Repertoires Of Action Research Articles

Kurdish Mobilization in Turkey and Syria: A Comparison on Action Repertoires

In this article, the collective action repertoires of nationalist Kurds in Turkey and Syria between the years 1918-2018 are compared. This comparison is conducted based on the levels and forms of mobilization. Examples span a broad spectrum including rebellion, protests, legal politics, and mass mobilizations. The findings of the research reveal distinct differences in the action repertoires of the Kurdish conflicts in Turkey and Syria, and the level of violence also varies between the two countries. Employing a qualitative approach, this study uses a multi-case strategy and thematic analysis method. The objective of the study is to provide researchers with a conceptual and empirical framework concerning the action repertoires of Kurdish movements. The results obtained aim to enhance understanding of the repertoire of contention in non-Western societies.

Coalitions and repertories in the strategic action field of the people affected by the Rio Doce disaster

The collapse of the Fundão dam of the Samarco, Vale, and BPH Billiton mining companies in 2015 resulted in the spillage of unprecedented tailings in the Rio Doce Basin, Brazil. It was a disaster of multiple dimensions, generating conflicts between the affected community, mining companies, the government, and the justice system in the search for solutions to recover and repair the damage. Meanwhile, a governance system was created to conduct disaster responses and conflict resolution between those actors. In this article, we investigate how skilled actors in the affected field act to influence disaster governance by producing consequences for policy decisions. The analysis highlights the role of coalitions and action repertories in cooperative and conflicting relationships in the affected people's field. Through mixed-method research, four years of the socio-environmental disaster (2015–2019) were examined through interviews with activists, documentary research, and analysis of protest events. The main argument is that the mobilization of non-state actors in the affected field has influenced disaster governance and the content of compensation policies. Mobilization combined social skills and action repertoires and formed political coalitions to influence decision-making processes. The article contributes to expanding the understanding of the dynamics of political disputes among non-state actors, proposing to broaden the understanding of the repertoires of non-state actors in coalitions to generate consequences for political decisions.

PhyLab - a virtual reality laboratory for experiments in physics: a pilot study on intervention effectiveness and gender differences.

New technologies have great potential to facilitate students' understanding and appreciation of one of the most abstract and challenging school subjects - physics. This study aimed to examine the effects of a game-based virtual reality teaching method on secondary school students' self-beliefs, interest, and performance in physics through a quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-test data. The evaluation is based on the systemic actiotope model that explains a person's goal-oriented actions by an interplay of their environment, action repertoire (i.e., students' performance and interest in physics), and subjective action space (i.e., students' self-efficacy, self-concept, and implicit theories regarding physics). A game-based virtual reality App to be used with Google cardboards was developed containing 10 teaching units from the secondary school physics class curriculum. Participants in the control group were taught using traditional teaching methods, while students in the experimental group went through the VR with the teacher and conducted the prepared VR experiments in addition to the traditionally presented content. Three tests measured students' physics performance during the semester. In addition, students answered questionnaires assessing their interest, self-efficacy, self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics before and after the intervention, resulting in a Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design. There were no significant differences between the control and experimental group in test scores on the first and second tests but compared to the control group, the experimental group achieved higher scores on the third test. In addition, the results indicate differential effects of the game-based virtual reality teaching method on students' interest and self-efficacy regarding physics to the advantage of students identifying as male, but no effects on students' self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics. The results of our pilot study suggest that incorporating innovative didactic methods into secondary school physics classes could potentially contribute to higher performance in and motivation for physics during this crucial period of adolescence when students develop educational and career aspirations. However, game-based virtual reality teaching methods seem to favor students identifying as male, which should be considered in their development and presentation. Other practical implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Time Matters in Cross-Strait Relations: Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan's Future

Abstract In this article, I examine the ROC president's discursive response to PRC efforts to limit Taiwan's future possibilities and undermine confidence in Taiwan's future. I argue that the capacity to imagine the future, and perceiving agency to affect future outcomes, is crucial for national resilience. Since Taiwan is routinely exposed to factors known to cause reduced self-efficacy and morale – uncertainty, threat, marginalization, restricted agency, circumscribed action repertoires – it is crucial that Taiwanese people have a meaningful sense of “what are we striving for?” and confidence that they have the agency to realize these aspirations. The article sets out an empirical examination of discursive constructions of the future as a vector for enhancing cohesion and resolve in Taiwanese society. Foregrounding a novel dimension in the study of Taiwan, the article contributes both an interpretivist account of President Tsai Ing-wen's discourse and opens a new avenue for research on the largely neglected issue of futurity in cross-Strait relations.

