Collective Action Research Articles

A systematic review of factors influencing self-governed public open spaces: insights from social-ecological system framework and collective action

PurposeDue to the influence of complex and intersecting factors, self-governed public open spaces (POSs) (managed by local communities) are subject to collective action dilemmas such as tragedy of the commons (overexploitation), free-riding, underinvestment and mismanagement. This review paper adopts a multi-dimensional and multi-tier social-ecological system (SES) framework proposed by McGinnis and Ostrom, drawing on collective action theory to explore the key institutional-social-ecological factors that impact POS self-governance.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was utilized to systematically screen and review the relevant literature for the period from 2000 to 2023 in three databases: Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. A total of 57 papers were chosen for in-depth analysis.FindingsThe literature review identified and categorized several variables associated with the self-organizing system of POS; consequently, an SES-based POS management framework was developed for the first time, consisting of 114 institutional-social-ecological sub-variables from different dimensions and three levels. Compared to ecological factors, among others, governance organizations, property-rights systems, socioeconomic attributes and actors' knowledge of SES have been commonly and primarily studied.Research limitations/implicationsThere is still room for the refinement of the conceptual SES-based POS collective action framework over the time (by adding in new factors), and indefinitely empirical research validating those identified factors is also worth to be undertaken, particularly testing how SES factors and interaction variables affect the POS quality (collective action).Originality/valueThe findings of this study can provide local policy insights and POS management strategies based on the identification of specific SES factors for relevant managers. Moreover, this research makes significant theoretical contributions to the integration of the SES framework and collective action theory with POS governance studies.

The oyster revolution: shell middens, shell temper, and settling down in North America’s Chesapeake region

Transformative social change occurred in the Chesapeake region with the intensification of oyster harvesting and the establishment of central places in estuarine settings at the outset of the Middle Woodland period (ca. A.D. 200). Accompanying the pivot toward estuarine living was the spread of shell-tempered ceramics indexing regional social networks from the Delaware Bay to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Survey and excavation data from the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown (NWSY) on the York River trace this process on Virginia’s lower York River. Here, Middle Woodland populations established central places around the lower embayed portions of tidal creeks. Communal shell middens anchoring these central places offer evidence of intensive oyster harvesting and a history of periodic overharvesting, adjustment, and long-term sustainability. We hypothesize that common pool resource management, i.e., collective action and stewardship in the management of the oyster fishery, was an important part of Native societies’ settling down in this region.

Abstract LB088: CANCollaborate: Transforming rare cancer research through cooperation and collaboration

Abstract CANCollaborate is a groundbreaking initiative focused on revolutionizing rare cancer research through global cooperation and was founded upon the realization that collective action is crucial for effectively addressing the myriad rare forms of cancer. Rare cancers typically have outdated treatment guidelines, a lack of targeted therapy options due to insufficient research into their biology, and consequently, a failure to keep pace with the advancements in survival outcomes seen in more common cancers over the past few decades. The initiative is rooted in five core premises: the shared goal of all stakeholders to improve rare cancer care, the prevalence of rare cancers constituting a substantial global burden, the scattered nature of rare cancer researchers and resources, existing disincentives hindering collaboration, and the untapped potential of coordinated efforts. CANCollaborate addresses these challenges by fostering open communication, encouraging cooperation, and creating collaborations among researchers, institutions, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, patient advocacy groups, financiers, and regulators. The first focus is on appendiceal cancer (AC). AC is exceedingly rare, affecting 1 to 2 people per million, but incidence has been increasing with one study seeing a 232% increase in the U.S. between 2000 and 2016. For some subtypes of AC, management is extrapolated from colorectal cancer (CRC) guidelines, even though it was established that AC is molecularly distinct from CRC. Coordinated collaboration is essential in advancing the field, given that many physicians involved in treating and researching appendiceal cancer often have it as a secondary focus, rather than being their primary area of concentration. In our brief existence, we've successfully facilitated collaborations for appendiceal organoid generation and testing by connecting a leading organoid scientist with a physician who sees AC patients. Additionally, we have established collaborations with a biotech company with an ex-vivo drug testing platform to surgical oncologists for commencing AC susceptibility testing to potential therapeutics. Key components of CANCollaborate include regular communication, frequent workshops, promoting transparency, and sharing research developments, challenges, and results. By forming collaborations among diverse stakeholders, CANCollaborate seeks to diversify and de-risk rare cancer research by eliminating existing disincentives by rewarding collaborative efforts and fostering new forms of incentives, transforming high-risk, low-return efforts into high-return, low-risk endeavors. CANCollaborate invites all stakeholders in the field of cancer research to join by working together, sharing knowledge, and creating a global network. Together we can accelerate progress, eliminate redundancy, and ultimately contribute to the eradication of cancer. Citation Format: Jamie Barber, Kyra Itskowitz, Jane Wilkinson. CANCollaborate: Transforming rare cancer research through cooperation and collaboration [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(7_Suppl):Abstract nr LB088.

