Course
Syllabus
(please
click here for a printable version)
Gov 681/Soc
680
Sid Tarrow
Workshop on Transnational Contention
(last updated on January 7, 2005)
498 Uris Hall
Monday, 10:00
AM -Noon
Introduction:
This seminar is intended to examine various forms and dynamics of transnational politics: social movements, international protests, NGOs and their interactions with states and international institutions. It grows out of a three-year project on transnational contention and grassroots activism (for information go to http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/sgt2/contention/) It will first survey three major approaches to transnational politics (“global civil society”, international relations, and social movements), then deal with four major issues in the field. The course aims to address three “big” questions in social movement studies and international relations:
· To what extent and how does the expansion of transnational activism change the actors, the connections among them, the forms of claims-making, and the prevailing strategies in contentious politics?
· Does the expansion of transnational activism and the links it establishes between non-state actors, their states, and international politics create a new political arena that fuses domestic and international contention?
· If so, how does this affect our inherited understanding of the autonomy of national politics from international politics?
The workshop will begin with general discussions of three main theoretical approaches to the study of transnational politics before turning to four two-week modules on specific issues/sectors in this field. For each of these modules, in the first week we will read and discuss theoretical literature and apply that literature to a particular sector of transnational politics in the second, when we will meet with and interrogate a visiting expert/practitioner in that sector. Practitioners will be in Ithaca for stays of at least a few days, and will be available to meet with students while they are here.
The modules and the visiting practitioners are:
· Norms and institutions (February 21 and 28). Elizabeth Bernstein, International Convention to Ban Landmines
· Transnational coalition formation (March 7 and 14). Graham Saul; Friends of the Earth, Canada
· Transnational activism (April 4th and 11th). Donatella della Porta, GRACE (Research Group on Collective Action in Europe) and European University Institute.
· Human Rights and international legal jurisdiction (April 18-25). Ellen Lutz, Executive Director, Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Tufts University.
You should inform yourselves about the work of these practitioners/experts before they appear in the class to get the most out of their presence here. Opportunities for personal meetings will be facilitated.
The course will conclude with an
extended discussion of the future of internationalism and of the role of
transnational activists and transnational contention in that future.
Requirements:
Students Taking the Course for credit:
Graduate students and, exceptionally, advanced undergraduates, may take the course for credit by registering for either Sociology 680 or Government 681. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and will be asked to present a verbal report once during the semester. Reports can be prepared in advance and put on the class website.
Written requirements will include a research design, due after spring break, and either a research paper or a review essay on a portion of the literature on transnational contention, due at the end of the term. General reading will be available either in book form at the Cornell Campus Store, or on reserve in Olin Library 405. Visitors’ papers or outlines for the second week of each module will be available on the course website.
Non-Credit Participation
The workshop is open to all members of the Cornell community and from neighboring institutions on a come-and-go basis. Students who have been associated with the research project out of which the seminar grows will attend from time to time. You should try to interact with these experienced scholars, many of whom have already been in the field and may be doing work that will intersect with yours. In a community of scholars, we can often learn more from others than from the library or from required reading.
Books for purchase:
David Held and Anthony McGrew, Globalization/Anti-Globalization. Polity Press, 2002
Robert O’Brien, et. Al., Contesting Global Governance. Multilateral Institutions and Global Social Movements. Cambridge, 2000.
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell, 1998
Joe Bandy
and Jackie Smith, eds. Coalitions Across
Borders.
Transnational Protest And the Neoliberal Order. Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.
Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, eds., Transnational Activism and Global Movements. Roman and Littlefield, 2004.
A copy of each of these books will also be available on reserve in Olin Library 405. Other required readings will be found in the reprint box in 405 Olin Library and/or on the course website. Please consult these articles and papers only in 405 Olin.
We cannot cover everything. For example, we almost completely ignore the important work being done on labor transnationalism, international violence and civil war. A number of important books in transnational politics will also be placed on reserve in 405 Olin. You should skim them early in the term to familiarize yourself with the wide variety of approaches and empirical studies in this rapidly expanding field.
SYLLABUS
Skim the following book to get a sense of the wide variety of activities that people mean by “transnational contention.”
Jackie Smith and Hank Johnston, eds. Globalization and Resistance. (Olin reserve)
To get a sense of where the instructor is “coming from,” you can start by reading chapter One of New Transnational Contention, on the course website.
The yearbooks, Global Civil Society, published by the London School of Economics (2001 through 2004/5), on reserve in Olin 405, provide a precious mine of information and articles.
You will also find a bibliography on transnational contention if you go to http:/falcon.arts.cornell.edu/sgt2/contention/default.htm, click on “working papers”, then click on working paper # 2001-01). The materials in the bibliography are organized by topic and can be perused in 202 White Hall. (If you borrow an item, please copy it and return it promptly to Jennifer Gomez.)
