WEAVING THE TRANSNATIONAL ANTI-GENDER NETWORKS*

This article presents the analytical framework for the special issue, “Weaving the Transnational Anti-gender Networks.” It investigates how different configurations of actors and identities, causes and conditions, and mechanisms and trajectories are related to the building of anti-gender transnational contention. Moving from social movement approaches, the article disentangles the definitions of anti-gender collective actors, transnationalization, and diffusion vis-à-vis various organizational and background factors. It argues that we have to look at contextual opportunities such as European integration and radical-right transnationalization, the “gender ideology” and “natural family” frames, as well as events and practices, to comprehensively account for the weaving of anti-gender networks that transcend national borders. The interplay of religious resources and conservative familial identity politics are diffused both bottom-up and top-down, depending on contextually specific threats and opportunities. The role of the internet in the transnationalization of the contemporary radical right is also highlighted.