30 A al Qaeda

which was his highly publicized resignation from a Shell Ake C (1989) The political economy of crisis and underdevelopment in
Africa: selected works of Claude Ake. Jad, Lagos
oil-related commission (the Steering Committee of the
Ake C (1992) The new world order: a view from the south. Malthouse,
Niger Delta Environmental Survey) which he had been Lagos
reluctant to be involved with, but did so on the persuasion Ake C (1994) Democratization of disempowerment in Africa. Malthouse,
of environmental activist and friend Ken Saro-Wiwa Lagos
whose execution by the Sani Abacha military regime led Ake C (1996a) The marginalization of Africa: notes on a productive
confusion. Malthouse, Lagos
to his resignation in protest.
Ake C (1996b) Democracy and development in Africa. Brookings Insti-
Ake was part of a second generation of thinkers along tution Press, Washington, DC
with Walter Rodney, Samora Machel, and Amilcar Cabral Ake C (1996c) The marginalisation of Africa: notes on a productive
that emerged in the 1970s, similar to those referred to as confusion. Malthouse, Lagos
the “philosopher-kings” such as Nyerere, Nkrumah, and Ake C (1996d) Is Africa democratizing? Malthouse, Lagos
Ake C (1996e) The social sciences in Africa: trends, tasks and challenges.
Senghor whose thinking not only shaped African thought
Malthouse, Lagos
but inspired significant sociopolitical waves. Ake however Ake C (2005) The feasibility of democracy in Africa. Codesria, Dakar
saw independence leaders such as Kenyatta and Nkrumah Kelly H (2005) Still relevant: Claude Ake’s challenge to mainstream
as erring in their employment of the western development discourse on African politics and development. J Third World Stud
model of focusing on national wealth and not the welfare 22(2):73–88
Mwalilino W (2000) An interview with Claude Ake. West Afr Rev 2(1):3
of the people. His controversial but widely received views
and criticism of the role of the elite class and government
in what he referred to as the “democratization of the
disempowerment” of lower classes imported a useful
radical and critical consciousness in the assessment of al Qaeda
issues of African development which, though partly
▶ Afghanistan and Iraq Wars
drawing from Marxist thinking, deviated from it to
▶ Punishment
the extent of the existence of inadequate Eurocentric
▶ Terrorism
teleological elements of analysis.
▶ War Against Terrorism
Ake held several reputable positions in Nigeria, across
Africa and internationally and at the time of his death was
visiting professor at Yale. He also founded the Centre for
Advanced Social Science in Port Harcourt (Nigeria) that
continues to be a think tank for African political economy. Alterglobalization
His death in 1996 in a plane crash in Nigeria sparked off
some suspicions of its link with his activism. Ake’s work ARUN KUMAR POKHREL
continues to influence thinking on African development Department of English, University of Florida,
and political economy generally both within Africa and Gainesville, FL, USA
internationally, providing a valuable perspective to the
discourse on development ethics and global justice.
Alterglobalization (also known as “alternative globaliza-
Related Topics tion,” alter-mundialization – from the French “altermon-
▶ African Development Bank dialisme” – or the global justice movement) refers to
▶ Human Rights: African Perspectives various social movements that seek global cooperation
▶ Political Economy and interaction to resist the negative social, political, eco-
▶ Sustainable Development nomic, and environmental impacts of the contemporary
neoliberal globalization. Globalization, as a late stage of
References capitalism, has brought many profound social changes,
Ahiauzu N (2008) Naming struggles: African ideologies and the law. but at the same time, it is believed to bring many negative
Afr J Leg Theory 1:24 impacts to a society, such as a broadening gap between the
Ake C (1967) A theory of political integration. Dorsey, Homewood rich and the poor, environmental destruction, and the
Ake C (1978) Revolutionary pressures in Africa. Zed Books, London
escalation of civil and international conflicts. While trying
Ake C (1979) Social science as imperialism: a theory of political develop-
ment. Ibadan University Press, Ibadan
to contest, interrogate, and reverse the destructive aspects
Ake C (1981) A political economy of Africa. Longman, London of neoliberal globalization, the alterglobalization move-
Ake C (1985) A political economy of Nigeria. Longman, London ment advocates alternative forms of globalization based
 Alterglobalization A 31

on values of democracy, global and social justice, environ- privileged few. Hence, they point out the need of
A
mental protection, and human rights rather than purely rearticulation of the social, political, and economic
economic concerns. Hence, social struggles from different dynamics of globalization in more democratic ways,
parts of the world forge an alliance to provide a workable which may lead to new developments, such as “democracy
global alternative (“Another world is possible”) to the from below” (Dallmayr 1999), “grassroots globalization”
Washington Consensus, urging various governments and or “globalization from below” (Appadurai 2000), “global
peoples to implement a participatory governance system civil society” (Germain and Kenny 2005; Holton 2005),
and to promote a global public sphere via social networks. “cosmopolitanism” (Robbins 1999; Beck and Sznaider
Since alterglobalization is an offshoot of globalization, 2006), and “global governance” (Held 2007). And it is
it is closely interlinked with various aspects of globaliza- this rearticulation of various global dynamics which may
tion, encompassing social, cultural, political, technologi- help empower the poor and powerless.
