Rethinking nongovernmental organizations: Neoliberalism, “nonstate” actors, and the politics of recognition in the United States

• Date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12157
• Published date: 01 October 2020

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Rethinking nongovernmental organizations:

Neoliberalism, “nonstate”actors, and the politics

of recognition in the United States

Jara M. Carrington

Department of Anthropology, University of

North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA

Correspondence

Jara M. Carrington, Department of

Anthropology, University of North Texas,

1155 Union Circle #305268, Denton, TX

76203.

Email: jara.carrington@unt.edu

Abstract

This article builds on and contributes to the scholarship

on social movements and the law by revealing the

critical function of nongovernmental organizations

(NGOs) in law and policy in neoliberal times. Building

on frame theories in social movement literature, this

essay uses the lens of NGO-produced advocacy for

binational same-sex couples to consider more broadly

the relationship between individual experience, subjec-

tivity, and the discourses and practices employed by

NGO actors. It offers an analysis of both how NGOs

developed and utilized particular messaging strategies

and rhetorical frames to discursively produce a norma-

tive image of their constituency, and how constituents

navigated and made use of the framing strategies devel-

oped by NGOs in their own claims to state rights and

recognition. This discussion thus highlights the poten-

tials and the problematics of the NGO model in social

movements’efforts toward legal and political change.

1|INTRODUCTION

The nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector in the United States is a complex and fre-

quently misunderstood set of institutions and processes. NGOs take multiple forms and engage

in a variety of diverse activities, but the term is generally used to describe “nonstate organiza-

tions that are distinct from for-profit business”(Lewis & Schuller, 2017, 635). In practice, the

NGO sector has much more complex and intimate relationships with state power and the for-

profit financial sector than this characterization implies (Beam, 2016; Bernal & Grewal, 2014;

Lewis & Schuller, 2017). Furthermore, NGOs often also operate as social movement organiza-

tions, providing important social and legal services and leading advocacy efforts for marginal-

ized populations. For this reason, the NGO sector has been a significant site for the

development and implementation of social justice efforts for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgen-

der, and/or Queer (LGBTQ)- persons and communities in the United States.

DOI: 10.1111/lapo.12157

©2020 University of Denver/Colorado Seminary and Wiley Periodicals LLC

344 Law & Policy. 2020;42:344–364.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/lapo

This article examines the complex and evolving relationship among NGOs, LGBTQ-

focused social movements, and neoliberal state policies and practices through the lens of NGO-

produced advocacy for “binational same-sex couples.”

1

In doing so, I aim to critically analyze

NGOs’position in relation to their constituencies and to the neoliberal state, and to think

through the effects of this relationship both on processes of law- and policy-making as well as

on the constituents and supporters of such movements. NGO advocacy for binational same-sex

couples offers a unique lens through which to explore the cultural processes outlined in this arti-

cle. It is a site that makes clear both the limits of legal citizenship for LGBTQ-identified US citi-

zens and the exclusionary mechanisms of immigration law; in doing so, NGO advocacy for

binational same-sex couples reveals how the boundaries of national belonging get drawn in and

through intersecting norms concerning gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and

immigration status. In addition, given the diversity in history, identity, and notions of “family”

among individuals in binational same-sex relationships, the advocacy efforts that emerged in

the late 1990s had the potential to broadly challenge and draw important structural connections

between policies and laws related to both immigrant and LGBTQ rights. However, as we will

see, the “framing processes”(Benford & Snow, 2000) employed by NGOs working with this

population worked to strategically separate this population from broader political debates

about migration and equality for LGBTQ-identified persons. In this way, framing processes

had significant consequences not only for the types of legal and political demands made by

NGOs on behalf of this population but also significantly shaped the ways in which constituents

came to understand themselves as subjects of the state. This article thus highlights the potentials

and the problematics of the NGO model in social movements’efforts toward legal and political

justice in the United States and articulates the relationships among individual, organizational,

and state rhetorics and practices focused on the granting of state rights and recognition to a par-

ticular population.

To access the various levels of action and discourse that are described here, multiple ethno-

graphic methodologies were utilized. I employed what anthropologist Gusterson (1997) refers

to as “polymorphous engagement,”an eclectic mode of research that includes “interacting with

informants across a number of dispersed sites, not just in local communities, and sometimes in

virtual form”and requires “collecting data eclectically from a disparate number of sources in

many different ways”(116). A multimethod approach was critical to gaining access to necessary

yet diverse forms of data, and the combination of methods helped to shine new light on the

dynamic relationship between culture and agency in social movement processes (see Goodwin &

Jasper, 1999; Jasper, 1997). This project was based in and around New York City from 2011 to

2013, where much of the national-level advocacy work around this issue was being done at the

time. I interviewed twenty-six couple-participants and ten NGO staff-participants representing

six US-based NGOs that worked with LGBTQ immigrants. I cond ucted nearly two years of

participant observation in a variety of settings, including weekly volunteer sessions at a well-

regarded NGO that worked with binational same-sex couples. I also attended related social and

political events and participated in multiple political advocacy efforts, including the Lobby

Days event described below. I also collected and analyzed nearly 400 relevant textual sources,

including mainstream and alternative news articles, relevant advocacy materials, and related

governmental documents. Triangulation of the different forms of data offered new and unique

insights into the relationship between social movement framing processes, state-level lawmaking

and policymaking, and constituent meaning-making activities. In particular, the combination

of data analysis at both the macrolevel and microlevel enabled me to better see how NGO fram-

ing processes not only shaped proposed “solutions”to social injustice but also impacted the

extent to which constituents saw themselves as included (or not) in those solutions.

This article brings together queer and feminist theories of NGOs with frame theories in

social movement literature to think anew about the complex ways in which discourse, culture,

and human agency interact to shape social movement goals and strategies as well as the lived

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