Community Collective Action Research Articles

Rebel Territorial Control and Civilian Collective Action in Civil War: Evidence from the Communist Insurgency in the Philippines

Under what conditions do rebel organizations control territory during civil war? How do civilians influence the distribution of territorial control? This article introduces a civilian agency theory, emphasizing community collective action capacity (CAC) defined by underlying social network structure, to complement existing explanations of territorial control. I argue communities with greater CAC mobilize information and resources more efficiently, increasing belligerents’ incentives to control territory. However, CAC also increases community bargaining power to demand costly investments in governance, partially offsetting these gains. CAC increases rebel control in areas of state neglect. But, as state service provision increases, communities leverage CAC to demand prohibitively costly rebel governance, deterring rebel control. This article tests the theory in the context of the communist insurgency in the Philippines, using military intelligence reports from 2011 to 2014 to measure village-level communist insurgent territorial control and a household-level census (2008–2010) to measure village CAC. Interviews with village elders in Eastern Mindanao illustrate causal mechanisms and explore alternative explanations.

Dialog dan Tindakan Kolektif Kelompok Tani dalam Program Sertifikasi Kakao di Provinsi Sulawesi Barat

The cocoa certification program is the implementation of cocoa management practices that meet sustainable agricultural standards. This program is part of the commitment of cocoa sector stakeholders to realize sustainable cocoa. West Sulawesi Province is one of cocoa production centers in Indonesia. The implementation of cocoa certification in this province is still low, about 8.4% of the total cocoa farmers. This study aims to determine the potential for sustainability of the adoption of Cocoa Certification from development communication aspect by conducting an assessment on dialogue and collective action of farmer groups. The research conducted in Luyo Sub-District Polewali Mandar District West Sulawesi Province using survey method with descriptive correlation analysis. The sample size is 41 groups with 205 respondents. Descriptive analysis shows the average index of the implementation of community dialogue and collective action of 56.05,50,88 and 65.72 from a maximum score of 100. The results indicated that perception of farmers on the observability of Cocoa Certification and the role of facilitators are significant related to dialogue and collective action of farmer groups. The dialogue in the group is significant correlated with their collective action. So, some farmer groups have potential to continue to adopt the Cocoa Certification standard but others have potential to quit.

Yet We Live, Strive, and Succeed: Using Photovoice to Understand Community Members’ Experiences of Justice, Safety, Hope, and Racial Equity

Residents’ experiences provide rich insight into the factors that drive widening social and health disparities, and those experiences are not homogeneous. Only through attending to people’s lived experiences will society begin to see these as issues of the entire community, and only by engaging residents in the process of community change can the kinds of change that are needed ever be achieved. Photovoice is a participatory qualitative research method that gives voice to participants’ experiences and perspectives while simultaneously facilitating critical consciousness-raising for social action and social change. This study employed a Photovoice process to explore experiences and perspectives of residents and people working in organizations that serve West Louisville, and to facilitate dialogue and action leading to social change. Forty-three individuals across eight groups completed the Photovoice project, representing youth, older adults, LGBTQ people, faith leaders, educators, activists, and two groups of Black men. Analysis of photos and group dialogue within and across the eight groups identified several common themes that pointed at the historical and present structural racism in the community, the city’s lack of concern for the Black community, the importance of Black history, and the need for collective community action. The public Photovoice exhibit helped inform the subsequent agenda for the city’s Center for Health Equity.

Rebel Territorial Control and Civilian Collective Action in Civil War: Evidence from the Philippines

Under what conditions do rebel organizations control territory during civil war? How do civilians influence the distribution of territorial control? This article introduces a civilian agency theory, emphasizing community collective action capacity (CAC) defined by underlying social network structure, to complement existing explanations of territorial control. I argue communities with greater CAC mobilize information and resources more efficiently, increasing belligerents’ incentives to control territory. However, CAC also increases community bargaining power to demand costly investments in governance, partially offsetting these gains. CAC increases rebel control in areas of state neglect. But, as state service provision increases, communities leverage CAC to demand prohibitively costly rebel governance, deterring rebel control. The article tests the theory in the context of the communist insurgency in the Philippines, using military intelligence reports from 2011-2014 to measure village-level communist insurgent territorial control and a household-level census (2008-2010) to measure village CAC. Interviews with village elders in Eastern Mindanao illustrate causal mechanisms and explore alternative explanations.

