Global Civil Society and International Summits: New Labels for Different Types of Activism at the COP15

These COPs are among a class of transnational events that include various meetings such as G-7, WTO, IMF, DAVOS, etc.

The citizenship discourse can be seen as an expression of known theories of justice. ‘Those on the left look for ways in which economic inequality erodes active citizenship; those on the right look for ways in which welfare policies aimed at reducing economic inequality erode civic virtue’ (Kymlicka, Citation2002, pp. 318–319). When referring to the active citizenship scholars and politicians alike may refer to either the emancipatory potential of participation as a part of a community in line with the principles of deliberative democracy; or the necessity of individuals to take more responsibility for themselves in line with the more liberal perspective represented by theoreticians such as Anthony Giddens (cf. the social investment state).

This point of view has its root in early liberal writings like those of Alexis de Tocqueville and was later developed by theorists such as Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba.

Inspired by the horizontal and vertical dynamics between spheres in the group- and multi-level approach to analysing civil society (see Janoski, Citation2010).

This definition of activism is in line with the definition criteria generally agreed upon in the questionnaire used as a background research (see Methodological Approach).

Throughout this fieldwork numerous relevant summit actors were interviewed, including police officers, journalists, and activists, who wished to remain anonymous. Three longer semi-structured recorded interviews with the Directors of Wooloo, Martin Rosengaard and Sixten Kai Nielsen, who were in charge of the New Life Copenhagen initiative, were also conducted to get an in-depth understanding of their motivations and strategies. We also interviewed Co-Director Christian Skovbjerg Nielsen.

The university students who filled out the questionnaires were part of either the Global Studies programme or the Social Sciences programme at the Institute of Society and Globalisation at Roskilde University (www.ruc.dk/isg). They filled out the questionnaires before my lectures with them during 2009–2011. The factory workers filled out the questionnaires during 2009–2010 and were followed up by interviews with six of the workers at Stila, one of Denmark's leading producers of curtains and blinds (www.stila.com), in 2011. The average age of the student when participating was 24.3. The factory workers were significantly older. The students were on their way to get a master's degree. The workers had no higher education. The vast majority of the students lived in the city and the workers outside the dense urban areas; 88% of the students most recently voted for one of the parties falling within what is characterized as the social-democratic, left-wing bloc. Most of the factory workers identified with the national conservative or liberal part of the right wing.

Flemming Steen Munch, Vice-Police Inspector and Chief of Information, Copenhagen Police to the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende during the summit on 11 December 2009 (own free translation). My questioning of nine random police officers during the summit confers that the official opinion of the police force, expressed by Mr Munch, is indeed mirrored by the ranks of the patrolling officers during the summit who likewise independently distinguished between the ‘positive’ and ‘constructive’ campaigners but disapproved of the ‘negative’ and ‘thoughtless’ ones.

Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2n4SkWQiNc (accessed 17 February 2010). Over 90,000 clicks on Youtube within 6 months is a lot for a Danish-speaking clip.

When questioning a journalist who had looked into the consequences of some of these happenings, it was revealed that the number of Greenpeace memberships had increased drastically compared with the normal quota for such a period.

‘Lømmelpakken’ was passed in Parliament before the summit and among other things gives the police permission to detain citizens for 12 h when conducting ‘administrative arrests’.

In the largest of all demonstrations during the summit, 968 participating citizens were arrested. As only 13 were subsequently prosecuted, many human rights organizations critiqued this approach. A legal investigative process has subsequently been initiated.

The Battle of Seattle was a series of protests, which took place during the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Ministerial Conference in 1999. The activists actually succeeded in shutting down the summit. The event marked a major resurgence in the protest movement, which had been declining in the wake of the turbulent 1960s. It also alerted the rest of the world to a growing anti-globalization movement.

For an argument of how and why creative activism must be analysed as a new phenomenon (see Harrebye, Citation2011b).

For basic definitions and comparisons of representative and participatory democracy, see Kymlicka (Citation2002) and Hansen (Citation2010).

For an in-depth analysis of such a case, see Harrebye (Citation2011a).

An evaluation of effects and impacts would necessitate an entirely different study, which would present numerous methodological challenges, which I cannot touch upon here as it is beyond the scope of this article. These reflections on apparent impacts are thus just to be read as perspectives on the seemingly important role that representation has for the possibility of activists to play an active mediating role in the civil society.