Globalization and Autonomy – serie

Both as a concept and a set of social relationships, community is central to contemporary debates about globalization. Faced with finding a livable response to globalization, many communities are renegotiating their identities and functions and, in some instances, entirely new communities are being formed. Yet there is no clear consensus on why community matters or on how globalization affects particular communities.Renegotiating Community asks what happens to the autonomy of individuals and communities under the influence of globalization. Original case studies show how a range of communities are renegotiating the meanings of community and autonomy while living with, and sometimes challenging, the processes of globalization. By addressing the coercive and comforting dimensions of community – as well as the need to reconcile conflicting claims to autonomy – this book redraws the conceptual maps through which community, globalization, and autonomy are understood.

Globalization is one of the most significant developments of our time. But what distinguishes the present era from "golden" periods of empire building in past? Which elements of contemporary globalization and forms of autonomy are particularly novel and which are merely continuations of long-standing historical trends?To address these questions, Empires and Autonomy brings together a distinguished group of scholars who explore particular historical moments that involved either the establishment or protection of autonomy. These global encounters inevitably involved friction, and the contributors examine the dialectic between globalization and autonomy at historical junctures that range in time from the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1720 to the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 that led to the end of the Cold War. By examining these uniquely telling moments in the history of globalization and autonomy, this innovative collection provides novel insights into changes that are overtaking our contemporary world.

Globalization has challenged taken-for-granted relationships of rulein local, regional, national, and international settings. Thisunsettling of legitimacy raises questions. Under what conditions doindividuals and communities accept globalized decision making aslegitimate? And what political practices do individuals andcollectivities under globalization use to exercise autonomy?To answer these questions, the contributors to UnsettledLegitimacy explore the disruptions and reconfigurations ofpolitical authority that accompany globalization. Arguing that welive in an era in which political legitimacy at multiple scales ofauthority is under strain, they show that globalization has alsocreated demands for regulation, security, and the protection of rightsand expressions of individual and collective autonomy within and acrossmultiple political and geographic spaces. Instead of offeringsimplistic arguments for or against global governance, enhanceddemocracy, or economic integration, the contributors provide asophisticated examination of the complexities of legitimacy andautonomy in a globalizing world.

Globalization has challenged concepts such as local culture and cultural autonomy. And the rampant commodification of cultural products has challenged the way we define culture itself. Have these developments transformed the relationship between culture and autonomy? Have traditional notions of cultural autonomy been recast?Cultural Autonomy showcases the work of scholars who are exploring new ways of understanding the critical issue of globalization and culture. By defining culture broadly – as a set of ideas or practices that range from skateboarding to the work of public intellectuals such as Edward Said – they trace how issues of cultural autonomy have played out in various areas, including the human rights and environmental movements and among indigenous peoples. Although the contributors focus on the marginalized issue of autonomy, they offer a balanced perspective – one that reveals that globalization has not only limited but also created new forms of cultural autonomy.

Globalization has challenged concepts such as local culture and cultural autonomy. And the rampant commodification of cultural products has challenged the way we define culture itself. Have these developments transformed the relationship between culture and autonomy? Have traditional notions of cultural autonomy been recast?Cultural Autonomy showcases the work of scholars who are exploring new ways of understanding the critical issue of globalization and culture. By defining culture broadly – as a set of ideas or practices that range from skateboarding to the work of public intellectuals such as Edward Said – they trace how issues of cultural autonomy have played out in various areas, including the human rights and environmental movements and among indigenous peoples. Although the contributors focus on the marginalized issue of autonomy, they offer a balanced perspective – one that reveals that globalization has not only limited but also created new forms of cultural autonomy.

When the UN adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, it brought the negative effect of globalization on the lives of Indigenous peoples to the centre of public debate. The contributors to this innovative collection extend the discussion by asking what can Indigenous peoples' experiences with and thoughts on globalization tell us about the relationship between globalization and autonomy and the meaning of the concepts themselves? Indigenous Peoples and Autonomy brings together scholars from multiple disciplines and backgrounds who seek answers to this question in grounded case studies. Whether the focus is on sea rights among Torres Strait Islanders, James Bay Cree co-governance, the transformation of East Cree spirituality, or the co-optation of linguistics by Mayan activists, each chapter opens a window to view how Iindigenous people are engaging with and challenging globalization and Western views of autonomy.

When the UN adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, it brought the negative effect of globalization on the lives of Indigenous peoples to the centre of public debate. The contributors to this innovative collection extend the discussion by asking what can Indigenous peoples' experiences with and thoughts on globalization tell us about the relationship between globalization and autonomy and the meaning of the concepts themselves? Indigenous Peoples and Autonomy brings together scholars from multiple disciplines and backgrounds who seek answers to this question in grounded case studies. Whether the focus is on sea rights among Torres Strait Islanders, James Bay Cree co-governance, the transformation of East Cree spirituality, or the co-optation of linguistics by Mayan activists, each chapter opens a window to view how Iindigenous people are engaging with and challenging globalization and Western views of autonomy.

In a world of flux and globalization, when old territories are dissolving and new nations and political unions are coming together, who controls ideas, information, and creativity? Who patrols the new frontiers? This volume opens a window to the dark side of globalization and the struggles for autonomy it has generated. The chapters focus on property regimes in crisis as sites where globalization, autonomy, and the political economy of international capitalism intersect. Sites of friction – indigenous land claims, BC forest disputes, conflicts between farmers and the patent owners of genetically modified seeds – demonstrate not only how property laws and intellectual property rights are supporting the expansion of private property regimes but also how local activists are using a politics of place to resist these forces. The work of Palestinian poets, whose attachment to the land is explored in a powerful Coda at the end of the book, shows that a politics of place can help local actors build new bases of autonomy to withstand the forces of globalization.

In a world of flux and globalization, when old territories are dissolving and new nations and political unions are coming together, who controls ideas, information, and creativity? Who patrols the new frontiers? This volume opens a window to the dark side of globalization and the struggles for autonomy it has generated. The chapters focus on property regimes in crisis as sites where globalization, autonomy, and the political economy of international capitalism intersect. Sites of friction – indigenous land claims, BC forest disputes, conflicts between farmers and the patent owners of genetically modified seeds – demonstrate not only how property laws and intellectual property rights are supporting the expansion of private property regimes but also how local activists are using a politics of place to resist these forces. The work of Palestinian poets, whose attachment to the land is explored in a powerful Coda at the end of the book, shows that a politics of place can help local actors build new bases of autonomy to withstand the forces of globalization.

Globalization includes complex processes, easy to identify but difficult to explain. Why, for instance, are globalizing processes so unevenly distributed between poor and wealthy countries? What effect does this uneven distribution have on the everyday lives of ordinary people?The contributors to this volume find answers to these questions in the Mediterranean, a region divided between the people of the north shore, who are engaged with Europe and modernized, and their poorer neighbours to the south, who struggle daily to atain the same standards of living and modes of governance as their more Westernized neighbours. In these two regions' divergent histories, economies, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, education systems, and political structures lead to explanations not only for uneven globalization but also for the wave of demonstrations for political and cultural autonomy that sparked the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Near East.