Transnational Actors Research Articles

China and the Global Commons: Selective Contributions and Contestation

Abstract The objective of this paper is to analyse how and why the People’s Republic of China (PRC) influences the making of regulatory and non-regulatory frameworks governing global commons. In the first part, the paper presents three factors that underpin the governance of the global commons today: the participation of a multiplicity of stakeholders (i.e. states and private actors); the establishment of new institutions, norms, and procedures to govern global commons; as well as the function of the commons as an alternative discourse to the crisis of neoliberal capitalism. In the second part, the paper presents how recent changes in China’s foreign policy and its engagement with international law inform the emergence of China as a key stakeholder in the governance of global commons, particularly in relation to the governance of maritime, space, Arctic, and cyber domains. In the third part, the paper introduces some specific features of China’s engagement with the global commons. These features include an instrumental and selective approach to international law; attempts to localise the governance of the commons; as well as reluctance in engaging with transnational actors in the governance of the global commons.

Devlet ve Devlet-dışı Aktörler arasında Küresel İklim Yönetişimi: Çekişme ve Yeniden Meşrulaştırma Dinamikleri

Global climate governance is one of the most complex global governance systems that is also ridden with
 divergent interests of states and non-state actors. Since the 2000s, the authority of UN-led global climate
 governance has been contested by the states declining their mitigation targets of the Kyoto Protocol and by
 those that find the international climate negotiations inefficient to ramp up climate action. These divergent
 views of states resulted in the counter-institutionalization apparent in the proliferation of minilateral
 forums and hybrid coalitions of climate initiatives oftentimes bringing states and non-state actors together.
 These non-UNFCCC partnerships have functioned to be strategic actions that put pressure on the global
 climate governance system to re-legitimate itself. Meanwhile, transnational actors have also contested the
 same system demanding a deeper cooperation that will keep the temperature goal below 2 degrees. This
 study argues that with its new mode of governance named hybrid multilateralism, the Paris Agreement
 was actually an institutional adaptation to the contestations by states and non-state actors in the forms
 of counter-institutionalization and politicization. It also discusses the problematic sides of the functions
 that non-state actors are expected to provide in this new governance mode. This paper is composed of
 four parts: firstly, the theoretical background that feeds into the analysis of empirical data with regard to
 global climate governance will be presented. Secondly, beginning from the Rio Conference, milestone
 developments in global climate governance will be examined by taking the contestation by the states into
 consideration. In the third part, the process of the politicization of climate change in which transnational
 actors and specifically the climate change movement demanded more decisive climate action will be
 explicated. In the last part, the existing legitimacy deficits with regard to non-state actors in post-Paris
 climate governance will be elaborated.

Learning to assemble the hidden bodies: Embodied and emplaced mathematical literacy in transnational migrant activism

ABSTRACT Background We situate the mobilization of mathematical literacy as a tool to see and redress social and historical dilemmas (Engeström, 2014; Gutiérrez, 2016) rooted in the geo-economic politics of race, gender, and class. Methods Using collaborative ethnography, we describe how mathematical literacy was mobilized by an activist collective that intervened against violence toward migrant women. Our research considers a long period of development to examine how the activism impacted bodily politics, community, and relevant policies. Findings Our findings illustrate how the collective of activists led by a migrant woman of color countered the official data that did not reveal marginalized voices. Critical synthesis of embodiment and emplacement allowed us to examine how the mobilization of mathematical literacy became consequential (Jurow et al., 2016) in two interrelated aspects: 1) embodiment, the process through which the historically hidden bodies of migrant women came to be visible and assembled and 2) emplacement, the transformation of a place toward gathering disparate bodies. Contribution Our work contributes to expanding the geo-political terrain of scholarship in the learning sciences by bringing forth the history of activism led by Filipina migrants in Japan, which in turn shines a light on traditionally masked epistemology key to mobilizing mathematical literacy for solidarity.

Pilgrims and Missionaries of Social Peace: Geneva and Pontigny as Sites of Scandinavian Internationalism in Late Interwar Europe

This article investigates two interlinked sites of Scandinavian socialist internationalism in continental Europe: the Nordic folk high school in Geneva and the humanistic centre created by French philosopher Paul Desjardins in Pontigny. Locating and situating these two nodes on the cultural-political map of late interwar Europe allows for a study of how actors from the popular movements in Denmark, Norway and Sweden mobilised educational ideals and practices to internationalise the experience of Scandinavian social democracy. The analysis shows how the transnational activities of the Nordic folk high school’s study course opened up new spaces for Scandinavian internationalism. In this way, the article argues, the school represented an experiment in internationalism from below where Nordism was deployed as a cultural strategy to create international understanding for working-class Scandinavians; and created new arenas for Nordic encounters with French political and intellectual milieus that admired Scandinavian democracy and social peace.

Tamil diaspora activism in the post-liberal international order: navigating politics and norms

ABSTRACT Diasporas play a key role in universal norm transfer processes, mainly through transnational political activism. For decades, Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora activists have been drawing attention to injustices in the home country by and applying liberal, cosmopolitan normative frameworks. The use of these frameworks helps these actors to advance their transnational political goals and to cultivate transnational political networks that aid in advancing their struggles to influence positive change in Sri Lanka. In the current post-liberal phase of international politics, the main architects of the liberal, cosmopolitan international norms, who previously supported their implementation, have started to abandon them. This turnaround has tragically coincided with an increasingly hostile reception to these norms in Sri Lanka, home of the Tamil diaspora. This article examines how the recent retraction of and reaction to international norms in international and national politics is reshaping Tamil diasporic transnational political activism and transnational-national political relationships.

Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State

Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State

Diversity within Protestant Transnationalism: Differences in the Scope and Reach of Pentecostal/Charismatic and Evangelical Missions

Background: A growing number of studies have begun to emphasize differences between Pentecostals and Charismatics (P/Cs), on the one hand, and Evangelicals, on the other. Yet few of these studies have considered differences in transnational missions. Purpose: This study explores the extent to which P/C and Evangelical organizations vary in their transnational outreach, both in terms of what they do and where they operate. Methods: To examine these differences, I explore data on transnational American Protestant mission agencies using descriptions of trends over time and time series logistic regressions. Results: Although both P/Cs and Evangelicals tend to be concerned with otherworldly soteriological issues, I find that P/Cs are even more likely to engage in otherworldly types of activities that allow for the propagation and proliferation of the Gospel, especially with respect to evangelism and the publication and distribution of Christian literature. In addition, although both P/C and Evangelical agencies gravitate towards countries where the percentage of Protestants is low, P/C agencies are comparatively less active in countries with the lowest percentages. However, there is little evidence of differences between P/C and Evangelical agencies’ ministries when it comes to countries’ varying levels of development. Conclusions and Implications: The study concludes with several implications. First, although many differences may be more salient when distinguishing Evangelicals and P/Cs together from other Protestant traditions, there are sufficient important variations between the two former traditions to warrant treating them as analytically distinct, at least with respect to their organized transnational activism. Second, at the same time, non-findings in the study also suggest that differences between Evangelicals and P/Cs are not as pronounced at the organizational as compared to the individual level. Finally, the study reflects on the limitations of the data with recommendations for further research.

International geoscience cooperation – fair and equitable?

Abstract This chapter looks at some of the ethical issues associated with international cooperation in the geosciences, which face students, researchers, academics, practitioners and others who work in this sector. It notes that the geosciences are fundamentally trans-national activities and traces the history of international cooperation from ancient times, through the era of European colonialism to the present. The drivers for international cooperation are the desire to find and extract natural resources, ways of avoiding and mitigating natural hazards through to curiosity-driven research. It identifies how altruism co-exists and sometimes competes with politics and enterprise in implementing international cooperation, and the various roles of international bodies and agencies.

Samurai and Southern Belles: Interracial Romance, Southern Morality, and the 1860 Japanese Embassy

Abstract The 1860 Japanese Embassy to the United States was the first diplomatic encounter between Japanese and American people on American soil, and sparked a whirlwind of national optimism and cultural fantasy that challenged the linked conceptions of race, masculinity, and power. In a time when interracial relationships were prohibited in much of the United States, seventeen-year-old samurai Tateishi Onojirō, nicknamed “Tommy,” and his rising count of love letters made headlines across America. This article argues that, in 1860, representations of the 1860 Japanese Embassy and Tateishi in daily Southern newspapers were used to further complicate the concept of Japanese masculinity and dramatize the differences between the American North and South. The perceived desirability of American women became a source of pride at the same time interracial encounters between American women and the Japanese embassy threatened American racial hierarchies. Examining how interactions between samurai diplomats and transnational actors challenged antebellum hierarchies of race, masculinity, and power expands the significance of the 1860 embassy to the study of gender and interracial romantic relations, the production of regional identity, and the influence of Tokugawa Japan on antebellum American identity formation.

‘We need to organise millions of people’ – how Alter Summit and DiEM25 struggle to create a European ‘modern prince’

ABSTRACT The European anti-austerity movement is generally associated with spawning leftist electoral projects, which exemplify the domestic institutionalization of activism. That the movement also generated a number of transnational coalitions with unusually broad and far-reaching ambitions remained somewhat under the radar. Projects like Alter Summit and DiEM25 seek to expand the anti-austerity movement’s struggle to the European level, by developing transnational organizational structures and challenging the political course of the EU. However, neither project managed to live up to its ambitions thus far and this article explores why. It argues that Alter Summit and DiEM25 represent attempts to create a transnational ‘modern prince’: a party-like organization that unites social movements around a counter-hegemonic strategy. While both managed to develop such strategies they also encountered challenges in facilitating democratic cohesion between transnational leaders and domestic supporters. This is partly the result of idiosyncratic shortcomings, but also reveals general challenges for transnational activism.

Finding the Right Islam for the Maldives: Political Transformation and State-Responses to Growing Religious Dissent

At the first glance, the Maldives appear not to be prone to religious conflict. The archipelago state comprises a religiously and ethnically homogenous society, the different islands have been subject to shared Islamic rule for centuries and even constitutionally religious homogeneity is granted by making every citizen a Muslim and religious diversity prevented by limiting naturalisation to a specific Muslim group. Yet, today allegations of a threat to Islam play a major role in political mobilisation, the Maldives are faced with Islamist violence, and Maldivians have joined the Islamic State and al Qaeda in disproportionally high numbers. The paper seeks to find an answer to the question of how the repression of dissent under the Gayoom regime and the expansion and rise of violent Islamism relate in the Maldivian context. Next to the theoretical model, the paper will provide an introduction to the Maldivian political culture and the reasons for changes therein. It will shed light on the emergence of three major Islamic streams in the Maldivian society, which stood opposed to one another by the late 1990s and early 2000s, and show how Gayoom’s state repression of dissent initiated an escalation process and furthered Islamist violent politics. The paper will argue that while state repression of dissent played a significant role in the repertoire selection of Islamic non-state agents, the introduction of fundamentalist Islamic interpretations through migration, educational exchange programmes and transnational actors have laid the ground for violence in the Maldives.

Keberhasilan UNDP melalui Program HPMP dalam Pembentukan Kebijakan Perlindungan Lapisan Ozon di Indonesia

This article analyzes the role of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the Hydrochlorofluorocarbons Phase-Out Management Plan (HPMP) Program which encourage Indonesia to implement regulations at the ministerial level that aim to undertake ozone layer protection and the phasing-out of the substances that deplete the ozone layer in Indonesia. This shows the role of international organization to shape national regulation in member states. In analyzing these problems, researchers used the framework of the international norm diffusion, specifically the conditions on economic assistance and the interaction with transnational actors, also the State Socialization. This study uses qualitative methods that emphasize non-numeric data and by conducting studies in previous studies. The conclusion of this research is that the UNDP through the HPMP Program has played a role in establishing national regulations related to Ozone Layer Protection and the phasing out of the substances that deplete the ozone layer which is regulated in Minister of Industry Regulation Number: 41/M-Ind/Per/5/2014 and Regulation of the Minister of Trade Number: 55/M-Dag/Per/ 9/2014.

Burocratizar para não corromper: o impacto de atores transnacionais nas medidas anticorrupção da estratégia nacional de combate à corrupção e à lavagem de dinheiro

A pesquisa que se apresenta tem como objetivo analisar o impacto de atores transnacionais nas alterações da burocracia es-tatal brasileira anticorrupção por meio das diretrizes exaradas pela Estratégia Nacional de Combate à Corrupção e à Lavagem de Dinheiro (ENCCLA). A apreciação sobre as ações da ENCCLA, no período compreendido de 2010 até 2020, sinaliza o impacto dos atores transnacionais na burocratização dos instrumentos nacionais anticorrupção, destacando uma mutação na racionalidade administrativa e influenciando comportamentos executivos, legislativos e judiciais de prevenção e de combate à corrupção. Utilizou-se, para o desenvolvimento da presente pesquisa, o método indutivo.

An ethno-linguistic dimension in transnational activity space measured with mobile phone data

In addition to permanent migration, different forms of cross-border mobility were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from tourism to job-related commuting. In this paper ethno-linguistic differences in cross-border mobility using the activity space framework are considered. New segregation theories emphasise that segregation in one part of the activity space (e.g. in residential neighbourhood) affects the segregation in other parts of the activity space (e.g. in workplace), and that spatial mobility between activity locations is equally important in the production and reproduction of ethnic inequalities. Until now, segregation in activity spaces has been studied by focusing on daily activities inside one country. In reality, an increasing number of people pursue their activities across different countries, so that their activity spaces extend beyond state borders, which can have important implications for the functioning of ethno-linguistic communities and the transfer of inequalities from one country to another. This study takes advantage of mobility data based on mobile phone use, and the new avenues provided for the study of ethno-linguistic differences in temporary cross-border mobility. Such data allow the study of different cross-border visitor groups—tourists, commuters, transnationals, long-term stayers—by providing the means to measure the frequency of visits and time spent abroad, and to link together the travel of each person over several years. Results show that members of the ethno-linguistic minority population in Estonia make more trips than members of the ethno-linguistic majority, and they also have higher probability of being tourists and cross-border commuters than the majority population, paying frequent visits to their ancestral homelands. The connections between ethno-linguistic background and temporary cross-border mobility outlined in this study allows for future discussion on how (in)equalities can emerge in transnational activity space and what implications it has for segregation.

