Transnational Social Movement Organization Dataset, 1953-2003

The protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and subsequent resistance to global trade and investment liberalization highlight the growing centralization of economic and political power in entities that transcend nation-states. These protests also challenge traditional approaches to the study of social movements, which portray movements as bounded by national or sub-national political arenas. Globalization leaves few areas of social life untouched, and sociologists are paying closer attention to how it affects our understanding of social and political processes. While globalization is not new, its relatively recent acceleration and expansion to new social domains calls for greater sociological attention. The Transnational Social Movement Organization Dataset, 1953-2003 builds upon existing sociological research and brings new data to the investigation of relationships between globalization, social movements, and political change. This project aims to enhance understanding of the organizational foundations for transnational activism, namely the population of transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs). This study contains 301 variables. The variables were either taken directly from the Yearbook of International Organizations, or created from information in the Yearbook.