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

Summary in the original language of the document

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.