Jacobsson, K. (2013) Channeling and Enrollment: The Institutional Shaping of Animal Rights Activism in Poland. In: K. Jacobsson and S. Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, 27-47. https://www.routledge.com/Beyond-NGO-ization-The-Development-of-Social-Movements-in-Central-and-Eastern-Europe/Jacobsson-Saxonberg/p/book/9781138279650?

Internationally, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, the animal rights
movement is a prominent social movement. Despite a quite unfavorable political and

cultural environment for animal rights issues in the region, it is also active in Central

and Eastern Europe, as for instance in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and

Slovakia. Thus far, however, the movement as it operates in this part of the world has

largely escaped the interest of researchers (see, however, Jacobsson 2012, Loukianov

2011). This chapter attempts to help fill this gap through a case study of animal rights

activism in Poland. What is notable about the Polish case is, for instance, the protest

repertoire of the movement, which partly differs from that of its international

counterparts: Polish activists typically engage in very little direct action and no

animal liberation. The case is also illustrative of many of the general challenges that

social movements face in the postcommunist context, such as the generation of

collective action capacity and political influence. The chapter aims to explain the

particular shape that the Polish movement takes, its forms of organization and action,

and its relatively limited capacity for concerted action.

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While, internationally, the animal rights movement tends to build on

grassroots activism combined with more professionalized forms of action, the Polish

case exemplifies what can be described as the “NGO-ization” of civil society. Since

the 1990s, the Polish animal rights movement has to a large extent been transformed

into a set of social movement organizations, or NGOs, mainly for resourcemobilization

purposes. Most of these organizations nevertheless remain small, with

limited organizational capacity. They, moreover, often have more of the character of

private projects run by devoted individuals than of units of a collective movement.

This organizational fragmentation renders effective collective action even more of a

challenge. As will be noted below, the Polish movement is characterized by

movement-internal conflicts and an inability to make strategic alliances within the

movement and with policy makers. To understand why this has come to be so, the

chapter looks into how the borderline between the public and the private is

institutionalized in Polish civil society, and what the implications of the resulting

pattern are for collective action. The argument put forth will be that, in present-day

Poland, political opportunity structures mesh with, rather than help stage a challenge

to, certain legacies of the communist period, reinforcing the individualist character of

civil society engagement in the country.

Finally, the chapter analyzes the ways in which institutional factors shape the

forms of action of the Polish movement, by encouraging NGO-ization and by

impacting the types of action of the movement. It shows how the present political

opportunity structure directs engagement into “animal charity” rather than

transgressive protest.

The chapter contributes to three different theoretical and empirical debates.

The first of these concerns the functioning of social movements in the postcommunist

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context. Recent research has shown that social movements’ contentious action in this

context not necessarily draws on the traditional protest repertoire much based on mass

mobilization and “open-air dramas,” but rather relies on other forms of contention and

collective action (Flam 2001, Petrova and Tarrow 2007, other chapters in this

volume). Animal rights activism in Poland provides a case in point: Internet activism

dominates over other types of mobilization and a strategy of using law to advance the

movement’s goals has emerged as a complement to lobbying and other actions aimed

at directly influencing the political system. In addition to judicial activism and

courtroom litigation, education of the general public has emerged as another main

strategy, while strategies targeting the political system remain much less developed.

Secondly, this chapter contributes to the literature on the professionalization

and NGO-ization of civil society in postcommunist societies. While indeed the Polish

animal rights movement provides an apt illustration of the challenges that

organizational fragmentation and competition for resources brought about by NGOization

mean for the actors involved, the main findings put forth in the literature

concerning international donor dependency and influence (see the introductory

chapter to this volume) are not sufficient to explain the case at hand. It is the domestic

opportunity structures that explain the development towards NGO-ization and

fragmentation in the field of animal rights activism in Poland.

Thirdly, the chapter engages in the ongoing debate about how to conceptualize

the impact of resource mobilization on civil society’s forms of engagement. Cooptation

and channeling have been two conceptual alternatives offered (cf. Cisar

2010). As will be seen below, the Polish animal rights organizations endeavor to

pursue a multiple-strategy approach, combining service provision with advocacy

work and more overtly political forms of activism. Yet, despite their attempts to

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combine and balance these two roles, the country’s current political opportunity

structure—including its legal and economic dimensions—works in favor of the

service-provision role while making the politicization of issues more difficult. This

impact of the state, however, is only indirect. I suggest that the state–civil society

relationship and the institutional shaping of animal rights activism in Poland are best

understood in terms of enrollment and channeling rather than co-optation.

The study is based on qualitative interviews conducted in 2010–2011 with 35

activists representing the most salient organizations and groups presently active in the

field of animal rights and animal welfare in Poland. In addition, interviews were

conducted with four civil servants working with animal protection—three at ministry

level and one at local level. The study also draws on information collected from the

organizations’ websites and media reports.1

The Animal Rights Movement in Poland

Internationally, animal rights activism in its more radical form developed in

the 1970s, intellectually promoted by philosophers such as Peter Singer and Tom

Regan and, arguably, later taken furthest in the abolitionist position of Gary

Francione. Animal welfare activism, focused on improving