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External Funds, Local Responses: Women Based and LGBTQ Coalitions and Networks

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External Funds, Local Responses: Women Based and LGBTQ Coalitions and Networks External Funds, Local Responses: Women based and LGBTQ coalitions and networks. Insights from Romania and Poland Presented at the 12th International conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, Ersta Sköndal University College, Stockholm, Sweden, June 28 - July 1, 2016 Andrada Nimu Dept. of Political Science, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania Phone: (+40) 751 139 389 E-mail: andrada.nimu. [email protected] Abstract: This paper explores and explains networks and coalitions from Romania and Poland in which women based and LGBTQ rights NGOs take part in. A two years comparative analysis shows that networks and coalitions function on a three level basis. Firstly, they are supported by funders in their efforts to build a strong ‘voice’ for women and sexual minorities. Secondly, they function as channels for diffusion, borrowing practices and modeling as well as resistance mechanisms. Lastly, networks deal with reciprocity, barter, mutual self-help, surviving strategies or connections at the political and international level. By bridging institutionalist approaches, social movement theories and post-social studies, the paper argues that networks and coalitions are tools in which institutional norms and resistance mechanisms are intertwined. Thus, the capacity of the NGOs to bring change depends not only on socio-political contexts and financial support from funders and agencies, but also on coalitions and networks. Key words: external aid, networks, coalitions, Romania, Poland. 1 Introduction Women and sexual minorities tend to organize differently than gender-neutral organizations inside the civil sector (Bradshaw et al., 1996, Foster and Orser, 1994; Odendahl, 1994). They establish organizations that are less hierarchical (Clemens, 1999) less formal, as well as more inclusive and consensual (Bordt, 1997; Lott, 1994). Political, economic and sociocultural opportunities and constraints, as well as recruitment methods, leadership roles and management styles may exhibit gender patterning1 (Moghadam 2000, 60) in the non- governmental (NGO) sector. Taking gender patterning into account, research (Foster and Meinhard 2004, 11) shows that women’s NGOs are more likely than gender neutral organizations to have inter-organizational relationships and collaborate inside and outside their networks. In both Romania and Poland women’s and LGBTQ organizations have been successfully building coalitions across classes, races, ethnicities, and political affiliations2 (Britton 2005; Fuchs and Hoecker 2004; Lovin and Regulska 2016). This tends to occur due to environmental changes that impact their survival on the one hand, as well as in their quest for involving in partners, even groups with distinctive agendas (Baldez 2003) on the other. This paper explores networks and coalitions from Romania and Poland in which women based and LGBTQ rights NGOs participate, in order to expand and explain the aspects underlying the cumulating factors that stand behind this cooperation. The paper doesn’t focus on a particular coalition or network at a given time-frame in the two countries. Rather, it identifies and analyses types of mechanisms that are existent in various coalitions and networks and then grasps their specificities. The following research questions are addressed: What are the particularities of inter-organizational relations inside women based and sexual minority networks and coalitions in Romania and Poland? How do these networks change over time? How do they adapt to the new economic, political and social challenges in the two countries? What are the interests, motifs and challenges that their members encounter? Distinct explanations for inter-organizational networks come from a variety of academic disciplines, such as management studies, public administration, organizational sociology, game theory, resource dependence theory, institutional theory, social movements’ theories or social network analysis. At the institutional (macro) level, the emergence of networks is studied in 2 relation with the particularities of the institutional environment, dominant social institutions and the characteristics of the society in which the network is formed (Ebers 1997, 4). At the level of relational research (micro level, such as family or friendship ties) the focus is set on links and interdependencies that exist among organizations and/or individuals (Ebers 1997, 4). Both approaches stress the influences of social and economic contexts in which actors are embedded. By taking into consideration the institutional and relational levels of focus, this article explores the overlapping nature of the factors that enhance inter-organizational networks inside women and sexual minorities’ NGOs. This attempt is made by bridging social movement, institutionalist and post-socialist approaches. Analytically, the distinction between networks, coalitions and movements is made in terms of linkages, memberships and goals; although their use is interchangeable in practice (Fox 2010, 486). Still, networks involve information and experiences exchanges and a certain degree of solidarity; they generate shared goals, mutual trust and understandings that in term can generate collaborations for certain campaigns and coalitions (Fox 2010, 487). Coordination in actions, agreement on specific joint actions are rather traits of coalitions3 and not networks; horizontal exchanges between participants are not implied by either networks or coalitions, yet coalitions rely on specific goals and joint actions and a better communication coordination (Fox 2010, 488). Identities and loyalties are linked with membership criteria inside networks, which are dependent on mutual recognition between actors; while resource mobilization and campaigning plays a much stronger role inside coalitions, rather than identities and solidarities4 (Diani and Bison 2004, 285). On the other hand, higher degrees of density and cohesion and higher standards of mutual accountability are typical for social movement organization (Fox 2010, 487). Keeping this distinction in focus, the paper is divided into four sections. The first section covers the research methodology. The second section provides an overview of women based and LGBTQ coalitions from Romania and Poland, concentrating on the ones that have been financially supported by funders. The third section shows that practices, institutional norms and resistance mechanisms are intertwined inside such coalitions. Lastly, the fourth section dwells on explaining that networks incorporate a cultural role adapted to contextual challenges5 that these organizations are facing. 3 Research methodology The study is based on inductive (qualitative) research, by taking into account the fact that actors provide meaning and interpretations of context and actions that constitute their social reality (Manson 2002). The author has focused on how activists give meaning to their realties, their ideas and actions, focusing on the process (why and how things happened) rather than the outcomes (Nawaz 2015). The data from different information sources and research methods were triangulated, in order to validate the findings and test their validity (Lincoln and Guba 1985). The author has used semi-structured interviews as primary data, official secondary data on external funds channeled in Romania and Poland inside the civil society sector, as well as content analysis of official documents from funders and NGOs. The two countries have been selected following the “most different system design”. The two countries have had different levels and amounts of external funds channeled in the NGO sector, different absorption capacities of the civil society sector and contrasting historical, political, social and economic backgrounds. Women based and LGBTQ NGOs have distinctive missions, financial resources, interests and take part in different local and national coalitions, while activists have various motivations and interpretations for their motivations of working in these NGOs. The author selected this approach in order to explore weather similar patterns of inter-organizational relations emerge in different contexts6. NGOs have been chosen after consulting the official databases from Romania and Poland; their mission focusing on women and LGBTQ issues. The selection was based on the fact that both countries have experienced fluidity or an organizational overlapping (Vlad 2013, 2015) inside women and sexual minorities’ movements. Activists and staff migrate from one organization to another; work in more organizations at the same time and work together in local and national coalitions7, generally supporting each other. As one activist from Romania admits, in the feminist sphere of NGOs, the same people work everywhere (personal interview, director of ro-01 2015); while in Poland almost everyone worked in parallel within 2 types of NGOs (personal interview, president of pl-02 2015). However, these NGOs proved to be insightful units of analysis for the study of networks and coalitions. Although closely linked, they work independently and are distinct organizations with members and aims; however they have enough potential areas of convergence to render cross-sector alliances a feasible option (Diani and Bison 2004, 289), as presented in the following sections. The position 4 of the activists was taken into consideration in order to be representative for the organization as a whole. Between 2013 and 2015 thirty three semi-structured
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