Making knowledge legitimate: transnational advocacy networks' campaigns against tobacco,infant formula and pharmaceuticals

In this article, we examine three different cases in which health activists lobbied the World Health Organization and its member states to regulate the marketing practices of multinational companies. The campaign against tobacco manufacturers resulted in a binding treaty; the campaign against manufacturers of infant formula resulted in a non‐binding code of conduct; and the campaign against pharmaceutical manufacturers failed. We show that existing arguments regarding the success of global social movements and transnational advocacy networks fail to explain the divergent outcomes in these three cases. Instead, we argue that the effectiveness of global advocacy in these cases depended on the level of perceived legitimacy of the knowledge supporting the advocates' claims and on the prestige of the experts participating in the campaigns.     

The upside‐down roots of a transnational advocacy network: applying an ‘organizational ecology’ approach to the anti‐GMO network

In this article, I examine a transnational advocacy network opposed to the introduction of genetically modified crops and supportive of organic agriculture in India. I argue that this network illustrates some of the consequences of ‘upward oriented linkages’, in which professional NGO brokers focus on constructing relationships with other professional or elite partner bodies such as donor organizations, global retailers and the English language media. The ‘upside‐down’ tree that results has roots pointing upwards to global partners and to domestic elite actors but is less responsive, and less tightly bound, to mass organizations and to its purported non‐elite constituency of marginal farmers. I make this case through a methodological approach I term ‘organizational ecology’ in which I explore the idea of NGO based advocacy organizations as filling ‘niches’ in the larger political ecology of rural India and within this ‘ecology’ forming symbiotic connections to other organizations.     

Transnational advocacy in the eighteenth century: transatlantic activism and the anti‐slavery movement

Abstract In this article, I assess how a transnational campaign against the slave trade developed in the eighteenth century, focusing on the seminal role of Quakers. Building on Keck and Sikkink's study of the international campaign against slavery in America in the mid‐nineteenth century, I show how one can identify transnational advocacy on this issue more than half a century earlier. I examine the features of Quakerism ‐ specifically the close links between American and English Quakers ‐and the historical circumstances that gave rise to the campaign. In particular, I assess the role of transatlantic correspondence and travel among individual Quakers and the close organizational links between the society's branches on either side of the Atlantic. I analyse the development of anti‐slave trade activism according to Khagram, Riker and Sikkink's model of network development and find that this model is broadly applicable. I note, however, the change within the campaign from truly transnational (transatlantic) to predominantly domestic (British) as it changed from a coalition to a broader social movement, and as the campaign began to interact with the state, thus suggesting that the development of transnational networks is neither linear nor inevitable.     

Organizational structure and strength and transnational campaign outcomes: a comparison of two transnational advocacy networks

In this article I address the question of why some transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are better able to influence policy outcomes than others. How do we explain the variation in the political impact of TAN campaigns? Drawing on some of the theoretical formulations developed by social movement and international relations scholars, I argue that organizational structure and organizational strength can help us understand this variation. A comparison of a highly influential and successful TAN, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, with a less successful TAN, the International Action Network on Small Arms, demonstrates that such networks can mobilize a large number of diverse civil society groups. However, a coherent and well‐coordinated campaign with a clear political message provides the major explanation as to why some TANs are more likely to shape the global policy process than others.     

Transnational social movements and changing organizational fields in the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries

Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in the global political arena, including shifts in geopolitical arrangements, increases in popular mobilization and contestation over the direction of globalization, and efforts by elites to channel or curb popular opposition. We explore how these factors affect changes in global politics. Organizational populations are shaped by ongoing interactions among civil‐society, corporate and governmental actors operating at multiple levels. During the 1990s and 2000s, corporate and government actors promoted the ‘neoliberalization of civil society’ and the appropriation of movement concepts and practices to support elite interests. Not all movement actors have been passive witnesses to this process: they have engaged in intense internal debates, and they have adapted their organizational strategies to advance social transformation. This article draws from quantitative research on the population of transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs) and on qualitative research on contemporary transnational activism to describe changes in transnational organizing at a time of growing contention in world politics. We show how interactions among global actors have shaped new, hybrid organizational forms and spaces that include actors other than states in influential roles.     

Transnational issue networks in real and virtual space: the case of women,peace and security

To what extent do online issue networks serve as a proxy for their real‐space counterparts in structure and substance? This question is significant because a number of scholars have begun to study transnational advocacy networks through their representations online. We explored whether this assumption is valid by comparing the network composition and agenda composition of the advocacy network around ‘women, peace and security’, as operationalized through a web‐based survey of actual activists, and the network's online representations of itself, as measured through advocacy websites. Two specific concerns drove the study. First, how closely does the structure of issue networks, as represented on the World Wide Web, correspond with actual advocates' understanding of the players within a specific issue domain? Second, to what extent does the online issue agenda correlate with the most prominent issues described by real‐space advocates within a transnational network? Our findings yielded a high correlation between the online issue agenda and activists’ interpretations of the agenda. However, we found that while hyperlink analysis is an effective tool for identifying the ‘hubs’ or ‘gatekeepers’ within a specific issue network, the nature of the World Wide Web makes it is a blunt tool with which to capture the broader network. This suggests that while the web poses important opportunities as a data source, scholars of transnational networks must pay closer attention to the methodological assumptions implicit in their reliance on this and other new media.     

Sustainability standards and certification: looking through the lens of Foucault's dispositif

Over the past few decades, sustainability standards and certification have come to play an important role in the global governance of production and trade. Their purpose is to address the environmental and social problems generated by the globalization of the economy. Yet, as scholars and actors alike have pointed out, framing these problems in terms of technical criteria and procedures might result in rendering some issues invisible and closing potential debate and contestation. Through the empirical analysis of a multi‐stakeholder initiative called the ‘Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil', our aim is to explore how civil society organizations and advocacy networks nevertheless draw new lines of power by using, putting to the test, correcting and constructing formalized knowledge. To shed light on these processes of resistance, we advance an analytic that restores the concept of dispositif coined by Michel Foucault in emphasizing both the disruptive and stabilizing lines that compose a dispositif.     

Shopping in Mumbai: transnational sociability from the Netherlands

In this article, I present the concept of sociability as a preferable alternative to current network theories. I apply Simmel's concept of sociability to the bonding that occurs among ethnic networks at both the community and global levels. I argue for the need to separate the sociability elements of enjoyment and pleasure in time and place. I focus on the diaspora tourism of Dutch Hindustanis to show that joy and pleasure occur both when shopping in India and when giving gifts in the Netherlands. Furthermore, I argue that gifts purchased in India create bonding within close ethnic circles. As a result, these gifts become part of the material culture of the group, contributing to a feeling of home, ethnic consciousness and transnational bonds. Finally, I suggest that this joy and pleasure can be repeated because many of these moments are recorded with video cameras and photographs. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that transnational sociability, exemplified in diaspora tourism (specifically in shopping and gift giving), generates bonding both at the ethnic group and global level. I thus aim to add specificity to studies of transnational ethnic networks.     

Virtual enclaves: the influence of alumni email lists on the workspaces of transnational software engineers

At the turn of the twentieth century, ethnic enclaves helped immigrants to find jobs and to adjust to their surroundings. In the twenty‐first century, transnational professionals also have other spaces of support: the ‘virtual’ enclaves made possible by new communication tools. Based on interviews with high‐tech professionals over the course of an industry boom and downturn, in this article I trace the institutions that affected structures of online help with work. For some engineers from India and Taiwan, alumni ties, maintained by email lists, were important; these transnational workers had an allegiance to their ‘batch’ (university cohort) that the US‐born workers lacked. Their far‐flung, multi‐tiered alumni lists combined the benefits of strong and weak ties: deep commitments and unique information. This study makes a contribution to theorization of immigrant adjustment, social capital and work technologies.     

A hegemon fighting for equal rights: the dominant role of COC Nederland in the LGBT transnational advocacy network

Networks are alternatives to hierarchical organizational forms. However, actors in networks have different resources at their disposal, and more powerful participants will try to influence the network as a whole. We identify a dominant node in the European LGBT advocacy network, and explore whether a hegemonic actor in the transnational advocacy network will affect less powerful groups' issue framing. Our project uses software that locates the issue network on the internet, highlighting how transnational advocacy work and digital communication have become inextricably connected. We confirm that Cultuur – en Ontspannings Centrum, known as COC Netherland has higher‐than average centrality measures in the LGBT network. Noting the limitations of hyperlink analysis, we conduct a content analysis of select nodes illustrating the impact of a hegemon. We focus on marriage equality and find tentative support for our hypothesis: organizations with links to COC advocate for stronger forms of legalized same‐sex union than do organizations without ties.     