Ecotourism Policy in India: Rhetoric and Reality

Although there is a National Ecotourism Policy for India, it has serious flaws that permit “green washing” resulting in the degradation of nature and culture in highly sensitive ecotourism destination areas. National Ecotourism Policy is critically reviewed in this article, indicating the lacuna and shortcomings that throw some light on the gap between rhetoric and reality. Remedial policy interventions for promoting authentic ecotourism in India are suggested in this article based on best practice case studies from Asia that will ensure sustainable management of precious natural and cultural resources through community cooperation and collective action at the local and regional level.

MODAL SOSIAL KOMUNITAS YOGYAKARTA MENGAJAR DALAM PENYELENGGARAAN PENDIDIKAN NONFORMAL DI KAMPUNG GEMBLAKAN BAWAH KOTA YOGYAKARTA

The purpose of this research is to know and describe Social Capital of Yogyakarta Mengajar Community in the Implementation of Nonformal Education in Kampung Gemblakan Bawah Kota Yogyakarta. This research was a descriptive with qualitative approach research. The findings of the research showed that social capital of Yogyakarta Mengajar community in the implementation of nonformal education in Kampung Gemblakan Bawah Kota Yogyakarta is able to mobilize internal resources and build network outside the community. This can be seen through six indicators, namely: (1) the characteristic of social community that structured and systematic, (2) network and support from society and external community (3) collective action through reguler meetings with each other between fellow volunteers and community boards, (4) the trust established a strong, (6) the harmoniousness that exists because the volunteers consistently obey the values and norms prevailing in society.

دور رأس المال الاجتماعی فی تعزیز الانتماء المجتمعی للمزارعین بإحدى قرى محافظة الشرقیة

This research aimed at identifying the level of social capital, the level of societal affiliation of farmers, and determining the relationship between social capital and societal affiliation. The village of Harya Razneh, Sharqiyah Governorate was chosen randomly to conduct the study. A systematic random sample of 204 farmers was selected. The data were collected using a questionnaire. Weighted means, standard deviations, person correlation, exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analyses were employed for data analysis. The results showed that the farmer’s social capital level in the study area was moderate. cohesion and social solidarity came first, followed by Trust in others, empowerment and political action, trust in community organizations, collective action and cooperation, Information and communication, norms and shared values, and finally network relationships. The study results indicated that the level of societal affiliation of farmers in the study area was also average. The results indicated that there is a positive correlation between the societal affiliation and the respondent age, common norms and values, empowerment and political behavior, collective action and cooperation, trust in others, cohesion and social solidarity, network of relations and participation in information and communication. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses revealed a statistically significant effect of five dimensions of social capital on societal affiliation, these dimensions are common norms and values, collective action and cooperation, cohesion and social solidarity, trust in others, and finally network relationships.

From Content Knowledge to Community Change: A Review of Representations of Environmental Health Literacy.

Environmental health literacy (EHL) is a relatively new framework for conceptualizing how people understand and use information about potentially harmful environmental exposures and their influence on health. As such, information on the characterization and measurement of EHL is limited. This review provides an overview of EHL as presented in peer-reviewed literature and aggregates studies based on whether they represent individual level EHL or community level EHL or both. A range of assessment tools has been used to measure EHL, with many studies relying on pre-/post-assessment; however, a broader suite of assessment tools may be needed to capture community-wide outcomes. This review also suggests that the definition of EHL should explicitly include community change or collective action as an important longer-term outcome and proposes a refinement of previous representations of EHL as a theoretical framework, to include self-efficacy.

