The Effects of 'Transnationalism Reversed' in Venezuela: Assessing the impact of UN global conferences on the women's movement

Horizontalist Youth Camps and the Bolivarian Revolution: A Story of Blocked Diffusion

“…Middle class social movements had experimented with non-hierarchical forms of organizing in Caracas in the past, partly as a critique of political parties (Crisp and Levine 1998;Ellner 1999;Friedman 1999). Indeed, there had been a rivalry between the models and identities for at least twenty years.…”

“…As I've explained, past research has shown that the centralization of political networks can limit the possibility of deliberation by limiting the diversity of opinions participating in debates. The political networks in Caracas have historically been dominated by a small number of players, most notably, the political parties (Levine and Crisp 1999;Ellner 1999: 77;Friedman 1999). Although stable, this system left little room for emerging social forces to find expression, or new identities to be experimented with.…”

Situating Women: Gender Politics and Circumstance in Fiji

“…Conversely, resistance-oriented accounts have suggested that over-emphasising transnationalism can distract women's organisations from responding to urgent issues of concern to women at the local level (Friedman 1999;Riles 2001;Spivak 1996;Oloka-Onyango and Tamale 1995). Others have been sceptical of the extent to which feminist transnationalism is truly participatory.…”

“…Emphasis is placed upon the horizontal and collective organisational structures of women's groups, said to enable a distinctive, fluid and participatory style of political engagement (Walker 1984;Goetz 1997;Lang 1997;Alvarez 1999;Friedman 1999). Those working from a resistance orientation also privilege the collective and 'transversal' aspect of women's organising as distinctive and enabling a 'politics of dialogue and communication' (Yuval-Davis 2006: 281).…”

“…Yet the integrity of this transversal politics is said to be threatened when women's organisations engage with institutional actors, be they statebased bureaucracies or multilateral organisations. These are often judged to interfere with the collective structure of women's groups and encourage the emergence of hierarchies within and between organisations (Yuval-Davis 2006;Riles 2001;Lang 1997;Alvarez 1999;Friedman 1999). …”