International civil society actors in Genetically Modificied Organisms as a field of struggle: a neo-gramscian study in Brazil and the United Kingdom

Since the international financial and food crisis that started in 2008, strong emphasis has been made on the importance of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) (or “transgenics”) under the claim that they could contribute to increase food productivity at a global level, as the world population is predicted to reach 9.1 billion in the year 2050 and food demand is predicted to increase by as much as 50% by 2030. GMOs are now at the forefront of the debates and struggles of different actors. Within civil society actors, it is possible to observe multiple, and sometime, conflicting roles. The role of international social movements and international NGOs in the GMO field of struggle is increasingly relevant. However, while many of these international civil society actors oppose this type of technological developments (alleging, for instance, environmental, health and even social harms), others have been reportedly cooperating with multinational corporations, retailers, and the biotechnology industry to promote GMOs. In this thesis research, I focus on analysing the role of “international civil society” in the GMO field of struggle by asking: “what are the organizing strategies of international civil society actors, such as NGOs and social movements, in GMO governance as a field of struggle?” To do so, I adopt a neo-Gramscian discourse approach based on the studies of Laclau and Mouffe. This theoretical approach affirms that in a particular hegemonic regime there are contingent alliances and forces that overpass the spheres of the state and the economy, while civil society actors can be seen as a “glue” to the way hegemony functions. Civil society is then the site where hegemony is consented, reproduced, sustained, channelled, but also where counter-hegemonic and emancipatory forces can emerge. Considering the importance of civil society actors in the construction of hegemony, I also discuss some important theories around them. The research combines, on the one hand, 36 in-depth interviews with a range of key civil society actors and scientists representing the GMO field of struggle in Brazil (19) and the UK (17), and, on the other hand, direct observations of two events: Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, and the first March Against Monsanto in London in 2013. A brief overview of the GMO field of struggle, from its beginning and especially focusing in the 1990s when the process of hegemonic formation became clearer, serves as the basis to map who are the main actors in this field, how resource mobilization works, how political opportunities (“historical contingencies”) are discovered and exploited, which are the main discourses (“science” and “sustainability” - articulated by “biodiversity preservation”, “food security” and “ecological agriculture”) articulated among the actors to construct a collective identity in order to attract new potential allies around “GMOs” (“nodal point”), and which are the institutions and international regulations within these processes that enable hegemony to emerge in meaningful and durable hegemonic links. This mapping indicates that that the main strategies applied by the international civil society actors are influenced by two central historical contingencies in the GMO field of struggle: 1) First Multi-stakeholder Historical Contingency; and 2) “Supposed” Hegemony Stability. These two types of historical contingency in the GMO field of struggle encompass deeper hegemonic articulations and, because of that, they induce international civil society actors to rethink the way they articulate and position themselves within the field. Therefore, depending on one of those moments, they will apply one specific strategy of discourse articulation, such as: introducing a new discourse in hegemony articulation to capture the attention of the public and of institutions; endorsing new plural demands; increasing collective visibility; facilitating material articulations; sharing a common enemy identity; or spreading new ideological elements among the actors in the field of struggle.

O Trabalho e o labirinto da responsabilidade socioempresarial:a experiência da cidadania empresarial do Banco do Brasil

In the current systemic crisis, economic policy is directed to correct the consequences of the functioning of this metabolism, but within the limits of the capital. From this perspective, decision makers propose trade policies, agricultural and industrial to ensure conditions for economic growth. However, as a dead end, there is failure of the State in giving efficacy to the operation of all segments of the economy, especially given the budget constraint. Public managers are forced to seek external resources, resuming the cycle of political allegiance to the interests of international financial and banking representatives, installed in so-called multilateral. The complex ideological capital comes into play in trying to convince society that the paths taken by governments are inevitable, and that capitalism can be "humanized", even with the realization of the growing inequalities caused by historical irrationalism of the production process of capital . In this sense, emerging concepts that attempt to demonstrate the compatibility of the system to real human needs. This ideological offensive is intended to legitimize the capital. The so-called third sector has a special highlight with the concept of corporate social responsibility. It creates a political environment in which the inevitable mix-up with new illusions offered by and often funding the metabolism of capital in order to perpetuate this system. In this context, political elites, and considerable portions of the academy, embark on "waves of capitalist optimism," while the sociometabolismo capital expands its historical limits, driving forces postponing their collapse, but that cause human suffering and ecological stress. Wars are disseminated to strengthen the deadly war industry and the automobile industry; and devastating the environment of which depends the capital system. In this scenario disassemble, propositions emerge around a "new social pact" in order to minimize the adverse effects of the dynamics of reproduction of capital. The business class is called to exercise its role through the discourse that appeals to social responsibility programs, in order to intervene directly in the "social question". The core of this research is precisely this point. Although there is considerable scholarship on the phenomenon of Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship, there is also an evident lack of this approach focused on the banking sector in Brazil. The importance of rentier capital increased ownership of shares in the wealth produced by all of Brazilian society, justifies a sociological research project on Social Responsibility in the domestic financial sector. In this sense, it was decided to perform a dynamic approach to the "Corporate Citizenship" in the banking industry, specifically in the Bank of Brazil. As this is a key institution, is important analyze of the impacts of this strategy fetish of capitalist reproduction, in order to evaluate the social legitimization of rentier capital in Brazil. In this scenario of the abundance of the discourse on social responsibility there exist a progressive impoverishment of professional work in this segment in Brazil. There is a dramatic mismatch between rhetoric and practice because of the trend of deepening vulnerability of the working conditions of the Brazilian bank worker, from the 1990's. In the specific case of the Bank of Brazil, the first initiative of the institution was to conform to the principles of the UNO and the Ethos Institute, aiming to align their domestic policies to this new strategy of domination of capital. The purpose is to place the Bank in the ideological sphere of corporate social responsibility, just as with its partners in the private financial intercapitalist competition. Indeed, in the internal ambit of the Bank of Brazil, there is a policy to adjust its functional segments to the doctrine of Social Corporate Responsibility. The concepts of this doctrine is presented as something inexorable. There are no alternatives. The Bank of Brazil operates in a highly competitive market, the segment featuring the dominance of financial capital accumulation today. For this reason it can not fail to incorporate the technological advances organizational. For employees there is no alternative but to adapt to this new set of ideas proposed by the metabolism of capital

Financial globalization and the emerging economies

Includes bibliography

Mexico's incorporation into the new industrial order: foreign investment as a source of international competitiveness

Includes bibliography

Development cycles, political regimes and international migration: Argentina in the 20th century

Includes bibliography

International migration, capital flows and the global economy: a long run view

Includes bibliography

Does discourse matter in the politics of building social pacts on social protection?: international experiences

Includes bibliography

The old logics of the New International Economic Order

Includes bibliography

A new international industrial order

Includes bibliography

Globalization and international migration: the Latin American experience

Includes bibliography

Globalization and the new international trade environment

Includes bibliography

The Latin American countries and the New International Economic Order

Includes bibliography

Productive development in open economies

Includes bibliography