Part One:
Three Approaches to Transnational Contention
One reason for both the excitement and the debates about transnational contention is that the subject has been approached from very different ontological perspectives: a globalization approach, an international relations approach (itself far from univocal) and a social movement approach. For an attempted synthesis see:
Sidney Tarrow, “Internationalism and Contention,” Chapter Two of The New Transnational Activism (on course website).
Monday, January 31st: The Globalization Approach
Held and
McGrew, Globalization.Anti-globalization.
Read all.
Peter Evans, “Counterhegemonic Globalization: Transnational Social Movements in the Contemporary Global Political Economy”. Handbook of Political Sociology,Ch. 32 (in reprint box)
Philip McMichael, “Globalization,” in Janoski, et al., eds., Handbook of Political Sociology, Ch. 29 (in reprint box)
Additional readings:
A number of people have entered the globalization debate with an eye to contentious politics in the last decade. In addition to the required book by Held and McGrew, a good start to how globalization is defined is Jan Aart Scholte, Globalization. On globalization and capitalism, see Leslie Sklair’s. The Transnational Capitalist Class. There are also pot-boilers like Bernard Barber’s McWorld and Jihad, and more serious academic works like those of Held and McGrew, Hutten and Giddens, King, McMichael, and Sassen. Several authors have focused on globalization and culture. See John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture and Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. Others have wrestled with the relationship between globalization and the state. See Howard Lentner, Power and Politics in Globalization: The Indispensable State and Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization or Empire. The issue of democracy and globalization is the subject of Part Four of Held’s Democracy and the Global Order. A review of the different ways that scholars have dealt with globalization is James Mittelman’s Whither Globalization. Ann Florini’s The Third Force and The Coming Democracy reflect the hope for a “global civil society”. Edwards’ and Gaventa’s Global Citizen Action does the same with a bit more caution. The LSE yearbooks, Global Civil Society, is full of contributions from this point of view.
Monday, February 7th: International Relations Approaches
Thomas Risse,
“Transnational Actors in World Politics,”
ch. 13 in Walter Carlsnaes, et al, Handbook
of
International Relations (inReprint box)
Keohane, Robert O. 2002b. Power
and Governance in a
Partially
Globalized World,
ch. 1 and 9 (on reserve)
Finnemore, Martha and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change." International Organization, 52: 887-917 (in reprint box).
Richard Price, “Transnational Civil Society and Advocacy in World Politics, World Politics 55: 2003 (in reprint box).
Additional Readings:
Scholars of international relations began to give concerted attention to transnational politics in the early 1970s, with Robert O. Keohane’s and Joseph S. Nye’s edited book, Transnational Relations and World Politics. See the introductory theoretical chapter and skim/read the other contributions. Concrete attention to the interfaces between domestic and international politics began with Peter Evans, et al, Double-Edged Diplomacy, especially the chapters by Milner, Martin and Sikkink, Evans, and Putnam. This was followed by Thomas Risse-Kappen, et al, Bringing Transnational Relations Back in. While most realists soft-pedaled transnational politics, it received more attention from institutionalists, like Keohane and Milner’s Internationalization and Domestic Politics, Keohane’s Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World, and Martin and Simmons, "Theories and Empirical Studies of International Institutions, in Katzenstein, Keohane and Krasner, eds., Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics, and Anne-Marie Slaughter’s A New World Order. Constructivists approached the topic from a new angle. See John Ruggie’s Constructing the World Polity, for the canonical constructivist text, and Khagram, Riker and Sikkink, eds., Restructuring World Politics, for a more heterodox approach, especially Sikkink’s concluding chapter, and Daniel Thomas’ The Helsinki Effect. For a careful and creative synthesis, see Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces on the role of nonstate actors in nuclear arms control.
Monday, February 14th: Social Movement Approaches
Jackie Smith, “Characteristics of the Modern Transnational Social Movement Sector,” ch. 4 in Smith, Chatfield and Pagnucco, eds., Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics (on reserve)
Sidney Tarrow, “"Transnational Politics: Contention and Institutions in International Politics." Annual Review of Political Science, 4: 1-20 (in reprint box).
Robert O’Brien, Anne Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte and Marc Williams, Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements. (Read Introduction and Conclusion and at least one of the empirical chapters)
Additional reading:
Social movement scholars
were slow to see the spread of transnational contention, except for the
diffusion of movements from one country to another (see chapter 6 of Tarrow,
New Transnational Activism, for relevant citations.) This new area of
research was first examined in detail in Smith, Pagnucco and Chatfield, eds.,
Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics,1997, with a
predominant focus on formal NGOs. This was followed soon after by Keck and
Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders (1998), della Porta Kriesi and Rucht,
eds., Social Movements in a Globalizing World (1999), and Guidry,
Kennedy and Zald, eds., Globalizations and Social Movements, 2000.
