Non-state Diplomacies and Norm-making during the Occupy Central and Umbrella Movement: Hong Kong’s Canadian Residents

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article advances understanding of the relationships between diplomacies and governance and the role of non-state actors in them, through a case study of migrant norm-making. Drawing from 50 interviews, the analysis examines how Canadian residents of Hong Kong during the 2014 Occupy Central and Umbrella Movement protests enacted through their diplomatic practices what Wiener calls the “meanings-in-use” of norms—specifically, respect for democracy and human rights, as well as foreign non-interference. These NSA diplomatic practices made visible world order's contested multi-level normative frames within a local democratization struggle. The analysis provides starting points for research on how transnational lives, liminal identifications, class, denizenship, and state power shape NSA diplomacies. It advances the theorizing of norm-making within diplomacy, using insights from critical diplomacy studies, including the “other diplomacies” approach.