cal, and economic issues (Jameson 2000). Globalization, Also described as the “movement of movements,” al[t]
in the past few decades, has become a common cultural erglobalization is a multiplicative form of resistance –
grammar in Western academia, so there is a huge body of social, political, ecological – against neoliberal globaliza-
literature written about globalization and antigloba- tion and is believed to have gained momentum with the
lization processes in general (Hardt and Negri 2000; first World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre in 2001.
Held and McGrew 2007; Hirst and Thompson 1996; Rob- The WSF came into being as a reaction to the meeting of
ertson 1992; Scholte 2005). In it, the antiglobalization the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland,
movement is often seen as completely opposed to global- where business leaders, economists, experts, and political
ization, rejecting any form of globalization, although most leaders from the developed countries met annually since
antiglobalists argue that they oppose corporate globaliza- its establishment in 1971. The dissidents of the annual
tion, imposed by the industrialized countries and large WEF meeting in Davos started preparing for an anti-
multinational corporations. This is why many within this Davos summit and launched the WSF in June 2000 at
movement started to call themselves “alterglobalists”. They the Alternative Social Summit in Geneva, coinciding
saw themselves as “reformists” or “transformists,” thus with the United Nations Assembly on Social Develop-
advocating new forms of globalization (Scholte 2005). In ment. Designed to bring together diverse social move-
spite of the fact that there are some disagreements between ments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and
them, the major concern of both antiglobalists and civil societies opposed to neoliberalism, the WSF was
alterglobalists is the advocacy of global justice at multiple conceived as an open international forum with
levels – social, political, environmental, human rights, and a decentralized power structure in which different organi-
economic, to mention only a few. Hence, both of them zations would coordinate and network with each other in
aim at achieving justice in different ways, but it would be taking concrete actions toward building another world.
misleading to say that all alterglobalists agree on the same However, many alterglobalists today argue that resis-
issues, including the issue of global justice. There are tances to global capitalism have taken on a radically
subtle differences among themselves as well. new form since the 1999 Battle of Seattle. In this Battle,
Unlike proponents of antiglobalization, alterglobalists more than 30,000 protestors from around the world,
have begun to formulate a language to theorize not just representing numerous NGOs, labor unions, student
negative impacts but also the ways in which neoliberal groups, media, and religious groups, hit the streets in
globalization might be resisted and transformed. Alterglo- Seattle. Seattle thus became the locus of an informal global
balization seeks to harness possibilities of globalization, nexus of diverse people and groups to protest neoliberal
bringing positive changes to a society while acknowledg- economic policies, such as structural adjustments, of the
ing challenges the process of globalization entails. Such International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World
possibilities, according to Jan Aart Scholte, include: tech- Bank (WB), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
nological and organizational developments, critical public On the heels of Seattle came the WSF in 2001 in Porto
awareness of global problems, and global solidarities Alegre in Brazil with the slogan “Another World Is Possi-
among people, among other things. While some ble!” Other important institutions of alterglobalization
alterglobalists are in favor of social reforms, others insist include the Independent Media Center (also known as
on the need for a complete structural change. Most Indymedia), a collectively run online global news network
alterglobalists, nonetheless, perceive neoliberalism as for grassroots coverage, and the Association for the
a root problem, which, in their view, fosters unbridled Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens
corporate capitalism and consolidates the power of the (ATTAC), an international organization and network
32 A Alterglobalization

in the global justice movement. Like the WSF, these orga- But what is neoliberalism, anyway? In his book A Brief
nizations resist neoliberal globalization and work toward History of Neoliberalism, David Harvey defines neoliberal-
social, environmental, and democratic alternatives in the ism as a theory of political-economic practices, which has
globalization process. been considered a panacea since the 1970s, promoting the
But these organizations of alterglobalization did individual entrepreneurial freedoms and corporatism
not appear out of thin air: Many critics see them as an characterized by strong private property rights, free mar-
outcome of different social movements that emerged in kets, and free trade. Propounded by economists Friedrich
the 1990s and even before, especially since economic Hayek and Milton Friedman, neoliberalism defends free-
restructuring of the early 1970s. In the 1990s, there was market capitalism based on the principles of deregulation,
