Globalising protest and the globalising concept of civil society

This thesis investigates the concepts of civil society and global civil society in relation to the movement against neoliberal globalisation. It argues that elements of the contemporary discourse of civil society have led to a neoliberal reconstruction of the idea. The S11 protest outside a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Melbourne, September 2000, is examined as a case of global civil society in action. It is argued that the protest and the meeting were both global civil society events. The WEF was acting as part of hegemonic global civil society, bolstering the legitimacy of neoliberal globalisation. S11 was a quasi-counter-hegemonic challenge to neoliberal globalisation, advocating different forms of globalisation. A critical approach to the concept of global civil society is required to analyse the relation of such disparate events. The hegemonic nature of neoliberal globalisation makes Gramsci's concept of civil society particularly relevant