Using the case of Movement Brontosaurus, a Czech organization founded in state socialist times, this article investigates how civic associations and nongovernmental organizations seeking to promote alternatives to the status quo respond to institutional pressures in different political and social contexts. The case shows that under state socialism, Brontosaurus appeared to conform to state mandates and societal expectations. However, its formal structure was decoupled from many activities to obscure its oppositional intent. After the transition to democracy, the organization was only able to maintain its place in society after it aligned its structure and practices with each other and openly expressed its alternative agenda. The findings demonstrate how social change and alternative lifestyle organizations vary their responses to institutional pressure in ways that enable them to realize their values and pursue their missions while accounting for the political and social contexts in which they are embedded.
Andrews, K.T., & Biggs, M. ( 2006). The dynamics of protest diffusion: Movement organizations, social networks and news media in the 1960 Sit-Ins. American Sociological Review, 71(5), 752-777.
2.
Anheier, H.K., & Priller, E. ( 1991). The non-profit sector in East Germany. Voluntas, 2(1), 78-94.
3.
Bouzková, Š. ( 1989). Brontosaurus movement. Materiál ekologické sekce KVTČM ČÚV SSM a Komise ŽP P-ČÚV SSM. Praha: SSM.
4.
Bouzková, Š. ( 1990). Leaflet written in 1990 containing updates inserted in Brontosaurus movement. Materiál ekologické sekce KVTČM ČÚV SSM a Komise ŽP P-ČÚV SSM. Praha: SSM.
5.
Bouzková, Š. ( 2005). Hnutí Brontosaurus. Ještěr , 2, 15-17.
6.
Carmin, J., & Balser, D.B. ( 2002). Selecting repertoires of action in environmental movement organizations: An interpretive approach. Organization & Environment, 15(4), 365-388.
7.
Carmin, J., & Hicks, B. ( 2002). International triggering events, transnational networks, and the development of the Czech and Polish environmental movements. Mobilization, 7(3), 305-324.
8.
Chisolm, L.B. ( 1995). Accountability of nonprofit organizations and those who control them: The legal framework. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 6(2), 141-156.
9.
Činčera, P. ( 2004). Hnutí Brontosaurus a Asociace Brontosaura po rozdělení . Veronica, XVIII, 41-43.
10.
Činčera, P. ( 2006). Interview conducted on 23 January, Prague, Czech Republic.
11.
Činčera, P., & Fraňková, A. (2004). Hnutí Brontosaurus do rozdělení. Veronica, XVIII, 37-40.
12.
Clark, J. ( 2003). Worlds apart: Civil society and the battle for ethical globalization. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.
13.
Cohen, J., & Arato, A. ( 1992). Civil society and political theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
14.
Corbin, J.M., & Strauss, A. ( 1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W.W. ( 1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147-160.
16.
Dusík, J. ( 2006). Interview conducted on 24 January, Prague, Czech Republic.
17.
Edwards, M., & Hulme, D. ( 1996). Too close for comfort? The impact of official aid on nongovernmental organizations. World Development, 24(6), 961-973.
18.
Evans, S.M., & Boyte, H.C. ( 1992). Free spaces: The sources of democratic change in America . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Fligstein, N. ( 1996). Markets as politics: A political cultural approach to market institutions. American Sociological Review, 64(4), 656-673.
20.
Frič, P., Deverová, L., Pajas, P., & Šilhánová, H. (1998). Defining the nonprofit sector: The Czech Republic. Johns Hopkins Working Paper Series . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.
21.
Friedland, R., & Alford, R.R. ( 1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In W. W. Powell & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 232-263). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
Fry, R.E. ( 1995). Accountability in organizational life: Problems or opportunities for nonprofits? Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 6(2), 181-195.
23.
Gersick, C.J.G., & Hackman, R.J. ( 1990). Habitual routines in task-performing groups. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 47, 65-97.
24.
Haken, R. ( 2005). Interview conducted on 28 September, Přerov, Czech Republic.
25.
Haveman, H. A., & Rao, H. (1997). Structuring a theory of moral sentiments: Institutional and organizational coevolution in the early thrift industry. American Journal of Sociology, 102(6), 1606-1651. Hnutí Brontosaurus. (2003). Výroční zpráva 2002. Brno: Hnutí Brontosaurus.
26.
Honzas. (1992). . . . . . a je tu Asociace. Ještěr, 9/10, 7-11.
27.
Hradil, T. ( 2005). Interview conducted on 30 September, Jeseník, Czech Republic.
28.
Jasper, J.M. ( 2004). A strategic approach to collective action: Looking for agency in social movement choice. Mobilization, 9(1), 1-16.
29.
Jehlička, P., & Smith, J. ( 2007). Out of the woods and into the lab: Exploring the strange marriage of American woodcraft and soviet ecology in Czech environmentalism . Environment and History, 30, 187-210.
30.
Keane, J. ( 1988). Democracy and civil society. London : Verso.
31.
Khagram, S., Riker, J.V., & Sikkink, K. ( 2002). Restructuring world politics: Transnational social movements, networks, and norms. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
32.
McCarthy, J.D., Britt, D.W., & Wolfson. M. ( 1991). The institutional channeling of social movements by the state in the United States. In L. Kriesberg & M. Spencer (Eds.), Research in social movements, conflicts and change (pp. 69-70). Greenwich, CT.: JAI.
33.
McMahon, P.C. ( 2001). Building civil societies in East Central Europe: The effect of American nongovernmental organizations on women’s groups. Democratization, 8(2), 45-68.
34.
Meyer, J.W., & Rowan, B. ( 1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363.
Minkoff, D.C. ( 1999). Bending with the wind: Strategic change and adaptation by women’s and racial minority organizations. American Journal of Sociology, 104(6), 1666-1703.
37.
Moore, M.H. ( 2000). Managing for value: Organizational strategy in for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(Supplement), 183-204.
38.
Němcová-Bouzková, Š. (2006). Interview conducted on 25 August, Benešov u Prahy, Czech Republic.
39.
Nováková, L. ( 2005). Interview conducted on 26 September, Brno, Czech Republic.
40.
Perlík, M. ( 2005). Interview conducted on 31 May, Prague , Czech Republic.
41.
Petříček, V. (2005). Interview conducted on 27 September. Prague, Czech Republic .
42.
Petříček, V. (2007). Telephone interview, 22 March.
43.
Rada Asociace Brontosaura. (1993). Opakování o Asociaci Brontosaura: Kdo jsme? Zpravodaj Asociace Brontosaura, 2, 10-11.
44.
Ramanath, R. (in press). Limits to institutional isomorphism: Examining internal processes in NGO- government interactions. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
45.
Reimann, K.D. ( 2001). Building networks from the outside in: International movements, Japanese NGOs, and the Kyoto climate change conference . Mobilization, 6(1), 69-82.
46.
Rothschild, J., & Leach, D.K. ( 2006). Avoid, talk, or fight: Cultural responses to oligarchic pressure in collectivist-democratic groups. In R. Cnaan & C. Milofsky (Eds.), Handbook of community movements and local organizations (pp. 348-361). New York: Springer.
47.
Rothschild-Whitt, J. ( 1979). The collectivist organization: An alternative to rational bureaucratic models. American Sociological Review, 44, 509-527.
48.
Růžička, T. (1993). Crisis of environmental movement in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Conservation and Sustainable Development, 1, 41-53.
49.
Schein, E.H. ( 1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Scribner, C. ( 2005). Requiem for communism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52.
Šilhánová, H., Vostradovská , H., Huptychová, A., Reschová, J., Prorok, V., & Drboutová, B. (1994). Basic information about the non-profit sector in the Czech Republic. Prague: Civil Society Development Foundation.
53.
Stoklasa, J. ( 2006). V životě jsem měl obrovskou kliku . Sedmá generace, XV(5), 22-25.
54.
Tomek, A. ( 2005). Interview conducted on 26 September, Brno, Czech Republic.
55.
Vágner, J., & Procházka, P. (2004). Vývoj českého trampingu a budování trampských osad. In J. Vágner & D. Fialová (Eds.), Regionální diferenciace druhého bydlení v Česku (pp. 58-69). Praha : KSGRR.
56.
Van Til, J., Hegyesi, G., & Eschweiler, J. (2006). Grassroots social movements and the shaping of history. In R. Cnaan and C. Milofsky (Eds.), Handbook of community movements and local organizations (pp. 362-377). New York: Springer.
57.
Vaněk, M. ( 1996). Nedalo se tady dýchat. Ekologie v českých zemích v letech 1968 až 1989. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR and Maxdorf.
58.
Velek, J. ( 1978). Brontosaurus má hrad: Již do pátého roku vstoupilo hnutí Brontosaurus. Mladý svět , XX(4), 6-7.
59.
Velek, J., & Petříček, V. (1981). Brontosaurus ’81 (mínus osm). Mladý svět, XXIII11), 7-8.
60.
Voss, K., & Sherman, R. ( 2000). Breaking the iron law of oligarchy: Union revitalization in the American labor movement. American Journal of Sociology , 106(2), 303-349.
61.
Zald, M.N. ( 2000). Ideologically structured action: An enlarged agenda for social movement research. Mobilization, 5(1), 1-16.
62.
Zald, M.N., & Ash, R. ( 1966). Social movement organizations: Growth, decay, and change . Social Forces, 44(3), 327-340.
