Weaving political fields: non-violent INGOs and the global grass roots

Nonviolence beyond the state: International NGOs and local nonviolent mobilization

“…Movement organizations influence the cognitive dimensions of social change efforts that eventuate types of institutional structures such as the type of democracy that results from democratic mobilization (Freeman, 1978; Polletta, 2004). In the few case and organizational studies that have scrutinized the role of nonviolence international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), we have learned that transnational nonviolence networks can shape the direction of movements toward nonviolence (Deats, 2009; Gallo-Cruz, 2016b; Mahoney and Eguren, 1997; Pagnucco, 1997; Smith et al, 1994). This occurs because nonviolence INGOs act as ‘midwives’ of nonviolence, through the concerted effort to diffuse discourse about best strategies and tactics (Pagnucco and McCarthy, 1999) and contribute to a sharing of a nonviolent ‘culture of opposition’ through the modeling of organizational structures that support and diffuse nonviolent mobilization, cultures, and idioms ( à la Chabot and Vinthagen, 2007).…”

“…This occurs because nonviolence INGOs act as ‘midwives’ of nonviolence, through the concerted effort to diffuse discourse about best strategies and tactics (Pagnucco and McCarthy, 1999) and contribute to a sharing of a nonviolent ‘culture of opposition’ through the modeling of organizational structures that support and diffuse nonviolent mobilization, cultures, and idioms ( à la Chabot and Vinthagen, 2007). When working directly with local populations, INGOs fold into local cultural structures of resistance by (1) helping to reconceptualize local relationships, institutions, and fields; (2) reconceptualizing actorhood as endowed with new entitlements in those fields; and (3) imparting new rules for field engagement (Gallo-Cruz, 2016b).…”