Changing Relationships of Power in an Age of Globalization: Grassroots Activism against Water Privatization in Mexico

Abstract

In our contemporary Age of Globalization new possibilities for local power contestation are emerging. Theoretically based in Anthony Giddens' Structuration Theory and Arjun Appadurai's notions of cellular and vertebrate structures and Grassroots Globalization, this thesis aims to make an anthropological analysis of a grassroots movement’s (Chiapanec@s en Defensa del Agua) abilities to contest plans for water privatization in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico. These abilities are linked to the organization of mass communication by three different actors within the movement: NGO-activists and members of the social institutions of the church and the political system. Through using Anthony Giddens' concepts of knowledgeability and contextuality, an analysis is made of this organization of mass communication in relation to the structures the different actors separately move within as well as their intersections and the resources they bring.