Collective Action Research Articles

Temporal repertoires in contemporary activism: The cases of Fridays for Future, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and ‘It’s Thursday Again!’

ABSTRACT This paper proposes the novel concept of ‘temporal activist repertoires’ (TAR) defined as the intentional and meaningful selection and use of temporal elements, such as time frame, timing, tempo, duration, and temporality in collective action’s tactics and frames. Collectives thereby draw on culturally resonant temporal references to interweave the symbolic and strategic choices in making their demands, organising political action and/or sustaining commitment to the political cause. To answer the question of how social movements use TAR and how these are positioned alongside other repertoires of contention, the paper analyses: the global Fridays for the Future and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, and the Austrian ‘It’s Thursday Again!’. The paper shows that the innovative potential of TAR is linked to the use of technologically advanced media tools for the purposes of coordination, pressure, recruitment, mobilisation and visibility, as well as for the adaptations that these movements require, which include strategies to build on past traditions and/or to connect with currently existing allied movements.

How do we reinforce climate action?

AbstractHumanity has a shrinking window to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yet climate action is still lacking on both individual and policy levels. We argue that this is because behavioral interventions have largely neglected the basic principles of operant conditioning as one set of tools to promote collective climate action. In this perspective, we propose an operant conditioning framework that uses rewards and punishments to shape transportation, food, waste, housing, and civic actions. This framework highlights the value of reinforcement in encouraging the switch to low-emission behavior, while also considering the benefit of decreasing high-emission behavior to expedite the transition. This approach also helps explain positive and negative spillovers from behavioral interventions. This paper provides a recipe to design individual-level and system-level interventions to generate and sustain low-emission behavior to help achieve net zero emissions.

Process and Politics Surrounding the Redevelopment of a Municipal Parking Deck Site in Houghton, Michigan

A proposal to redevelop 1.7 acres of publicly owned downtown waterfront property located in Houghton, Michigan involved a private developer replacing a decaying municipal parking deck with mixed-use taxable construction. The city’s redevelopment process and the developer’s vision for the site met opposition from a small, but well-organized, group calling for a halting of the process and the defeat of incumbent councilors in the subsequent election. Our analysis of the ballots found that challengers received more strategic votes than incumbents and that straight ticket and Election Day voters disproportionately skipped the city council race on their ballots. These results are consistent with collective action theory and rational ignorance theory.

Promoting children’s health through community-led street interventions: analyzing sustained voluntarism in Canadian School Streets

BackgroundActive School Travel (AST) initiatives align with the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which calls for ‘creating supportive environments’ and ‘strengthening community action.’ However, their reliance on volunteers poses sustainability challenges. The main objectives of this study were to document the motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of volunteers involved in sustaining two AST initiatives in Ontario for an entire school year.MethodsTwo volunteer-led School Street initiatives in Kingston, Ontario successfully operated during pick-up and drop-off times of each school day. The first initiative operated for the entire 2021-2022 school year, and the second operated for the entire 2022-2023 school year. These initiatives were the first of their kind in the province of Ontario, Canada. Volunteers from both sites (n = 56) participated in online surveys and their motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of their role were compared using the 2-sided Fisher’s Exact Test.ResultsOver 80% of volunteers were highly motivated to promote safety and over 70% of volunteers were highly motivated to disrupt the status quo of unsupportive, car-centric urban environments by reimagining how streets can be used. By taking collective action to re-shape the environment around these public schools to support healthy, active living, our findings reveal that over 90% of volunteers were highly satisfied. Of the volunteers, 87% felt they contributed to child safety and 85% felt they had developed stronger community connections. They appreciated the short (i.e., 40 minute) time commitment of each shift, weekly email communications by the community organization leading the initiative, and the volunteer schedule. They also appreciated the positive social interactions during volunteer shifts, which they felt outweighed the minimal resistance they experienced.ConclusionsThis research demonstrates the importance of logistical, motivational, and social factors in recruiting and retaining volunteers for community-led School Streets. Our findings support appealing to prospective volunteers’ influence in achieving School Street objectives (e.g., improved safety) in recruitment efforts, as well as highlighting School Streets’ innovative approach. Communicating with volunteers throughout School Street planning and implementation processes and limiting traffic in the closed street zone (i.e., by excluding the school staff parking lot and private driveways from the scope) are additional recommendations based on the findings of this study.

