Social movement networks, policy processes, and forest tenure activism in Indonesia

This thesis aims to answer the following question: How do environmental movement networks sustain collective action in order to influence forest tenure reforms in Indonesia? In doing so, it expressly relies on a relational approach to social movement studies that recognizes the interaction between the social structure and agency and the role of culture in shaping social movement networks. It relies on a mixed methods research design to study the forms and features of networks as well as the context, the meaning and the ongoing social processes that underlie environmental networks. The first paper provides a macro-level analysis of the changing political context and of the forces internal to the environmental movement that have led to reforms in forest tenure policies in the last decade in Indonesia. The second paper presents the research design of the thesis and discusses how specific theoretical approaches to social movement networks affect the choice of analytical methods and how relational approaches call for the use of mixed methods. The rest of the thesis analyzes meso-level features of inter-organizational networking among environmental movement organizations (EMOs) and between EMOs and state actors. The third paper examines the role communication networks among EMOs in coalition work and illustrates how environmental values and common discursive practices can be important coalescing forces. The fourth paper investigates the role of external institutionalization, contention and cooperation in relational forms of activism with state actors. It analyzes how the environmental movement, despite the use of moderate tactics, has avoided co-optation. The fifth paper investigates the contingency of political opportunities at the mesolevel. It suggests that at the inter-organizational level access to the state is dependent on the type of actors involved, their behavior and experiences, and the issue of contention, and it shows that EMOs can in part shape political opportunitie