Abstract
"The research discussed in this case is based on a longitudinal analysis of the web archives of the frequent posts of small groups of insider activists seeking to address homophobia and transphobia in their workplace in France. Scholars are inviting us to pay more attention to the different social forces at play within organizations, to show how the political positioning of an organization is the outcome of competing forces inside each organization. Yet, insider activists (such as LGBTQ rights activists striving to make their organization more inclusive) cannot rely on tactics that are too disruptive or contentious, for the fear that they would lose their position. From a methodological standpoint, this reality meant that I needed to document more day-by-day, small-scale practices that, in the long run, did lead to meaningful changes within the organization. The five organizations on which this case study is based all had an internal network of LGBTQ activists developed in the early 2000. These internal networks frequently posted articles on their own websites to describe their actions, comment on the actions of their hiring organization, and make claims to change how homophobia and transphobia was being addressed in their workplace. Through these small time-situated online posts, I was able to constitute web archives that helped me trace the action of each of these internal networks for over 15 years. A longitudinal analysis helped me make sense of the strategies, claims, and progressive successes of these insider activists, and see how they could bring about change over time."