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This book provides the first historical and comparative study of the 'transnational activist'. A range of important recent scholarship has considered the rise of global social movements, the presence of transnational networks, and the transfer or diffusion of political techniques. Much of this writing has registered the pivotal role of 'transnational' or 'global' activists. However, if the significance of the 'transnational activist' is now routinely acknowledged, then the history of this actor is still something of a mystery. Most commentators have associated the figure with contemporary history. Hence much of the debate around 'transnational activism' is ahistorical, and claims for novelty are not often based on developed historical comparison. As this volume argues, it is possible to identify the 'transnational activist' in earlier decades and even centuries. But when did this figure first appear? What are the historical conditions that nurtured its emergence? What are the principal moments in the development of the transnational activist? And do the transnational activists of the Internet age differ in number or nature from those of earlier years? These historical questions will be at the heart of this volume.
List of contents
Chapter One: The Transnational Activist: An Introduction; Stefan Berger and Sean Scalmer.- Chapter Two: Activism in the Antipodes: Transnational Quaker Humanitarianism and the Troubled Politics of Compassion in the Early Nineteenth Century; Penelope Edmonds.- Chapter Three: Not a Man of his own Time: Roger Casement and Transnational Activism; Mariana Bolfarine.- Chapter Four: Empire and Activism: Gandhi, Imperialism, and the Global Career of Satyagraha; Sean Scalmer.- Chapter Five: Translating Anti-capitalism throughout the Empire: Tom Mann and John Curtin as Transnational Activists, 1902-1916; Liam Byrne.- Chapter Six: Marceau Pivert and the Travails of an International Socialist; Talbot Imlay.- Chapter Seven: The Making of a Transnational Activist: The Indonesian Human Rights Campaigner Carmel Budiardjo; Katharine McGregor.- Chapter Eight: Speaking Out for Justice: Bella Galhos and the International Campaign for the Independence of East Timor; Hannah Loney.- Chapter Nine: Jessie Street: Activism without Discrimination; Chloe Ward.- Chapter Ten: A Very Rooted Cosmopolitan: EP Thompson`s Englishness and His Transnational Activism; Stefan Berger and Christian Wicke.- Chapter Eleven: From the Local to the Global and Back Again: The Rainforest Information Centre and Transnational Environmental Activism in the 1980s; Iain McIntyre.- Chapter Twelve: Animal Rights Without Borders: Lyn White & Transnational Investigative Campaigning; Gonzalo Villanueva.- Chapter Thirteen: Afterword: Transnational Activisms in Social Movement Studies; Donatella della Porta.
About the author
Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He is also Executive Chair of the Foundation History of the Ruhr and an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University in the UK. Together with Holger Nehring he has published
The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective, (2017).
Sean Scalmer is Associate Professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia. His books include
Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest, (2011) and
On the Stump: Campaign Oratory and Democracy in the United States, Britain and Australia (2017).
Summary
This book provides the first historical and comparative study of the ‘transnational activist’. A range of important recent scholarship has considered the rise of global social movements, the presence of transnational networks, and the transfer or diffusion of political techniques. Much of this writing has registered the pivotal role of ‘transnational’ or ‘global’ activists. However, if the significance of the ‘transnational activist’ is now routinely acknowledged, then the history of this actor is still something of a mystery. Most commentators have associated the figure with contemporary history. Hence much of the debate around ‘transnational activism’ is ahistorical, and claims for novelty are not often based on developed historical comparison. As this volume argues, it is possible to identify the ‘transnational activist’ in earlier decades and even centuries. But when did this figure first appear? What are the historical conditions that nurtured its emergence? What are the principal moments in the development of the transnational activist? And do the transnational activists of the Internet age differ in number or nature from those of earlier years? These historical questions will be at the heart of this volume.
Additional text
“This volume is an inspiring read not only for those specifically interested in social activism but also for those who want to learn more about the historical attempts, possibilities and limitations to change the world.” (Clemens Six, Connections, September 14, 2019)
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"This volume is an inspiring read not only for those specifically interested in social activism but also for those who want to learn more about the historical attempts, possibilities and limitations to change the world." (Clemens Six, Connections, September 14, 2019)
