Activists Beyond Borders

Reviews / Votes

Activists beyond Borders is one of the finest books on global social activism to come our in recent years. It breaks new ground by offering a theory of grassroots international activism.... The book is chalked full of lessons for labor and other social activists.... The book is inspiring.

(Dollars and Sense) An important new contribution.... The challenge the authors set for themselves is a valuable one, and this book helps navigate these largely uncharted practical and theoretical waters.

(Canadian Journal of Political Science) For Keck and Sikkink, the webs of connections human rights groups have formed constitute the heart of their story. In showing why these networks succeed, they have advanced theoretical analysis.... An essential addition to the libraries of all interested in human rights.

(Human Rights Quarterly) Keck and Sikkink are masters at blurring disciplinary boundaries, melding theory on international relations with a broad range of theories on the formation of domestic social movements. They also do an impressive job of tracing the origins of these networks historically, including case studies of the mid-nineteenth-century antislavery movement and the movement for female suffrage.

(Latin American Research Review) Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink's Activists beyond Borders has been extremely influential in studies of transnational collective action. Building on firsthand experiences, fieldwork, and a vast secondary literature on social movement activity, they highlight the rising prevalence and influence of transnational actors in domestic political exchange and international relations. To demonstrate this phenomenon they introduce a database, constructed by Jackie Smith, on international nongovernmental social change organizations. They also present three qualitative case studies of networks working for human rights, the environment, and women's freedom from violence. The case studies are particularly noteworthy insofar as 'approximately half of all international nongovernmental social change organizations work on these three issues.' Their conceptual innovations, grounded theory, and illustrative case studies have broken new ground and have become a touchstone for studies on transnational collective action.

(Comparative Politics) Offers valuable descriptive accounts of the role played by nonstate actors in the global issues arena, mostly in areas relating to human rights and the environment.

(The American Journal of International Law) Valuable reading for anyone concerned with contemporary dynamics of social change.

(International Affairs)