The Ethnography of Transnational Social Activism

Understanding the Global as Local Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID2467996
AuthorsHilary Cunningham (University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume26
Issue3
Pages583-604
Publication date1999-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1999.26.3.583
OpenAlexW2142658753
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited17

Through a study of two contemporary U.S. religio-political movements, I analyze globalization as a process in which social actors appropriate distinctive kinds of global imagery and rhetoric to create new forms of activism. I document and contrast the development of transnational identities among two groups of political activists and examine the unique but shifting historical conditions underlying these differences. Rather than begin with "globalization" as a structural given, I explore the "global" as itself a constructed context of political identity and practice. I include a discussion of my own discovery that my anthropological terms of analysis were often shared by the second group of political activists under study, and I explore how and why this happened, [globalization, social movements, political economy and culture, global civil society

Ethnography · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies