All Puerto Rico with Vieques: Mobilizing Support Through Social Skills and Field Dynamics

This article explains the success of All Puerto Rico with Vieques (TPRCV) in coordinating a broad-based coalition in support of the movement to remove the US Navy from Vieques. Considering the literatures on organizations, strategic fields and social movements, the analysis looks at how environmental conditions and the attributes of the leadership become relevant in the formation and sustainability of coalition work. The article argues that under the conditions of a vibrant political activist sector and a dynamic political field, TPRCV used accumulated social skills to take advantage of network intersection and frame adaptation. Though environmental dynamics may produce favorable conditions for coalition building, these will be limited to the capacity of the social actors to identify them, assimilate their potential and translate them into opportunities.