Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate Change (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)

How do civil society organizations mobilize on climate change? Why do they choose certain strategies over others? What are the consequences of these choices? Networks in Contention examines how the interactions between different organizations within the international climate change movement shape strategic decisions and the kinds of outcomes organizations are able to achieve. First, it documents how and why cleavages emerged in this once-unified movement around the time of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit. Second, it shows how an organization's position in the movement's network has a large influence on the tactics it adopts. Finally, it demonstrates how the development of new strategies within this network has influenced the trajectory of global climate politics. The book establishes the ways in which networks are consequential for civil society groups, exploring how these actors can become more effective and suggesting lessons for the future coordination of activism.

Jennifer Hadden is an assistant professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. Her research on such topics as international relations, environmental politics, social network analysis and social movements has been published in Mobilization and Global Environmental Politics. In 2012, she was the co-recipient of the American Political Science Association's Virginia M. Walsh Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the field of science, technology, and environmental politics. She also received the 2011 Esman Graduate Prize for Distinguished Scholarship from Cornell University and a Young Scholars in Social Movements award from the University of Notre Dame in 2010. She is a regular participant in the UN climate process.