Sphere transgressions in health and social care: reflections on the role of the embedded social scientist

ABSTRACT Social scientists are increasingly involved in large health technology consortia to enhance the societal relevance and acceptability of the innovations that are developed, tested, or implemented. In this paper, we critically reflect on the role of such ‘embedded social scientists’ in various digital health technology initiatives. We reflect on our experiences in several large-scale consortia and smaller local partnerships we were involved in studying the development of digital technologies in health and welfare. Informed by our background in pragmatist interventionist research, we suggest that there are additional tensions and action repertoires for social scientists beyond the identification of transgressions, as proposed by the Sphere Transgressions framework. However, the Sphere Transgression framework focuses primarily on signaling potentially problematic conversions of advantages, it produces fewer immediately relevant clues on what other kinds of contributions social scientists can make to responsible and ethical forms of innovation, and how they can do so. We describe three tensions emerging from the conflicting agendas, goals, and expectations of different stakeholders, zooming in on how we navigated this normative complexity. In the discussion, we tie our reflections to the role of power dynamics in technology consortia and the boundaries of embedded research.

Dynamics between national security laws and repertoires of political action: A comparative analysis of Hong Kong and South Korea

AbstractThis article undertakes a comparative analysis of two cases, Hong Kong and South Korea, each characterized by distinct levels of political and civil liberties to elucidate how the institutionalization of national security operates in shaping the repertoires of popular political actions and the repressive conduct of state actors. In both cases, the legal frameworks serve to curtail popular political action, both online and offline, often through discretionary applications of national security norms, resulting in ambiguity. They bestow legitimacy upon state agencies to engage in protest policing, surveillance, and the suppression of individuals or organizations in the name of upholding national security. In contrast, the national security laws in Hong Kong and South Korea, influenced by varying interpretations and applications of perceived threats to national security, result in differences in the extent and degree of contentious political actions and state repression.

O protagonismo docente no espaço-tempo da transição democrática das décadas de 1970-80, no Brasil e em Portugal

The article revisits and updates questions that guided research that analyzed the repertoires of action adopted by teachers in the face of democratic construction processes that reached their peak in the 1970s, in Brazil and Portugal (Xavier,2013). Its central objective is to analyze the identity negotiations (Dubar, 2005) that permeated the political protagonism exercised by teachers in the actions and associations created in the influx of these movements. In the first topic, it locates the teaching movements in the space and time of the democratic transition and presents the questions that guided the writing of this article. In the second topic, it analyzes printed sources such as the mass circulation newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and the “O Professor” Magazine, with a view to observing the dissonant views regarding the establishment of an image of the teachers who participated in these movements. The third topic takes a statement relating to the experience of self-management lived in aPortuguese secondary school and highlights its reverberations in the interviewee's professional self-perception. In the final considerations, a brief reflection is developed on the disputes over the control of teaching identities and also on possible developments of this study. As a result of the analysis developed, it was possible to perceive the constitution of an engaged and autonomous teaching identity, through the analysis of the Magazine "O Professor". In turn, the mass circulation newspapers in Rio de Janeiro expressed the perspective of establishing a deviant identity in the face of teaching's political protagonism, triggering society's moral panic (Adorno, 1998), by condemning the collective actions that were part of the political repertoire of this professional group

Mobilization of radical right movements in Central and Eastern Europe between 2008 and 2016