a wave of social struggles against neoliberalism as most privatization, and minimization of the state’s role in areas
countries in the global South opened their national econ- of public importance. Like Harvey, Pierre Bourdieu, in
omies to world markets and privatized their public enter- Acts of Resistance (1989), defines neoliberalism as a kind
prises under neoliberal dictates. Intellectuals on the Left of conservative revolution that reifies and glorifies
thought those struggles represented a wave of new futures the reign of the financial markets, promoting unbridled
for social and global justice, democracy, and emancipa- capitalism with no other law than that of maximum profit
tion; however, they were made ineffective by the and introducing modern forms of domination. The main
insuperable forces of global capitalism. Hence, the WSF mantra of neoliberalism is thus to maximize profit and
was born as a new social collective arising from the need to accumulate capital, what Harvey calls “accumulation by
re-imagine those social struggles in new global contexts. dispossession.” This process of “accumulation by dispos-
On the other hand, some theorists like C. Aguiton session” occurs in a numerous ways, but mainly through
and Immanuel Wallerstein compare the alterglobalization privatization and corporatization of public properties and
movement to the “New Left” of 1968 in terms of its origin, institutions. Public services such as health, education,
principles, and scope. They argue that it would be impos- communications, and transportation are privatized
sible to imagine this movement in the absence of “old” under neoliberal dictates. So much so that common prop-
forms of trade unions and Left parties, or large scale pro- erty resources, such as water needed daily for the human
tests such as those in Seattle, Geneva, and many other livelihood is even privatized and made inaccessible to
places. Notwithstanding the residual structures of the common people. Thus neoliberalism is seen as a new
“old” forms, they still consider the alterglobalization form of domination that has impacted almost every sphere
movement a new movement that demands a dialectic of human life – cultures, economies, politics, education,
study examining its objective preconditions, genesis, evo- the media, and business – in contemporary times and
lution, and its qualitatively new features in their contra- prevents people from living a socially just and dignified life.
dictory nature. Yet some alterglobalists view the Critics of neoliberal globalization, or what has been
emergence of the alterglobalization movement in relation alternatively called the Washington Consensus, hold that
to other social movements and to Raymond Williams’ the governments of developed countries or corporations
identification of different modes of historicity such as from those countries make progress at the expense of
dominant, residual, and emergent cultural practices. The less-developed countries’ impoverishment. The phrase
first period – from the nineteenth century to the 1960s – “Washington Consensus,” originally coined by John
was marked by the emergence and prominence of the Williamson in 1990, in reference to the economic policy
workers’ movement. The second phase was shaped by advice given by Washington-based international financial
post-WWII economic transformations, which eventually institutions such as the IMF and the WB to Latin
led to the prominence of new social movements that American countries as of 1989, is now seen as synonymous
covered a wide range of issues from civil rights to femi- with neoliberal globalization. So the big international
nism, human rights, and ecology. Finally, the late 1990s institutions like the IMF, the WB, and the WTO, that
marked the emergence of a new phase of global social regulate global finance and trade, are thought to function
movements: alterglobalization (de Jong et al. 2005; not only as engines of exploitation via structural adjust-
McDonald 2006). The new shift in historicity, especially ment programs, but also as agents of Western capitalist
the pervasiveness of neoliberal globalization, has imperialism, mainly promoting the interests of the United
thus given rise to a new form of global social movement. States and Europe. For instance, the Trade-Related Aspects
In this sense, alterglobalization is relatively a new of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement of
cultural phenomenon that tries to counter neoliberal the WTO allows multinational corporations to patent
globalization. life-forms or seeds developed by peasants as their private
 Alterglobalization A 33

property through slight modification or genetic engineer- Workers’ Movement (Brazil), Proceso de Comunidades
A
ing. The corporations can also patent indigenous knowl- Negras (PCN, Colombia), the Niger Delta movements
edge about the beneficial uses of different plants as their (Nigeria), and the Green Belt Movement (Kenya), to men-
private property, which is dubbed “biopiracy.” Hence, tion only a few. Although neoliberalism functions differ-
neoliberal globalization has created new forms of enclo- ently in different places, the overall implications of these
sures and made common people’s lives difficult. social movements are for promoting grassroots democ-
Many scholars think that neoliberal globalization racy, sustainable development, cultural identity, dignity,
resembles earlier forms of colonialism and empire. equality, and global social justice.