Hereafter: How Crises Shape Communities Through Learning and Institutional Legacies

Community differences in organizing capacity have been attributed to cohesion and trust among population members and from population members to organizations and have been seen as an enduring feature of communities. The experience of a crisis, and the handling of the crisis, can be seen as a test of cohesion that verifies community support of organizations or proves its absence. Using data on two bank panics 14 years apart, we explore whether a crisis event affects whether banks in a community handle the subsequent crisis through community collective action or through executing interorganizational solutions. We find that banks are less likely to seek community support when a prior financial crisis exposes the lack of trust from community members but are more likely to do so when having the experience of successfully avoiding a looming crisis. Organizational memory carries past experience into the future, and the banks that have directly experienced the absence of community trust prefer an interorganizational solution for the next financial crisis. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1157 .

The Story of Collective Action: The Emergence of Ideological Leaders, Collective Action Network Leaders, and Cross-Sector Network Partners in Civil Society

Collective action and community ecology theories frame this study of longitudinal interorganizational networks in Croatia during the country's political transition. As time progresses toward political stability, grass-roots organizing activities shift through participation in new networks. Although engaged cross-sector communication was important in early stages of the transformation, homophilous partnering emerged as the system stabilized. System stability left room for organizations to exit the collective action network but with costs associated with centralized organizing. Over time, organizations embodied roles as ideological leaders, collective action network leaders, and within-sector network partners. We offer a unique contribution to community ecology and collective action theories with a communication-centered framework that emphasizes the nature of communication in interorganizational networks over a 4-year period.

Heterogeneous Impact of a Collective Payment for Environmental Services Scheme on Reducing Deforestation in Cambodia

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are increasingly used in tropical countries as incentives to improve forest conservation outcomes, notably in forests managed or owned by rural communities. However, little is known about the performance and the suitable conditions under which collective PES can be effective. We assess the impact of a collective PES on reducing deforestation in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. We use a quasi-experimental approach combining covariate matching with difference-in-difference estimation as a procedure to assess program effectiveness on reducing deforestation. We find that the PES program contributed additionally saving on average about 0.17 percentage point of the enrolled PES area per year during 2005–12. We also highlight that characteristics such as slope, proximity to roads, and number of households are associated with heterogeneous PES impact. We finally call for improving both data availability and impact assessment methods in order to test better theories of change that take into account not only the ability of payments to reduce opportunity costs of conservation but also to consider how PES are turned into improved community collective action likely to improve the local enforcement of conservation.

Multilevel governance for local management of drinking water in Latin America: case studies from Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico

Adequate supply of drinking water at local level depends, in many cases on community participation. We compare three governance regimes for drinking water management based on multilevel collective action: 1) ASADAS in Costa Rica, 2) Water Boards (JAA, for its acronym in spanish) in Honduras and 3) Water User Committees (CA, for its acronym in spanish) in Mexico. Our data is based on participant observation, and formal and informal interviews. Legal framework, structure and operation, and efficiency for provision and conservation of water resources are analyzed. ASADAS and Water Boards are legal entities with recognized community participation and collective action, while Water Committees have no legal support by the Mexican Government. Regimens showed similar structures and operation, but different economic capabilities and efficiencies in the provision of water and in ensuring water recharge. Recognition and empowerment of the Water Committees in Mexico could increase and ensure water provision in the long- term.

Re-Imagining Collective Action Institutions: Pastoralism in Mongolia

Strengthening collective action institutions involves recognizing local community or user group land rights particularly through formal property mechanisms. However, policy initiatives based on collective action theories can be highly prescriptive and difficult to apply in developing contexts. Employing a qualitative case study methodology, I explore the ways in which donor organizations in Mongolia attempt to strengthen common property or collective action institutions by engineering socioeconomic units and formalizing property rights to pastureland. These initiatives face difficulties in defining group social and resource use boundaries and the herders’ vision of pastureland management. Using an access approach, this study reveals various legal and extra-legal mechanisms that have historically persisted to enable the state and local community to manage state territories, pastoral production, and resources. Overestimating the capacity of formalized property rights obscures the importance of other mechanisms in strengthening state and local community co-management and collective action institutions.

