New Delhi: The Global Civil Society 2005/6 is conceived by the Centre for the Study of Global Governance and Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics and Political Science and Center for Civil Society, University of California, Los Angeles.
The Yearbook attempts to fill the gap in our knowledge of how citizens around the world, their values and identities, communities and forms of political participation, help to shape and, in turn, are shaped by globalisation.
These phenomena are poorly documented and little understood and this gap could become politically dangerous and socially damaging in a global era full of tensions, anxieties and uncertainties.
When asked if globalisation isn't a relationship of convenience, the author of the book, Lord Meghnad Desai says, "All the way through in history, states always relate in terms of their own selfish interest so it just goes on like this. It was the British Foreign Secretary who said Britain has no permanent friends, it has permanent interests."
Lord Desai's take on why a global civil society doesn't necessarily lead to action on issues like the Kyoto protocol: "The thing is the world lacks a global authority because there's no global state. Global arrangements can only be inter-state. No way of enforcing good behaviour. If people sign a treaty and break it, there's no way of enforcing that. Therefore there has to be consensus.
"Be it trade, be it climate change, one has to have agreements that are consensual. This is not as fast as experts would like it to be, it's sort of like Indian democracy because it has to be consensual, it will always take a bit of time. So the global society has to take a bit of time," he said.
The author says that issues as global warming cannot be sorted out fast because people aren't convinced that it's in their best interests to do this, not as fast as experts would like it to be. "It's sort of like Indian democracy because it has to be consensual, it will always take a bit of time. So the global society has to take a bit of time," adds Lord Desai.
On being questioned on globalisation not being a relationship of convenience, Dr Hakan Seckinelgin of the Social Policy Department of the London school of Economics says, "It's not convenience, but it's trying to understand how people who are not necessarily in the structural political relations try to deal with globalisation, and how we understand what lord desai was talking about globalisation from below. That would be my definition."
"The point I think there are all sorts of people who are contesting globalisation and are not happy with the way globalisation is happenieng. So in a way global civil society captures these debates. And if you take Kyoto protocol there are diverse views, and that's the richness of the idea," says Dr Seckinelgin.
Bringing together leading thinkers in the social sciences, as well as activists and practitioners in civil societies around the world, the Yearbook seeks to chart and analyse the nature and terrain of global civil society. This volume is the fifth in the series.
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