Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are the most common example of networks in international relations. Despite their familiarity, we know little about how advocacy networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are structured. Drawing on the cross-disciplinary concepts of emergent communities and distinct brokerage roles, we argue that the network may reinforce power disparities and inequalities at the very same time that it provides social power. TANs are similar to emergent communities of practice, with some organizations acting as various types of brokers within and between communities. Preexisting resources are more likely to lead global North organizations to occupy brokerage roles that provide additional agenda-setting and resource-allocating power. We build a dataset of the 3,903 NGOs connected through 1.3 million ties occurring through meetings and conferences for NGOs put on or coordinated by the United Nations. Using community detection methods, we identify four distinct communities in the overall NGO network, with differences in distributions of brokerage roles across communities. Examining the communities, brokerage role distributions, and preexisting power disparities can help us better understand the divergent findings in previous literature and conceptualize TANs.

中文翻译：

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社区和经纪人：跨国倡导网络如何同时提供社会力量并加剧全球不平等

跨国倡导网络（TAN）是国际关系中网络最常见的例子。尽管他们很熟悉，但我们对非政府组织 (NGO) 的倡导网络的结构知之甚少。利用新兴社区和不同经纪角色的跨学科概念，我们认为网络可能会在提供社会权力的同时加强权力差距和不平等。TAN 类似于新兴的实践社区，一些组织在社区内部和社区之间充当各种类型的经纪人。预先存在的资源更有可能引导全球北方组织担任中介角色，提供额外的议程设置和资源分配权力。我们构建了一个通过 1 连接的 3,903 个 NGO 的数据集。通过联合国组织或协调的非政府组织的会议和会议，建立了 300 万个联系。使用社区检测方法，我们在整个 NGO 网络中确定了四个不同的社区，不同社区之间的中介角色分布存在差异。检查社区、经纪人角色分布和预先存在的权力差距可以帮助我们更好地理解以前文献中的不同发现并概念化 TAN。