Abstract

While some scholars (and many activists) see transnational activism as both new and "global" research on a number of sectors of transnational activism shows both that it is historically rooted (for example, in the transnational activism of immigrants) and that such activists are deeply rooted in their societies (as in the case of the "global" activists in the European Social Forum). This should not be seen as a disadvantage or a disappointment; rooted cosmopolitanism provides activists with local resources and political opportunities that they can use in forging transnational coalitions, while their transnational experiences can be the source of innovations in the local repertoire of contention. Drawing on a larger study ("The New Transnational Activism", Cambridge University Press, 2005), this article describes the phenomenon of rooted cosmopolitanism in several key sectors of transnational activism.