Insourcing Organization: How a Transnational Advocacy Network Put a Human Face on Climate Change

• In Event: 479 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Protest and Social Movements

Abstract

Transnational advocacy networks are increasingly impactful players in global politics. But such influence presents a puzzle. Social movement scholars underscore the significant role that organizations play in social movement functioning. Organizational resources and organizational efficiency often condition a movement’s ability to mobilize financial and human resources. Organizational structures also provide for movement continuity during periods of abeyance. Brulle (1996) has gone so far as to argue that the modern environmental movement in the United States is “synonymous” with major environmental organizations. In contrast, TANs function without a central organizational base. This facilitates transnational activism, but at the same time can act as handicap. Borrowing insights from the study of social movements, organizational theory, and science and technology studies, this paper argues that TANs insource organization by rooting claims in a specific arena, such as a regional human rights body, and coopting that area’s “communication infrastructure”. To demonstrate such insourcing at work, I detail efforts to advance a human rights approach to climate change at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council. This analysis contributes to our understanding of how TANs operate in the global arena, drawing particular attention to the benefits of arena-based activism and its issuant risks. This investigation also supplements our knowledge of how the human rights frame functions as master frame, suggesting that it serves as much as a socio-organizational resource as it does moral resource.

Author

• Jessica Powers Koski, Northwestern University