What’s the use of educational research? Six stories reflecting on research use with communities

AbstractThe question of how education research can be ‘useful’ is an enduring and challenging one. In recent years, this question has been approached by universities through a widespread ‘impact’ agenda. In this article, we explore the tensions between usefulness and impact and present six stories that reflect on research use with communities. These stories engage issues of the risk of usefulness, the time that is needed to work collaboratively for research usefulness, whether theories developed in universities can be useful to communities for understanding the problems they face, who has the power to steer research to serve their purposes, and how community collective action can enhance the usefulness of research. The article concludes with a section that reflects on the importance of continuing to engage with the debates about research use in often highly commercially oriented university environments. This article brings together diverse voices that wrestle with the politics of research use beyond the neat, linear narratives of change that impact agendas tend to portray. These illustrations of the ethical dilemmas encountered through navigating research use with communities contribute to an ongoing conversation about refusing capitalist and colonialist logics of research extraction while working within institutions often driven by such logics.

Associations between interconnectedness, compassion, and participation in collective action for people with mental illness: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling approach.

The present study aims to prospectively investigate the relationships between interconnectedness, compassion, and participation in private and public forms of collective action for people with mental illness. Public form refers to collective action at the macrolevel such as large-scale protests and demonstrations going on in the communities. Private form refers to collective action happening at the microlevel that targets promoting awareness of social inequalities and positive changes among personal social circles, such as calling out microaggressions or correcting others' stigmatizing language. Eligible responses from 501 participants were collected at baseline, with 345 and 318 participants retained at 6-month and 12-month follow-up assessments, respectively. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were conducted to investigate the mediating role of compassion in the relationships between interconnectedness and participation in private and public forms of collective action. Interconnectedness was consistently associated with a higher frequency of participation in private form, but not public form, of collective action at subsequent time points. Contrary to the hypothesis, results showed the nonsignificant mediating effect of compassion between interconnectedness and participation in both forms of collective action. The present study highlights the potential of interconnectedness in promoting a private form of collective action for the rights of people with mental illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Grievance shocks and coordination in protest

AbstractWhen grievance shocks have heavy tails, large sudden increases in grievances coordinate behavior far more effectively into protests than a sequence of small grievance shocks that generate the same final distribution of grievances in society. That is, society as a whole behaves like the legendary boiling frog, even though each individual does not. An implication is a strong form of path‐dependence in collective action. To assess a society's potential for protest, it is not enough to know the current distribution of antiregime sentiments; we also need to know how they came about: suddenly or gradually. The theory also provides a rationale for the classic J‐curve theory of revolution. We provide a quantitative analysis of the relationship between grievance shocks and protests in Chile in 2014–2019. Consistent with the theory, results suggest that, even after controlling for grievance levels, large grievance shocks increased the number of protests.

Water–energy network provisioning services in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract Water–energy systems are interlinked. Energy is used in the treatment and pumping of water. Water is used to generate electricity. Effective and efficient water–energy network provisioning satisfies households’ basic human needs. Most local authorities of developing countries have seen water and energy scarcity in the face of climate change. The research aims to understand the interlinkage of water–energy services and to develop integrated and innovative green solutions in line with sustainable development goals. This study explores water and energy network provisioning to promote an integrated approach to planning and managing service delivery in Harare, Zimbabwe. The paper also establishes how water and energy provisioning challenges have affected main domestic activities.. The study embraced a sequential mixed-method approach. In-depth interviews were used to solicit information from relevant departments and focus group discussions from communities. A total of 314 questionnaires were administered to five communities based on five settlement classifications. The study hinges on the ‘collective action theory’. Findings revealed poor governance issues, including lack of finance and lack of public participation in water and energy service delivery. Integration of sectors and community participation can improve the provision of water–energy services and contribute to reducing carbon emissions through greening households.

