Diffusing Strategies North-South and South-North: Circular Diffusion and the Case of Abortion Rights Movements in the United States and Latin America

Because research focuses on unidirectional diffusion, primarily from the Global North to the Global South, diffusion in more than one direction has not been examined. Here the authors ask: How does the diffusion of social movement symbols and strategies occur from North to South and from South to North? To answer this question, the authors examine a case of diffusion between abortion rights movements. Using data from in-depth interviews with activists in the United States, Argentina, and Mexico, the authors argue that symbols and strategies originating in the United States prior to Roe v. Wade spread to Argentina and Mexico during the last decades of intense struggle for abortion rights, while strategies and symbols from Argentina and Mexico created during this time diffused to the United States in the months leading up to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision. This study introduces and develops the novel concept of circular diffusion : the process by which innovations move from originator to adopter—where they are adopted whole cloth, transformed, or used as inspiration for new innovations depending on local contexts—and then back to the originator. During this process, originators and adopters exchange roles as they learn from each other over time. In the case of movements for abortion rights, the authors argue that both ongoing contestation and ongoing interactions are necessary to activate and sustain the process of circular diffusion.