Advocacy networks,choice and private schooling of the poor in India

This article is about the flows of rhetorics and discourses, particularly those that advocate choice and private schooling, and the role that transnational advocacy networks play in managing and driving these flows. We explore a set of network relations between advocacy groups in the UK and the USA and local ‘choice’ advocates in India, and some of the emerging impacts of local and transnational advocacy on the politics of education and education policy in India. The network advocates school choice and private schooling as solutions to the problem of achieving universal, high‐quality primary education. Individual policy entrepreneurs are active in making these connections and circulating ideas. A complex of funding, exchange, cross‐referencing, dissemination and mutual sponsorship links the Indian choice and privatization advocacy network, and connects it to other countries in a global network for neoliberalism.     

The democratic deficit of transnational environmental activism: a case study of e‐waste governance in India

The literature on transnational activism often associates environmental NGOs with democratic legitimacy, grassroots representation and environmental justice. Authors employ case studies to demonstrate how engaging in transnational networks increases the political agency of environmental NGOs. Yet, there is a tendency mostly to select successful cases. In this article, I investigate the political activities of the environmental NGO, Toxics Link, surrounding the recycling of electronic waste in India. Based on qualitative research, this study shows how the political incorporation of Toxics Link in transnational advocacy networks and domestic governance networks constrains their political agency. The structural exclusion of e‐waste labourers from Indian policy negotiations negates the discursive claims of legitimacy, representation and justice. These incorporation processes create a democratic deficit. I use the insights gained from this case study to provide a critical assessment of theories of transnational environmental activism.     

Evidence of a transnational capitalist class‐for‐itself: the determinants of PAC activity among foreign firms in the Global Fortune 500, 2000–2006

Transnational capitalist class (TCC) theory is rooted in the claim that the globalization of the economy has led to a globalization of economic interests and of class formation. However, systematic evidence linking the indicators of transnational class formation with political behaviour is largely missing. In this article, I combine data on board of director interlocks among the 500 largest business firms in the world between 2000 and 2006 with data on the political donations to US elections of foreign corporations via the corporate political action committees (PACs) of their subsidiaries, divisions or affiliates. Controlling for the various interests of individual firms, I find that foreign firms that are highly central in the transnational intercorporate network contribute more money to US elections than do the less central foreign firms. Given prior research on board of director interlocks, this finding suggests that a segment of the transnational business community has emerged as a class‐for‐itself.     

‘Brain circulation’ and transnational knowledge networks: studying long‐term effects of academic mobility to Germany, 1954–2000

‘Brain circulation’ has become a buzzword for describing the increasingly networked character of highly skilled migration. In this article, the concept is linked to academics' work on circular mobility to explore the long‐term effects of their research stays in Germany during the second half of the twentieth century. Based on original survey data on more than 1800 former visiting academics from 93 countries, it is argued that this type of brain circulation launched a cumulative process of subsequent academic mobility and collaboration that contributed significantly to the reintegration of Germany into the international scientific community after the Second World War and enabled the country's rise to the most important source for international co‐authors of US scientists and engineers in the twenty‐first century. In this article I discuss regional and disciplinary specificities in the formation of transnational knowledge networks through circulating academics and suggest that the long‐term effects can be fruitfully conceptualized as accumulation processes in ‘centres of calculation’.     

The global footballer and the local war‐zone: George Weah and transnational networks in Liberia,West Africa

Abstract Elite sport is the vehicle for global interactions via both its shared practices and the relations engendered by its governing bodies and its global tournaments. This capability has attracted the attentions of those seeking both nation‐building and reconciliation in war‐damaged nations. The narrative that follows has global implications, telling as it does the story of George Weah, a Liberian‐born footballer who became a humanitarian ambassador, and later aspired to become his country's president. Weah's story informs debates on globalization, illustrating the transnational career of a man who developed a keen understanding of institutional politics and patronage and who allowed himself to be courted by various global figures. These scenarios took place in Liberia, a war‐devastated African nation. This tale thus provides for reflection on how sport can encourage and undermine practises of nationhood. As a former World Footballer of the Year, Weah was a Liberian success story and well aware of his populist appeal. However, the issue of who a people are and who is to be their national political representative has proven to be a very fraught issue in the Liberian context. Whether global sporting networks have made the world smaller and the people more knowing in the Liberian context is an issue this article raises in considering its most famous citizen.     

