Restructuring world politics: transnational social movements, networks, and norms

From the earliest campaign against Augusto Pinochet's repressive practices to the recent massive demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, transnational collective action involving non-governmental organisations has been restructuring politics and changing the world. Ranging from Santiago to Seattle and covering over twenty-five years of transnational advocacy, the essays in Restructuring World Politics offer a clear, richly nuanced picture of this process and its far-reaching implications in an increasingly globalised political economy. The book brings together scholars, activists, and policy-makers to show how such advocacy addresses-and reshapes-key issues in the areas of labour, human rights, gender justice, democratization, and sustainable development throughout the world.

A primary goal of transnational advocacy is to create, strengthen, implement, and monitor international norms. How transnational networks go about doing this, why and when they succeed, and what problems and complications they face are the main themes of this book. Looking at a wide range of cases where non-governmental actors attempt to change norms and the practices of states, international organisations, and firms in the private sector - from debt restructuring to protecting human rights, from anti-dam projects in India to the pro-democracy movement in Indonesia - the authors compellingly depict international non-governmental organisations and transnational social movements as considerable, emerging powers in international politics, initiating, facilitating, and directing the transformation of global norms and practices.

(From the publisher)