Mobilizing drug policy activism: conferences, convergence spaces and ephemeral fixtures in social movement mobilization

Abstract

This paper explores the role of conferences as "convergence space": temporary events with lasting material effects. Drawing on three harm reduction conferences occurring between 2011 and 2012, I argue that conferences are both ephemeral fixtures in the landscape of policy activism, and are important nodes through which policy mobilization occurs. Conference spaces provide opportunities for ideas to be shared, produced and advocated. They serve as important sites for the construction of relationships that are required to form and maintain policy advocacy networks and harness political opportunity structures for drug policy reform.

Medellín in the headlines: The role of the media in the dissemination of urban models

“…The notion of policy mobility conceptualises and explores the spatial and relational dynamics that exist when 'best practices' become policy models. This includes the mutation of these policies as they move from one place to another and their newfound implementation (Peck, 2011;Peck & Theodore, 2010, 2012McCann & Ward, 2010, 2012McCann, 2013;Temenos, 2015;Longhurst & McCann, 2016;Ward, 2018). Nonetheless, critical policy mobilities studies acknowledge that "modelling involves an extensive web of intermediaries, audiences, resistance movements, advocates, interlocutors, spaces of translation and mediation, and not least, sites of repeated recalibration and reinvention" (DiMaggio and Powell quoted in Theodore and Peck, 2015, p.25).…”

“…For example, depending on those stakeholders that influence policy production, there is a need to identify those experts or individuals, whether as policy 'transfer agents' (McCann, 2008;Jacobs & Lees, 2013;Jajamovich, 2016Jajamovich, , 2018, as 'travelling technocrats' (Larner & Laurie, 2010), as 'transnational bureaucracies' (Kuus, 2015) or as 'persuasive practitioners' (Montero, 2017a), who given their technical knowledge or proven expertise in successful operations, play a central role in policy mobility from a place to another. Similarly, different studies place their focus on the channels where policies are circulated: policy tourism or study tours (González, 2011;McCann, 2011;Cook & Ward, 2011;2012;Wood 2014;Cook, Ward, & Ward, 2015;Montero, 2017b); benchmarking strategies (McCann, 2004); international conferences (McCann, 2011;Cook & Ward, 2012;Kennedy, 2015;Temenos, 2015;Montero, 2017a) y urban government alliances and city to city cooperation (Clarke, 2012a(Clarke, ,2012b.…”

“…That is, groups of "individuals, institutions, organizations, and technologies that interpret, frame, package, and represent information about best policy practices, successful cities, and cutting-edge ideas" (McCann, 2011, p.114). Informational infrastructures create, show and promote models and best practices through research, publications, accreditation processes, or diffusion in different media platforms (Temenos, 2015). Nonetheless, few studies analyse the role of media with concrete cases.…”

Unpacking policy transfer as a situated practice: blending social, spatial, and sensory learning at a conference

“…Although not specifically examining learning nor transport policy, only three papers examine the role conferences play in mobilizing and promoting best practice policy (see Andersson and Cook 2019;Cook and Ward 2012;Temenos 2016). Cook and Ward's (2012) theoretical contribution provides a framework for how conferences contribute to the movement of policies.…”

From Co-Ops to Community Land Trusts: Tracing the Historical Evolution and Policy Mobilities of Collaborative Housing Movements

“…Another, related concern is that the urban policy mobility literature tends to focus on processes of mobilization and assemblage in a fast-policy market of neoliberal programmesfor instance, the Creative Class discourse and Business Improvement District model (K. Ward 2007)with scant attention paid to ideas mobilized by urban social movements but for some recent moves in this direction (Cook, Ward, and Ward 2015;Temenos 2015). It is as if travelling ideas within policy circles and those circulated by activists operate according to two entirely different logicsone associated with globalized capital flows and the other with embedded place-based histories.…”