Atlas workshops piggybacked on Mont Pelerin Society events to recruit members

Evidence

The identification and mobilization of prospective foot soldiers also happened through the organization of workshops. The first workshop took place in 1983, in Vancouver, Canada, and by 1995, Atlas had organized twenty-five. Annual workshops were organized in connection with MPS meetings. This allowed Atlas to piggyback on MPS intellectual resources, renowned members being invited as speakers. The proximity of both events was an attraction for liberal champions from around the world even if the doors of the core were closed; invitation to the Atlas workshop did not carry a parallel invitation to the MPS meeting. These workshops were small (around 100 participants) and co-organized with local affiliate think tanks. This made it easier to attract local participants and gave local think tanks and their leaders legitimacy and visibility. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 562

Categorization

• XREF: The workshop-as-feeder mechanism parallels other network-building studies and shows a two-tier membership structure (outer circle vs elite core) that recurs across the reader’s map of transnational think tanks.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how ‘closed doors’ of MPS membership shaped the hierarchy of the global liberal network — did workshop alumni later rise into the core?