Following “The Battle of Seattle,” the focus shifted significantly from NGOs and
similar organizations to more contentious movements, in books like Khagram,
Riker and Sikkink, eds., Restructuring World Politics, 2002, Smith and
Johnston, eds., Globalization and Resistance, 2002, and della Porta and
Tarrow, eds., Transnational Protest and Global Activism 2004. Two works
that focus on the European Union are
Donatella della Porta, “
The Europeanisation of
Protest: A Typology and Some Empirical Evidence,” (in reprint file) and Doug
Imig and Sidney Tarrow, eds., Contentious Europeans (on reserve). An
interesting study is Thomas Olesen, International Zapatismo: The Construction
of Solidarity in the Age of Globalization.
Part Two: Four Issues in Transnational Politics
This part of the course is divided into four modules of two weeks each organized around important issues in the study of transnational politics. The first week of each module will cover some of the main academic literature surrounding each issue; the second week will feature a practitioner/expert from the world of transnational politics, who will present a paper or talk related to that general topic.
Module # 1: Norms and Institutions
Monday, February 21st: Domestic Blockage and “Norms- Based Movements”
The two main approaches from a constructivist standpoint are:
Margaret
Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond
Borders.
and
John Boli and George Thomas, eds, Constructing World
Culture, on Olin Reserve, read introduction and
conclusion.
For a critique and specification of Keck and Sikkink’s model, see
Sidney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism, ch. 8 (on course website)
Additional readings:
IR constructivists and “global civil society” theorists converged in the 1990s on the study of the transnational diffusion of norms and principled issues. Keck and Sikkink’s pathbreaking work and the book that followed it (Risse, Ropp and Sikkink, eds., The Power of Human Rights) gave central importance to networks as transmitters of norms. Scholars in the world polity tradition focused on the norms themselves and their “universal” diffusion through NGOs and state practices. While neither group of scholars specified the role of institutions very well, scholars like Jonathan Fox and L. David Brown (The Struggle for Accountability), Kendall Stiles and his collaborators (Global Institutions and Local Empowerment), and O’brien and his collaborators (Contesting Global Governance) extended the work into the institutional arena. Much of the institutional work that followed took the EU as its focus (see for example, Hooghe and Marks, Multi-level Governance in European Integration, and Imig and Tarrow, eds., Contentious Europeans) but Jeffrey Ayres (Defying Conventional Wisdom) and Michael Dreiling (Solidarity and Contention) focused on the role of unions and interest groups in the struggle over the creation of NAFTA. A book that looks at the UN and the British Commonwealth as agents of norms diffusion is Audie Klotz, Norms in International Relations: The Struggle Against Apartheid. One that focuses on the organization of nonstate actors around the Helsinki Treaty is Daniel Thomas, The Helsinki Effect.
Monday, February 28th: The International Landmines Controversy: The Diffusion of a Norm of “Bodily Harm”
Visitor: Elizabeth Bernstein, Coordinator, International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
“How the International Campaign to Ban Landmines Achieved a Treaty: - 'a powerful force that establishes the moral norm' - Banning landmines"
Price, Richard. 1998. "Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines." International Organization, 52: 613- 644 (in reprint box).
Additional reading:
In addition to Price’s landmark paper, the best work on the landmines campaign is collected in Cameron, Maxwell A., Robert J. Lawson and Brian W. Tomlin, eds. 1998. To Walk Without Fear. The Global Movement to Ban Landmines. Also see Don Hubert, “The Landmine Ban: A Case Study in Humanitarian Advocacy,” The Watson Institute, Occasional paper #. 42 (in reprint box).
Module # Two: Transnational Coalition Formation
Monday, March 7th: Coalition Formation and Durability
Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith, eds., Coalitions Across Borders, chs. 1-2, 4-5, 8-11.
Sidney Tarrow, “Transnational
Coalition Formation,”
Chapter 9 in
The New Transnational Activism,
on course
website.