New insights in reproducing transnational corporate elites: the labour market intermediation of executive search in the pursuit of global talent in Singapore

In this article, I provide new theoretical and empirical insights into the reproduction of transnational corporate elites through the process of people moving between firms’ internal labour markets rather than from expatriation. Theoretically, the article advances understandings of the reproduction of transnational corporate elites by drawing on a pioneering engagement with global talent, transnational elites and labour market intermediary discourses. I generate these new theoretical insights through an original case study of how global executive search firms in Singapore create pipelines for the recruitment of transnational corporate elites between firms’ internal labour markets. The findings also highlight the vital role of Singapore's neoliberal labour market practices, as well as its foreign talent programme to ‘win the war for talent'. By situating this research on the agency of executive search in reproducing Singapore's transnational corporate elite, the article's key contribution is to decentre North American and Western perspectives on the reproduction of knowledge on transnational corporate elites.     

The contested spatialities of transnational activism: gendered gatekeeping and gender struggles in an African association of informal workers

In this article I explore the geographies of emerging transnational networks of organized informal workers, with empirical reference to a local association based in Mozambique and a transnational network of which it is part. I uncover the gendered spatialities of this transnational activism to demonstrate how participation is unequal and heavily mediated rather than direct. In particular, I show how influential actors have engaged in practices of gendered gatekeeping that tend to keep women in place. I also explore the tensions that emerged because of these practices and the negotiation of divergent gender ideologies and strategies within the network. In the article, I relate to recent theoretical work that problematizes the unequal and contested geographies of transnational activism, and introduce insights from feminist scholarship to reflect on gender inequalities and gender visions in transnational networks.     

Situating transnational families' care‐giving arrangements: the role of institutional contexts

Scholars sometimes conceptualize migrants and their kin as ‘transnational families' in acknowledgement that migration does not end with settlement and that migrants maintain regular contacts and exchange care across borders. Recent studies reveal that state policies and international regulations influence the maintenance of transnational family solidarity. We aim to contribute to our understanding of how families' care‐giving arrangements are situated within institutional contexts. We specify an analytical framework comprising a typology of care‐giving arrangements within transnational families, a typology of resources they require for care giving, and a specification of institutions through which those resources are in part derived. We illustrate the framework through a comparative analysis of two groups of migrants – Salvadorans in Belgium and Poles in the UK. We conclude by arguing that while institutions matter they are not the sole factor, and identify how future research might develop a more fully comprehensive situated transnationalism.     

Governing transnational social problems: public health politics on the US–Mexico border

Governance research suggests that transnational networks are the key to developing and implementing cooperative public policy across borders. I examine this claim through analysing how the US–Mexico Border Health Commission, a policy instrument designed to enhance transnational public health cooperation, developed from idea to law in Mexico and the United States. Despite a long‐standing transnational network, the policy process took over ten years and was contentious, politicized by domestic policymaking in the United States. I show how transnational networked governance intersects with domestic politics and find that the structure of overlap between the two are places where actors promoting state and transnational interests struggle with each other to define public problems in an attempt to shape policy outcomes.     

Hybrid networks and the global politics of the digital revolution – a practice‐oriented,relational and agnostic approach

The rapid growth of internet users and the importance of networked technologies for most spheres of life raise questions about how to foster and govern the digital revolution on a global scale. Focusing on internet governance and the use of ICTs for development purposes, I provide a multi‐sited, ethnographic exploration of two UN‐based multi‐stakeholder arrangements – comprising governments, business and civil society groups – that have contributed to the construction of the digital revolution as an object of global governance. In this article I show how analytical insights from governmentality studies and actor‐network theory can be used to capture how objects of governance and organizational arrangements are constructed and consolidated. Conventional approaches to networks and governance tend to treat organizational arrangements and issue areas as bounded, separate and fixed. By contrast, I demonstrate the merits of a practice‐oriented, relational and agnostic research strategy, which foregrounds the governmental techniques and moments of translation involved when new objects and modes of governance are assembled and negotiated.