Naomi Klein coins the term “disaster capitalism” to One of the noted examples of social struggles resisting
describe such colonial and imperial forms of global capi- neoliberalism that began in the 1990s and that also had
talism. Mike Davis explores the geography and culture of a huge influence in the formation of the WSF, Indymedia,
the “planet of slums” generated by the economics of global ATTAC, and more importantly, the alterglobalization
involution. In a similar vein, Arundhati Roy documents movement itself, is the Zapatista movement. Launched
the plight of rural people in India who are dispossessed on January 1, 1994 when the North American Free Trade
and exploited by successive neoliberal Indian govern- Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, the Zapatista
ments. Other scholars, such as Vandana Shiva, Maria movement is a local rebellion against neoliberal globaliza-
Mies, David Harvey, Arturo Escobar, Henry A. Giroux, tion that has its locus in Chiapas in Southern Mexico. The
Arif Dirlik, and others have written extensively on the local struggle for identity and social justice, originating in
current neoliberal practices of expropriation of land, life, the local geography and culture of Chiapas, has now
or natural resources in the global South, which dispossess become a global dissent representing the subaltern voice.
local people from their lands and resources. Strongly resisting the systemic social exclusion and exploi-
According to these alterglobalists, the processes of tation caused by neoliberal policies of successive Mexican
expropriation have been intensified over the past few governments, the Zapatistas have launched different social
decades, whereas Earth’s resources were used coopera- campaigns, as well as organized a series of international
tively and sustainably for the most part of human history. meetings and public debates on the neoliberal agendas of
Powerful individuals, groups, or corporations have globalization. The impact of this movement was starkly
monopolized and expropriated Earth’s land, life, or visible during the 1999 Seattle protest. Interestingly, the
resources, declaring themselves to be the sole owners of Zapatistas have made an exemplary use of cyberspace to
those common properties. In recent times, neoliberal mobilize the grassroots movements for social justice in
global capitalism, for example, has found a new territory Mexico and around the world.
for exploitation, i.e., the environment of the global South. Alterglobalists like Alain Touraine argue that neolib-
The construction of dams, the rampant use of natural eral globalization has not “dissolved our capacity for
resources, the sale of common land for commercial pur- political action.” They believe that it is only through col-
poses, and overfishing of the oceans, among other things, lective political action that social justice can be restored.
have not only deprived the local people’s control over their From Seattle to Davos, people engage in popular resis-
traditional lands and resources but also led to a massive tances – the peace movement, the anticorporate globali-
environmental destruction. zation movement, the human rights movement, the
As a consequence, there has been an explosion of local environmental justice movement – within and across
resistances throughout the world in the forms of civil wars, national boundaries, thereby forging new global collectiv-
insurrection, ethnic rivalries, and religious fundamental- ities against hegemonic forces of neoliberalism. Mobiliz-
ism against global capitalism despite the neoliberal gov- ing against the destructive aspects of globalization from
ernments’ developmental narratives of modernization and the perspectives of what they have been and what they are
their imperatives of progress to “catch up” with the West- at present, local people from different parts of the world
ern countries. Through these movements, people reclaim engage in the defense of their particular localities from the
and defend their local culture, history, and identity, as well perspective of the economic, ecological, and cultural dif-
as their rights for autonomy. Such movements, for exam- ference that their landscapes, cultures, and economies
ple, include a wide variety of movements – both nonvio- embody in relation to those of more dominant sectors
lent and violent rebellions – such as the Zapatista of society (Escobar 2008). They are collectively taking up
Movement (Mexico), Narmada Bachao Andolan (India), the challenge of neoliberalism and reviving both the
the Chipko Movement (India), the Assembly of the Poor meaning of resistance and the places where it comes
(Thailand), Ekta Parishad (India), the Landless Rural about (Giroux 2008). This is why local movements, more
34 A Alterglobalization

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a significant role in turning different social movements sciences: A research agenda. The British Journal of Sociology
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structure (seen by some as too centralized while, ironically, media. Pluto, Ann Arbor, MI
seen by others as too diffuse) (Curran 2007). Such accu- Dirlik A (2006) Introduction: our ways of knowing – and what to do
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established nonhierarchical entities explicitly committed the human interest. Paradigm, Boulder
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Harvey D (2005) A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University
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McDonald K (2006) Global movements: action and culture. Blackwell,
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▶ Zapatistas Palgrave Macmillan, New York
 Altruism A 35

World Economic Forum. http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm. Studies of Altruism A

Accessed May 2010
In addition to ethicists and philosophers, research on
World Social Forum http://www.forumsocialmundial.org. Accessed June
2010
altruism has been conducted by anthropologists, econo-
mists, evolutionary biologists, political scientists, psychol-
ogists, and sociologists. Niall Scott and Jonathan Seglow
(2007) provide a helpful overview and evaluation of the
Altruism relative contributions of several fields. Many investigators
in the behavioral and social sciences have assumed a self-
ROBERT PAUL CHURCHILL interested basis for altruism or have attempted to reduce
Department of Philosophy, Columbian College of altruism to adaptive advantages such as kin selection.
