To provide the degree in which Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) actually engage in transnational cooperation. The internationalization of environmentalism is exemplified by the creation of numerous elite networks, the formation of international ENGOs, and the proliferation of international environmental treaties.
Transnational networks supposedly create new political opportunities for social movements to challenge the political status and its representatives. Globalization is a theoretical concept, more than a testable model.
At the international level, a growing number of international NGOs have formed in recent decades to lobby international policy makers, ranging from the European Union to the United Nations. Many groups in the developing world are resource poor, and international travel and international networking can be expensive. Even if ENGOs are engaged in transnational networks, there are different types of activity within these networks.
Globalization thesis: Growing transnational cooperation is due to the increasing importance of international environmental problems. From this perspective, attention to international and global environmental issues should be the major driving force behind the development of transnational cooperation. Social conditions that facilitate and empower citizen groups, such as affluence and educational levels, should also stimulate transnational cooperation.
Group characteristics thesis: Large groups with substantial resources are better able to pursue a variety of national lobbying activities. Similarly, the ideology of an environmental groups shapes its patterns of national political activity and may also influence international activity. The globalization thesis predicts that growing concern for international environmental problems stimulates participation in transnational networks. Social movement research also maintains that groups of identities and ideology are important in structuring the behavior of social movement organizations.
The globalization thesis links national characteristics to participation in transnational networks. The level of international action supports the globalization thesis, as does the importance of issue focus. The globalization theory does not give sufficient consideration to the inequalities of action that exists with the international environmental network and the implications of these inequalities.
transnational cooperation and transnational networks.
International cooperation among environmental groups benefits the movement, especially in the developing world where resources and expertise are limited.
","Global Civil Society","Social Movements","Transnational Networks","journal"