Kathryn Sikkink, “Patterns of Dynamic Multilevel Governance and the Insider/Outsider Coalition,” in della Porta and Tarrow eds., Transnational Protest and Global Activism
Additional reading:
The following take different approaches to coalitions. All are valuable. Margaret Levi and Gillian Murphy. "Coalitions of Contention: The Case of the WTO Protests in Seattle." (unpublished paper in reprint box). David Meyer and Catherine Corrigall-Brown, “Coalitions and Political Context: U.S. Movements against Wars in Iraq,” (unpublished paper in reprint box). Thomas Rochon and David Meyer, eds., Coalitions and Political Movements: The Lessons of the Nuclear Freeze
Monday, March 14th: The Case of Environmental Coalitions
Visitor: Graham Saul: Coordinator, Friends of the Earth, Canada
“Global NGO Federations:
The Case of Friends of
the Earth-International"
Daniel Faber, “Building a Transnational Environmental Justice Movement: Obstacles and Opportunities in the Age of Globalization,” in Smith and Bandy, eds. Coalitions Across Borders
Kenneth Gould, et al., “Blue-Green Coalitions: Constraints and Possibilities in the Post 9-11 Political Environment,” JWSR 10, 2004, pp. 91-116 (in reprint box)
Additional Reading:
Coalition formation is particularly important in the environmental sector, since most environmental groups emerged locally and expanded through either strategic alliances or international federations and “chartering” mechanisms. Jackie Smith’s chapter on EarthAction International in Smith, Chatfield and Pagnucco, Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics is a good place to start. Tammy Lewis’s “Conservation TSMOs” in Smith and Johnston, Globalization and Resistance is another.
n Spring Break n
Monday, March 28: Student Presentations
Each student will distribute a one page outline in class and be prepared to speak for ten minutes about the problem you hope to attack in your paper. Papers can be original research efforts, critical review essays, or elaborated research designs for future research. This is NOT expected to be a final effort, but a statement of what it is you will be trying the answer, the problems you may be having in answering it, and the kind of data you are seeking. I will want to meet with you during the week of March 28-31st to discuss your project.
Module No. 3: Transnational Protest and Social Movements
Monday, April 4th: Transnational Activism and Social Movements
Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, eds., Transnational Protest and Global Activism, chs. 1-2, 4-6, 8-10.
Additional reading:
Jackie Smith, “Globalizing Resistance: The Battle of Seattle and the Future of Social Movements,” in Smith and Johnston, eds., Globalization and Resistance, ch. 12. Some of the best work on transnational activists has been done on the February 15th anti-Iraq war protests. See Stefaan Walgrave, “Internal diversity of protest: A comparative Study of anti-Iraqi-WarProtest” and Dana Fisher, “Taking Cover Beneath the Anti-War Umbrella: Coalition Development and Social Movement Spillover in an Era of Regressive Politics” (both in reprint box). For a stimulating narrative on the passage from global justice to the antiwar movement, see “Patrick Gillham and Bob Edwards, “Global Justice Protesters Respond to The September 11th Terrorist Attacks” (in reprint box).
Monday, April 11th: Transnational Activism, Global Identities and Democracy
Visitor: Donatella della Porta, GRACE and European University Institute
"Making the Polis: Social Forums and Democracy in the Global Justice Movement."
Additional reading:
Module No. 4: Law and Transnational Contention
Monday, April 18th: Human Rights and International Law
Thomas Risse, Steven Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights, chs. 1, 2, 7 and 8 (on reserve).
Ball, Patrick. 2000. "State Terror, Constitutional Traditions, and National Human Rights Movements: A Cross-National Quantitative Comparison." In John A. Guidry, Michael D. Kennedy and Mayer N. Zald, eds., Globalizations and Social Movements: Culture, Power, and the Transnational Public Sphere (on reserve).
Lutz, Ellen and Kathryn Sikkink. 2001b. "The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America." Chicago Journal of International Law, 2: 1-34 (in reprint box)
Additional reading:
In addition to the case studies in Risse, Ropp and Sikkink, see the case studies by Susan Burgerman in Moral Victories: How Activists Provoke Multilateral Action, by Martha Finnemore on the International Red Cross, in Boli and Thomas, eds, Constructing World Culture, and by Kathryn Sikkink, “Human Rights, Principled Issue Networks and Sovereignty in Latin America,” International Organization, 47:1993 (in reprint box) and her recent Mixed Signals: Human Rights and American Foreign Policy in Latin America.
Monday, April 25th: Accountability and Transition
Visitor: Ellen Lutz, Executive Director, Cultural Survival
“Accountability in the Context of Multifaceted Transitions in the New Millennium.”
Additional reading:
“Truth commissions” have given rise to a large and uneven literature, as is often the case where great evils have been done and great passions for justice are triggered by them. For the best survey, see Priscilla Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity 2001.
Monday, May 2nd; BIG Questions
Hoffmann, Stanley. 2003. "The High and the Mighty: Bush's National-Security Strategy and the New American Hubris." The American Prospect.13 January 2003 (in reprint box)
Robert Keohane, “The Globalization of Informal Violence, Theories of World Politics and the `Liberalism of Fear’” ch. 12 in Keohane, Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World (on reserve).
Sidney Tarrow, “Contention and Internationalism”. Chapter 11 in The New Transnational Activism, on course website.