Arts & Sciences, George Washington University, Many economists have attempted to analyze altruism in
Washington, DC, USA terms of the dominant rational choice model of individual
behavior, and consequently, focus on exchange and reci-
procity as did the early anthropological studies of Mali-
The term “altruism” was coined by Auguste Comte in his nowski and Mauss rather than altruism itself.
Système de Politique in 1851 by combining the Latin alter Theorists working on the biological evolution of altru-
with ui to mean “to this other.” Altruism continues to be istic behavior have developed sophisticated explanatory
widely used in this general sense to refer to promoting the models. One notable attempt by Sober and Wilson (1998)
interests of others. Extensive studies have been made of purports to offer a descriptive ethics including altruism.
persons who have behaved altruistically, such as rescuers The authors argue for the adaptive advantage of a certain
of Jews during the Holocaust. Scientists also have made plasticity of motivational factors they describe as “motiva-
efforts to study altruism, or pro-social behavior, experi- tional pluralism.” So far, however, biological explanations
mentally and have theorized about the evolutionary adap- have very limited explanatory power. They are most per-
tation of altruistic traits in group members. The suasive for simple interactions such as those modeled in
implications and associations of altruism for the morality game theory, but they fail to illuminate the cognitions
of individual and group behavior appear to be complex. and emotions that seem to underlie motivations to help
For this reason, further studies of altruism could have others in emergency situations or in other complex social
important implications for global justice. settings.
Descriptive, scientific accounts of the origins of altru-
Definitions ism and of its actual presence or absence in social settings,
When investigated by social and behavioral scientists, no matter how detailed, cannot instruct us on what we
altruism is generally regarded as synonymous with any ought to do, or as to what kinds of persons we should
type of pro-social or other regarding behavior. However, aspire to be. These questions remain subjects for rational
Auguste Comte and popularizers of his work, such as debate in ethics, philosophy, religion, and the humanities.
George H. Lewis who introduced the term into English, However, inasmuch as increased beneficence, care, and
intended the term to designate a moral concept. In addi- empathy for the plight of others seem necessary for
tion, viewing altruism as synonymous with pro-social a genuinely human future, it is encouraging that research
behavior renders the concept too elastic to be helpful, as on a construct known as the altruistic personality suggests
behavior described as “altruistic” can easily become con- that we have the option of cultivating altruism, even if the
fused with self-interested or egoistically motivated behav- role of altruism in social life, at least for the near future,
iors. For instance, we need a term that designates helping remains relatively modest.
behavior motivated by concern for others in contrast to
situations in which one is motivated to help others The Altruistic Personality
because of an expectation of a reward or benefit. Thus, A more promising approach to a descriptive, or scientific,
the term is most accurately used to refer to helping understanding of altruism comes from the efforts of
behavior that usually has two additional characteristics: psychologists and sociologists in studying the personali-
(1) helping the other supplies the primary motive, rather ties of persons who have acted altruistically, most notably,
than self-interest and (2) empathy, sympathy, or compas- rescuers of Jews during the Nazi domination of much
sion is often involved so that the altruist takes the interest of Europe. These studies generally analyze personality
of the other as his or her own. in terms of “traits,” and examine those circumstances,