Global connectedness of local NGOs: do different types of funding create barriers for cooperation?
Rodionov A. Medeuov D. Rodionova K.
April 2021Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
Theory and Society
2021#50Issue 3393 - 416 pp.
How does international financial aid affect the cooperative behavior of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Can NGOs, while turning global, preserve peer connections with local actors and be engaged in local issues? The civil society literature contains competing perspectives on and reports of how international financial aid may restructure local civic networks. Some scholars argue that international support comes at the expense of local integration as inclusion in global networks takes local NGOs out of the local context, while others find evidence that organizations do not have to face “a forced choice”, and may well be integrated both globally and locally. Drawing on this scholarship, we examine two hypotheses on how transnational funding influences cooperation patterns among NGOs. The hierarchy argument states that public entities tend to cooperate with internationally funded NGOs as external contact signals quality and trustworthiness. The segregation argument, on the contrary, suggests financial homophily according to which organizations are more likely to choose peers similar in sources of funding. To test these hypotheses, we apply Exponential Random Graph Models to the data on cooperation among 221 Kazakhstani NGOs. Results support the segregation hypothesis implying that NGOs are likely to have a bias towards similarly funded peers.
Civil society , ERGM , Homophily , Kazakhstan , Network analysis , Social networks
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Faculty of Social Sciences, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 6 Educational Building #4, Yanushkevich St., Nur-Sultan, 010008, Kazakhstan
Department of Sociology and Anthropology School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, 53, Kabanbay batyr Ave., Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Sociology and Anthropology School of Sciences and Humanities
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