1995/04/01 by Paul Wapner · 678 citations
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Civil society #Environmental politics #Environmentalism #Global politics #Law #Mining and Resource Management #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Public administration #Relevance (law) #Religion, Society, and Development #Sociology #State (computer science) #Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development #Work (physics)
paper · doi:10.1017/s0043887100016415
published in World Politics 47(3), 311-340 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1995/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) both lobby states and work within and across societies to advance their interests. These latter efforts are generally ignored by students of world politics because they do not directly involve governments. A study of transnational environmental activist groups (TEAGs) such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and World Wildlife Fund demonstrates that NGO societal efforts indeed shape widespread behavior throughout the world. TEAGs work through transnational social, economic, and cultural networks to shift standards of good conduct, change corporate practices, and empower local communities. This type of practice involves “world civic politics.” That is, TEAGs influence widespread behavior by politicizing global civil society—that slice of collective life which exists above the individual and below the state yet across national boundaries. This article examines the activity of world civic politics as practiced by environmental activists and evaluates its relevance for the study of NGOs and world politics in general.