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Identifier

000445714

https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211032240

Title

Transnational Solidarity Organisations and their Main Features, before and since 2008: Adaptive and/or Autonomous? [article]

Author

Κούση, Μαρία

Author

Πάσχου, Μαρία

Author

Λουκάκης, Άγγελος

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance of crisis-related transformations experienced during the 2008-16 period by transnationally oriented, citizen-led solidarity organisations, a topic that has received scant scholarly attention. It offers an exploratory, comparative analysis of the main features of these Transnational Solidarity Organisations (TSOs) which rests on a comprehensive conceptual framework of ‘alternative forms of resilience’, referring to the ability to bounce back from hardship and meet human needs in challenging times. We apply a new methodology, Action Organisation Analysis, which is based on information coded from organisational websites of solidarity organisations retrieved from online directories. Using a sample of 1,753 TSOs, we examine two types of approaches: adaptive (philanthropic, formal or reformist) and autonomous (mutual-help, informal or contentious) ones. We document differential transformations for adaptive and autonomous TSOs, as reflected in their major characteristics, i.e. their value frames, partners, routes to achieve their goals and supplementary actions, across time and in three different issue fields: migration, disabilities and unemployment. Notable are the increasing shifts towards social change and protests, especially for unemployment TSOs, and less so for migration ones. The findings contribute to debates on the impact of crises on activist solidarity organisations by documenting the dialectics of autonomy and adaptation across contemporary social issues, as well as by highlighting the importance of TSOs’ hybrid features. The present analysis will also be useful for future work on transnational solidarity organisations and their transitions in a rapidly evolving global society.

Physical description

[article] /

Language

English

Subject

Autonomous organisations

Civic society

Disability

Economic crisis

Europe

Migration

Solidarity organisations