The upside‐down roots of a transnational advocacy network: applying an ‘organizational ecology’ approach to the anti‐GMO network

Abstract

In this article, I examine a transnational advocacy network opposed to the introduction of genetically modified crops and supportive of organic agriculture in India. I argue that this network illustrates some of the consequences of ‘upward oriented linkages’, in which professional NGO brokers focus on constructing relationships with other professional or elite partner bodies such as donor organizations, global retailers and the English language media. The ‘upside‐down’ tree that results has roots pointing upwards to global partners and to domestic elite actors but is less responsive, and less tightly bound, to mass organizations and to its purported non‐elite constituency of marginal farmers. I make this case through a methodological approach I term ‘organizational ecology’ in which I explore the idea of NGO based advocacy organizations as filling ‘niches’ in the larger political ecology of rural India and within this ‘ecology’ forming symbiotic connections to other organizations.

Publicised scrutiny and mediatised environmental conflict: The case of Tasmanian salmon aquaculture

“…The results indicate that the Four Corners program prompted the presence of Environment Tasmania in the news media. This could reinforce the symbiotic relationship between NGOs and journalists [49][50][51]. However, supporting [52] findings, the ENGOs' presence in the media is still not as prevalent as corporate and political representatives (Table 2).…”

Complementarities in CSO Collaborations: How Working with Diversity Produces Advantages

“…Other work points out that diversity as a reality gets 'black-boxed' by assumptions of shared values and discourses (Jordan and Van Tuijl 2000). Some more critical work points out how 'global' (Northern-dominated) discourses have pushed out alternative discourses originating in the global South (Bownas 2017). When diversity is valued, it is for its potential contribution to attaining a shared purpose through collaboration based on the foundation of common ground.…”

Transnational Advocacy in Increasing Women’s Representation in Myanmar’s Parliament

“…The empirical studies have been conducted by many researchers in regard to the transnational advocacy networks (Sperling, Ferree, & Risman, 2001;Carpenter, 2007;Ciplet, 2014;Martinez, 2014;Bownas, 2017;Mukherjee, 2017;Hadden & Jasny, 2017). Sperling, Ferree, & Risman (2001) examined the transnational mobilization of the United States' women's movements in supporting the women's political activism in Russia.…”

“…In regard to human rights issue, Martinez (2014) explored the challenges of the human rights network in advocating the issue in the Mediterranean. Recently, the study on the transnational advocacy against the genetically modified organism (GMO) and on tobacco control was conducted by Bownas (2017), and Mukherjee (2017), respectively. The issue of women's rights has always been at the core of the agenda of transnational network, including the underrepresentation of women in politics.…”