Building Transnational Networks

Marisa von Bülow is currently Professor of Political Science at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. She has published many works on transnational collective action and social movements. Professor von Bülow has done research throughout the Americas, including in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

'Von Bülow has masterfully integrated network-analytic techniques with qualitative interviews to chart the historical coalescence and dissolution of transnational ties among social movement organizations contesting Free Trade negotiations in the Americas. Resisting the current tendency toward triumphalism about 'global civil society', she pays nuanced attention to ambiguities, asymmetries, tensions, and fragilities in an emerging transnational field. This innovative and compelling study contributes not only to our understanding of transnational coalition building, but also to a dynamic theory of social networks that is attentive to agency and meaning-making as a constitutive dimension of social ties.' Ann Mische, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey

• Part I. Civil Society Organizations and their Pathways to Transnationality: 1. Introduction; 2. Multiple pathways to transnationality; Part II. The Politicization of Trade: 3. The contentious nature of trade debates; 4. New regionalism in the Americas; Part III. The Dynamics of Networks: 5. Trade protest networks; 6. The origins and dynamics of trade challengers' networks; Part IV. Organizational Pathways to Transnationality: 7. The creation and demise of transnational coalitions; 8. Diffusion and differentiation of national coalitions; Part V. The Search for Ideational Pathways: 9. Alternatives for the Americas; 10. Transnational collective action in dynamic political contexts; 11. Conclusions: agency, networks, and collective action; Appendix A: lists of interviews; Appendix B: social network questionnaire (United States).