En este artículo preguntamos cómo pueden los actores de la ‘sociedad civil’ y las organizaciones llegar a configurarse y ser tratados como ‘sociedad incivil’. Nosotros refutamos la noción de que lo ‘incivil’ necesariamente equivale a las características oscuras de violencia y criminalidad organizada. En cambio, tomamos una perspectiva de Gramscian, sugiriendo que lo que se vuelve ‘incivil’ es cualquier práctica y organización que refuta sustancialmente los confinamientos estructurados del orden hegemónico, del cual la sociedad civil es una parte necesaria. Para rastrear esto, nosotros consideramos las formas en que una red de medios de base popular llamada Indymedia se ha establecido y mantenido a sí misma como una organización contrahegemónica de producción de medios. En este caso, un posicionamiento consciente y de autoidentificación como contrahegemónica, ha sido acompañado por la configuración y a veces por vigilancia violenta de nodos y prácticas de esta red como ‘incivil’ al cooperar con las autoridades estatales. Esto es en ausencia de una asociación de esta red con la violencia o la delincuencia. Nosotros pretendemos que nuestras reflexiones contribuyan a profundizar la teorización de los términos ‘civil’ e ‘incivil’ en la medida en que se están usando en los estudios sobre movimientos sociales y globalización.

在本文中我们设问“公民社会”的行为者和组织如何被建构并被视作一个“非公民社会”。本文对“非公民”必然等同于暴力和有组织犯罪的黑暗性质这一概念提出质疑。本文取而代之采用一种葛兰西式的分析，即认为造成“非公民”的是本质上挑战霸权秩序（公民社会是其必要部分）的任何行动或组织。为了求证，我们考察一家叫“独立媒体”的全球草根媒体网络确立并维护其作为一个反霸权媒体生产组织的方式。其中，伴随着一种反霸权的刻意定位和自我认同的，是与之合作的国家当局形塑甚至有时狂暴地管束这一网络的节点和实践，视其为“非公民”。这表明该网络和有组织暴力或犯罪之间缺乏关联。本文意在当“公民的”及“非公民的”概念被用于社会运动和全球化研究时，使我们的反思在能有助于加深这两个术语的理论化。

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of a research grant for this work, through the ESRC's Non-Governmental Public Action (NGPA) Research Programme (RES-155-25-0029). The article has benefited from the insights of two anonymous reviewers. Any errors of interpretation remain our own.

Notes

Sections 44–46 of the UK Serious Crime Act became law on 1 October 2008 to address acts seen as ‘encouraging or assisting’ serious international crime offences such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and armed robbery.

An IP address is the unique number given to each Internet connection, which can be used to trace the user of a connection. In line with its own privacy policy, Indymedia actually had already removed the details of the judge from the posts (Indymedia, Citation2009c). The network also does not log or store IP addresses of contributors, a situation acknowledged by UK police following the seizure of servers in Bristol in 2005 (Indymedia, Citation2007).

On the concept of ‘open space’ in contemporary ‘counter-globalization’ movements, see Keraghel and Sen Citation(2004), Patomäki and Teivainen Citation(2004), and Böhm et al. Citation(2005).

For details see https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewIMCForm.

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-September/001495.html [accessed 16 June 2009].

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-September/001475.html [accessed 16 June 2009].

https://docs.indymedia.org/Global/FordDougsSummary [accessed 16 June 2009].

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-September/001455.html [accessed 16 June 2009].

https://docs.indymedia.org/Global/FinanceFordArgentinaLetter [accessed 16 June 2009].

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-chicago/2002-October/001559.html [accessed 16 June 2009].

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-September/001475.html [accessed June 16 2009].

Thank you to Martin Pedersen for illuminating correspondence on this point (email to Sian Sullivan, 13 December 2010).

i.e. justifying unlawful protest tactics on the grounds of preventing a greater harm, cf. Hirsch and Vidal Citation(2009).