International aid and advocacy groups are influenced by their home countries' cultures
Monday, March 4, 2013 - 13:00
in Psychology & Sociology
In February, Greenpeace activist and actress Lucy Lawless, star of "Xena: Warrior Princess," was sentenced to 120 hours of community service for boarding a Shell oil rig to protest offshore Arctic drilling. Dramatic protests by Netherlands-based Greenpeace contrast sharply with the lobbying and letter-writing of the U.S.-based Sierra Club. The differences among those two groups and other international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) reflect the cultures of the nations where they are based, according to research by a University of Missouri political scientist. Individuals can use knowledge of INGOs' home nations to decide which organizations they wish to support economically.