In this article, we argue that the emergent literature that integrates the neo-institutional and social movement theories for a better understanding of institutional change offers a partial picture concerning the roles of the state and society in institutional wars due to its preoccupation with the liberal polities prevalent in the Anglo-Saxon countries. We suggest that the macro-institutional perspective that recognizes the influences of varied polities should be introduced to this emergent literature, if it is to provide a full picture. Incorporating the macro-institutional insights into the integrative approach, we examine a struggle between a group of protesters, a multinational gold-mining company and governmental actors regarding an environmental issue in Bergama, Turkey, where a statist polity mediates worldwide currents towards the neo-liberal order. The findings indicate that the Turkish state repressed the mobilizations against the neo-liberal construction of the mining field and reinforced the existing neo-liberal logic in the mining field through introducing a new regulatory framework. On the basis of the findings, we suggest that both the trajectory and consequences of institutional wars are influenced by the kind of polity in which they take place.
How and with what consequences did the Bergama struggle evolve from a local environmental campaign against the operation of a goldmine to a broader political struggle that mobilised a set of heterogeneous social groups at the national level? The constituency of and support for the Bergama struggle increased as it provided a 'discursive space' for the articulation of a disparate set of particular social demands neither mediated nor fulfilled within the existing political system in Turkey. As the Bergama movement expanded through the articulation of a number of social demands for changes in the broader economic and political structures, several status quo forces became involved in the struggle against the movement and played a crucial role in the gradual demise of the movement.
This study addresses how multinational corporations and protesters in an environmental struggle learn from the proximate struggles within the same field and how they structure the broader institutional field. Drawing on the literature integrating the social movement and new institutional theory, particularly the “strategic action fields” (SAFs) approach of Fligstein and McAdam, the authors comparatively study the interactions in and between two sequential environmental struggles in the field of gold mining in Turkey. The findings suggest that the interactive processes in an SAF and their consequences are largely built on the lessons drawn from both “successes” and “failures” in the proximate SAF that preceded it. Furthermore, those actors that act proactively are more likely to stabilize the SAF according to their interests. Finally, state interventions from the outside create temporary stability that involves the acquiescence of challengers, whereas the consent-seeking actions of incumbents are more likely to generate a permanent stability, stabilizing the broader field.
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