Transnational Activities and Identifications –A population-based study on three immigrant groups in Finland

ABSTRACT Our understanding of the lived experience of transnationalism is limited by the scarcity of high-quality quantitative evidence. Representative evidence on the emotional and identification aspects of transnationalism is especially missing. To address this gap, we investigated the transnational involvement of three migrant groups – Somali, Kurdish and Russian – in Finland. Using high-quality random sample survey data, the study examined transnational activities – remittance sending, following media, keeping in touch with and visits to the country of origin – as well as transnational identification with significant others living abroad. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) demonstrated that transnational involvement can be empirically divided into transnational activities and identifications, as suggested by prior theoretical works. Regression analysis showed that transnational activities and identifications varied strongly between the three groups. Russians were the most active in transnational activities while Somalis showed the highest levels of identification with their country of origin. Activities increased with the longer stay, while identification decreased. Family ties played a role in transnational identification. Our results point towards the complexity in the relationship between transnational involvement and economic integration in the host society.

David Stenner. Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State.

David Stenner. Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State.

Adversaries of advertising: anti-consumerism and subvertisers’ critique and practice

ABSTRACT Anti-consumerism is a rich and diverse field of advocacy and activism and has historically been studied in terms of its tactics, representations and ideologies. This paper presents an original contribution to this field through, first, its presentation of primary research conducted among subvertising practitioners in an international context. Subvertising (aka culture jamming) can be both a movement and a set of tactics used by movements. As an emergent anti-consumerist social movement, it has been connecting individuals and collectives in transnational actions against advertising. Drawing on twenty-four interviews with subvertisers in seven countries, I illustrate their perspectives of advertising as a problem, as well as their practices as responses to that. I argue that their theory and practice of anti-consumerism goes beyond a for/against binary which regards advertising as an ideological enemy. Instead, they protest the deleterious effects of contemporary Habermasian ‘publicity’. Thus, the second contribution of this paper is in its application of a grounded theory approach complemented by framing theory to gain insights with respect to those, specifically in terms of public wellbeing, damage to democracy, and damage to the environment. To this set of problems, they offer solutions oriented towards critical pedagogy or policy change. Mobilising all tools at their disposal, from media production to media disruption, subvertisers are involved in the struggle against consumer capitalism, in both cultural and material terms. In their articulation of resistance narratives, and through their variant and often coordinated practices, subvertisers are united in a transnational anti-consumerist social movement.

Towards the European transnational public sphere: Finnish liberal intellectuals and their periodicals between nationalism and internationalism under russification

ABSTRACT An important era for the European Enlightenment-founded ‘republic of letters’ was the cultural internationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The fin de siècle was also significant in forming the concepts of both the European intellectual and the European public sphere. The starting point of my article is the Finnish liberal cultural intellectuals during this period. In their activities in Europe, these Finnish intellectuals operated in the context of Russification, and that left a national mark. On the other hand, Scandinavia was the first frame of reference for literary-oriented Finnish liberal intellectuals. Through empirical examples from the cultural periodicals they edited, I discuss how periphery intellectuals joined the European republic of letters and how transnationalism in exchanging ideas and sharing universal ideals was realized. The outcome of the article is that although transnationalism in history studies provides a fruitful way to approach the era in question, often nationalism play a significant role in the transnational activities of intellectuals in small nations. Besides the political situation of a young small nation in turmoil, the close relationship between the State and ‘intellectual labour’ makes the Finnish case interesting in terms of transnational history.

Transnational activism against heritage destruction as a human rights violation in Romania before and after 1989

Cet article examine les mobilisations transnationales des deux côtés du rideau de fer contre la destruction du patrimoine en Roumanie pendant le régime de Nicolae Ceaușescu, et leurs suites après 1989. A la fin des années 1980, diverses campagnes ont conduit à la création d’une mission de l’Unesco dont le but était d’évaluer l’état du patrimoine bâti et qui créa un précédent dans le bloc communiste en accusant le régime roumain à l’ONU de violations des droits de l’Homme. L’article montre que ces initiatives ont également contribué à la délégitimisation de Ceaușescu en présentant la destruction du patrimoine comme un droit de l’Homme violé par les autorités communistes. Pourtant, malgré les échos internationaux antérieurs à 1989, ces mobilisations ont eu peu d’impact sur le processus de traitement du passé dans le post-communisme.

Introduction. Transnational activism and the globalisation of anti-communism after 1989

Introduction. Transnational activism and the globalisation of anti-communism after 1989