Together We Stand? A Theoretical Exploration of the Cooperative Ties Developed by LGBTIQ* Social Movement Organisations

Social movement scholarship has long focused on cooperation between movement organisations, emphasising its consequences for both civil society and social movements. On the one hand, several studies have indicated that cooperative relations between movement organisations increase individual socio-political participation and reduce the risk of exclusion of marginalised communities. On the other hand, cooperative endeavours are shown to play a prominent role in the overall success of social movements. There is, however, considerable variability in the extent to which different movement organisations engage in cooperation. For instance, research suggests that LGBTIQ* (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, intersex, queer, and others) organisations are less likely to engage in inter-organisational cooperation, both within the LGBTIQ* movement and with other movements. However, recent studies have emphasised that LGBTIQ* activists are increasingly developing connections with other groups and addressing cross-sectional concerns, especially migrants’ rights. Combining insights from social movement scholarship and gender studies, the proposed contribution aims to address this contradiction by articulating a theoretical exploration of how LGBTIQ* organisations may engage in within- and cross-movement cooperation. Adopting a social network perspective, the contribution will enquire three dimensions that may be related to the cooperative ties developed by LGBTIQ* organisations: first, the role that organisational characteristics (such as available resources and internal structure) may have on the structures of relations developed by different actors; second, the nexus between specific collective action frames and inter-organisational connections; third, the possible moderating role played by structural and discursive features of the socio-political context in which the actors and their networks are embedded. By considering these factors, the contribution will formulate hypotheses on the circumstances that may favour the emergence of cooperative relations around LGBTIQ* issues. Specific attention will be payed to how challengers located in contexts characterised by different degrees of LGBTIQ* inclusion may be provided with differential access to resources and may mobilise diverse collective action frames. This theoretical contribution will be developed through several sections. First, it will present an overview of the main theories developed to explain within- and cross-movement cooperation from a social movement perspective, in particular resource mobilisation theory, political and discursive opportunity structures approach, and framing theory. Second, it will provide evidence on the emergence and development of LGBTIQ* political claims in the so-called Global North from both gender studies and social movement scholarship, emphasising the similarities, the discrepancies, and the gaps of these two bodies of literature. Third, it will present four European cities as case studies to analyse how different socio-political contexts in terms of LGBTIQ* inclusion may moderate inter-organisational cooperation around LGBTIQ* political claims. This qualitative description will be followed by an in-depth discussion of the abovementioned theories in order to formulate hypotheses concerning the networks embedded in the cities under consideration. The contribution will conclude with a conceptualisation of how contextual and internal factors may combine to differently shape the cooperative ties developed by LGBTIQ* organisations, which will lay the grounds for future typology-building and hypothesis-testing by means of field data.