Does self‐organizing policy network provide effective waste services? An empirical evaluation of institutional collective action and transaction cost dilemmas

AbstractThis paper examines institutional collective action and transaction cost (TC) dilemmas in a self‐organizing policy network involving federal, state, and municipal agencies for waste services in a port and industrial park. A thematic analysis revealed dilemmas in: (a) vertical levels, which lack leadership in industrial waste management due to unclear responsibility delegation across government levels; (b) horizontal levels, reluctant to take responsibilities and define jurisdiction boundaries for efficient waste services; and (c) functional levels, which exhibit fragmented and unaligned action scopes. Transaction costs, stemming from a deficiency in expertise, infrastructure, and organized information regarding companies' waste management, hinder effective programs and policies. Without tackling these challenges and TCs through a governance framework that includes implementation strategies, monitoring, and institutional controls, the self‐organizing policy network is likely to remain stuck in collective institutional inertia.

A call to action: Re-activating the latent human factor for achieving the UN SDGs-cultivating courageous partnerships and compassionate human systems.

We propose scaling up therapeutic principles for collective impact and nurturing therapist commitment beyond the therapy room, to activate and sustain compassion-in-action at the community system level. The SDGs represent the strength of collective human concern and action coming together. At the half-way point, we are falling dangerously short of our targets, requiring an urgent response. The tenet of this paper is that the weakest link in our journey is not technical capability or finances, or even the impact of multiple intersecting crises, but our ability to collaborate for sustained action-it is the human factor-hence, we need a psychologically informed response. Notably, least 'visible' is SDG17, the umbrella goal designated means of implementation, through partnership. Partnership has been treated as a transactional element of SDG projects, rather than the vital heartbeat connecting daily actions to the 2030 vision. Partnership is about investing in relationships and a commitment to working together with a common purpose-the bailiwick of psychological therapists. We propose an architecture to support the development of courageous partnerships and compassionate systems. Compassion uniquely potentiates global action on wicked problems.

The costs of collective action: an experimental study of risk, punishment, and immunity

The costs of collective action: an experimental study of risk, punishment, and immunity

Framing Action Through Participatory Theater: What Can We (Mis)understand for Global Crises?

ABSTRACT The present article weaves an interdisciplinary perspective into the discussion of global crises. After a brief focus on theoretical underpinnings, it argues that owing to their inherently improvisational and performative constitutions, crises can enable learning and stimulate social change. Concretely, by creating participatory theater workshops, together with individuals in migration, the initially destabilizing performative space is transformed in a common ground for collective action, thereby opening opportunities for learning and reinvention of meanings. It is through the analysis of these processes that the article offers a critical and creative commentary on the constructive role of communication for crises. Ultimately, it demonstrates that verbal misunderstandings serve as catalysts for unconventional and creative ways of expression. In turn, they promote alternative reflections and negotiations, whereby also serving as suitable response tools to employ during crises and following disruptions.

‘You are not Sikkimese enough’: Understanding collective action tendencies of old settlers in Sikkim using SIMCA

AbstractThe current study analyses the motivators and inhibitors of collective action tendency using the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA). The study was conducted with a minority and state‐based repressed group known as the old settlers in Sikkim, India. The old settlers are a community that have been historically settled in Sikkim prior to the state's merger with India in 1975. They are racially and ethnically different from the majority population of northeasterners in Sikkim and face both institutional and interpersonal discrimination. A qualitative approach using semi‐structured interviews with 11 old settlers was taken to delineate SIMCA variables – moral conviction, identity, injustice and efficacy – within the context of northeast India. Collective action was motivated through moral conviction via principles of equality and unequal treatment and outsider status, identity via politicisation of identity, creation of social movement organisations, injustice via anger and fraternal resentment and efficacy via marches and legal recourses. Collective action was inhibited through moral conviction via denial of violation, identity via acculturation, injustice via fear and efficacy via learned helplessness. These findings indicate that in state‐based repressed groups, collective action tendencies must be understood from a context‐specific lens that attempts to understand both motivating and inhibitory factors.

Parity and Pareto

AbstractPareto principles are at the core of ethics and decision theory. The Strong Pareto principle says that if one thing is better than another for someone and at least as good for everyone else, then the one is overall better than the other. But a host of famous figures express it differently, with ‘not worse’ in place of ‘at least as good.’ In the presence of parity (or incommensurability), this results in a strictly stronger Pareto principle, which I call Super‐Strong Pareto. Super‐Strong Pareto, however, yields cyclic betterness and is therefore false. I point out a number of influential arguments—concerning population ethics, collective action problems, and decision‐making in the face of parity and uncertainty—that crucially rely on Super‐Strong Pareto and are therefore unsound. I then turn to the most influential argument against the possibility of parity—Broome's collapsing argument—and argue that it likewise relies on Super‐Strong Pareto reasoning and is therefore question‐begging. Finally, I turn to the much‐neglected question of how to justify Strong Pareto. The answer I arrive at, which emphasizes tie‐breaking, yields a striking insight, namely that Super‐Strong Pareto amounts to the denial of insensitivity to mild sweetening. That is what makes it problematic in the presence of parity.

Volunteering and Catholicism in Europe. The Inside Perspective Part 2: Empirical

In the paper we analyse the social activity practices of Catholic persons, as a set of individual and collective action emerging from the Catholic identity and – to more or less extent – structuralised under the Church-related formal non-profit initiatives. The purpose of the study is to clarify: (1) to what extent the Catholic unpaid social activities of different kinds could be classified as forms of volunteering and (2) to what extent the third sector definitions of volunteering are included in specific Catholic activities. Three tendencies have been observed with respect to not including religion-oriented volunteering in voluntary studies. Firstly, while using tools for collecting data adequate for the secular world, researchers face methodological difficulties to successfully cover social activities organized in parishes and congregations. Secondly, a reductionist approach reflects the ideological-rooted tendency to treat religion as a matter of private life. Thirdly, some religious-based entities tend to keep social activities of the believers within the Church-related circle. From the Catholic perspective, volunteer engagement represents an important aspect of faith-based every day activities, the so-called lived religion. At the same time, social engagement of believers provided within the Church-related entities, as well as outside them, usually fulfils all main features of volunteering. The relation between volunteering and religion is to be referred not only to the general position of faith-based and religious organizations in the public sphere, but also to the embeddedness of religious life in the society, as in fact both religion and volunteering are categories social per se. We illustrate our reflection on volunteering and Catholicism by presenting empirical evidence from the 2018 panel expert research among representatives of 29 Catholic Bishops Conferences across Europe.

Citizens’ deliberation on solutions to fight urban household food waste and nexus with growing urban gardens: The case of porto metropolitan area in Portugal

Food waste is currently acknowledged as a major societal challenge, including the food waste at the household level estimated to be responsible for the wastage of one third of the food produced for human consumption. Hence, tackling household food waste (HFW) is gaining a momentum in societal and policy agendas accompanied by an increasing effort of the scientific community to deliver evidence to address the research gaps on the causes and on the solutions to address this multidimensional societal problem. The proposed solutions by published literature to mitigate HFW can be unfolded into four major types, actions to raise people awareness, participatory actions, economic incentives, and collective actions. However, there is little evidence on the household's assessment of the different types of actions and its combination. This paper contributes to this research gap by adopting an innovative participatory approach, using deliberative focus groups (DFG), and analyzing the collected data through content analysis resorting to the software Maxqda. We had conducted six DGF in the Porto metropolitan area before and during the pandemic COVID-19 crisis. Our results highlight the citizen's option for more holistic actions in comparison to separate actions as a way to effectively fight food waste at household level. Another finding of our study is that citizen's growing urban gardens found it the more effective way to reduce household food waste. These results suggest that urban policies and underlying legal frameworks should favor holistic solutions to incentivise fighting HFW and account for the urban gardens as a relevant part of the solution. In addition, the study has shown that qualitative deliberative citizen-led approaches show insightful to understand how common people perceive as alternative or complementary the different types of actions to fight HFW proposed by the literature review.

Becoming a Leader

Having been a British army officer and a business consultant, the author came to academia with a personal understanding of what he believed leadership to be. Yet, in formulating ideas for research, he realized that he had never reflected on how he came to that understanding, how it shaped his approach, and how it might have constrained it. Given his wish to research leadership through the experiences of others, it seemed sensible to first investigate his own. What emerges is a journey from leadership understood primarily as a linear, leader-follower dynamic, to a more indirect and fluid understanding of influence and collective action, mirroring a broader cultural shift from heroic to post-heroic formulations of leadership, which was anticipated in the first half of the last century by Mary Parker Follett and whose ideas provide a framework for this exploration.

