Local Battles, Global Stakes: The Globalization of Local Conflicts and the Localization of Global Interests

Many popular and social science interpretations of conflicts around the world explicitly or implicitly assume that ‘the local’ and ‘the global’ are clearly distinct realms. This is most clearly brought out in phrases about ‘local responses’ to ‘global change’. This book addresses a wealth of cases from around the world that illustrate how local tensions, frictions and open conflicts are not only influenced by outside actors, but how local parties proactively seek to insert their interests in global discourses, if only to strengthen their legitimacy. This compilation covers issues ranging from religious contentions, ethical controversies, ethnic clashes, and environmental issues in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. Geo-political interference from outside players, material and immaterial support from diasporas, international media articulation of the conflict's stakes, and international religious proselytising, all co-constitute local disputes. This book shows how local strife is often situated in and shaped by broader political and other contexts. This book is meant for all scholars and students interested in the real and tangible effects of globalization processes, in particular for anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists and scholars interested in international dimensions of environmental issues, religion, ethnicity and gender.

Ton Salman (Author) : Ton Salman (1954) is associate professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at VU University Amsterdam, doing research on social movements, democratization, citizenship and ethnicity in various Latin American countries. Marjo Theije (Author) : Marjo de Theije (1963) is associate professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at VU University Amsterdam, and a specialist on the anthropology of religion (Brazil), and small-scale gold-mining migration by Brazilians into Surinam.