Customer Reviews

The New Transnational Activism (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)

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In The New Transnational Activism, Sidney Tarrow extends his familiar "political opportunities model" to the global realm toward understanding the contours of global protest. He makes the case that, just as political structures present at the national and subnational levels shape the activities of local, regional and national protestors, international structures condition the emergence, nature, and ultimately the outcomes of global protest movements. While globalization processes may evoke the grievances that serve as the basis for movement activity, it is internationalism - the networks of formal and informal institutions created by horizontal and vertical relations between state and nonstate actors operating at international, national, and subnational levels - that generates the barriers and openings that prevent or encourage people to encounter others like themselves and act on those sensibilities.

How this general process actually plays out in the real world is predictably complex. Tarrow examines a wide array of case studies of movements engaged in global protest issues and identifies six ways in which the local can engage with the international, only two of which provide for the possibility of prolonged domestic-international fusion. The volatility of international politics, the difficulties associated with establishing and maintaining long-distance trusting relationships between members, and the extent to which local motivating concerns must be "stretched" to coincide with international issues all militate against long-term cooperation between local forces. Tarrow concludes that, while the conditions of internationalism have certainly provided opportunities for transnational activism and some movement success, there is little indication so far that transnational activism signals the beginning of a new and transformative "social movement society." Modern activists may be inspired by global issues and be more likely to connect and mobilize outside their own societies than in the past. But they remain firmly rooted in their own local conditions and concerns, circumstances that can limit the sustained common cause required for enduring translocal cooperation.

Anyone looking for broad pronouncements on transnational activism will be disappointed with this book. Those concerned with how real grass-roots activists establish and maintain international alliances, and how they negotiate the very real constraints and opportunities provided by internationalism to achieve their ends, will, however, appreciate Tarrow's approach. For social movements researchers particularly, his classificatory scheme of "six processes of transnational contention" (along with a plethora of other new terms and concepts) will prove useful in providing the bases for further case studies of translocal and transnational movements.

Tarrow's book provides another sound, well written contribution to the SM genre that so many of use in Sociology, Poli Sci and Women's Studies. Admittedly, other fields refer to SM theories, as well.

I enjoyed the case analyses in this book. While I bought the book for use with a specific project, I found that the book's scope allowed me to refer to it in my lectures and for another project.

This is an academic book and the target audience is definitely for those already familiar with SM theories.