The Creation of a Global Public Good through Transnational Coalitions of Social Movements: The Case of the Amazon
Author(s)
Schittecatte, Catherine
Abstract
Discusses the emergence of transnational social movements and their self-assigned role in protecting what they understand to be a global public good: the Amazon rain forest. The article focuses on coalitions among environmental, cultural, and human rights movements from Western countries with South American indigenous movements. The analysis demonstrates the benefits gained from a combination of the resource mobilization and the new social movement approaches to the study of collective action. The case study shows that coalitions among these groups and their joint involvement in the Amazon region are motivated by instrumental reasons, as well as by a sense of collective identity and new cultural codes.