The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was born as a normative agency and has looked to global health law to structure collective action to realize global health with justice. Framed by its constitutional authority to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health, WHO has long been seen as the central actor in the development and implementation of global health law. However, WHO has faced challenges in advancing law to prevent disease and promote health over the past 75 years, with global health law constrained by new health actors, shifting normative frameworks, and soft law diplomacy. These challenges were exacerbated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as states neglected international legal commitments in national health responses. Yet, global health law reforms are now underway to strengthen WHO governance, signaling a return to lawmaking for global health. Looking back on WHO's 75th anniversary, this article examines the central importance of global health law under WHO governance, reviewing the past successes, missed opportunities, and future hopes for WHO. For WHO to meet its constitutional authority to become the normative agency it was born to be, we offer five proposals to reestablish a WHO fit for purpose: normative instruments, equity and human rights mainstreaming, sustainable financing, One Health, and good governance. Drawing from past struggles, these reforms will require further efforts to revitalize hard law authorities in global health, strengthen WHO leadership across the global governance landscape, uphold equity and rights at the center of global health law, and expand negotiations in global health diplomacy.

Communicating climate change as a generational issue: experimental effects on youth worry, motivation and belief in collective action

ABSTRACT Generations differ in their contribution to climate change and susceptibility to its effects. Contextualizing climate change as an intergenerational issue may therefore alter public engagement. We report a pre-registered, online experiment with a youth sample (N = 500, aged 16–24 years) in Ireland that tested whether highlighting generational differences in descriptions of climate change affects (i) worry about climate change, (ii) perception of others’ worry, (iii) belief in collective action and (iv) pro-environmental intentions. We also tested the effect of correcting young people’s misperceptions about how concerned older generations (aged 40+) are. The generational narrative amplified self-reported worry about climate change, from 5.42 (SD = 1.45) on a 7-point rating scale in the control group to 5.76 (SD = 1.18) among those who read the generational narrative (d = 0.26). Those who read the generational narrative also believed their close friends (M = 5.14, SD = 1.32) and other peers (M = 5.28, SD = 1.19) were more worried than those who read the control narrative (M = 4.85, SD = 1.48 and M = 5.03, SD = 1.19, respectively; ds = 0.20). There were no significant effects of contextualizing climate change as an intergenerational issue on perceived worry among older people, belief in collective action or pro-environmental intentions. Providing accurate information on older people’s worry, however, boosted belief in collective action, particularly for the majority who initially underestimated it (M = 4.22 out of 7, SD = 1.14 vs. M = 4.63, SD = 1.18, d = 0.36). The results have implications for communications with young people about climate change. Correcting underestimations of concern about climate change between socio-demographic subgroups may help to foster engagement. Policy highlights Communications that highlight generational differences in the causes and effects of climate change may be unhelpful; they increase worry among young people without motivating them to act. Most young people underestimate how worried older people are about climate change and this misperception correlates with belief that people are less likely to work together to mitigate climate change. Providing accurate information on how worried older people are boosts belief in collective action, but only among the majority of young people who underestimate it. Communications about climate change likely benefit from avoiding highlighting differences between socio-demographic subgroups and correcting misperceptions where they exist.

[Overview of the ten global conferences on health promotion and implications for future work].

Since 1986, the WHO has held ten global health promotion conferences covering various health promotion issues and sustainable development worldwide. These sessions have formed a series of consensus and actions that guide promoting health globally. This study analyzed the declarations, reports, and news materials from the ten conferences that studied health promotion action areas, focal topics, actor networks, partnership relationships, and other significant outcomes. It also explored how these conferences contributed to the construction and advancement of global health promotion consensus and actions. The first Global Conference on Health Promotion identified the concept of health promotion and five key action areas, laying the foundation for subsequent conferences and health promotion actions. Over the years, the ten conferences continuously expanded the essence of health promotion, developed partnership relationships, formulated public health promotion policies, and called for health promotion actions. This process culminated in the formation of global consensus and collective actions. The latter conferences have gained significant attention and influence. The conferences offer valuable insights for future global health promotion endeavors and provide global perspectives and pathways for the development of Healthy China.

