International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Transnational social movements are movements with members in at least two nations that cooperatively engage in efforts to promote or resist change beyond the bounds of their nation. In the words of Sidney Tarrow (2001:11), they are “socially mobilized groups with constituents in at least two states, engaged in sustained contentious interactions with power-holders in at least one state other than their own, or against an international institution, or a multinational economic actor.” On the “routinized” end of such phenomena are what Keck and Sikkink (1998) call “transnational advocacy networks,” essentially communication networks of activists that use information in campaigns for change. On the potentially “transgressive” end are what Della Porta and Tarrow (2005) classify as “transnational collective action”: “coordinated international campaigns on the part of networks of activists against international actors, other states, or international institutions” (2005:7). Related literatures that speak to transnational social movements focus on terms (with related but different meanings) including “global social movements,” “transnational politics,” “world polity,” and “global civil society.” Research on transnational social movements has proliferated in the last 20 years in tandem with rapid globalization (for examples see Smith et al. 1997 ; Keck and ... log in or subscribe to read full text