ADVANCING

Acting as Global Citizens

• The world citizen was typically an intellectual, who travelled widely, met and corresponded with

intellectuals in many countries and advanced cosmopolitan views.

• Since 1945, the global citizen is usually pictured as the activist on transnational social movements.

• The idea that travelling is an expression of cosmopolitanism is indeed debatable.

• Mass tourism, which often shields people from the society they are visiting, has nothing to do with

increasing international understanding and may hay harmful effects on the environment and local

culture.

• However, there are travels that are seen as means of promoting international understanding like

exchanges between schoolchildren,

• The image of wandering scholar is still part of a cosmopolitan view of the world of learning.

• It is also encouraged by governments to promote friendly relations between countries.

• In the beginning of the 21st century, there was the development of informal networks and formal

transnational organizations.

• These organizations pursue professional or social interests that have become an important feature

of international politics.

• The existence of these organizations can be interpreted as the creation of civil global society.

• The existence of transnational associations does not necessarily mean that those involved are

acting as global citizens because in many cases, they are basically promoting their own particular

concerns.

• Those who belong to these organizations meet in international conferences to share their ideas

and to call for states and international law to respect their rights to copyright and to an income from

their writing.

• Campaigning to transnational organizations is committed to global causes.

 • The number and importance of voluntary bodies opposing oppression, or expressing practical

solidarity with those suffering in other parts of the world also grew significantly in the 20th century.

• Many people around the world are making links across national frontiers to demonstrate support

for cosmopolitan ideals.

• Transnational organizations like Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Greenpeace cite discussions

on global citizenship.

• Transnational movements usually involve political lobbying and protest.

• Sometimes, they encompass more extreme form of resistance.

• They also depend on volunteers who offer direct assistance to those who are suffering from abuse,

poverty, war, among others.

Global Civil Society

• The concept of civil society has become central to social theory since the 1980’s when dissident

intellectuals in Eastern Europe looked to social networks initiated from below to provide a sphere

of independence from the state and a basis for resistance.

• The existence of autonomous social groups and institutions has been seen as essential to

democratization both in remaining communist regimes such as China and in other authoritarian

states.

• Democratic theorists have argued that civil society is essential to liberal democracies as a barrier

to an encroaching state

• Participation in voluntary bodies provides a political education and promotes responsible

citizenship.

• Hegel and Marx conceptualized civil society as the sphere defined by the market economy, and its

resulting individualism and socially divisive effects.

• But most theorists of civil society see it as distinct from both the state and the economy.

• Civil society also suggests very informal links – whether between neighbors or fellow enthusiasts

of a particular hobby.
 • The implication of global civil society must depend on how it is defined and on the comparative

economic and political power of groups within it.

• Global civil society poses a direct challenge to states when groups within one country ignore or

oppose official policies to create links with citizens in other countries.

Campaigning for human rights: Cosmopolitan principles and international law

• The basic tenet of cosmopolitanism is the belief in universal equality and human rights.

• Transnational organizations supporting human rights are often cited in discussion of both global

society and global citizenship.

• Richard Falk discussed how global civil society promotes a world order based not on state interests

but on the interests and rights of human beings.

• Amnesty International and regional human rights bodies typify this move towards ‘a law of

humanity.’

• Amnesty International is probably the best-known human rights campaigning organization with a

separate international secretariat and sections in many parts of the world.

• It is used to exemplify transnational action to protect individual rights.

• Amnesty has also played a role in strengthening global civil society.

• It can also be seen as a collective global citizen.

• Human Rights Watch, which is based in the USA, is one of those who play important role in

monitoring human rights worldwide and protesting about abuses.