Abstract
There has been considerable progress in investigating collective actions in the last decades. However, the real progress is different from what many scholars take it to be. It lies in the fact that there is by now a wealth of different approaches from a variety of fields. Each approach has carved out fruitful mechanisms for explaining collective action, but is also faced with limitations. Given that situation, we submit that the next step in investigating collective action is to acknowledge the plurality of approaches and bring them into dialogue. With this aim in mind, the present article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of some of the to our mind most relevant approaches to collective action in current debates. We begin with the collective intentionality framework, the team reasoning approach, and social identity theory. Then, we move to ecological social psychology, participatory sense-making, and, through the lenses of those frameworks, dynamical systems theory. Finally, we discuss practice theory. Against this background, we provide a proposal for a synthesis of the successful explanatory mechanisms as they have been carved out by the different research programs. The suggestion is, roughly, to understand collective action as dynamical interaction of a self-organizing system with its environment, shaped by a process of collective sense-making.
Highlights
There has been considerable progress in investigating collective actions in the last decades
The real progress in the investigation of collective action lies in the fact that there is a wealth of different approaches
We focus on the central feature of what we suggest calling the collective intentionality framework for conceptualizing collective action: the commitment to analyzing collective action by means of collective intentions
Summary
There has been considerable progress in investigating collective actions in the last decades. Scholars subscribing to the collective intentionality framework will most likely agree that an explanation of action in terms of intentions needs to be supplemented by additional explanatory mechanisms, for example by theories that account for processes on the sensorimotor level. Whereas the collective intentionality framework, the team reasoning approach, and social identity theory are all rooted in cognitivism, ecological psychology deliberately understands the mindedness of organisms in a very thin way, and deemphasizes the importance of intentions, goals, representations and mental states in general. For example, is not an affordance for a lone individual, but it is an affordance for a group of furniture movers This combination of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory is highly relevant for the development of a promising account of collective action, as it contributes important explanatory resources to the investigation of collective action. The practice theoretical approach to collectivity is fruitful, but there would be a much stronger approach if the two mentioned explanatory tools from practice theory were combined with the successful resources from other research programs
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