The radical right is on the rise all over Europe and beyond, either in terms of electoral success or activities outside the institutional arena, especially after the 2015 refugee crisis. Central and Eastern European countries are no exception, although not yet closely studied for radical right social movements and protest. In this article we investigate the degree and characteristics of the mobilisation of different types of radical right organisations (political parties and social movements alike) in Central and Eastern Europe to capture a broader picture of the current developments in radical right politics beyond elections and electoral campaign periods. By focusing on four countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), and combining qualitative and quantitative data derived from a protest event analysis reported in newspaper articles between 2008 and 2016 (for a total of 1587 events coded), we analyse the radical right mobilisation (i.e. intensity and degree of radicalism), linking it to the political opportunities and the organisational features of the groups mobilising. We argue that the radical right is using a very broad repertoire of action, beyond violence and the electoral arena, including expressive and symbolic strategies, as well as the use of new technologies like the Internet. We also stress that for the radical right, as for the leftwing social movements, the analytical framework of political opportunities and a resource mobilisation approach can help in explaining their mobilisation.

Ação política em saúde de pessoas trans em Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil

Abstract This article describes the political action repertoire mobilized in the construction of public health policy for trans persons in the Manaus, capital city of the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil. It is based on ethnographic research combining participant observation in the multiple sites where these policies are constructed and interviews with members of two transgender rights organizations in Manaus, between January 2016 and July 2018. Four modes of political action were reconstructed, as ideal types, named after native categories: those of confrontation, others of “articulation”, the ones seeking visibility and others collaboration. Each mode has the local society as public and agents of the municipal and state Judiciary, Legislative and Executive bodies sometimes as adversaries, sometimes as allies.

Political action in the health of transgender people in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

This article describes the political action repertoire mobilized in the construction of public health policy for trans persons in the Manaus, capital city of the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil. It is based on ethnographic research combining participant observation in the multiple sites where these policies are constructed and interviews with members of two transgender rights organizations in Manaus, between January 2016 and July 2018. Four modes of political action were reconstructed, as ideal types, named after native categories: those of confrontation, others of "articulation", the ones seeking visibility and others collaboration. Each mode has the local society as public and agents of the municipal and state Judiciary, Legislative and Executive bodies sometimes as adversaries, sometimes as allies.

Crowdfunding and Fundraising in the Peacebuilding System: Ukraine’s Case

The purpose of the article is to determine the role of co-financing technologies (crowdfunding, fundraising) under the conditions of war and post-war reconstruction. The basis of the study is the case analysis of international support to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression. The central issue of the article is to clarify the acceptability, effectiveness, as well as problems of applying co-financing technologies to solve the problems caused by the war. The existing global experience of using co-financing technologies during wars was studied, the peculiarities of the Ukrainian case were revealed. The advantages, problems and risks of using crowdfunding and fundraising during a full-scale war are identified. The motivation of the public of other states to co-finance the solution or mitigation of the problems caused by Russia’s aggression on the territory of Ukraine is ascertained. The research is based on the analysis of projects supporting Ukraine and Ukrainians during the days of the Russian aggression on leading crowdfunding platforms, as well as through fundraising. Crowdfunding and fundraising are considered as forms of remote involvement, elements of digital action repertoires, which are used by the democratic public from all over the world (and in the case of Ukraine, also by government institutions) to convey their position on war and mitigate its consequences. It is concluded that modern technologies of cofinancing enable remote involvement of citizens of different states in international conflicts and humanitarian crises caused by these conflicts and wars. The dependence of the use of crowdfunding and fundraising technologies on the type of political regime and the characteristics of political culture of the dominant part of the population is proven.

De-agrarianisation and re-agrarianisation in patches: understanding microlevel land use change processes in Nepalese smallholder landscapes

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the ongoing reproduction crisis in Nepal. We utilize farmer context-specific actions of ‘hanging in’, ‘stepping out’ and ‘stepping up’ to unpack the pathways of de-activation, de-agrarianisation and re-agrarianisation in four spatially and socially differentiated landscapes. We detail a continuum of land use and labour use intensity, the microlevel variations and repertoires of actions in relation to landscape, shrinking farm sizes, labour shortages, forest expansion and increasing wildlife encroachment. The analysis focuses on specific landscape and social contexts and shows how smallholders are fine-tuning agricultural practices to meet subsistence needs. But account also must be taken of ecological variability and socially differentiated access to land to understand how households allocate labour between different land uses and between farm and off-farm activities. Household survival depends as much on the allocation of scarce labour resources as on that of scarce land. It suggests that household rather than just land has become a key unit of production.

