Rosalba Icaza

CSGR Working Paper No. 150/04

October 2004

Abstract:

The paper theoretically analyses the emergence of oppositional TCA responses towards the disruptive socio-economic effects of regionalisation processes. In particular the paper discusses how neo-Gramscian and Polanyian IPE traditions look at the transborder agency of civil society actors in the making and re-making of regional orders. It notices that these traditions either emphasise that: a) agency is conditioned by powerful structures; or b) that agency is making up these structures. While not rejecting this altogether but attempting to go further, this paper advances a critique of both ‘emphases’ on agency and some alternatives.

Keywords: Transborder Civic Activism, Mexico, Trade Politics, Agency, Neo-Gramscian Theories

Address for correspondence

Rosalba Icaza

Department of Politics and International Studies

University of Warwick

Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK