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Building Transnational Networks: Civil Society and the Politics of Trade in the Americas

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Abstract

Building Transnational Networks tells the story of how a broad group of civil society organizations came together to contest free trade negotiations in the Americas. Based on research in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, it offers a full hemispheric analysis of the creation of civil society networks as they engaged in the politics of trade. The author demonstrates that most effective transnational actors are the ones with strong domestic roots and that 'southern' organizations occupy key nodes in trade networks. The fragility of activist networks stems from changes in the domestic political context as well as from characteristics of the organizations, the networks, or the actions they undertake. These findings advance and suggest new understandings of transnational collective action.
... Many contemporary investigations focus on antineoliberal social movements resisting the expansion of neoliberal policies in Latin America (Petras 2008;Roberts 2008;Silva 2009Silva , 2012Von Bülow 2010;Almeida 2014;Spalding 2014Spalding , 2023Almeida and Cordero Ulate 2017;Silva et al. 2018;Almeida and Pérez Martín 2022;Preusser 2022;Feoli 2023). The present article contributes to this body of literature by studying the influence of the social movements in Peru and Ecuador that criticized the Multiparty Trade Agreement (MTA, Acuerdo Comercial Multipartes) both Andean countries subscribed to and implemented with the European Union (EU). ...
... Thus the European NGOs became essential brokers for the RedGE in Peru. Nevertheless, as scholars of transnational advocacy networks have pointed out, the collaboration between actors from the Global North and the Global South tends to entail asymmetries (Keck and Sikkink 1998;Von Bülow 2010). In this sense, the European brokers also worked as a platform to promote the Peruvian movement's moderate rights-based frames. ...
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This article studies the influence of the antineoliberal social movements in Peru and Ecuador in the face of the Multiparty Trade Agreement (MTA) between both countries and the European Union (EU). To identify and analyze this influence, a transdisciplinary theoretical framework was created, integrating debates and concepts from social movement theory and critical international political economy. In Peru, the movement used European allies to establish their demands on the EU’s agenda, which resulted in increased pressure on the government to enforce labor rights and environmental standards. In Ecuador, the movement was able to establish food sovereignty and the rejection of free trade in the national constitution. As a result, the negotiations with the EU were delayed and Ecuador achieved certain exceptions in its adhesion protocol. Nevertheless, both movements were unable to maintain their influence, due to political and socioeconomic dynamics on the domestic and global levels.
... At the international level, trade unions developed a continental coalition with social movements called the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA). For a decade, the HSA successfully coordinated resistance to the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other neoliberal projects that would have reduced labor, social, and environmental rights (von Bülow, 2010). This constituted a unique cooperation among trade unions sectors as the main independent unions of Latin America-such as the CUT, CTA, and the Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores-Convención Nacional de Trabajadores (PIT-CNT) of Uruguay-set aside their historical divisions and became members of the historically US-controlled Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT) to coordinate with HSA (Wachendorfer, 2007). ...
... This constituted a unique cooperation among trade unions sectors as the main independent unions of Latin America-such as the CUT, CTA, and the Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores-Convención Nacional de Trabajadores (PIT-CNT) of Uruguay-set aside their historical divisions and became members of the historically US-controlled Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT) to coordinate with HSA (Wachendorfer, 2007). In addition, similar cooperation and dialogue, such as in the World Social Forum and the People's Summits, brought new movements into the HSA fold and strengthened resistance to neoliberal projects from Canada to Argentina (Bidaseca & Rossi, 2008;von Bülow, 2010von Bülow, , 2013. In sum, the continental projects to expand neoliberal globalization in Latin America pushed trade unions to work in multiscalar actions with several other movements, resulting in a continental coordination unprecedented in the history of Latin American labor movements. ...
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The history of Latin America cannot be understood without analyzing the role played by labor movements in organizing formal and informal workers across urban and rural contexts.This chapter analyzes the history of labor movements in Latin America from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. After debating the distinction between "working class" and "popular sectors," the chapter proposes that labor movements encompass more than trade unions. The history of labor movements is analyzed through the dynam ics of globalization, incorporation waves, revolutions, authoritarian breakdowns, and de mocratization. Taking a relational approach, these macro-dynamics are studied in connec tion with the main revolutionary and reformist strategic disputes of the Latin American labor movements.
... De acuerdo a los objetivos establecidos en el proyecto, este ejercicio permitió la identificación y caracterización de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil (OSC) que trabajan en los seis departamentos en base a una serie de dimensiones que se detallan en la próxima sección. La coordinación entre las organizaciones sociales es una herramienta fundamental para maximizar los resultados de su accionar, tanto en materia de actividades llevadas adelante como en la posible influencia sobre los decisores de política pública (ICD 2010;von Bülow 2010;Silva 2009;Collier and Handlin 2009;Bidegain 2015). ...
Technical Report
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El presente informe sintetiza los principales hallazgos del mapeo colectivo de organizaciones de la sociedad civil uruguaya realizado en el marco del proyecto Horizonte de Libertades. El mapeo tomó en cuenta organizaciones que trabajan de forma directa con las siguientes temáticas: diversidad sexual, género y feminismos, afrodescendencia y racismo, privación de libertad y VIH. La investigación se realizó en seis departamentos del país: Artigas, Canelones, Cerro Largo, Montevideo, Rivera y Tacuarembó. El trabajo de campo fue llevado adelante en el segundo semestre de 2018 y se realizó una actualización en el año 2019. De acuerdo a los objetivos establecidos en el proyecto, este ejercicio permitió la identificación y caracterización de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil (OSC) que trabajan en los seis departamentos en base a una serie de dimensiones que se detallan en la próxima sección.
... Most of the activism, like in Mexico, of that period was structurally constituted by Semi-rebellion mobilization championed by various organizations such as the Workers' Party of Brazil (Petras and Veltmeyer 2005). Despite violent activities, most of the mobilization concluded a negotiation with the state, (Bülow 2010). ...
Article
This paper explores nations' political influence on social movement organizations. It focuses on the activities of National Land Rights Forum (NLRF), the largest land rights organization of Nepal. Effective mobilization of movement depends on organization's ability to align with the current political landscape, but is less emphasized by the global south social movement studies, which are focused on analyzing historical triggers and socioeconomic consequences with references to state policies. This paper takes survey-based open-ended interviews with 27 stakeholders, including the leaders and participants of NLRF’s land rights movement. The NLRF’s experiences on mobilization provided a strategic understanding of its adaptation to country's political milieu by leveraging the state-initiated major political events, which could be seen as opportunities to incorporate their concerns with state agendas. Furthermore, the Maoist-led insurgency in the past had fueled for the land rights movements, particularly the NLRF’s priority in organizing and unifying individuals who had similar political and economic identities. The mobilization strategies for land rights movement highlight the contextual variation on how current political landscape shapes the adaptive systems and practices of movement organizations.
... el Estado casi siempre sólo en su dimensión de las relaciones internas y nacionales. Aunque las redes transnacionales (Bringel;Falero, 2008;Bulow, 2010), la internacionalización de los movimientos (Bringel, 2015;Pleyers, 2012;Tarrow, 2005) y los movimientos globales (Bringel;Domingues, 2015;Della Porta, 2007) sean muy estudiados en el marco del activismo contemporáneo, menos énfasis es dado a cómo: a) el Estado se ha reconfigurado profundamente en el siglo XXI a través de una confluencia de dinámicas, fuerzas y actores diversos (sociales, políticos y, principalmente, económicos); b) cuáles son las implicaciones de esto en su relación con los movimientos sociales y en la capacidad de actuación de los gobiernos. ...
Article
Este artículo busca analizar la América Latina contemporánea en clave procesual y relacional, a partir de la relación entre movimientos sociales, gobiernos progresistas y Estado. Su objetivo es comprender el ciclo político progresista que se abre en el cambio de siglo de forma paralela a cambios políticos, sociales y económicos más estructuradores. De forma más específica, el texto discute y examina: i) la necesidad de captación del proceso social y la diversidad de formatos de interacción entre movimientos sociales, gobiernos progresistas y Estado en la región; ii) la especificidad de la región, su posición dependiente en el mundo y sus consecuencias sociales y políticas, incluyendo la transformación de la forma Estado, cada vez más transnacionalizado; iii) los principales ejes de conflicto social, oriundos en buena medida de las mediaciones sociopolíticas y de las contradicciones político-económicas; iv) los tipos de gobiernos, los límites del progresismo y las tensiones entre gestión estatal y movimientos sociales.Palabras-clave: Movimientos sociales. Gobiernos progresistas. Estado. América Latina. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br
... Furthermore, Khagram, Riker, and Sikkink (2002) (Bülow, 2010;Keck & Sikkink, 1998). Bülow According to Sikkink (2002), in order to promote moral authority, movements and networks need to have some conditions: First of all, they are independent actors as their purposes are distinct from any political or economic interests which belong to an individual or a government. ...
Thesis
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This thesis investigates the changes in tactics of the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) as a transnational advocacy network (TAN). To understand the change, the conceptual framework of TANs in the garment industry is examined. Early consumer activism movements emerged as social, political, and moral actions; starting from the 1970s, the impacts of neoliberal economic politics on the garment industry triggered the anti-sweatshop movements by TANs. TANs tactics are examined through examples; by examining, I attempt to explore how TANs have become a major actor in labor rights movements and specifically how their tactics are used to contribute to their efforts. To understand the change in the tactics of the Clean Clothes Campaign, campaigns of the network, starting from the late 1960s to current ones, are provided. The analysis of the CCC in a historical process showed that while in the early campaigns, informing people was crucial to raise awareness and necessary for the encouraging actions; campaigns started to target authorities to be more effective; strengthening, expanding the network, improvements in international norms on labor rights gave network members power to hold responsible actors accountable.
... En América Latina, la cuestión de la politización se debatió en relación a las negociaciones comerciales internacionales, especialmente a finales de los años noventa y principios de la década de 2000 (Bianculli 2017;von Bülow 2010). Más recientemente, los análisis han examinado ciclos de politización y despolitización de los procesos regionales (Dabène 2012) y cómo la politización afecta a los parlamentos (Mallmann y Dri 2011) y a la reiniciación de negociaciones comerciales birregionales (Bianculli 2020). ...
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Uma década após o surgimento do regionalismo pós-liberal, assistimos ao desmantelamento da UNASUL e ao enfraquecimento da ALBA. A partir da literatura latino-americana sobre politização nos processos de integração regional, este trabalho realiza uma análise em três etapas (fases de politização, despolitização e (re)politização) para examinar a dinâmica da ALBA e da UNASUL, enfatizando dois elementos: os interesses comuns dos governos e sua disposição de construir esquemas institucionais. O trabalho tenta verificar se os regimes pós-liberais são (re)politizados tão precariamente que correm o risco de entrar no ciclo usual de desgaste das iniciativas regionais latino-americanas.
... La excepción a ello, pero parcialmente, sería el caso de Estados Unidos, donde aumentó de manera importante la presencia de representantes distintos a los empresariales, pero siempre éste último fue el mayoritaria. Una explicación a ello sería el carácter movilizador, especialmente en contra, que presenta un acuerdo de estas características con ese país, como muestra el estudio de von Bülow cuando analizó el proceso de negociación del Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas, iniciativa que buscó un acuerdo comercial que abarcara todo el continente y que fracasó en 2015(von Bülow, 2010) Un segundo elemento en consideración, es que ese interés empresarial fue representado de manera constante por pocas entidades. De los 82 grupos de interés identificados, 53 concurrió como parte de interesada en sólo uno de estos acuerdos, mientras que doce de ellos lo hizo en dos ocasiones y diez en tres. ...
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La tesis estudió la profundización de la liberalización del comercio que experimentó Chile a partir de 1974, la que produjo un cambio en las relaciones entre Estado y empresarios en materia comercial, que se analizó mediante el estudio de las dos más importantes asociaciones gremiales del país, que son la Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura y la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril. Esta transformación adquirió características de cambio institucional, por cuanto estructuró a la organización colectiva del empresariado, tanto por el impacto que produjo en la composición de sus sectores productivos como en el desarrollo de las estrategias adaptativas que realizan ambas asociaciones. La presencia y desarrollo de la acción que realizan los propios gremios reforzó el alcance y el propio grado de liberalización que tomó la apertura chilena a los mercados internacionales, que reforzó por la acción realizada por las asociaciones empresariales analizadas. La investigación desarrollada consideró un período de tiempo comprendido entre 1974 y 2014, la que se realizó desde una perspectiva macro casual basada en un enfoque de Nuevo Institucionalismo Histórico en combinación con un diseño de investigación mixto
... Studying how globalization affects local civil society in developing countries has become an increasingly popular research field in the past decades (Stacey and Aksartova 2001;Mendelson and Glenn 2002;Stark et al. 2006;von Bülow 2010;Spires 2011b;Taylor and Doerfel 2011;Murdie 2014aMurdie , 2014bCísař and Navrátil 2015;Suárez and Gugerty 2016). A recurring theme in this scholarship is to what degree global integration helps developing vibrant civil societies. ...
Article
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How does international financial aid affect the cooperative behavior of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Can NGOs, while turning global, preserve peer connections with local actors and be engaged in local issues? The civil society literature contains competing perspectives on and reports of how international financial aid may restructure local civic networks. Some scholars argue that international support comes at the expense of local integration as inclusion in global networks takes local NGOs out of the local context, while others find evidence that organizations do not have to face “a forced choice”, and may well be integrated both globally and locally. Drawing on this scholarship, we examine two hypotheses on how transnational funding influences cooperation patterns among NGOs. The hierarchy argument states that public entities tend to cooperate with internationally funded NGOs as external contact signals quality and trustworthiness. The segregation argument, on the contrary, suggests financial homophily according to which organizations are more likely to choose peers similar in sources of funding. To test these hypotheses, we apply Exponential Random Graph Models to the data on cooperation among 221 Kazakhstani NGOs. Results support the segregation hypothesis implying that NGOs are likely to have a bias towards similarly funded peers.