Orchestrating self-empowerment in tribal India: Debt bondage, land rights, and the strategic uses of spirituality

Spirituality strategically enables self-empowerment in a clandestine movement of Adivasis which this paper calls ‘the Programme’. To explain how social movements and action organisations can orchestrate spirituality, this paper examines how the Programme helps landless rural people overcome debt bondage and gain land by employing spiritual repertoires. The paper addresses the question how, in the context of an increasingly tribalised politics in India, spiritual orchestration allows some Scheduled Tribes to make substantive economic gains, especially on debt freedom and land rights. The paper draws on an analysis of qualitative data collected through workshops, interviews and visits to villages across several Indian states, which has been anonymised to protect identities and avoid divulging sensitive information. The study finds that spirituality supports self-empowerment in three ways: first, it provides motivation and ideological reinforcement for people engaging in struggles against debt bondage and for land rights; second, it makes tribal identity more visible and helps groups make claims as indigenous owners; third, it offers groups protection from reprisals and creates platforms for engaging powerful actors. These findings are significant because, for activists and scholars who work with subaltern groups in India or other contexts, they demonstrate that the orchestration of spirituality can strengthen action repertoires for self-empowerment and help groups secure or protect economic and social gains. The paper adds insights to research on social movements and organisations on how to strengthen the ‘weapons of the weak’; it contributes empirical knowledge about how strategies to overcome debt and exploitation can succeed; and it underscores the importance of protecting freedom of religion and belief in development practice.

Collectivising services: a path to trade union renewal in Europe

This article presents the findings of a comparative research study across five European countries on the role of servicing in the process of trade union renewal. The main aim is to transcend the dichotomy between servicing and organising with a view to revealing new renewal strategies. The study explores diverse forms of servicing based on the integration of various types of goods provided and logics of action. Specifically, it focuses on ‘strategic’ servicing, an approach that combines short-term responses to individual needs and long-term goals of collectivisation. The article introduces the notion of ‘collectivising’ services, targeting fragmented groups of workers to nurture a sense of community and establish channels of representation. It also offers a fresh perspective on trade union renewal, shedding light on the potential for trade unions to gain a more profound understanding of their repertoires of action and the impact of servicing on the construction of a collective dimension.

The Women’s and Feminist Movements’ Role in National Protest: a Comparative Case Study of Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile

Abstract Colombia, Ecuador and Chile went through a wave of social protest during 2019 and then during 2021 and 2022. Evident in the revolt was the construction of a new feminist political subject that made visible new repertoires of action, both in the street and in the spaces of reproduction of the protest. The article explores the strategies deployed by women’s and feminist movements in these three countries. It first contextualizes the development of the movement in each country in order to understand its complexities, disputes and traditions. Then, from a comparative perspective, it takes stock of the contribution of women and feminisms in scenarios of social revolt and how these strategies were key to subsequent electoral scenarios. The article gathers the voices of feminist activists, politicians and women who played key roles during the protest interviewed in Santiago, Bogota and Quito.

Association of Gratitude With Individual and Organizational Outcomes Among Volunteers: An Application of Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions

By applying the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to the context of volunteering, we investigated how gratitude is associated with individual (subjective well-being) and organizational (volunteer retention) outcomes through the positive thought–action repertoires of prosocial motivation and volunteer engagement. The data of 924 Chinese volunteers (mean age = 35.7 ± 9.1 years, 26.2% males) from voluntary organizations were collected through an online survey. The indirect effects of gratitude on subjective well-being and retention were analyzed through structural equation modeling performed using Mplus. Gratitude was revealed to be associated with subjective well-being and retention through indirect pathways involving (a) prosocial motivation, (b) volunteer engagement, and (c) a sequential pathway from prosocial motivation to volunteer engagement. Our findings indicate that grateful volunteers tend to exhibit increased intention to help others and actively devote themselves to volunteering, which can contribute to personal and organizational resources.

An active inference model of hierarchical action understanding, learning and imitation.

We advance a novel active inference model of the cognitive processing that underlies the acquisition of a hierarchical action repertoire and its use for observation, understanding and imitation. We illustrate the model in four simulations of a tennis learner who observes a teacher performing tennis shots, forms hierarchical representations of the observed actions, and imitates them. Our simulations show that the agent's oculomotor activity implements an active information sampling strategy that permits inferring the kinematic aspects of the observed movement, which lie at the lowest level of the action hierarchy. In turn, this low-level kinematic inference supports higher-level inferences about deeper aspects of the observed actions: proximal goals and intentions. Finally, the inferred action representations can steer imitative responses, but interfere with the execution of different actions. Our simulations show that hierarchical active inference provides a unified account of action observation, understanding, learning and imitation and helps explain the neurobiological underpinnings of visuomotor cognition, including the multiple routes for action understanding in the dorsal and ventral streams and mirror mechanisms.

Communicating through Cyberfeminism: Communication Strategies for the Construction of the International Feminist Strike in Portugal

Despite the considerable attention given to how mainstream media portrays feminism and social movements, there remains a notable research gap regarding the exploration of how these movements themselves engage in internal articulation and employ communication strategies to connect with their publics. To examine communications practices of cyberfeminists within the fourth wave of feminism and the 8M movement (feminist strike), this study analyzes the communication platforms utilized by Rede 8 de Março, which mobilizes the strike in Portugal in three dimensions: (1) institutional and internal communication; (2) content production for online dissemination on digital platforms; and (3) mobilization strategies and action repertoires. Specifically, we focus on the years 2020 and 2021, considering the pandemic context, using a combination of netnography and semi-structured interviews with organizing activists. Our findings indicate a significant rise in Instagram’s platform utilization and exploration, concomitant with the establishment of WhatsApp as a central tool for both organizational and internal communication. These observations enhance our scholarly grasp of the intricate communication dynamics inherent in these organizational contexts and feminist movements, thereby offering significant contributions to our understanding of its operational mechanisms.

Examining the effect of task constraints on the emergence of creative action in young elite football players by using a method combining expert judgement and frequency count

In adult football, small-sided games are associated with increased action variability and suggested to promote more creative actions compared to regular 11v11 formats. This aligns with predictions from an ecological approach to perception and action that creative actions emerge in environments that grant variability in action, instead of being an expression of the individual player’s ability to generate ideas. To further evidence for this prediction, the current study aimed to expand this observation to elite youth football players. To this end, the number of different and creative actions in 4v4 small-sided game and a 11v11 regular-sided game among 10- to 12-year-old elite football players were examined. We analyzed a total of 7922 actions, which were categorized for type and creativity. Based on a subset of these actions, a panel of elite football coaches judged action types occurring below 0.5% as significantly more creative than more frequent action types. Hence, we used an occurrence of 0.5% as threshold to distinguish creative actions from non-creative actions. The results showed that the total number of actions, the number of different action types, the number creative actions and the number of different creative action types was significantly higher for the small-sided game format than the regular-sided game. In conclusion, this study confirms that in elite youth football, small-sided games induce a more variable and creative action repertoire. This shows that practitioners can design learning environments that promote the emergence of creative actions.

Normative and non-normative collective action facing repression in a democratic context: A mixed study in a Chilean social movement

This work addresses collective action in the context of a social movement facing police repression in a democratic country. The movement studied was carried out in a region of southern Chile, had a very high citizen participation and deployed normative and non-normative actions. We aim to understand why people decided to participate and how they came to consider violent action as a legitimate option. We use a mixed methods approach. In a quantitative study we compare participation in normative and non-normative actions, and find they factor together as part of the same action repertoire, making it possible to speak of a continuum of participation instead of different types. We also replicate key findings of the SIMCA model, with protest participation motivated directly by anger and efficacy, but also by positive emotions. In a qualitative study we found similar results and draw out new data highlighting the relevance of the experience of repression in invoking a need for radical action and creating social cohesion among protestors.