Epistemic networks and the social nature of public engagement with science

AbstractThis theoretical paper focuses on the social processes of public engagement with science and their implications for science education. The core of our argument is that science education should help people become better at evaluating, using, and curating their epistemic networks to make personal and civic decisions and to understand the natural world. In this context, an epistemic network is a set of people who support sensemaking by providing new information and aiding in the interpretation and reconstruction of scientific knowledge in context. We believe epistemic networks are an important consideration for science education, particularly when misinformation plays an outsized role in the cultural landscape. Understanding when epistemic networks are useful and how science education should incorporate them requires a clear sense of how they work in different contexts. We start by contrasting the inevitably social nature of all public engagement with science with the particularly social or interpersonal nature of some public engagement with science. We draw on research from education, communication, and science and technology studies to develop the idea of an epistemic network and to describe two basic types: the individual resource network and the collective action network. We illustrate each type with an extended example that is hypothetical but informed by both research and experience. Finally, we discuss how science education can incorporate epistemic networks, as well as the challenges inherent in that educational strategy.

Supporting the Development of Grassroots Maternal and Childhood Health Leaders through a Public-Health-Informed Training Program.

The purpose of this research was to assess leadership growth (i.e., changes in personal capacity and social capital) among women living in high-risk infant mortality zip codes who completed a grassroots maternal and childhood health leadership (GMCHL) training program. We used semi-structured qualitative interviews and thematic analysis. Three major themes associated with the training program experience were identified: (1) building personal capacity and becoming community brokers; (2) linking and leveraging through formal organizations; and (3) how individual change becomes community change. Although many of the grassroots leaders were already brokers (i.e., connecting individuals to information/services), they were able to become community brokers by gaining new skills and knowledge about strategies to reduce adverse birth outcomes in their community. In particular, joining and participation in formal organizations aimed at improving community health led to the development of linking or vertical ties (e.g., "people in high places"). The grassroots leaders gained access to people in power, such as policymakers, which enabled leaders to access more resources and opportunities for themselves and their social networks. We outline the building blocks for supporting potential grassroots leaders by enhancing personal capacity and social capital, thus leading to increases in collective efficacy and collective action.

A text mining and machine learning study on the trends of and dynamics between collective action and mental health in politically polarized online environments

AbstractSocial media and online forums play an increasingly important role in the mobilization of collective action. This study examined how the discussion of collective actions impacts the expression of psychological distress in politically polarized online environments. We used text mining and machine learning models to analyze 39,487,911 user-generated comments during the 2019 social unrest in Hong Kong on two online forums frequented by anti-government (Lihkg.com) and pro-government (Discuss.com.hk) netizens. Results from time-series models yielded two main findings. First, there was a time-lagged association between the discussion of protest and the mention of psychological distress on both forums. Second, on Discuss.com.hk but not Lihkg.com, fewer comments containing psychological distress were created on days with offline protests (especially on days with violent conflicts) than days without. Together, these findings suggest that politically polarizing environments contribute to psychological distress.

Sexisme bienveillant en entreprise : perceptions, impacts sur les projections de carrière et stratégies d’adaptation

<p>The workplace is not free from gender bias. In recent years, efforts to eradicate gender-based discriminatory behaviours at work have emerged (EIGE, 2021). However, a form of sexism still seems to be accepted because of its subjectively positive dimension: benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996). This qualitative study examines the perception of benevolent sexism among female civil engineers, its potential impact on their career projections, and the strategies used to cope with benevolent sexist micro-aggressions. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with seven female civil engineer participants. The interviews were then analysed according to the steps of the interpretative phenomenological analysis method (Smith, 1996), combining a vertical and a horizontal analysis. Our results show a low perception of benevolent sexism by the participants interviewed and a very limited effective impact on their career projections. Seven coping strategies emerged from the interviews: confronting, desensitizing, recontextualizing, seeking support, refocusing, taking collective action, and leaving the company. The results obtained in this research can be explained by a habituation to sexist behaviours during studies in a predominantly male field, the importance of the contextual elements, particularly the high rate of employability of these women, and the potential effectiveness of the coping strategies implemented. Two main purposes were identified in these coping strategies: acting directly on perpetrators in order to decrease discrimination frequency and intensity (resistance), and reducing the impact of sexist behaviours on the target without affecting perpetrators (resignation).</p>

Examining extra-parliamentary engagement: the impact of online and offline activities on in-party commitment amongst political party members in Finland

PurposeThe study utilises unique survey data gathered from 12,427 party members. The dependent variable measures party members’ in-party commitment and is based on willingness to donate money, to contribute effort, the feeling of belonging in the party network and social trust in the party network.Design/methodology/approachIn this article, we study how different extra-parliamentary online and offline activities are associated with in-party commitment amongst political party members from the six largest Finnish parties. We especially delve into the differences between members of the Finnish parties.FindingsWe found that extra-parliamentary political activity, including connective action through social media networks and collective action through civic organisations, is highly associated with members’ in-party commitment. Additionally, members of the newer identity parties more effectively utilised social media networks, whilst the traditional interest parties were still more linked to traditional forms of extra-parliamentary political action.Originality/valueBy employing the sociological network theory perspective, the study contributes to ongoing discussions surrounding the impact of social media on political participation amongst party members, both within and beyond the confines of political parties.

