It’s Transactions, Stupid! Networks of Czech Social Movement Organizations Twenty Years after CommunismOndrej Cisar and Jiri Navratil

Institute for Comparative Political Research

Masaryk University

Specific Research Goals/Questions1. How do the networks of Czech SMOs look

like? Are there differences between the distribution of particular network properties in the case of post-materialistically-oriented ‘new’ SMOs and the ‘old’ type of participatory activism?

2. What accounts for the observed variation in network properties?

Two Modes of Activism

Participatory activism - its strength and legitimacy depends on its ability to mobilize a significant number of followers, who also supply it with necessary resources (trade unions…).

Transactional activism - its strength depends on its (transactional) capacity to link up with other organizations, and integrate them into broader platforms (environmentalists, human rights…).

Expectations

Descriptive part

Two different network structures – a dense networking of transactional activists and a less dense networking of participatory activists

Explanatory part

The bigger the exposure to international assistance programs, the bigger the capacity on the part of a local organization to assume a central position within inter-organizational networks.

Data: Czech SMOs Survey

- sectors: environmental, women’s rights, gay and lesbian, civil rights, developmental, agrarian, social services, radical Left groups, and trade unions

- snow-ball sampling (some sectors supplemented by expert knowledge), 70 % response rate, N=220

- key informant face-to-face interviewing using a standardized questionnaire, October 2007 – December 2009

Operationalization

Two dimensions of horizontal transactional capacity: „real“ (sharing resources) and „nominal“ (potential facilitation of information flow)

Real ties – existing relations of cooperation among SMOs – all-degree centrality measure

Nominal ties – position of actor within the whole network – betweenness centrality measure

Network(s) of Czech SMOs I.

Weak components of the network (energy layout, Kamada-Kawai, separate components, adjusted)

Network(s) of Czech SMOs II.

Distribution of the all-degree centrality within the network - main issue area (energy layout, Fruchterman Reingold)

Network(s) of Czech SMOs III.

Distribution of the all-degree centrality within the network – internally mobilized resources (energy layout, Fruchterman Reingold)

Network(s) of Czech SMOs IV.

Extraction of the strong network components – the main issue area (energy layout, Fruchterman Reingold, adjusted)

Network(s) of Czech SMOs V.

Extraction of the strong network components – internally mobilized resources (energy layout, Fruchterman Reingold, adjusted)

Explanatory model

Questions

Operationalization Explanation model improvement Structure of argument