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Creating Spaces for Asian Interaction Through the Anti-Globalization Campaigns in the Region*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2012

TERESA S. ENCARNACION TADEM
TERESA S. ENCARNACION TADEM*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines, Room 3135, Third Floor Faculty Center, Diliman 1101, Philippines Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper discusses the political opportunity structures which facilitated the creation of sites of interaction and protest against the Asian Development Bank during the Bank's Annual General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2000. The factors which facilitated the coming together of Thai social movements and their regional and international counterparts are mainly their shared critique of the neo-liberal paradigm and its adverse effects on their respective countries. The strategies they used to highlight these effects enhanced their sites of engagement and confrontation with the Bank and included dialogue with Bank officials, demonstrations, and the use of the media to highlight their concerns. Importance was also placed on the manner in which they were able to mobilize resources for the anti-Asian Development Bank campaigns and the process by which they framed their issues to gain the sympathy and support of the public. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, which highlighted the shortcomings of the Bank's development paradigm, as well as the ongoing democratization process in Thailand during that period, provided the impetus in fostering the anti-globalization alliances of local and transnational social movements in a common venue.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2: Sites of Asian Interaction , March 2012 , pp. 453 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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