Global Actors in Transnational and Virtual Spaces

Abstract

Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen. By Daniel Drache. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2008. 197 pp., $19.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3179-0). Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization. By Jean-Francois Bayart. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2008. 373 pp., $29.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3668-9). The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance. By Colin J. Bennett. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 259 pp., $28.00 (ISBN-13: 978-0-262-02638-3). The first decade of the twenty-first century has come to an end and so too have many of the early critiques of globalization and its impacts. New ways of understanding our global world are emerging with reflections on the roles of global subjects, global citizens and transnational actors advocating for change. Three important books have challenged old notions of globalization and the role of diverse actors: Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen (by Daniel Drache), Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization (by Jean-Francois Bayart) and The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance (by Colin J. Bennett). In this review, I examine what these three key pieces of literature have contributed to our understanding of global societies, highlighting some of the common themes and key arguments raised. To begin, all three books expose the importance of individuals and civil society in the creation of globalization and in resistance to certain impacts of globalization such as the role of privacy advocates and modern publics. Bayart argues that globalization has not resulted in the elimination of states but rather that states are indeed a product of globalization and of the everyday actions of individuals and groups. Globalization has, furthermore, facilitated transnational activism, solidarity and networks that have challenged but not undermined the state. Drache's research is concerned with the “global citizen” and his or her role in the dissent movement. For Bennett, his research on the work of transnational actors is very specific to the privacy advocates, a group of individuals forming a loose transnational network who strive for better transparency, awareness and accountability of modern surveillance techniques. All three authors make reference to the significance of the internet in the process of globalization and in the building of transnational solidarity networks. Bayart reflects on the hacker culture …