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Transnational Activism in the Americas: The Internet and Innovations in the Repertoire of Contention

Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change

ISBN: 978-0-76231-263-4, eISBN: 978-1-84950-380-8

Publication date: 20 December 2005

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet has increasingly served as an important tactical tool for protest campaigns, arguably contributing to a restructuring of the repertoire of contention. This study analyzes a recent case of Internet-backed activism, focusing on the ongoing transnational mobilization against the Free Trade Area of the America's (FTAA) initiative. The Hemispheric Social Alliance, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organizations across the Western hemisphere opposed to the free market underpinnings of the FTAA, has employed Internet technologies to communicate, strategize, educate and pressure state authorities in an effort to promote an alternative social-developmental vision. This case of transnational contention has important implications that go beyond the Americas context. The organization of groups transnationally, combined with Internet communication and coordination strategies, suggests that popular political protest has begun to look considerably different from the time when state boundaries contained much political discourse and action.

Citation

Ayres, J.M. (2005), "Transnational Activism in the Americas: The Internet and Innovations in the Repertoire of Contention", Coy, P.G. (Ed.) Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 26), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 35-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-786X(05)26002-0

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited