if there is any hope of sustaining change within bureaucratic and policy structures. Each cannot achieve a successful and radical transformation alone. There are
inevitably tensions, but Gupta argues that these are productive ones, as long as the
movements can hold the more formal institutions to account and the network
continues to serve the movement participants. The challenge is how to avoid new
institutions becoming separated from their network and movement base, and how
to keep the networks active so that they are continually generating new ideas and
innovations, and avoid getting co-opted by increasingly formalized and powerful
institutions in the mainstream. The movements we discuss below have embraced
such networking and institutionalization challenges and opportunities to different
extents, and in different ways, shaping their abilities to contribute to trans -
formational change.
These case study mobilizations, like many others, are reflective of a particular
social–political–cultural process that emerged in Western Europe and North
America in the late 1960s, while picking up on other traditions of protest and
mobilization, notably Ghandian organization and philosophy in India, and radical
social movements protesting against dictatorship in Latin America. Today, such
traditions often blend with Western environmentalisms, as new forms emerge
through global networking and linkages afforded by international travel, Internetbased communication and global networking, especially among a politically vocal,
globalized middle class. Yet in other settings, with a different history, culture and
politics, there may be other forms of organization whose ‘green’ features and com -
mitment to transformation are less recognizable – at least to Western-influenced
commentators. We turn to these instances later, asking if there are other forms of
less visible but potentially transformative mobilization that are important, and need
attention and support if a truly global set of green transformations is to unfold.
Towards green transformations: three cases
In the following sections, we discuss three different cases of mobilization, exploring
how four dimensions of social movements identified in the literature – framing,
identity, resource mobilization and networks (Leach and Scoones, 2007) – play
out in practice in different cases and settings, in interaction with dynamics along
a spectrum from movement to institutionalization, and a focus on particular local
issues, to wider global concerns. It is in relation to these interacting dynamics that
we address the politics of mobilization in each case, and the contradictions and
tensions as well as opportunities and challenges that arise in creating green
transformations.
La Via Campesina and food sovereignty
La Via Campesina – the peasants’ way – emerged in the late 1990s around a
constellation of groups, particularly in Europe and Latin America, wanting to defend
122 Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones
inevitably tensions, but Gupta argues that these are productive ones, as long as the
movements can hold the more formal institutions to account and the network
continues to serve the movement participants. The challenge is how to avoid new
institutions becoming separated from their network and movement base, and how
to keep the networks active so that they are continually generating new ideas and
innovations, and avoid getting co-opted by increasingly formalized and powerful
institutions in the mainstream. The movements we discuss below have embraced
such networking and institutionalization challenges and opportunities to different
extents, and in different ways, shaping their abilities to contribute to trans -
formational change.
These case study mobilizations, like many others, are reflective of a particular
social–political–cultural process that emerged in Western Europe and North
America in the late 1960s, while picking up on other traditions of protest and
mobilization, notably Ghandian organization and philosophy in India, and radical
social movements protesting against dictatorship in Latin America. Today, such
traditions often blend with Western environmentalisms, as new forms emerge
through global networking and linkages afforded by international travel, Internetbased communication and global networking, especially among a politically vocal,
globalized middle class. Yet in other settings, with a different history, culture and
politics, there may be other forms of organization whose ‘green’ features and com -
mitment to transformation are less recognizable – at least to Western-influenced
commentators. We turn to these instances later, asking if there are other forms of
less visible but potentially transformative mobilization that are important, and need
attention and support if a truly global set of green transformations is to unfold.
Towards green transformations: three cases
In the following sections, we discuss three different cases of mobilization, exploring
how four dimensions of social movements identified in the literature – framing,
identity, resource mobilization and networks (Leach and Scoones, 2007) – play
out in practice in different cases and settings, in interaction with dynamics along
a spectrum from movement to institutionalization, and a focus on particular local
issues, to wider global concerns. It is in relation to these interacting dynamics that
we address the politics of mobilization in each case, and the contradictions and
tensions as well as opportunities and challenges that arise in creating green
transformations.
La Via Campesina and food sovereignty
La Via Campesina – the peasants’ way – emerged in the late 1990s around a
constellation of groups, particularly in Europe and Latin America, wanting to defend
122 Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones