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Issue-adoption and campaign structure in transnational advocacy campaigns: a longitudinal network analysis

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Change log

Authors

Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Mette  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-0446

Abstract

Why do transnational actors choose to campaign on specific issues, and why do they launch campaigns when they do? In this article, we theorize the membership, focus, timing and strategies used in transnational advocacy campaigns as a function of long-standing professional networks between NGOs and individual professional campaigners. Unlike previous scholarship that highlights the role of powerful ‘gatekeeper’ organizations whose central position within transnational issue-networks allows them to promote or block specific issues, we draw on recent work in organizational sociology to bring into focus a wider transnational community of individuals and organizations whose competition for professional growth and ‘issue-control’ is crucial in defining the transnational advocacy agenda. In doing so, we qualify existing notions of agenda-setting and gatekeeping in International Relations (IR) scholarship. To illustrate our theory we use a longitudinal network analysis approach, alongside extensive interviews and analysis of primary non-governmental organization (NGO) sources. Our empirical focus is on transnational disarmament advocacy. However, our theoretical analysis has implications for transnational advocacy more broadly.

Description

Peer reviewed: True

Keywords

issue-selection, Transnational advocacy campaigns, humanitarian disarmament, transnational agenda-setting, issue-professionals, longitudinal network analysis

Journal Title

European Journal of International Relations

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1354-0661
1460-3713

Volume Title

30

Publisher

SAGE Publications