What’s new about global social justice? A view from New Zealand

• In Event: Dialectical Approaches in Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Contemporary global justice movements have appeared to be remarkably effective in raising our collective consciousness about the anti-democratic character of neoliberal economics and neoconservative politics. They are characterized as being new and unprecedented in three ways: (a) their ability to bring diverse and disparate groups into political coalitions; (b) their capability to blur traditional boundaries between media production and media consumption; and (c) their lack of reliance on formal organizations to perform traditional social movement functions. This paper offers a critical take on these three claims, drawing from several cases of global justice activism in Aotearoa New Zealand to temper these claims and illustrate how contemporary movements are unique because they bring together old and new forms of organizing, and feature increasingly hybrid, rather than new, communicative frames. Newness and diversity therefore need to be seen as important identity statements in contemporary movements rather than as ontological characteristics per se.

Author

• Shiv Ganesh, The University of Texas at Austin