This paper highlights the importance of crisis-related transformations experienced during the 2008-16
period by transnationally oriented, citizen-led solidarity organisations, a topic that has received scant
scholarly attention. It offers an exploratory, comparative analysis of the main features of these
Transnational Solidarity Organisations (TSOs) which rests on a comprehensive conceptual framework
of ‘alternative forms of resilience’, referring to the ability to bounce back from hardship and meet
human needs in challenging times. We apply a new methodology, Action Organisation Analysis, which
is based on information coded from organisational websites of solidarity organisations retrieved from
online directories. Using a sample of 1,753 TSOs, we examine two types of approaches: adaptive
(philanthropic, formal or reformist) and autonomous (mutual-help, informal or contentious) ones. We
document differential transformations for adaptive and autonomous TSOs, as reflected in their major
characteristics, i.e. their value frames, partners, routes to achieve their goals and supplementary
actions, across time and in three different issue fields: migration, disabilities and unemployment.
Notable are the increasing shifts towards social change and protests, especially for unemployment
TSOs, and less so for migration ones. The findings contribute to debates on the impact of crises on
activist solidarity organisations by documenting the dialectics of autonomy and adaptation across
contemporary social issues, as well as by highlighting the importance of TSOs’ hybrid features. The
present analysis will also be useful for future work on transnational solidarity organisations and their
transitions in a rapidly evolving global society.
(EL)
This paper highlights the importance of crisis-related transformations experienced during the 2008-16
period by transnationally oriented, citizen-led solidarity organisations, a topic that has received scant
scholarly attention. It offers an exploratory, comparative analysis of the main features of these
Transnational Solidarity Organisations (TSOs) which rests on a comprehensive conceptual framework
of ‘alternative forms of resilience’, referring to the ability to bounce back from hardship and meet
human needs in challenging times. We apply a new methodology, Action Organisation Analysis, which
is based on information coded from organisational websites of solidarity organisations retrieved from
online directories. Using a sample of 1,753 TSOs, we examine two types of approaches: adaptive
(philanthropic, formal or reformist) and autonomous (mutual-help, informal or contentious) ones. We
document differential transformations for adaptive and autonomous TSOs, as reflected in their major
characteristics, i.e. their value frames, partners, routes to achieve their goals and supplementary
actions, across time and in three different issue fields: migration, disabilities and unemployment.
Notable are the increasing shifts towards social change and protests, especially for unemployment
TSOs, and less so for migration ones. The findings contribute to debates on the impact of crises on
activist solidarity organisations by documenting the dialectics of autonomy and adaptation across
contemporary social issues, as well as by highlighting the importance of TSOs’ hybrid features. The
present analysis will also be useful for future work on transnational solidarity organisations and their
transitions in a rapidly evolving global society.
(EN)