Biorefinery site selection using a stepwise biogeophysical and social analysis approach

A key factor in the production of economically viable and environmentally sustainable biofuels is biorefinery site selection. Facility location analysis has traditionally been driven by access to feedstock, proximity to customers, and local incentives. While economic constraints will always be major factors in site selection, incorporating social metrics may further reduce the cost of constructing a biorefinery. A community's disposition toward a biorefinery project may significantly impact implementation success: grassroots support can lower implementation costs while opposition may increase the costs of permitting blockages and other scale-up delays. The proposed biorefinery siting tool improves upon previous research by incorporating site-specific biogeophysical measures and more complete and comprehensive social measures of community innovation and capacity for collective action. A refined biogeophysical analysis assesses pulp mills for their potential as repurposed biorefineries. The social asset components of site selection are greatly improved by enhancing and disaggregating key metrics through the use of multiple indicators of community collective action capacity and propensity for change. The refined measures are integrated into a biorefinery site-selection tool. Pulp mills that rank highly in both the biogeophysical and social asset measures may be considered more suitable candidates for repurpose into a biorefinery. This enriched methodology has been applied to biorefinery siting decisions in the U.S. Pacific Northwest region; however, it is suitable for applications to infrastructure development projects in any region of the U.S.

A qualitative analysis of savings and internal lending communities in Haiti – do they make a difference?

ABSTRACTIn 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Haiti commissioned an external qualitative assessment of a four-year Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) activity funded by USAID that had recently ended. USAID wanted to know whether SILC met members’ needs; had an impact on individual, child and household well-being; whether SILC groups continued after donor support ended, and why or why not. Using a purposive sample of high- and low-performing groups, in-depth interviews were conducted with SILC members and programme implementers including community mobilizers (CMs) and programme staff. Focus group discussions were conducted with SILC members. Interviews and discussions were conducted in Creole, translated verbatim into English and analysed in Atlas-TI. Respondents reported that SILC group activities met members’ needs; members used loans and share-out funds for business investments, school fees, health-related expenses, household consumption of purchasing land or livestock; and that SILC groups differed from other financial institutions due to lower interest rates, sense of ownership of funds, and community solidarity and collective action. Many groups remained active and new groups were created after donor support ended. Other groups disbanded when stipends for CMs ceased, due to lack of engagement from CMs, reduced group member motivation and/or the economic situation. The key factor ensuring success and sustainability seemed to be groups’ sense of ownership of their capital and of the SILC methodology. This assessment produced important findings that can be used to adapt current savings and lending group programming and inform future programming within Haiti and beyond.

Collaboration between non-governmental organizations and public services in health – a qualitative case study from rural Ecuador

BackgroundNon-governmental organizations (NGOs) have a key role in improving health in low- and middle-income countries. Their work needs to be synergistic, complementary to public services, and rooted in community mobilization and collective action. The study explores how an NGO and its health services are perceived by the population that it serves, and how it can contribute to reducing barriers to care.DesignA qualitative exploratory study was conducted in remote Ecuador, characterized by its widespread poverty and lack of official governance. An international NGO collaborated closely with the public services to deliver preventative and curative health services. Data were collected using focus group discussions and semistructured interviews with purposively sampled community members, healthcare personnel, and community health workers based on their links to the health services. Conventional qualitative content analysis was used, focusing on manifest content.ResultsEmerging themes relate to the public private partnership (PPP), the NGO and its services, and community participation. The population perceives the NGO positively, linking it to healthcare improvements. Their priority is to get services, irrespective of the provider's structure. The presence of an NGO in the operation may contribute to unrealistic expectations of health services, affecting perceptions of the latter negatively.ConclusionsTo avoid unrealistic expectations and dissatisfaction, and to increase and sustain the population's trust in the organization, an NGO should operate in a manner that is as integrated as possible within the existing structure. The NGO should work close to the population it serves, with services anchored in the community. PPP parties should develop a common platform with joint messages to the target population on the provider's structure, and regarding partners’ roles and responsibilities. Interaction between the population and the providers on service content and their expectations is key to positive outcomes of PPP operations.

Perceptions, attitudes and behaviours toward urban surface water quality in Accra, Ghana

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore people’s perceptions, stated attitudes, and observed and reported behaviour to water and other environmental quality. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a mixed method approach. It employed a cross-sectional survey design. Ten communities were selected in Accra and its surrounding communities to indicate various levels of infrastructure provision and environmental quality. Four separate focus group discussions (FGDs) were carried out in each community, with a mixed group of older and young adult men and women, a group of men only, a group of women only, and a group of young adults only. Following the FGDs, further information was obtained through structured household questionnaire survey involving 443 respondents. Findings – Different ideas were employed to explain people’s perceptions of water quality. There were common ideas such as on health, history of water use, perceptions which affect water use, and management of community activities which affect water sources. These ideas which emerged from the focus groups helped participants to assign meaning to their environment. Reported behaviour was influenced by the ability to pay for services, their availability and the influence of shared community norms. Although citizen participation in water and environmental management decision making was very limited, community collective action can be harnessed to enhance water and other environmental management. Originality/value – Adopted an interdisciplinary approach that enabled explanations to phenomenon to emerge from the perspectives of the society rather than views being suggested to them. Thus, resulting in evidence-based issues for intervention.

Community policing in Kenya

The World Bank (2010) refers to Kenya’s capital as one of the most crime-ridden cities in Africa; crime and violence is a daily occurrence for most Kenyans. In an effort to improve community–police relations in Kenya following the post-election violence in 2007, the Ransley Report made recommendations to the Kenyan police that are based on democratic policing principles. A lack of police accountability and civilian oversight of the police were highlighted as key issues within the report. It was recognised that the lack of procedural justice leads to a lack of trust and collaboration between communities and the police (Republic of Kenya, 2009). It is, however, acknowledged that the police service in Kenya is unsupported, under-resourced and works in challenging circumstances (CHRI, 2007; CHRI, 2014) and therefore currently there is a need for complementary community safety projects and resources. From qualitative research conducted in Kenya in 2015 this paper will argue that policing can be improved within Kenya if there is community collective action, with supported leadership, which operates in collaboration with police adhering to democratic policing principles, although this is not without its challenges.

The ironic effect of national identification on support for collective action

AbstractPrevious research has suggested that dual and superordinate identities are not only prerequisites of collective action among minority group members but they can also be associated with greater acceptance of the ingroup's disadvantaged position. In this three‐wave study among Ingrian Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland (N=153T1−85T3), we tested the indirect association between superordinate national identification (T1) and support for collective action (T3), via perceived permeability of group boundaries (T2). Support for collective action was operationalized as one's personal willingness, and the perceived need of the Russian‐speaking community, to engage in it. When controlling for the direct association between Russian minority identification and support for collective action, perceived permeability was shown to mediate the negative association between Finnish national identification and support for community's collective action. Thus, being close to the majority may make immigrants perceive group boundaries as more permeable and be less inclined to improve their group's position.

Examining the Role of Social Capital in Community Collective Action for Sustainable Wetland Fisheries in Bangladesh

Internationally, the decentralization of property rights is becoming an increasingly common policy intervention for sustainable natural resource management. In the context of decentralized wetland fisheries policy in Bangladesh, this paper examines the role that social capital plays in cooperation building and collective action among diverse households seeking to obtain fisheries property rights. It considers how some households are able to develop collective action in the form of a community-based organization to access wetland fisheries, and why other households are not. Using the Local Level Institution (LLI) study technique, our analysis highlights that the financial capacity of community members plays a crucial role in accessing resources when the government’s decentralization policy also seeks to generate State revenue through fees. In this situation, information access and communication with external agencies were found to be prerequisites for earning the wetland fisheries property rights, with local leaders able to take advantage of their position to dictate collective decision making. This situation resulted in undemocratic decentralization and devolution of wetland fisheries rights, undermining transparency, accountability and the equitable distribution of natural resources.