Cities in the World: Local Civil Society and Global Issues in Britain.

In this paper I discuss whether and how mobilizations around global issues actually occupy a distinctive position in the political space, apart from the most conspicuous displays of noglobal (or new global) activism, taking place in the various counter-summits across the globe. To this purpose I focus on two instances of collective action at the local level, looking at the structure of networks of citizens’ organizations in Glasgow and Bristol. I assess to which extent globalization issues do represent a distinctive set of political interests, rather than the articulation of already established ones; do translate into a distinctive set of collective actions, again conducted by organizations with specific traits; may be associated with specific social movement dynamics, rather than being the focus of ad hoc coalitions or becoming ‘owned’ by specific organizations with little or no interest in collective action cutting across specific organizational boundaries. The analysis of two different local settings suggests that, far from being a mere addition to the new social movements milieu, or the mere revitalization of established agendas on social inequality, mobilizations on global issues be the focal point of specific alliances, based on long term links and solidarities within British civil society