“Planning for anything, not for everything:” Uncertainty and temporal coordination in social movement organizing

A month before the 2020 US presidential election, then President Trump amplified a false claim about poll watchers monitoring early voting in Philadelphia, stating “They were thrown out. They weren’t allowed to watch. You know why? Because bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things.” The months preceding the November 3rd election featured many similar discursive attacks on the integrity of Philadelphia's election systems, part of a larger right-wing campaign to delegitimate election outcomes in advance. Fearing what this might portend for election day, dozens of local progressive movement organizations and activist groups formed the “Philadelphia Action Council” (PAC), a coordinative space for organizing and planning a mobilized response to a contested election. Strategic collective action involves the coordination of complex temporal orientations, at multiple scales, however, PAC activists couldn’t be sure when, where, or for how long they may need to mobilize, nor what sorts of targets or messages or tactics the action should be orientated around. In fact, they couldn’t be sure if they would need to mobilize at all. In this paper, I analyze the temporal structure of the PAC's “action council” model, arguing that the contingent, eventful temporality embedded in the structure of the PAC engendered similarly contingent modifications in the temporal orientations of its participants, allowing PAC activists to embrace uncertainty in ways that they typically strive to avoid. I then demonstrate how the embrace of uncertainty (somewhat paradoxically) expanded the PAC's collective capacity for improvisation and adaptation in the days following the election. This research draws on (and contributes to) critical time studies to further the emergent project of temporalities research in the field of social movements studies.

Developing more-than-human sustain-abilities in the ecocritical classroom

This article discusses and elaborates on the insights gained from the teaching of a course in Environment, Literature and Culture at a university in the north of Thailand. The course was designed as an invitation to English major students to develop sustain-abilities (vulner-abilities, attend-abilities, and response-abilities). In an effort to overcome the anthropocentrism of traditional humanistic ecocritical pedagogies, both the course and this case study have been framed by posthumanist ontology and educational theory. From this standpoint, curriculum and pedagogy constitute a relational, open-ended, more-than-human entanglement of agencies, practices, discourses, matters, and encounters assembled in the process of teaching and learning. The dialogical and situated invitations of this course contributed to assemble a literacy situation that seemed to foster in students an embodied, affective, experienced, relational sense of becoming-together with nonhuman others. While it is unclear whether the participation in the course will continue to motivate their collective and individual actions beyond this literacy situation, the encounters and relations between these students and the many nonhumans assembled in the ecocritical classroom constitute by themselves bewildering learning experiences.

Socio-Economic Heterogeneity and Income Distribution: Evidence from Common Property Resource Management

The author assesses the relationship between socio-economic heterogeneity and equity of resource distribution by reviewing the theoretical literature. He finds mixed results as regards whether resource management and utilization undercommunity based management is equitable and has the potential for positive impact on the livelihood of very poor and marginalized section of the community. He concludes that inequality among resource users has negative impact on thelocal level collective action. Finally, the author relates the theoretical review findings with observations in community forestry in Nepal, and concludes that equity impact is not positive as a result of inequality among resources users.

Editorial

We are pleased to bring the second issue of the Journal of Forest and Livelihood despite some delay. What we have learnt through the experience with the first and the second issue is that producing a Journal of this quality from a country like Nepal, where there is a poor information infrastructure, is a daunting task. The challenges lie in all aspects of management: getting qualityarticles, getting the time of quality reviewers and editors, and finally getting serious readers who are willing to pay for the journal. We hope to cope with these challenges with stronger collective action, through increased number of serious editorial advisors, readers and contributors. We left the areas of articles open, and got more number of articles this time, compared to the firstissue. There were a few articles from outside Nepal also, but our editorial policy, which has a focus on Nepal based empirical articles, did not allow us to consider them. One important element of the editorial policy that we would like to reiterate is that this journal is not completely theory based, comparing data globally, but focuses on generating evidences from Nepal which may help prove or disprove, compare and contrast certain theoretical propositions. In this sense, it falls in-between the theory based highly. academic journals and free-style issue-based writings.

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.