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Friends of the Earth International: Research Access and Global Order in Globalising SMOs. Brian Doherty and Timothy Doyle Keele University ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action Programme – 2006-2008. 1971 – USA, Sweden, UK and France
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Friends of the Earth International:Research Access and Global Order in Globalising SMOs Brian Doherty and Timothy Doyle Keele University ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action Programme – 2006-2008
1971 – USA, Sweden, UK and France 2006 – 70 Countries, 1,200 staff; 1.5 m ‘members’ – strong Southern representation – more than half the groups A federation – Secretariat in Amsterdam One country, one vote Part NGO – part action network – contrasts with Greenpeace, WWF
Methodologies for SMOs:Research Access in Multi-Modal Structures • Using Northern/Southern dichotomy in methodological terms. • North wanting ‘to own story.’ Controlling academic access. Organisational hierarchy based in Amsterdam. Centralised. Non-democratic/bureaucratic.
Methodologies of Power: The South • Power in more grassroots democratic terms; • Concept of Regions challenging Centre; • Concerns for researchers as activists; not ‘just academics’; • Access through regional, democratic nodes • Participant Observation – access to Australian and Malaysian nodes. Funding opportunities.
Geocentric Metanarratives • Construction of Order into Geopolitical regions. • Western Liberal democracy: Nation-state, Region as ‘Four Corners’ • Concepts of Pluralist Democracy • Geocentrism of the North (Centre versus Periphery)
Public Sphere Constructed in Post-Structural Manner • NSM frame may be more appropriate in post-industrial societies. Questions of appropriateness of NSM models outside of Europe (challenge to Chester et al). • ‘In other words, emerging world order is not as placeless as those who are fascinated by the time-space compression of globalization would like to imagine (Chaturvedi and Painter 2007: 388).