Proteção aos investidores e eticidade no mercado de capitais: análise do PL nº 2.925/2023

Brazil has historically faced difficulties in ensuring compensatory protection for its investors in corporate law and the capital market. These difficulties were identified in a recent OECD report and impact confidence in the capital market, acting as a deterrent to new investments. To change this situation, Bill 2925/2023 was proposed, suggesting substantial changes to Law 6.404/76 and Law 6.385/76. Among the main changes are the creation of new attributions for the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), changes in liability actions against administrators and controllers, the creation of a new collective action within the capital market, and changes in the legal framework of corporate arbitration, among other points. This article seeks to interpret Bill 2925/2023 in light of current legislation and to provide a critical analysis of the proposed provisions, considering their potential to address current barriers to compensatory protection for investors and confidence in the Brazilian capital market.

Management Strategies of Tropical Savanna Ecosystem for Multiple Benefits of Community Livelihoods in Semiarid Region of Indonesia

Tropical savannas are complex landscapes composed of mainly grasses and a matrix of proportions of discontinuous tree cover. They play an essential role in providing multiple ecosystem services including biodiversity, carbon storage, and socio-economic and cultural values. However, knowledge of sustainable land management practices is still the main challenge, especially to incorporate conservation practices and well-planned fire management. Indonesia is a tropical country with a relatively large area of savannas in the eastern part of the country, in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, with the largest savannas lying in the east of Sumba Island. This study explored the level of knowledge, behaviours, and actions in managing savannas in the east of Sumba Island. The study involved key informant interviews and household surveys among the local population in four villages of Kanatang and Kota Waingapu districts. The communities generally utilized the savanna ecosystems for crop cultivation, plantation farming, and livestock production. This utilization poses a great challenge to explore proper strategies for managing the savanna landscapes sustainably and for conservation. The demands on the land are due to land clearing for farming and livestock, low awareness of conservation practices, and regular drought. Learning from this research, management strategies to sustain savanna ecosystems should focus on: 1) improving knowledge and behaviour on sustainable farming and grazing practices, 2) establishing proper fire management systems to sustain the savanna ecosystem functions and services, 3) designing policies or regulations for managing savanna ecosystems, 4) enhancing networks and coordination for collective community actions.

Group Grievances, Opportunity, and the Onset of Civil War: Some Theory and Tests of Competing Mechanisms, 1990–2017

Abstract Recent scholarship claims that group grievances due to political exclusion and discrimination drive civil wars. The grievance perspective suggests that socio-psychological factors allow groups to overcome collective action problems. We argue that the grievance perspective (over)focuses on the ends and not means, which are critical to explain how groups survive state sanction, allowing contention to escalate to civil war. We suggest that inclusive economic governance reduces investment in state-evading infrastructures for quotidian economic reasons, leading to the buildup of rebellion-specific capital. Physical and human infrastructures of state evasion form the logistical bases for survival against state sanction. Our analyses show that group-grievance-generating political factors are poorer predictors of civil war compared with economic freedoms measured as free-market friendly policies and the private ownership of economies, which should reduce economic rents accruing to state-evading shadow markets. Our results are robust to several alternative models, data, and estimating method. Theory that ignores the means explain the main causes of costly violence only partially, or mistake symptom for cause. Freedom and inclusiveness, which should reduce grievances, are intrinsically valuable, but they are hard to obtain when violence is waged successfully for more narrower ends.

State Responsibility for Environmental Damage from Climate Change under the No-Harm Principle

This research delves into the critical role of states in addressing environmental damage stemming from climate change, underpinned by the fundamental principle of “no harm”. Climate change represents a profound threat to both the global ecosystem and human welfare, necessitating concerted action from all nations. The no harm principle places an obligation on states to undertake effective measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts, and mitigate adverse effects on vulnerable communities. This research uses normative legal research methods with a regulatory and contextual approach. By examining both theoretical frameworks and legal instruments, the study aims to elucidate the responsibilities of states and the mechanisms through which they can fulfill these obligations. A central focus of this research is the examination of how nations collaborate internationally to achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation goals through global agreements. These agreements serve as frameworks for collective action, guiding states in their efforts to combat climate change and minimize its harmful effects. By emphasizing the no harm principle, this study seeks to deepen our understanding of state responsibility for climate change and associated environmental damage. It underscores the imperative for robust collaborative endeavors aimed at safeguarding the global environment and ensuring a sustainable future for all. Through enhanced awareness and collective action, states can fulfill their duty to protect the planet and mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on present and future generations.