Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper attempts to determine empirically ways that women’s movement organizations differ from other women’s organizations that are not part of the movement.

Are women’s movement organizations a different species from other women’s organizations? Is an organization run by women and catering to women’s needs part of the women’s movement? What are the essential qualities of WMOs that separate them from non-movement organizations?

This empirical study compares women’s movement organizations (WMOs) on multiple dimensions to other women’s organizations that are not part of the movement. The objective is to confirm or challenge the accepted wisdom about the ideal type of social movement organization. The study confirms some of the arguments put forward by social movement scholars while challenging others.

The study is based on primary survey data collected in India. Organizational profile of forty
women’s organizations provides information on several dimensions on which they are
compared – internal (founding years, size, leadership, structure, funding source, strategies
and tactics) and external characteristics (relations with the state, other civic groups, political
parties, and international links).

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper investigates organic agriculture in Maine, with a comparative eye turned to the opposite coast. California’s organic agriculture has been the subject of intense scrutiny (Guthman 2004; Mello 2006; Pollan 2006) and many have reached the conclusion that organic agriculture is bifurcated into an organic industry and an organic movement. Recent analyses have also shown how the organic industry has come to dominate organic agriculture and to replicate many of the undesirable features of conventional agriculture. The analysis of organic agriculture in Maine reveals that, at present, Maine has avoided many of the negative consquences of the organic industry, largely because of the smaller size and scale of the organic sector in Maine and through a deliberate (and state-supported) strategy of localization. Maine’s organic agriculture remains closer to the organic ideal type and to its movement origins, and hence provides one model for an alternative and sustainable agriculture.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The institutional literature has focused on the institution and actor as constants and their interaction as variable. Additional literature has begun to focus on the institution and its many facets as variables, but there has been scant work done to apply organizational theory to the design of institutions. In other words, does the organizational architecture and design of institutions influence their actions and the actions of their members? We argue that coactivational organizations diffuse norms and the actions of the members more than cointegrational organizations. Coactivational and conitegrational organizations provide differing incentive structures to their members that causes divergent patterns in institution and member behavior.The research will focus on the United Nations General Assembly and the World Trade Organization to understand the importance of organization to institutions. The research will focus first on the theory of coactivational and cointegrational organizations, how they are conceptualized, and their internal mechanisms. Second, we will apply coactivational and cointegrational organization theory to the UN General Assembly and the WTO to better understand the organizational mechanisms and incentives which promote adherence and compliance to norms, values, and standards by members. We argue that the organization of the institution strongly influences what members seek from them, how members utilize them, and their efficacy in diffusing their respective norms, values, and standards. If organization does not matter in institutional efficacy, than any body that holds similar values would achieve similar efficacy in diffusing specific norms.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: International institutions research has ignored the organization. Scholars have long recognized that some institutions work better than others (Keohane 1998). Despite extensive work on the theory of institutions, theoretical implications, norm diff

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of organization-public relationships on publics’ perceptions of a crisis and attitudes toward an organization in crisis. This study used a quasi-experimental, between-subjects design in which 262 participants were exposed to a fictitious crisis case at their university and the university’s four different crisis-response strategies. The results of a two-way ANOVA revealed that regardless of the level of relationship, publics in the internal cause group were more likely to attribute responsibility to the organization than were those in the external cause group. A three-way MANOVA found the unique effects of relationship, crisis responsibility, and the type of crisis-response strategy on attitudes toward the organization in the crisis, but two-way and three-way interactions among these predictor variables were not significant. The findings suggest that the cultivation of relationships with publics, as well as the effective use of crisis-response strategies, is an essential part of successful crisis management.