... Such opposition is not universal, and arguably is led by a minority of governments that are especially hostile to the idea of institutionalized participation for NGOs, but democracies that are generally supportive of civil society inclusion have also expressed opposition to extensions of their formal participation in the UN (Ruhlman, p. 37, 2015). Posteriormente, a partir da abertura do campo à análise transnacional, uma vasta bibliografia discorre sobre a atuação, táticas e mobilizações de redes de comunidades epistêmicas, redes de advocacy, da difusão de normas internacionais e sobre governança global (Karns;Mingst, 2010;Lemke, 2006;Oliveira, 2016;Towns;Rumelili, 2017;Löblová, 2017;Bache;Flinders, 2004;Rosenau, 2004;Bülow, 2010;Colás, 2002). No entanto, o avanço desta área de estudos foi retomado na década de 1990, quando novos autores começam a situar seus trabalhos em uma onda Construtivista (Risse- Kapen, 1995;Sikkink, 1993;Keck;Sikkink, 1998). ...
Article
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O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar um mapeamento de mecanismos participativos para atores não-estatais em organizações internacionais. Foram pesquisadas 40 instituições e organizações internacionais no que se refere à institucionalização da participação de atores não-estatais. Para atingir o objetivo proposto, recorremos à revisão bibliográfica e à pesquisa documental. A partir da análise, pudemos verificar que a institucionalização de mecanismos participativos na arena internacional remonta à criação do Sistema ONU. Para além disto, concluímos que 77% das organizações pesquisadas possuem mecanismos institucionalizados de participação social, sendo que a maioria dos mecanismos participativos oferecidos aos atores não-estatais são de caráter consultivo e de colaboração. Também concluímos que a maioria dos mecanismos criados pelas organizações internacionais que foram pesquisadas datam do final da década de 1990 e começo dos anos 2000/2010, sendo que tal fenômeno está intimamente relacionado com a promoção das normas de boa governança, no pós-Guerra Fria. Palavras-Chave: Organizações Internacionais; Mecanismos Participativos; Participação Social.
... There has been extensive research on the sort of transnational advocacy and activist networks I look at in this paper, but not at the role of ideology in their structure and strategy. Some researchers (Van Dyke and McCammon 2010;Von Bülow 2010;Wood 2005) have looked in detail at the role of framing ideas as strategic tools used by transnational activists against their foes and/or how a shared set of beliefs strengthens transnational coalitions, but not the issues of organization and strategy, particularly as they relate to worker empowerment, that I focus on here. Several scholars (Downey and Rohlinger 2008;Epstein 1991;King 2008;Williams 2016Williams , 2020 have argued, however, that ideology is an important component in how movements strategize, shaping not only the goals for which social movement organizations strive, but what they think is the best means to get there. ...
Article
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I explore the ideology of worker empowerment among U.S. anti-sweatshop activists, particularly United Students Against Sweatshops, and its strategic consequences for transnational campaigns. This ideology is central in shaping the movement’s transnational strategy and organization, fostering communication and accountability, particularly to organizations representing sweatshop workers. Such organizational choices, in turn, shape how transnational networks strategize. For example, the anti-sweatshop movement rarely uses the familiar tactic of boycotts, due to opposition from workers. The more empowered sweatshop workers in such networks, the more informed decisions their allies can make, and the more strategically effective the movement can be.
... Thus, the noticeable becomes the need for a diversified and multilevel governance approach. According Bülow (2010) and Zajak (2014) in recent times, there is a significant call for a more longitudinal perspective in the field of transnational activism. ...
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This paper allows an analysis of transnational governance perspectives for the protection, defense and management of natural resources of planetary dimensions, such as the Amazon, which has been strongly impacted by the recent burnings of widespread media dissemination, heated diplomatic debates and the performance of non-state actors. The problem that is analyzed is the adequate understanding of the meaning of nation state and sovereignty, as well as its reflexes in the effective protection of juridical goods with planetary dimension. The approach starts from an analysis of Amazonian burning and the challenges of good environmental governance; discusses the state crisis and state sovereignty as concepts that demand redefinition. Finally, it argues for the need for multilevel environmental transnational governance, as a joint strategy to promote sustainability in a global perspective and to defend and protect the Amazonian natural resources. The research consists of bibliographic research produced from inductive logic-based methodology.
... Yet, academic interest has been minimal until recently. Politicization has been discussed in relation to trade negotiations, especially in the context of the multitier strategy of trade liberalization deployed in the region in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Bianculli, 2017;von Bülow, 2010). More recently, analyses have investigated cycles of politicization and depoliticization of regional processes (Dabène, 2012). ...
Article
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Regional integration in Latin America has experienced different periods of politicization. The most recent goes back to the 2000s and is related to the domestic political changes resulting from the so-called ‘left turn’ which sought alternative economic and development policies to neoliberalism as the state regained centrality. These transformations led to a broad process of politicization of regionalism which changed the terms of the debate surrounding whether regional integration and free trade are the only way for these countries to integrate regionally and internationally. Analyses have thus underscored the postliberal character of this phase of regionalism as reflected in the greater weight of social and political agendas at the expense of economic and trade issues. The Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) was no exception to this trend. However, in 2010 the bloc rather surprisingly agreed to relaunch negotiations with the European Union (EU). Why did MERCOSUR decide to resume these negotiations—stalled since 2004—in a context of high politicization of regional integration? This article argues that internal politicization did not lead to a paralysis of the international agenda. Moreover, internal politicization, coupled with external pressures and the demand for group-to-group negotiations by the EU, drove and supported the conduct of international negotiations. In so doing, this article also contests the idea that after the 2000s, MERCOSUR moved inexorably towards a postliberal model, thus rejecting any trade component. Findings suggest that these accounts may have overemphasized change and underestimated continuities in regional integration dynamics as the case of the external agenda shows.
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This chapter provides a strong methodological argument for the use of network research methods in the analysis of historical migration patterns of theatre artists. By discussing the application of network research methods in other areas, Hopp shows the problems, but also the advantages of adapting these methods to theatre historiography. Finally, using data on theatre professionals in the Austrian crown lands of Bohemia, Galicia and Banat between 1848 and 1859, Hopp demonstrates how the visualisation of networks can be used to test hypotheses about the influence of centralisation measures on migration patterns.
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This chapter examines the vital role played by Canadian civil society organizations (CSOs) in promoting recognition of the connections between human rights and peacebuilding in Latin America since the 1970s. The chapter examines how Canadian CSO advocacy promoting human rights and peacebuilding in Latin America has evolved over time, and what are the discursive, material limitations of this activism as well as its capacity to influence state action. To do so, the chapter draws upon the work of Margaret Keck and Katherine Sikkink on “transnational advocacy networks” (1998), as well as critical assessments of their work, to evaluate the role of Canadian civil society. While there are some points of convergence between the Canadian government and non-governmental organizations, there are also deep differences, particularly around the ways in which neoliberal policies and free trade agreements violate or undermine human rights in partner countries, and the role of Canadian mining companies abroad. This analysis displays that civil society advocacy is not necessarily “voluntary, reciprocal and horizontal” as Keck and Sikkink argue, but is shaped by prevailing power relations within Canada between the state and civil society, and between Global North and Global South.
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Combining agonistic pluralism and social movements literature with trust studies, I propose a conceptualization for how the organizational dilemma is tackled in social movements. Defined as a trust-building organizational learning process, I show the role-played by social trust—meaning, the construction of the relational boundaries of a shared goal without diluting the heterogeneity of self-identities and interests—as an organizational prerequisite for democratic organization of a political group. Empirically, I identify four alternative pathways to the (democratic) organizational dilemma: innovation through new organizational models; repetition of past experiences; reformulation of practices; and emulation of previous organizational models.
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An intellectual movement has been gaining ground in the social sciences around the adoption of mechanism‐based explanations, as complements to, or even substitutes for, variable‐based explanations. In sociology, Arthur Stinchcombe emphasized studying causal mechanisms as part of a larger repertoire of methods of sociological research. Peter Hedström and Richard Swedberg, working in the rationalist tradition, moved in the same direction. John Campbell has identified a number of common mechanisms in social movement and organizational research.
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The global justice movement (GJM) – also called the alter‐globalization, the anti‐corporate globalization, or (by its critics) the antiglobalization movement – is a transnational social movement, rooted in the confluence of the human rights, labor, environmental, indigenous, peasant, and feminist movements' shared opposition to neoliberal globalization (“free market” globalization, which GJM activists see as promoting the hyper‐exploitation of people and the environment) and in a vision of a more democratic, equitable, ecologically sustainable world. Constituent organizations range from traditional nonprofits and volunteer groups in the industrialized world to large, grassroots labor, peasant, and indigenous organizations in the developing world. The strands making up the GJM coalesced in the 1990s and became highly visible in the United States following the massive 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington, though much current activism is more local and less visible in nature. The movement has built dense networks facilitating global coalitions and campaigns; these emerged as a result of not just the Internet but face‐to‐face global conferences such as the World Social Forum.
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International migrants’ home countries often play an integral part in protecting their citizens’ labor and human rights abroad. At the same time, institutions such as labor unions, worker centers, and legal aid groups are among the most visible actors holding governments of immigrant destinations accountable. Focusing on Mexico and the United States, Scaling Migrant Worker Rights analyzes how these organizations pressure governments to defend migrants. The result is a multilayered picture of the impediments to migrant worker rights and the possibilities for their realization.
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The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 sent shockwaves across the globe, mobilizing diaspora communities to organize forcefully against authoritarian regimes. Despite the important role that diasporas can play in influencing affairs in their countries of origin, little is known about when diaspora actors mobilize, how they intervene, or what makes them effective. This book addresses these questions, drawing on over 230 original interviews, fieldwork, and comparative analysis. Examining Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni mobilization from the US and Great Britain before and during the revolutions, Dana M. Moss presents a new framework for understanding the transnational dynamics of contention and the social forces that either enable or suppress transnational activism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 sent shockwaves across the globe, mobilizing diaspora communities to organize forcefully against authoritarian regimes. Despite the important role that diasporas can play in influencing affairs in their countries of origin, little is known about when diaspora actors mobilize, how they intervene, or what makes them effective. This book addresses these questions, drawing on over 230 original interviews, fieldwork, and comparative analysis. Examining Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni mobilization from the US and Great Britain before and during the revolutions, Dana M. Moss presents a new framework for understanding the transnational dynamics of contention and the social forces that either enable or suppress transnational activism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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The uprisings, protests, and campaigns against economic reforms emerged as a global pattern over the past 45 years. Since the mid-1970s, major protests have erupted every year in multiple countries over some form of government austerity measures. Scholars group such measures into a family of like-minded policies that include a wide range of governmental actions, including: subsidy cuts to lower- and middle-class groups, wage freezes, price increases, massive layoffs, regressive taxation, deregulation, privatization, and free trade (Walton and Seddon 1994; Almeida and Chase-Dunn 2018). Because economic-based protests are some of the largest and most common forms of contention, their causal determinants and political consequences offer important insights into the dynamics of collective action in general.
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Der Begriff „transnational“ bezieht sich auf ein Kontinuum von wenigen und flüchtigen bis hin zu stabilen und fortdauernden Interaktionen an mehreren Orten über staatliche Grenzen hinweg. Ein transnationaler Ansatz kann in die zentralen Konzepte Transnationalisierung, transnationale soziale Räume und Transnationalität unterteilt werden. Transnationale soziale Räume wiederum reichen von Diffusionsprozessen über Netzwerke und Verwandtschaftsgruppen bis hin zu transnationalen Gemeinschaften und Organisationen. Die transnationale Wende in der Migrationsforschung ermöglicht einen realistischen Einblick in grenzübergreifende Aspekte von Migration und ihren sozialen Folgen. Die durch diese Ansätze aufgeworfenen kontroversen Themen betreffen das Neue an zeitgenössischen transnationalen Praktiken, das Ausmaß von transnationalen Interaktionen unter Migrant*innen, sowie die Novität der damit verbundenen sozialen Phänomene. Abschließend wird mit dem Konzept der Grenzziehungen eine Perspektive für die weitere Forschung eröffnet.
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Why do communities form militias to defend themselves against violence during civil war? Using original interviews with former combatants and civilians and archival material from extensive fieldwork in Mozambique, Corinna Jentzsch's Violent Resistance explains the timing, location and process through which communities form militias. Jentzsch shows that local military stalemates characterized by ongoing violence allow civilians to form militias that fight alongside the government against rebels. Militias spread only to communities in which elites are relatively unified, preventing elites from coopting militias for private gains. Crucially, militias that build on preexisting social conventions are able to resonate with the people and empower them to regain agency over their lives. Jentzsch's innovative study brings conceptual clarity to the militia phenomenon and helps us understand how wartime civilian agency, violent resistance, and the rise of third actors beyond governments and rebels affect the dynamics of civil war, on the African continent and beyond.
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Why do communities form militias to defend themselves against violence during civil war? Using original interviews with former combatants and civilians and archival material from extensive fieldwork in Mozambique, Corinna Jentzsch's Violent Resistance explains the timing, location and process through which communities form militias. Jentzsch shows that local military stalemates characterized by ongoing violence allow civilians to form militias that fight alongside the government against rebels. Militias spread only to communities in which elites are relatively unified, preventing elites from coopting militias for private gains. Crucially, militias that build on preexisting social conventions are able to resonate with the people and empower them to regain agency over their lives. Jentzsch's innovative study brings conceptual clarity to the militia phenomenon and helps us understand how wartime civilian agency, violent resistance, and the rise of third actors beyond governments and rebels affect the dynamics of civil war, on the African continent and beyond.
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This paper posits that we have a limited understanding, both theoretically and empirically, of how labor unions affect welfare in the LAC region. Alternative approaches developed in other contexts, such as the neoclassical insider-outsider theory or a Marxist perspective, do not easily translate to the region. The private sector is more concentrated than on other continents, and most countries have a strong executive power at the expense of a politicized civil service and weak political parties. Furthermore, non-compliance with laws is pervasive. In such a context, both public and private sector labor unions have more room to improve welfare, but are also more likely to be co-opted by powerful political and economic elites. In addition, the available empirical evidence is relatively small and difficult to interpret due to endogeneity concerns. Given this situation, I attempt to contribute to the literature in three dimensions: First, I emphasize the importance of enforcement and compliance. Second, I devote substantial space to the political arena, mainly because this is where labor unions in the region tend to exert more influence over efficiency and equity. Finally, I provide a few novel metrics to a subject that is difficult to quantify. JEL Code: I38, J51, J52, J58, O17, O54
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The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 sent shockwaves across the globe, mobilizing diaspora communities to organize forcefully against authoritarian regimes. Despite the important role that diasporas can play in influencing affairs in their countries of origin, little is known about when diaspora actors mobilize, how they intervene, or what makes them effective. This book addresses these questions, drawing on over 230 original interviews, fieldwork, and comparative analysis. Examining Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni mobilization from the US and Great Britain before and during the revolutions, Dana M. Moss presents a new framework for understanding the transnational dynamics of contention and the social forces that either enable or suppress transnational activism.
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The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 sent shockwaves across the globe, mobilizing diaspora communities to organize forcefully against authoritarian regimes. Despite the important role that diasporas can play in influencing affairs in their countries of origin, little is known about when diaspora actors mobilize, how they intervene, or what makes them effective. This book addresses these questions, drawing on over 230 original interviews, fieldwork, and comparative analysis. Examining Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni mobilization from the US and Great Britain before and during the revolutions, Dana M. Moss presents a new framework for understanding the transnational dynamics of contention and the social forces that either enable or suppress transnational activism.
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¿por qué América Latina? Comocontinente que se encuentra entre el Norte y el Sur globales, ha generado movimientos sociales internacionalmente significativos, y pued propocionar lecciones globales, sobre todo, sobre cómo debemos abordar el estudio de los movimientos sociales. Propongo un paradigma abierto, que servirá como telón de fondo de los capítulos que siguen sobre movimientos sociales específicos en América Latina. Sigo la intuición de Michel Foucault de que “donde hay poder hay resistencia “, Y la visión de Karl Polanyi de la historia como un” doble movimiento “de expansión del mercado y reacción social para la auto protección'.
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What explains the peculiar spatial variation of Maoist insurgency in India? Mukherjee develops a novel typology of colonial indirect rule and land tenure in India, showing how they can lead to land inequality, weak state and Maoist insurgency. Using a multi-method research design that combines qualitative analysis of archival data on Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh states, Mukherjee demonstrates path dependence of land/ethnic inequality leading to Maoist insurgency. This is nested within a quantitative analysis of a district level dataset which uses an instrumental variable analysis to address potential selection bias in colonial choice of princely states. The author also analyses various Maoist documents, and interviews with key human rights activists, police officers, and bureaucrats, providing rich contextual understanding of the motivations of agents. Furthermore, he demonstrates the generalizability of his theory to cases of colonial frontier indirect rule causing ethnic secessionist insurgency in Burma, and the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.
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The study of social movements is currently one of the most active research fields in Latin American sociology. This article maps the vast literature on Latin American social move ments (LASMs) from the late 1980s to the present. After briefly discussing how scholars have conceptualized LASMs, it presents seven influential approaches: structuralism, po litical economy, political context, organizational fields, "new social movements," frames and emotions, and transnational activism. Then it discusses some works that zero in on the specificity of LASMs. It closes with a brief summary of the five coming chapters, each of which is devoted to a specific social movement "family": labor, women's, student, in digenous, and anti-globalization.
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In an era of mass migration and restrictive responses, this book seeks to understand how migrants negotiate their place in the receiving society and adapt innovative strategies to integrate, participate, and access protection. Their acceptance is often contingent on the expectation that they contribute economically to the host country while remaining politically and socially invisible. These unwritten expectations, which this book calls the “invisibility bargain,” produce a precarious status in which migrants’ visible differences or overt political demands on the state may be met with a hostile backlash from the host society. In this context, governance networks of state and nonstate actors form an institutional web that can provide access to rights, resources, and protection for migrants through informal channels that avoid a negative backlash against visible political activism. This book examines Ecuador, the largest recipient of refugees in Latin America, asking how it has achieved migrant human security gains despite weak state presence in peripheral areas. The key finding is that localities with more dense networks composed of more diverse actors tend to produce greater human security for migrants and their neighbors. The argument has implications beyond Ecuador for migrant-receiving countries around the world. The book challenges the conventional understanding of migration and security, providing a fresh approach to the negotiation of authority between state and society. Its nuanced account of informal pathways to human security dismantles the false dichotomy between international and national politics, and it exposes the micropolitics of institutional innovation.
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Grassroots activism is essential to the success of the contemporary environmental movement, which depends on the organization of local activists as well as state, national, and international organizations. Yet grassroots activists confront numerous challenges as they attempt to organize diverse participants and devise fresh strategies and tactics. Drawing on more than seven years of fieldwork following diverse organizations in Pittsburgh over time, this book sheds light on the struggles that activists face and the factors that sustain movements. Suzanne Staggenborg examines individual motivations and participation, organizational structures and cultures, relationships in movement communities, and strategies and tactics, including issue framing. The book shows that collective action campaigns and tactics generate solidarity, maintain involvement, and bring in new participants even as organizers struggle to devise effective new types of actions.
Book
Grassroots activism is essential to the success of the contemporary environmental movement, which depends on the organization of local activists as well as state, national, and international organizations. Yet grassroots activists confront numerous challenges as they attempt to organize diverse participants and devise fresh strategies and tactics. Drawing on more than seven years of fieldwork following diverse organizations in Pittsburgh over time, this book sheds light on the struggles that activists face and the factors that sustain movements. Suzanne Staggenborg examines individual motivations and participation, organizational structures and cultures, relationships in movement communities, and strategies and tactics, including issue framing. The book shows that collective action campaigns and tactics generate solidarity, maintain involvement, and bring in new participants even as organizers struggle to devise effective new types of actions.
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Social movements in Latin America have always attracted attention, but there is no agreed-upon paradigm, certainly not one accepted in Latin America. A review from a Latin American perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical paradigms used to understand these movements suggests a revitalized paradigm that foregrounds the agency of people and, above all, brings politics back in. A proposed new, poststructuralist Marxist frame for research on both theory and practice puts a Foucauldian emphasis on the dissoluble links between power and resistance and a Laclau-inspired emphasis on the national-popular. Aunque los movimientos sociales en América Latina siempre han llamado la atención, no hay un paradigma acordado; ciertamente, no uno que se acepte en la región. Un análisis desde una perspectiva latinoamericana de las fortalezas y debilidades de los paradigmas teóricos utilizados para entender estos movimientos sugiere un marco revitalizado que pone en primer plano la agencia de las personas y, sobre todo, recupera el tema de la política. El nuevo paradigma marxista postestructuralista aquí propuesto para la investigación tanto teórica como práctica pone un énfasis foucauldiano en los vínculos disolubles entre el poder y la resistencia, así como un énfasis en lo nacional y popular inspirado por Laclau.
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The politicization of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has manifested itself to different extents across EU Member States. In some countries, conflicting interpretations about the deal were highly visible in public and political debates, while in others there was hardly any awareness. To further understand this phenomenon, trade scholars have to date not yet deepened nor leveraged the insights of the ‘differentiated politicization’ and social movement literature, which both point to coalition formation as an important trigger of politicization processes. This article contributes to our understanding of variation in politicization across EU Member States, by exploring coalition formation dynamics in differentiated politicization processes, in order to identify the factors facilitating successful domestic coalition formation. Through an exploratory case study design, I focus on three countries that exemplify high, middle, and low politicization cases: Germany, Belgium, and Ireland. By relying on the testimonies of campaigners active during the TTIP episode, I identify three elements that facilitated the formation of a diverse domestic coalition, which subsequently played an important role in pushing for a broad-based debate about the implications of TTIP: (i) an expert ‘mesomobilization’ link with a transnational advocacy network, (ii) the prior availability of domestic alliances, and (iii) an inclusive framing approach in order to establish a diverse coalition. The findings also underline the importance of timing in the unfolding of (successful) politicization processes.
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