February 3, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Creating a Better World: Interpreting Global Civil Society
edited by Rupert Taylor
This collection of essays examines the role that international organizations and social movements can play in tackling global problems. Edited by Rupert Taylor, a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, it also debates what is meant by “global civil society” and discusses the challenges facing groups operating beyond national borders.
The essayists, drawn from academe and the nonprofit world, highlight the recent protests in Seattle and in Genoa, Italy, to demonstrate the rise of global civil society. They describe how coordination among larger organizations such as the AFL-CIO and the Direct Action Network provided a way to link the interests of local activists with global concerns. The global movement, they say, has empowered grass-roots groups and brought their battles for environmental protection, social justice, and fair labor policies to an international audience.
The volume also notes a number of constraints on global civil society, including the outsized influence of organizations from the developed world and problems of organization and communication among different groups. But cumulatively, the authors present a vision of a global civil society that, in their view, is becoming a potent force for effecting positive change on an international scale.
Publisher: Kumarian Press, 1294 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, Conn. 06002; (860) 243-2098 or (800) 289-2664; fax (860) 243-2867; kpbooks@aol.com; http://www.kpbooks.com; 210 pages; $24.95; ISBN 1-56549-188-2.
