Institutionalisation of Social Movements: A Comparative Perspective on Organic Agriculture Organisations in Denmark and Japan

Summary

This study deals with competing strategic orientations of the organic agriculture movement toward institutionalisation: a division in whether organic agriculture should develop within the prevailing system (pro-institutional strategy) or preserve its alternativeness compared to conventional agriculture (anti-institutional strategy). It aims to investigate development and reasons of the specific strategies and evaluate their impact on the organic agriculture movement as a social movement. This aim is pursued by a comparative study of the leading organic agriculture organisations in Denmark and Japan: The former as a typical pro-institutional case and the latter as an anti-institutional case. The inquiry overall takes an integrative framework based on strategic-relational approach (SRA) that envisages transcending the traditional division among nature, structure, culture and actor. This framework is further operationalised by the major social movement theories and a perspective of discursive democracy.